Using the DETER Testbed

Using the DETER Testbed

Ted Faber

[email protected]

Outline

• What is DETER?

• Accessing DETER infrastructure

– Accounts & Projects

• Experimenting on DETER (Hands-On)

– Controlling Experiments With GUI Tools – Using Low Level Experiment Interfaces

• Graduating to Advanced Features

DETER Testbed

• Facility for repeatable, controlled experiments

– Clean room

– Controlled outside interaction/observation

• Resources allocated on demand

– Encourages early experimentation

– Scheduled experiments can be supported

• Education resource

DETER Testbed Workflow

DETER

Testbed

Experiment Environment

users.isi.deterlab.net

Tools

File systems

Clean room access “Home base”

Clean Room

Terminology

• User

– You all: researchers using DETER

• Project

– Group of related researchers

– One user can be in multiple projects – (Analog to Unix group)

• Experiment

– Set of resources

– Controlled by a user, shared by project – (Analog to Unix process)

Interacting with DETER

•

_{http://www.isi.deterlab.net}

Interacting With DETER:

GUI

• SEER experiment control system

– Real-time measurement

– Event driven experiment manipulation – Extensible interfaces

Interacting with DETER:

Low Level

• users.isi.deterlab.net

– System accounts

– Shared experiment info – Tools

– Unix environment (FreeBSD)

• SSH access to experiment network

Hands-On

• Manipulating DETER by example

– Demonstrations

– Follow along (multiple users are fine):

• Accounts detertab – detertbn (password is acct name) • Cleared after tutorial

– Slides with screenshots – DETER Documentation

Web Site Hands-On

(Logging in)

My DeterLab

Creating an Experiment

• Experiment description

– Derived from ns2

– Inherited from Emulab

• Creating Experiment Description

– Graphical Editor – Hand coding

Graphical Experiment

Editor

Drag and Drop Elements

Configure Elements

Experiment States

• Swapped

– Internal representation exists – No resources allocated

• Active

– Resources allocated, configured, in use

• Changing State

Experiment Settings

• Auto swap

– Remove experiment after idle time

• Duration

– Remove experiment after time

• Batch

– Experiment swaps opportunistically

• We prefer you leave idle swap on

– Debugging

Automating Experiments

• Loading software

– tb-set-node os $node OSID

– tb-set-node-tarfiles $node /dir /tarfile

• Starting commands automatically

– tb-set-node-startcmd $node “command”

• Batch

Experiment Page

Using SEER to Experiment

• Graphical Interface to DETER experiment

– Experiment description must request SEER – Off by default to be conservative

• Realtime Data Gathering

• Actuate Experiment Events

Starting SEER

Webstart link

Starts SEER

Attaching to an Experiment

SEER: pinging nodes

1

2

3. Configure

SEER: Observing the

Change (Qualitative)

SEER: Qualitative

Observations

Right Click

Low Level Experiment

Access

• Experiment Layout Details

• Experiment Access Mechanisms

– Node Access – Node Control

Experiment Structure

Users: Access to

Experiments

• Experiment nodes are firewalled

– All access through users.isi.deterlab.net – Secure Shell access and forwarding

• File systems are imported to experiments

Finding a Node from Users

• Experiment

page

• Local DNS

names

Finding a Node Inside the

Experiment

• Node reaches experimental node

– Entries in /etc/hosts

– Entries for multihoming

• Node.experiment.project reaches

control interface(!)

– This can interfere with other operations – Not the experiment you intended

Names in the Structure

Experiment Services

• users.isi.deterlab.net:a staging area

– Log into users then to nodes

• On the nodes

– Access for the associated project users

• Different for classes

– Shared files for project

• User home directories • /proj/PROJECT directories

The Project Filesystems

• Under /proj/project

– Custom disk images

– Software (rpms, tar files) – Per-experiment data

• Under /proj/project/exp/experiment

– Log files (loghole)

Forwarding Services

• Example: remote desktop access

– Ssh process on users to forward connection

• ssh -N -L 24242:localhost:3389 pc110

– Process on users contacts the node

• rdesktop localhost:24242

Node Control

• Console access

– console pcXXX

– Attaches to serial line: access w/o network

• Reboot or reload a node

– node_reboot pcXXX – os_load pcXXX

On The Nodes

• Complete control – sudo/admin privs

– Servers are protected

– Wedged nodes can be restored

• node_reboot/os_load will power cycle

• Control network/server access

– Can impact other's performance

Getting Outside

• Talking to the Internet

– Risky Experiment Services

• Controlled permeability of the DETER isolation • Requires Administrative coordination

• Talking to other testbeds

– DETER federation system

• Incorporate other testbed nodes

– From ProtoGENI, Emulab, …

When Things Go Wrong...

• We want to hear about problems

– How do I … ?

– Something's broken...

• Support: Business Hours (+ by appt)

• Reporting Trouble:

https://trac.deterlab.net/

– [email protected]

– Open a trac ticket:

https://trac.deterlab.net/newticket

Real Accounts

• DETER Project: DEFT-COLLAB

Join Project

Join

DEFT-COLLAB

Things To Try

• Download and install software

– tb-set-tarfiles

• Network Topologies

– LAN vs link

– Delay and loss

• Emulab Tutorial

Unsolicited Advice

• Probably better to start small and grow

– Better fits the lightweight experiment model – Easy to catch problems small

• Ask when you get stuck

More Information

•

_{http://www.deterlab.net}

• These slides