Reference Guide

This document describes the details of the commands and data structures that make up the containers system. The User Guide /Tutotial? provides useful context about the workflows and goals of the system that inform these technical details.

containerize.py

The containerize.py command creates a DETER experiment made up of containers. The containerize.py program is available from /share/containers/containerize.py on users.isi.deterlab.net. A sample invocation is:

$ /share/containers/containerize.py MyProject MyExperiment ~/mytopology.tcl

It will create a new experiment in MyProject called MyExperiment containing the experiment topology in mytopology.tcl. All the topology creation commands supported by DETER are supported by the conatainerization system, but ​emulab/DETER program agents are not. ​Emulab/DETER start commands are supported.

Containers will create an experiment in a group if the project parameter is of the form project/group. To start an experiment in the testing group of the DETER project, the first parameter is specified as DETER/testing.

Either an ​ns2 file or a ​topdl description is supported. Ns2 descriptions must end with .tcl or .ns. Other files are assumed to be topdl descriptions.

By default, containerize.py program will partition the topology into openvz containers, packed 10 containers per physical computer. If the topology is already partitioned - at least one element has a conatiners::partition atttribute - containerize.py will not partition it. The --force-partition flag causes containerize.py to partition the experiment regardless of the presence of containers:partition attributes.

If container types have been assigned to nodes using the containers:node_type attribute, containerize.py will respect them. Valid container types for the containers:node_type attribute or the --default-container parameter are:

Parameter	Container
embedded_pnode	Physical Node
qemu	Qemu VM
openvz	Openvz Container
process	ViewOS process

The containerize.py command takes several parameters that can change its behavior:

--default-container=kind

Containerize nodes without a container type into kind. If no nodes have been assigned containers, this puts all them into kind containers.

--force-partition

Partition the experiment whether or not it has been paritioned already

--packing=int

Attempt to put int containers into each physical node. The default --packing is 10.

--config=filename

Read configuration variables from filename the configuration values are discussed below.

--pnode-types=type1[,type2...]

Override the site configuration and request nodes of type1 (or type2 etc.) as host nodes.

--end-node-shaping

Attempt to do end node traffic shaping even in containers connected by VDE switches. This works with qemu nodes, but not process nodes. Topologies that include both openvz nodes and qemu nodes that shape traffic should use this.

--vde-switch-shaping

Do traffic shaping in VDE switches. Probably the default, but that is controlled in the site configuration.

--openvz-diskspace

Set the default openvz disk space size. The suffixes G and M stand for gigabytes and megabytes.

--openvz-template

Set the default openvz template. Templates are described in the users guide.

--image

Construct a visualization of the virtual topology and leave it in the experiment directories (default)

--no-image

Do not construct a visualization of the virtual topology and leave it in the experiment directories

--debug

Print additional diagnostics and leave failed DETER experiments on the testbed

--keep-tmp

Do not remove temporary files - for debugging only

This invocation:

$ ./containerize.py --packing 25 --default-container=qemu --force-partition DeterTest faber-packem ~/experiment.xml

takes the topology in ~/experiment.xml (which must be topdl), packs it into 25 qemu containers per physical node, and creates an experiment called DeterTest/faber-packem that can be swapped in. If experiment.xml were already partitioned, it will be re-partitioned. If some nodes in that topology were assigned to openvz nodes already, those nodes will be still be in openvz containers.

The result of a successful containerize.py run is a DETER experiment that can be swapped in.

More detailed examples are available in the tutorial

Site Configuration File

The site configuration file is an attribute value pair file parsed by a ​python ConfigParser that sets overall container parameters. Many of these have legacy internal names.

The default site configuration is in /share/containers/site.conf on users.isi.deterlab.net.

Acceptable values (and their DETER defaults) are:

backend_server

The IRC server used as a backend coordination service for grandstand. Will be replaced by MAGI. Default: boss.isi.deterlab.net:6667

grandstand_port

Port that third party applications can contact grandstand on. Will be replaced by MAGI. Default: 4919

maverick_url

Default image used by qemu containers. Default: http://scratch/benito/pangolinbz.img.bz2

url_base

Base URL of the DETER web interface on which users can see experiments. Default: http://www.isi.deterlab.net/

qemu_host_hw

Hardware used by containers. Default: pc2133,bpc2133,MicroCloud

xmlrpc_server

Host and port from which to request experiment creation. Default: boss.isi.deterlab.net:3069

qemu_host_os

OSID to request for qemu container nodess. Default: Ubuntu1204-64-STD

exec_root

Root of the directory tree holding containers software and libraries. Developers often change this. Default: /share/containers

openvz_host_os

OSID to request for openvz nodes. Default CentOS6-64-openvz

openvz_guest_url

Location to load the openvz template from. Default: %(exec_root)s/images/ubuntu-10.04-x86.tar.gz

switch_shaping

True if switched containers (see below) should do traffic shaping in the VDE switch that connects them. Default: true

switched_containers

A list of the containers that are networked with VDE switches. Default: qemu,process