wiki:GeniTmixCalibTutorial

Version 11 (modified by Ben Newton, 10 years ago) (diff)

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Calibrating for Tmix

This page describes how to run calibration experiments with Tmix on GENI nodes. This tutorial assumes that you are already familiar with basic experimentation with GENI, and that you have access to a machine from which you can execute ssh commands and login to external machines. If you wish to reserve resources using omni, some version of Linux or Unix running on a PC or virtual machine is required. The tutorial also assumes basic familiarity with Linux or Unix, and the ability to use a terminal text editor such as emacs, vim or nano.

At run-time Tmix "replays" the exchanges encoded in a set of connection vectors (or c-vecs). The connection vectors are extracted from traffic captured on a real network link. Since all of the traffic crossing a busy link cannot generally be replayed using a single pair of nodes, it is customary to split the connection vectors into N pairs of tcvec files. If all of the traffic observed on a busy link cannot be simulated with just two nodes, what percentage of the traffic can we replay? How many pairs of nodes do we need to use to simulate all the traffic? It is exactly these questions that calibration seeks to answer. Below we will walk through the process of determining how much traffic can be simulated by a single pair of nodes.

A Reserve Resources in Omni or GENI Portal

Determine whether you wish to use Omni or GENI Portal to reserve GENI resources for this Tutorial. We recommend you use GENI Portal, unless you are experienced with, or wish to gain experience with Omni. Click one of the links below that matches your choice. The image and setup are the same as in the Tmix Tutorial.

Reserve Resources using GENI Portal

Reserve Resources using Omni

B Login to nodes

Open two new terminal windows, one for each node. To log into the nodes reserved in the previous step issue the following command for each node in one of the new windows.

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_geni_ssh_rsa <username>@<hostname> -p <port>

As expected, <username> should be replaced with your GENI username, and <hostname> and <port> are replaced with the hostname and port of the reserved GENI resource noted in the previous step.

C Run Tmix Script and view data files

  1. The image loaded on the nodes has the tmix tools already installed and in your path. Each time the system boots, a kernel module is automatically inserted to assist in simulating the packet delays. Issue the following command on the SSH terminal of the "left" node to run a Tmix setup script
    sudo /local/tmix-script.sh
    
  1. Repeat the above command in the SSH terminal of the "right" node.
  1. Now, list the contents of your home directory on either node.
    ls
    

You should see a tmix.conf file, which contains the configuration for a tmix experiment. Open the file with an editor such as vim, emacs, or nano, and browse its contents. These are various settings that control a tmix experiment. At the end of the file notice the Crecv_Trace and Cinit_Trace lines. These are the only lines you will need to change as we run our calibration experiments.

  1. List the contents of the tmix data directory by typing the following on either node:
    ls /opt/tmix-1.2/data
    

A set of connection vectors is described by with a pair of tcvec files (labeled cinit.tcvec and crecv.tcvec). These two files correspond to connections that are initiated on either side of the link on which the traffic data was originally captured. Since all of the traffic crossing a busy link cannot generally be replayed using a single pair of nodes, it is customary to split the connection vectors into N pairs of tcvec files. Most of the files displayed in the listing are named 1ofN.crecv.tcvec. This is a single pair of connection vector files obtained by evenly splitting the original set of connection vectors into N parts. For example, running tmix with the pair of files, 1of10.crecv.tcvec and 1of10.cinit.tcvec, will replay about 1/10th the traffic originally recorded on the link. Below we will perform a set of experiments in which we iterate to find the point at which our pair of nodes can no longer work fast enough to simulate all the network traffic.

C Run Tmix Script and view data files

  1. Edit your tmix.conf file using a terminal text editor such that your Crecv and Cinit lines are the following.
    Cinit_Trace = /opt/tmix-1.2/data/1of10.cinit.tcvec
    Crecv_Trace = /opt/tmix-1.2/data/1of10.crecv.tcvec
    

on the "left" node, and

Cinit_Trace = /opt/tmix-1.2/data/1of10.crecv.tcvec
Crecv_Trace = /opt/tmix-1.2/data/1of10.cinit.tcvec

on the "right" node. Note that the filenames are swapped on the "right" node. All you should need to change is what is after "data/" and before ".cinit" or ".crecv". You are now ready to run the tmix experiment.

  1. Tmix relies upon a pre-determined start time to synchronize tmix on the two nodes. On both nodes run the following command to determine the time 2.and date:
    date
    

Note that the time may be in a different time zone. Decide on a start time about 2-3 minutes in the future, relative to the time displayed by the date command. It should be far enough in the future for you to issue the following command on both nodes with 30 seconds to spare before that start time.

Finally, execute the following command on both nodes:

tmix -s HH:MM:SS tmix.conf &

where HH:MM:SS is the chosen start time in hours minutes and seconds.

Tmix on both hosts will load the data files and then wait until the designated start time. You will see "Running for ???? seconds" once tmix is ready to go.

To verify when tmix has started run

top

You should see tmix at the top of the list once it starts. To exit top type 'q'.

After about 12 minutes, the experiment will complete, and a list of statistics will be output to the console. Also a set of log files with extentions .ert, .trt, .unc, .rt, and .ts will be created in the directory.

D Delete Resources

Once your experiment is complete and you have collected your results, you should return the reserved resources. To do so, follow the step below which matches your choice to use GENI Portal or Omni.

D.1 Using GENI Portal

  1. Click on slices in the upper right-hand corner.
  1. Find your slice in the list, and click on the corresponding Delete Resources button.
  1. Click "Delete Resources" again to confirm that you want to delete all reserved resources.

D.2 Using Omni

In the terminal execute the following command:

omni.py -a pg-utah deletesliver <sliceName>

where <sliceName> is once again replaced with your chosen unique slice name.

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