Lab Zero: A First Experiment Using GENI

1. Design the Experiment

In today's experiment you will use resources at the aggregate (a.k.a. site) listed on the worksheet. If you don't have a worksheet, use any aggregate with InstaGENI or ExoGENI in it's name.

2. Establish the Environment

2.1 Pre-work: Create a GENI account

Go to https://portal.geni.net and press the Use GENI button Where prompted, begin typing your organization's name, and select it from the list. If you got an account through the GENI Identity Provider, type 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 your name in the upper right hand corner and select SSH Keys from the pulldown menu. On the new page, select the generate and download an SSH keypair button.

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

Now, press the Download Private Key button. (PuTTY users should selection Download PuTTY Key instead.) If you are using a command line based ssh client, 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. (Users of GUI based ssh clients, such as PuTTY, should skip this step.)

Figure 2-4 Download an SSH Key Pair.

Mac OS X/Linux

1. Save the NOT_PUTTY version of the private key on your computer.
2. Open a terminal
3. Ensure that your private key has the right permissions by typing:

   chmod 700 <private_key_file>
   

1. Run ssh by typing:

   ssh -i <private key location> sshtest@pc3.geni.uchicago.edu -p 32826
   

2. Enter the passphrase (v3rify) when prompted. Note: If you are prompted for a password then something went wrong. Make sure that all the information is correct.

If you see the prompt sshtest@test:~$ you have successfully logged-in to the node.

Windows PuTTY

1. You will use the PUTTY version of the private key. Save the key on your computer. (It was converted from the standard format using the puttygen program. For more information look here)
2. Run PuTTY.
3. On the Basic options screen, in the Host Name field enter: sshtest@pc3.geni.uchicago.edu
4. In the Port field enter: 32826
5. Make sure Connection type is: SSH
6. Under the settings categories on the left navigate to Connection-> SSH ->Auth.
7. Next to the "Private key file for authentication" field at the bottom, click Browse... and select the private key file you saved to your computer, and click Open.
8. Click Open to establish the SSH connection.
9. If prompted about whether you trust the host (key not cached in registry), click Yes.
10. When prompted for the Passphrase enter: v3rify

If you see the prompt sshtest@test:~$ you have successfully logged-in to the node.

Windows FireSSH

After you Install FireSSH :

1. Save the NOT_PUTTY version of the private key.
2. Load this URL into firefox: ​ssh://sshtest@pc3.geni.uchicago.edu:32826
3. In the pop-up window, enter the passphrase v3rify in the (mislabeled) password field, and click Browse...
4. Select the private key, and click Open.
5. Click OK.
6. If prompted about whether you trust the host (host key not cached in registry), click Yes.

If you see the prompt sshtest@test:~$ you have successfully logged-in to the node.

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 + New slice button. Ensure the correct project name is selected in the Project name field. As a slice name use the slice name on your worksheet. If you don't have a worksheet, use lab0<your initials>. You can leave the description empty and press Create 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.

You can renew your slice and resources both from the Home page and from the Slice page. From the Home page you can only renew slices once they have resources and only for a predetermined amount of time, i.e. 7 days. For this tutorial we are going to Slice page. On the Slice page, select Renew and then Renew slice only radio button. Click on the date to the right. 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, Jacks, which allows you to draw topologies of GENI resources and then reserve them.

In the upper left hand corner of the Slice page, click the Add Resources button. Wait for Jacks to open in editing mode. Jacks should look like the picture to the right.	Figure 3-3 Jacks after it has loaded.
Click the black VM box and drag it onto the canvas. This icon represents a generic default-vm which the aggregate has a well known default for (for InstaGENI it is a Xen VM and for ExoGENI it is an ExoSmall). 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.	Figure 3-4 Two VMs connected by a link.
To edit the name of the VM, click the VM box. In the "Name" field at the top, replace "node-0" with "client". Repeat for the VM labeled node-1. In the "Name" field at the top, replace "node-1" with "server".	Figure 3-5 Edit the name of the VM.
Assign IP addresses to the interfaces. The easiest way to do this is to have the tool auto-assign IP addresses by clicking on the Auto IP button.	Figure 3-6 Assign IP addresses to the interfaces using Auto IP.
Click the "Site 1" box and select from the pulldown menu the aggregate you wish to request these resources from. If completing this tutorial with a group, select the aggregate you've been assigned, otherwise select any aggregate with InstaGENI or ExoGENI in its name. Make note of whether or not your aggregate is an ExoGENI or InstaGENI aggregate. This information may be useful later when running the experiment. Also note that some aggregates may be more busy than others. If you experience difficulties, it is suggested that you repeat the steps with a new slice and select a different aggregate. The "Reserve Resources" button at the bottom of the pane should now be clickable, Click it.	Figure 3-7 Binding the topology to an aggregate.

3.4 Check Whether Virtual Machines are Ready to be Used

After clicking the "Reserve Resources" button, a new page will open giving "Status". Once the "Status" states "Finished", resources have been reserved. However, the nodes still need to come up which may take some time.	Figure 3-8 Reservation complete.
Return to the Slice page. Wait until all of the nodes turn green. The page should now look like the picture on the right.	Figure 3-9 Nodes are ready to login.

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Introduction

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