Neo-Containers -- DETER Containers

Section List

1. The Basics
2. Initial Set-up
3. Using Neo-Containers with the Existing Containers System
4. Using Neo-Containers While Bypassing the Existing Containers System
5. After Booting the Containers
6. Experiment Completion
7. Extensions to Neo-Containers

1. The Basics

The Neo-Containers system uses cloud-container technology to abstract and generalize container creation and initialization. At the DETER level, the experiments have a number of physical nodes, "pnodes", which serve as hosts for the virtualized containers. Outside of the experiment there are two servers which configure the containers. Both run on chef.isi.deterlab.net. The Chef server serves "code as configuration" and stores static (for the most part) configuration information. The config_server is a RESTful API which loads then serves experiment-specific configuration information. The code that the Chef server runs on the containers usually pull the specific configuration information from the config_server.

The config_server code can be found on DETER's Github account. The Chef recipes used are there as well.

There are two approaches to running Neo-Containers. The first is expands upon the existing Containers system; the second does not use the existing Containers system at all. Following the discussion on initial set-up, there are separate sections below describing how to use Neo-Containers in each case.

Much of the Neo-Containers system is still exposed and require the user to run a few configuration scripts. In the fullness of time, these details will be folded in to the system.

2. Initial Set-up

Check out the config_server repository from Github. This repository contains the config_server code, as well as several scripts that must be run.

It is assumed this will be checked out on users.isi.deterlab.net.

    $ mkdir src
    $ cd  src
    $ git clone https://github.com/deter-project/config_server.git

3. Using Neo-Containers with the Existing Containers System

This method of using Neo-Containers uses the existing Containers system. This method allows the use of more complex network topologies.

Create an Experiment

Create an experiment using the existing Containers system. An NS file and the /share/containers/containerize.py script are used to create the containerized experiment.

In your NS file for each container, specify image_os, image_type, image_name, and image_url via the tb-add-node-attribute syntax. Details on each attribute are given below.

• image_os - This is really just to distinguish Windows from non-Windows nodes. If the image_os starts with "windows", the image will be treated as a Windows node. Otherwise it'll be assumed to be some sort of Unix-y container.

• image_type - This setting describes the containerization tech of the node. Currently this is *always* set to "vagrant" as Vagrant is the only package used to spin up the containers.

• image_name - The name of the image. Any containers that share a name will also share an image.

• image_url - A URL must be specified which the neo-containers system uses to download the container image. This URL must be resolvable from the experiment nodes. The image will only be downloaded once as long as the image_names are the same for each container. Existing and supported images are Ubuntu 14.04 64 (at http://scratch/containers/deter_ub1404_64_vb.box) and Windows 7 (at http://scratch/containers/deter_win7.box).

The following is an example NS file that creates one Windows container and one Ubuntu 14.04 container:

    set r2d2 [$ns node]
    tb-add-node-attribute $r2d2 containers:image_os windows
    tb-add-node-attribute $r2d2 containers:image_type vagrant
    tb-add-node-attribute $r2d2 containers:image_name deter/win7
    tb-add-node-attribute $r2d2 containers:image_url
    http://scratch/containers/deter_win7.box

    set c3po [$ns node]
    tb-add-node-attribute $c3po containers:image_os ubuntu
    tb-add-node-attribute $c3po containers:image_type vagrant
    tb-add-node-attribute $c3po containers:image_name ubuntu/trusty64
    tb-add-node-attribute $c3p0 containers:image_url
    http://scratch/containers/deter_ub1404_64_vb.box

Containerize the Experiment

Use the NS file to create a containerized experiment using the existing Containers scripts.

    $ /share/containers/containerize.py 

Note: The experiment must currently be created in the Deter group as that's where the custom pnode disk images are. This will change.

Finalize the NS File

Modify the NS file generated by containerize.py to have a new image for the pnode machines.

Follow these steps in your browser:

1. Go to the new experiment page.
2. Click Modify Experiment.
3. Remove all existing tb-set-node-startcmd lines.
   These start the old Containers system and are no longer used.
4. For each pnode, change the OS type to PNODE_BASE.
5. For each pnode, change the hardware type to MicroCloud.

After making these modifications, each pnode in the NS file should have these lines:

    tb-set-node-os ${pnode(0000)} PNODE-BASE
    tb-set-hardware ${pnode(0000)} MicroCloud

The final NS file will look something like this:

    set ns [new Simulator]
    source tb_compat.tcl

    tb-make-soft-vtype container0 {dl380g3 pc2133 MicroCloud}
    set pnode(0000) [$ns node]
    tb-set-node-os ${pnode(0000)} PNODE-BASE
    tb-set-hardware ${pnode(0000)} container0
    tb-set-node-failure-action ${pnode(0000)} "nonfatal"

    $ns rtproto Static
    $ns run

Swap In

On the experiment's webpage, swap in the experiment.

Populate the Configuration Database

Populate the configuration database that runs on chef.isi.deterlab.net by running the load_containers_db.sh and load_config_db.sh database-population scripts.

This should be run on a single physical node in the experiment. pnode-0000 is used in the example below.

The <expid> and <projid> fields in the following example are referring to the experiment ID and the project ID. The experiment ID is defined by the user, and could be something like "neocont-test" or "netstriping". For now, the project ID should always be "Deter".

    $ ssh pnode-0000.<expid>.<projid>
    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ ./load_config_db.sh
    $ ./load_containers_db.sh -p <projid> -e <expid>

This step will be automated in the future.

Node Configuration by Chef

The Chef system is used to bootstrap and configure the nodes. All the steps for this are enclosed in the bootstrap_node.sh script.

The script needs to know which node's role in the experiment. There are currently three roles: pnode, container, and win-container.

On all the pnodes which will be running containers:

    $ ssh <pnode>.<expid>.<projid>
    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ ./bootstrap_node.sh -r pnode

The pnode only have to be bootstrapped once per experiment swap in. Once a pnode is bootstrapped into chef, chef-client needs to be run. The pnode role will spawn the containers and configure them. So once the chef-client command is run on a pnode, all containers on that be pnode will be running and configured.

    $ ssh <pnode>.<expid>.<projid>
    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ sudo chef-client

It is easy to fix problems if something should go wrong with bootstrapped nodes. Running "sudo chef-client" will re-configure the nodes (both pnodes and the containers).

Set-up Complete

If all the preceding steps succeeded, then your pnodes and containers are configured, booted, and ready for use.

---

4. Using Neo-Containers While Bypassing the Existing Containers System

This method of using Neo-Containers does not use the existing Containers system. This method allows the containers to be associated with physical nodes. It requires the user to manually compute IP addresses for the container nodes. Standard NS files are used in DETER experiments in this method of using Neo-Containers.

Create an Experiment

Create an experiment without using the existing Containers system. This experiment requires an NS file with a fully connected network. The PNODE-BASE image must be used for all machines which will run containers. The NS file must be loaded into the DETER system in the usual way.

Example NS file:

    set ns [new Simulator]
    source tb_compat.tcl

    set nodes "leda swan"

    tb-make-soft-vtype pnode_hardware {pc2133 MicroCloud}

    foreach node $nodes {
        set $node [$ns node]
        tb-set-node-os $node PNODE-BASE
        tb-set-hardware $node pnode_hardware
    }

    set lan0 [$ns make-lan $nodes 100Mb 0ms]

    $ns rtproto Static
    $ns run

Create a nodes.json File

A nodes.json file must be created that will describe the containers in the experiment. This file is only used to define the containers for this experiment. (The file need not be named nodes.json, but that is the name that will be used in this documentation.)

Each node must have the following fields defined in the nodes.json file.

• name - This is the name of this container.

• host - This is the pnode on which this container will run.

• interfaces - This a list of the network interfaces to be assigned the container.

• image_os - This is really just to distinguish Windows from non-Windows nodes. If the image_os starts with "windows", the image will be treated as a Windows node. Otherwise it'll be assumed to be some sort of Unix-y container.

• image_type - This setting describes the containerization tech of the node. Currently this is *always* set to "vagrant" as Vagrant is the only package used to spin up the containers.

• image_name - The name of the image. Any containers that share a name will also share an image.

• image_url - A URL must be specified which the neo-containers system uses to download the container image. This URL must be resolvable from the experiment nodes. The image will only be downloaded once as long as the image_names are the same for each container. Existing and supported images are Ubuntu 14.04 64 (at http://scratch/containers/deter_ub1404_64_vb.box) and Windows 7 (at http://scratch/containers/deter_win7.box).

The following is an example nodes.json file that creates one Ubuntu 14.04 container and one Windows container:

    [
        {
            "host": "leda",
            "name": "sarah",
            "image_url": "http://scratch/containers/deter_ub1404_64_vb.box",
            "image_os": "ubuntu 14.04 64",
            "image_type": "vagrant",
            "image_name": "deter/ub14",
            "interfaces": [
                { "address": "10.1.1.101", "mac": "de:ad:be:ef:00:be" }
            ]
        },
        {
            "host": "swan",
            "name": "helena",
            "image_url": "http://scratch/containers/deter_win7_candidate.box"
            "image_os": "windows",
            "image_type": "vagrant",
            "image_name": "deter/win7",
            "interfaces": [
                { "address": "10.1.1.201", "mac": "de:ad:be:ef:00:af" }
            ]
        }
    ]

Load Containers into DETER

DETER must allocate the control network address for the containers prior to experiment swap-in. This allocation occurs by passing the nodes.json file to DETER.

The <expid> and <projid> fields in the following example are referring to the experiment ID and the project ID. The experiment ID is defined by the user, and could be something like "neocont-test" or "netstriping". For now, the project ID should always be "Deter".

    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ ./load_containers_db.sh -p <projid> -e <expid>

This must only be done once per experiment. It does not have to be done before each swap-in. Just once to reserve control net addresses from DETER.

If you decide to change the the nature of the containers run in an experiment, you must destroy the experiment and start over. This needs to be done so that DETER will unreserve the control net addresses it previously reserved for the containers.

Swap In

On the experiment's webpage, swap in the experiment.

Populate the Configuration Database

Populate the configuration database that runs on chef.isi.deterlab.net by running the load_containers_db.sh and load_config_db.sh database-population scripts.

This should be run on a single physical node in the experiment. pnode-0000 is used in the example below.

The <expid> and <projid> fields in the following example are referring to the experiment ID and the project ID. The experiment ID is defined by the user, and could be something like "neocont-test" or "netstriping". For now, the project ID should always be "Deter".

    $ ssh pnode-0000.<expid>.<projid>
    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ ./load_config_db.sh

This step will be automated in the future.

Node Configuration by Chef

The Chef system is used to bootstrap and configure the nodes. All the steps for this are enclosed in the bootstrap_node.sh script.

The script needs to know which node's role in the experiment. There are currently three roles: pnode, container, and win-container.

On all the pnodes which have containers running on them:

    $ ssh <pnode>.<expid>.<projid>
    $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
    $ ./bootstrap_node.sh -r pnode

It is easy to fix problems if something should go wrong with bootstrapped nodes. Running "sudo chef-client" will re-configure the nodes (both pnodes and the containers).

Set-up Complete

If all the preceding steps succeeded, then your pnodes and containers are configured, booted, and ready for use.

5. After Booting the Containers

There are a number of things that may be done after the containers are configured and booted. These include the following:

• Login to a container node
  

      $ ssh pnode
      $ ssh username@containernode
  

  Cygwin is installed on Windows nodes so you can ssh to Windows containers as well.

• Play around with Vagrant
  Vagrant is used to control and access the container nodes. Vagrant is used from a root shell ("sudo su -") and from the /space/vagrant_home directory.

  Command	Purpose
  vagrant status	confirm containers are running
  vagrant ssh containernode	login "vagrant"; password "vagrant"
  vagrant reload containernode	reboot a container
  vagrant halt containernode	halt a container
  vagrant up containernode	boot a container

• Login to a Windows desktop
  
  • build ssh tunnel to port 3389 on the pnode
    $ ssh -L3389:pcXXX:3389 users.deterlab.net

  • use client RDP to connect to localhost:3389
    login "vagrant"; password "vagrant"

  6. Experiment Completion

  After an experiment is complete, the experiment data must be removed from the configuration database. There are two ways this may be done.

  Method 1: On a host which can talk to chef.isi.deterlab.net, run these commands:

      $ cd <config_server-repo>/bin
      $ rm_experiment_config.sh -p <projid> -e <expid>
  

  Method 2: The config_server may be called directly:

      $ curl http://chef:5320/exp/<projid>/<expid>/delete
  

  7. Extensions to Neo-Containers

  Chef Workstation

  Since the system runs on Chef anyone authorized to push chef recipes to the chef server can write custom node configuration code.

  Vagrant

  The system uses Vagrant to spin up the containers, thus any Vagrant-supported image can run in a container. However, the image must be downloaded and served via HTTP.