Simple Layer 2 Experiment Using the GENI Portal

This tutorial is deprecated and only listed here for reference. A similar tutorial is ​Lab Zero

Part I/Step 2: Obtain Resources: create a slice and reserve resources

Instructions

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

4. 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 (the slice name should be of the form portal##), you can leave the description empty and press Create Slice

Figure 4-1 Create a new slice.

5. 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 tomorrow's date. Press Renew to renew the slice. Renewing the slice now allows the resources to have longer initial expiration times.

Figure 5-1 Renew the slice.

6. (Optional) Add other experimenters to your slice

When reserving resource via the portal, you can add other members to your slice so that other experimenters can have accounts and login into your resources.

Slice members will be able to login to resources reserved in the future if: the resources were reserved directly through the portal (by clicking Add Resources on the slice page), and the slice member has uploaded an ssh public key.

On the Slice page, press the Edit Slice Membership button. Find your neighbor on the list. Add them to the slice by selecting Add as Member in the pulldown menu next to their name and then pressing the Modify button.

Figure 6-1 Add other experimenters to your slice.

7. Reserve Virtual Machines at Two Aggregates

For this tutorial, we have manually reserved a VLAN (a layer 2 circuit) from a GENI rack in Utah (Utah InstaGENI) to a GENI rack in Massachusetts (GPO InstaGENI).

Now reserve a virtual machine (VM) connected to each end of the manually configured VLAN.

In order to pace the creation of the VMs, please only reserve your two VMs when you are given a "blinking ball" by the tutorial instructor.

First, reserve a VM on the Utah end of the VLAN. This node will be refered to as the "client".

Go to the Slice page and press the Add Resources button. Complete the form as shown in the picture on the right and press the Reserve Resources button. Reserving the node at the aggregate may take a minute or two. Do not reload the page or press the back button while waiting. Write down the "client" login information on the worksheet.

Figure 7-1 Add resources at Utah InstaGENI.

Second, reserve a virtual machine connected to the Massachusetts end of the manually configured VLAN. This node will be refered to as the "server".

Go back to the Slice page and again press the Add Resources button. Complete the form as shown in the picture on the right and press the Reserve Resources button. Again, this may take awhile. Do not reload the page or press the back button while waiting. Write down the "server" login information on the worksheet.

Figure 7-2 Add resources at GPO InstaGENI.

8. Check Whether Virtual Machines are Ready to be Used

It takes some time for the VMs to boot. Check to see if they are up.

Return to the Slice page. Press the Get All button in the aggregate table.	Figure 8-1 Get the status at all aggregates.
The rows for GPO InstaGENI and Utah InstaGENI should say READY against a green background and look as shown on the left. If one of the rows do not say READY, press the Get Status button on that row periodically until it does.	Figure 8-2 Resources at Utah InstaGENI and GPO InstaGENI are green to indicate they are ready.

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Introduction

Next: Execute a Simple Layer 2 Experiment