Using my pc as a controller

[gonçalo Semedo]

Hi,

My name is Goncalo Semedo, and im trying to do this tutorial: http://groups.geni.net/geni/attachment/wiki/ScalableMonitoring/openflow-geni.pdf


My question is, is it possible to use my own pc as the controller? If yes, how can i do it?

Another thing, in this tutorial I imported the slice using the rspec files. After submited the request, i logged in in some hosts and i tried to ping other hosts, but it always fails. Do you know why? or what I need to do?

Thanks,
Goncalo Semedo

[Niky Riga]

Hi Goncalo,

Whether you can run the controller in your own PC it depends on your PCs
configuration and connection to the internet. The controller runs like a
server listening on a TCP port and the switches will try to connect to
it. As long as your computer can be reached on a publicly routable IP
address on a TCP port you are in business.

So this might just work, or it might take some effort if you are behind
NAT.

After you have fixed the above then you can simple point the switch to
your computer using the set-controller command of ovs-vsctl in your ovs
host.

BTW, are you going over this assignment as part of a class?

Thanks,
Niky

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[gonçalo Semedo]

Thanks Niky,

Im probably behind a NAT, I will see what i can do about that, any idea?

No, im not in class, the topic is related with my master's thesis and it will be a big help if do this exercise

[Niky Riga]

Hi Goncalo,

Depending on how much control you have over the internet setup you might
be able to work around a NAT, but you will need access to the NAT box
(usually a wireless router) if your setup is at home for example.

Most of home wireless routers allow you to bind a TCP port to a specific
NATed address. It will depend on the type/model of router you have.

If you are in a school type of environment where you don't have control
over the network infrastructure, then unfortunately I don't think there
is much you can do, other than work with your admins to get you on a
different setup.[1] You should just use a different computer for your
controller.

If you are just going over the exercise for you master's I want to point
out that there are more up-to date versions of these instructions:

For the firewall part:
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments/OpenFlowFirewallAssignment

For the load balancer part:
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments/OpenFlowLoadBalancerAssignment

Also if you are interested in looking into automatically instrumentating
your experiment there is a version of the load balancer assignment that
also uses an Instrumentation and Measurement tool called GIMI:
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GEC17Agenda/AdvancedOpenFlow/Procedure

I would suggest that you go over this after the first two.

Good luck,
Niky

[1] Some school use NAT only for their wireless infrastructure, but if
you can actually plugin your computer with a cable you might get a
publicly routable IP address.