INSTOOLS Evaluation

The INSTOOLS software is available in two ways: as part of the ProtoGENI Flack Client and as a standalone software package. Both are evaluated as part of the GIR 3.2 effort.

The ProtoGENI FLACK Client has integrated the INSTOOLS, so that a user may simply click a button to instrumentize nodes in an experiment. The ProtoGENI Flack Client is available ​here.

Two version of the INSTOOLS software were evaluated ​V3.3 and [v3.4].

Time Frame: Evaluation started September 14th, 2011.

INSTOOLS Findings

The ProtoGENI Flack Client Instrumentation was reviewed on September 15, 2011. No version was available in the interfaces???

The first version of the standalone software package was ​INSTOOLS V3.3 was found from the [ ​http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/Instrumentize Instrumentize ] wiki page. After running into problem, found out that this version should not be used due to issue that are to be addressed in the next version. Waiting on v3.4.

INSTOOLS How-to

INSTOOLS FLACK Client

Evaluation used the ​Instrumentation Tools for a GENI Prototype GEC11 Tutorial portion as a reference. Prerequisites include:

• User account on one of the Emulab aggregates
• Flash ready browser

Once the prerequisites are met, the user can login to the [​http://protogeni.net/flack.html ProtoGENI Flack Client:

User is then presented with the certificate to be used for the login, enter your pass phrase and click "OK".

Image (cert-login-2.jpeg)?

If you need to import the certificate select the Open from file' button .

Once logged in the following is shown:

Image (flack-main-4.jpeg)?

INSTOOLS V3.4 package

INSTOOLS V3.3 package

The INSTOOLS v3.3 package software was found by reviewing the ​August2011 status report . From the status page, users are redirected to the ​INSTOOLS summary page, where the user can find that the package and documentation are found at ​Instrumentize page.

Downloaded the ​INSTOOLS V3.3 package, which contains both the INSTOOLS python scripts and it supporting documentation. After downloading and unpacking the package, reviewed the docs/README and the docs/INSTOOLSf-SETUP files for additional instructions.

Set up the prerequisites which require:

• placing the file SSL Certificate encrypted.pem and the password files in ~/.ssl/ directory.
• creating a file .protogeni-config.py defining the XMLRPC_SERVER value.

Create an experiment. Note: this step creates a slice and assigns resources to the slice:

$ ./createExp.py -n neverslice2 -m https://www.uky.emulab.net/protogeni/xmlrpc/cm uky.rspec 
CMURI = https://www.uky.emulab.net/protogeni/xmlrpc
Got my SA credential
No such slice registered here:Creating new slice called neverslice2
New slice created

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./createExp.py", line 149, in <module>
    current_slice_expiration = datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(instools_util.findSliceExpiry(slicecred, debug,LOGFILE),"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")[0:6])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/_strptime.py", line 454, in _strptime_time
    return _strptime(data_string, format)[0]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/_strptime.py", line 328, in _strptime
    data_string[found.end():])
ValueError: unconverted data remains: Z

At this point was directed by INSTOOLS team to stop using this version and that a new version would be available shortly.