1. Explore the Lab Environment

Before diving into Software Defined Networking (SDN) and its components, take some time to explore the classroom environment. Understanding how things are currently configured will help you in your learning process as you move forward in the class.

In this lab, we will explore the currently configured environment to help with the execution of future labs.

Chapter Details
Chapter Goal	Explore and familiarize yourself with the lab environment
Chapter Sections	1.1. Organizational Notes 1.2. Working with Remote Environment 1.3. Users and Passwords 1.4. Navigate with Command-line

1.1. Organizational Notes

Each student will be provided a cloud provisioned environment with the following basic configuration:

• 4GB RAM
• 20GB Storage
• 2 vCPU
• Ubuntu 14.04
• Ports 22, 80, 8181 open for inbound connection

1.2. Working with Remote Environment

This lab contains exercises to be done on Linux command line and web browser.

For steps using the command line, you need an SSH client:

• For Linux and OS X you should already have it installed on your machine
• For Windows, you can download the PuTTY SSH client

For working with files from a command line, you can use any editors or file readers that you are familiar with and are available in default installation. Here are examples:

• Edit - vi, vim, or nano
• View - less, cat, or tail

Refer to the man page of specific command for details on options and usage.

For steps using the dashboard (user interface), the recommended web browser to use is Google Chrome.

Important

If your lab is provisioned on the cloud, you will receive a public IP address. Write down this IP address for use with instructions marked with <slab IP>

1.3. Users and Passwords

In the various sections of this guide you will need to specify the user name and the password to log in. Where applicable, this guide will remind you of which credentials to use. Below is the summary reference table:

User Name	Password	Description
sdn	rocks	Credentials for SSH into lab environment
onos	rocks	Credentials for ONOS dashboard

1.4. Navigate with Command-line

In this section, you will learn how to navigate and explore the remote slab environment using command-line.

Step 1 From your laptop’s shell environment or using PuTTy, connect via SSH protocol to the remote environment provided by your instructor. If you did not receive information on your personal slab environment, please ask your instructor. Log-in using sdn for the username and rocks for the password:

ssh sdn@<slab IP>
# password: rocks

Step 2 At the prompt, type pwd to see what your working directory is. This will give you a sense of where you are working from:

sdn@slab:~$ pwd
/home/sdn

Step 3 At the prompt, type ls to see the list of files and/or directories in your current context. Throughout class, you will be navigating to and from directories as needed:

sdn@slab:~$ ls
Applications  Downloads  loxigen  mininet  oflops
oftest  onos  openflow  pox

There are many directories which contain dependencies for our lab components. The ones we will focus on are mininet and onos.

Mininet is a network emulator that can create virtual hosts, switches, controllers, and links quickly on a single VM. It is useful for development, research, and learning purposes.

ONOS is an open source network operating system that provides the control plane for software defined network.

References

For more information about Mininet, see the official documentation Mininet wiki

For more information about ONOS, see the official documentation ONOS wiki

Great job, you are done with 1. Explore the Lab Environment chapter.

Checkpoint

• Receive a slab environment assignment
• Connect to the environment
• Explore the environment on the command line