​Simple Layer 2 GENI Experiment

1. Design the Experiment

In today's experiment you will use resources at the aggregate listed on the worksheet.

2. Establish the Environment

2.1 Pre-work: Create a GENI account

Go to https://portal.geni.net and press the Use GENI button From the Drop Down menu select your institution. If you got an account through the GENI Identity Provider, please select GENI Project Office. Start typing the name of your institution and see the list become smaller. You will be transferred to the Login Page of your institution. Fill in your username and password. Complete the form that appears after you have successfully logged in and press Continue. You will be transferred to an Activation Page. Make sure both checkboxes are checked and then press Activate.

Figure 2-1 Logging into the GENI Experimenter Portal.

Congratulations, you have successfully created a GENI account.

2.2 Pre-work: Project lead adds you to a project

In order to use the portal to reserve resources, you must join a project. We have created a project for this tutorial.

The tutorial organizers should have added you to the project for this tutorial. On the home page, you should see that you are a member of at least one project. If you are not doing this exercise as part of an in-person tutorial please sign up for a GENI account and join a project.

2.3 Generate and Download SSH Keypair

Access to compute resources in GENI is provided through ssh key pairs and thus the portal needs a public key to upload to compute resources. For the purposes of the tutorial we will have the portal create an SSH key pair for you. (However, if you prefer to use your personal public key you can choose to upload it.)

Once you are logged in, click on the Profile page. On the Profile page in the SSH Keys section, select generate and download an SSH keypair button.

Figure 2-2 On the Profile page, select the "generate and download an SSH keypair" button.

3. Enter the same passphrase twice, then press Generate SSH private key.

Figure 2-3 Enter passphrase twice, then generate SSH private key.

4. Now, press the Download Private Key button
5. Open a terminal and execute:

   $ mv ~/Downloads/id_geni_ssh_rsa ~/.ssh/.
   $ chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/id_geni_ssh_rsa
   $ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_geni_ssh_rsa
   

   Later in the tutorial, this will allow you to log into your nodes securely without a password.

Figure 2-4 Download an SSH Key Pair.

3. Obtain Resources

Now that you are a member of a project, you can create a slice and reserve resources.

3.1 Create a slice

Go to the Home tab. Press the Create Slice button for this project. As a slice name use the slice name on your worksheet, you can leave the description empty and press Create Slice

Figure 3-1 Create a new slice.

3.2 (optional) Renew your slice

Slices and the resources within them are reserved until their individual expiration times. Renewing allows you to extend the expiration time of your slice and the resources in them.

Slices and the resources within them have distinct expiration times. You must renew both the slice and the resources separately.

On the Slice page, select the Renew slice only radio button. Click on the date below. In the calendar that pops up, select a date in the near future. Press Renew to renew the slice. Renewing the slice now allows the resources to have longer initial expiration times.

Figure 3-2 Renew the slice.

3.3 Reserve Two Virtual Machines at One Aggregate

The Portal is integrated with a tool, Flack, which allows you to draw topologies of GENI resources and then reserve them.

On the Slice tab, press the Flack button. Flack will open in a new tab.	Figure 3-3 Launch Flack
Wait for Flack to load. You should see: your username, the slice name, and a list of aggregates. Flack should look like the picture to the right.	Figure 3-4 Flack after it has loaded.
Find the aggregate listed on your worksheet. Click the VM box next to that aggregate and drag it onto the canvas. Repeat the above step. You should now see two VM boxes on the canvas. Now click near one of the VM boxes on the canvas, then click and drag towards the other VM. Release when you reach the other VM. You should now see a line and a box representing a link connecting the two VMs. The canvas should now look like the picture on the right. To edit the name of each VM, click the i in the circle.	Figure 3-5 Two VMs connected by a link.
In the field at the top, replace "VM" with "client". If you are using an ExoGENI rack, set the "Sliver Type" to "EC2Small". ExoGENI allows you to reserve machines of various sizes. We will use small ones for this tutorial to conserve resources.	Figure 3-6 Edit the name of the VM. Set the Sliver Type on ExoGENI racks.
Now click on the "Interfaces and Links" (middle tab with the "link" symbol"). Enter the Desired IP Address for this node. Enter the Desired Mask of 255.255.255.0. Then Press "Apply" at the bottom of the screen. Repeat the above six steps for the second VM, labeling it "server" and setting the server's Desired IP Address.	Figure 3-7 Edit the IP Address and Mask of the VM.
Click the Submit button near the bottom of the page. When prompted, confirm you want to actually reserve resources.	Figure 3-8 Two VMs connected by a link.

3.4 Check Whether Virtual Machines are Ready to be Used

After clicking the Submit button, wait for the canvas to turn green. (This may take awhile.) The canvas should now look like the picture on the right.

Figure 3-9 Two VMs connected by a link are reserved and ready to login.

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Introduction

Next: Execute