Due to a ransomware attack, the wiki was reverted to a July 2022 version. . We apologize for the lack of a more recent valid backup.
Mininet is a container orchestration system for network emulation. With Mininet and onos.py, you can easily start up an ONOS cluster in a single VM or server. This is usually the most convenient way to create an ONOS development environment on your laptop, and you can be up and running in a matter of minutes (or seconds if you have already built ONOS and have already installed Mininet!)
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Why use onos.py and Mininet?
If you are already running Mininet in a VM or on a physical server, it is easy to use onos.py to start up a complete emulated ONOS network, including ONOS cluster, modeled control network, and data network.
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Note: This is work in progress - if you wish to try it now, you will need to get onos.py from the following patch: https://gerrit.onosproject.org/#/c/9143/ |
Getting Mininet
In order to use onos.py, you need Mininet. It's easy to install Mininet from source in an Ubuntu VM or server:
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If you are running Ubuntu 16.04, you can easily install Mininet 2.2 using apt-get:
apt-get install mininet
Running ONOS using onos.py and Mininet
First, make sure that you have built ONOS in your Mininet VM or server using buck:
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If things don't start up correctly, look carefully at any error messages or exceptions which may have been generated - usually they give you important information which will enable you to figure out what is going wrong and to fix the issue. Also check out the troubleshooting section below.
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Questions and Answers
What do those mn command line options do?
--custom onos.py: uses onos.py to extend Mininet with new controller and switch types as well as a customized CLI
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--topo torus,4,4: tells Mininet to use a 4x4 torus topology for the data network
What software switch does this use?
By default, it uses Open vSwitch. onos.py replaces the default switch with a new switch class called ONOSOVSSwitch or --switch onosovs. This switch class knows how to connect to an ONOS cluster with multiple IP addresses.
How can I use the user switch (or CPqD switch if I have it installed?)
In order to select the user switch (either Stanford reference switch or CPqD switch, depending on which one you have installed), you can use --switch onosuser.
How can I get more information on Mininet, the mn command, writing Mininet scripts, etc.?
For more information on Mininet, please check out http://docs.mininet.org
How can I specify the apps for ONOS to load?
For now, try using ONOS_APPS or connecting to the karaf console and using ONOS CLI commands. As root:
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In the future, there should be an option to --controller onos and/or ONOSCluster().
How are IP addresses of the ONOS cluster specified?
ONOSCluster takes an ipBase option; default is 192.168.123.0/24
How can I connect to the ONOS console from the mininet-onos> prompt?
mininet-onos> onos
press control-D to return to the mininet-onos> prompt.
How can I run ONOS/karaf CLI commands from the mininet-onos> prompt?
There are several ways of doing it - you can use the one which works best for you. Here are four equivalent ways of invoking the onos:apps command:
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The final method can be used to run client on a specific ONOS instance (and connect to that instance.)
How can I connect to the ONOS console from a shell/bash prompt?
Make sure karaf's bin/ directory is in your path, then:
client -h 192.168.123.1 # or the address of the ONOS node you wish to connect to
How can I connect to the karaf console using ssh?
ssh -p 8101 karaf@192.168.123.1
In this example, 8101 is the karaf port, and 192.168.123.1 is the IP address of onos1.
How can I connect to the ONOS GUI if ONOS is running in a Mininet host inside a VM?
One way is to use ssh port forwarding, e.g.
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We hope to make it easier and more automatic in the future.
How can I look at the karaf log file for (which usually contains ONOS's log messages) for onos1?
tail -f /tmp/onos1/log
How can I look at the onos-service log file (which usually doesn't contain much of anything unless there are errors starting karaf) for onos1?
tail -f /tmp/onos1/onos.log
Can I ssh into the ONOS cluster?
Not directly with this version of onos.py, since the nodes are not running ssh by default. However, if you have a Mininet source tree, you can attach to it using mininet/util/m:
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mininet-onos> onos1 ifconfig
Can I use the onos-* scripts from tools/test/bin with this environment?
Not currently, but you should not need to use them for the most part.
Troubleshooting
onos.py doesn't work - what should I do?
Here are some things you can try:
- Make sure you are running the latest version of Mininet (see below)
- Look at the log file(s) and make sure no errors are occurring:
more /tmp/onos1/log; more /tmp/onos1/onos.log - Look at the output from running
mnoronos.pyand carefully examine and try to understand any error or exception messages - usually they will tell you what is going wrong - Reset your environment using:
sudo pkill -f karaf.jar; sudo mn -c - Make sure you have built onos:
cd ~/onos; buck build onos - Make sure you can run Mininet:
sudo mn --test pingall
Mininet doesn't work - what should I do?
First, make sure you are running Mininet 2.2.1 or later:
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