This page is a repository for items listed in the What's New Web page.

Archived March 27, 2009

• New RLIs (2008):
  • The RLIs for the NSPs are different than the ones for the NPRs.
  • The current NSP RLI jar file is here (Feb 5, 2008). All older jar files are invalid. You should first read the new Getting Started page.
    Note: It is important that you save your configuration/experiment files before switching to a new version of the RLI because the formats may be different.
  • There is no public RLI jar file for the NPRs at this time, but look for one sometime in August 2008.
• Linux 2.6 and Other End Host OSes (Winter 2007) We have upgraded end hosts to Linux 2.6.21, Fedora Core 7.
• TCP Reno (Winter 2007) The default TCP version is now TCP Reno (without SACK). A user will be able to change to BIC at a future date.
• tcpdump (Winter 2007) Users can run the tcpdump command through the tcpdumpW command. See "Tutorial => Summary Information => User Tools => tcpdump".
• Router Upgrade (Spring 2008) Various fixes to the FPX's were made. These include:
  • Exact Match filters and Route Table entries now have proper statistics
  • General Match filters now have the ability to match on the TCP flags field (URG, ACK, PSH, RST, SYN, FIN)
  • Auxilliary filters now have a sampling option where you can elect to sample 100%, 50%, or 25% of the packets.
• General Resource Description Framework (Spring 2008) Our new resource description framework allowed us to add support for the new Network Processor Routers (NPRs) in only two months in early 2008. We continue to work on parts related to the GENI Project.

Archived June 25, 2008

• Router Upgrade (Early 2007) Various fixes to the FPX's will be made. These include:
  • Proper statistics from Exact Match filters and Route Table entries
  • Add the ability to match on TCP flags field when using General Match filters
  • Add sampling filters to auxiliary filters
  We hope to finish the first two by the end of January 2007.
• Testbed Reorganization (Summer 2006) The ONL testbed was reorganized:
  • All of the end host OSes were upgraded from Linux 2.4 to Linux 2.6.9. We will likely upgrade again very soon to Linux 2.6.13. The main difference is that TCP has a different congestion control algorithm.
  • All plugins can now be cross compiled from the user's login host onlusr instead of remote compiling on a NetBSD host. All instances of Makefile in ~onl/stdPlugins/ have been up modified to account for this change. You will need to make two changes in every one of your plugin directories:
    • Replace all copies of stdinc.h with the new one in ~onl/stdPlugins/template/stdinc.h.
    • Replace all copies of Makefile with a new one. Copy ~onl/stdPlugins/template/Makefile to the plugin directory, and replace "<TEMPLATE>" with the plugin name (e.g., KMOD=COUNTER instead of KMOD=<TEMPLATE>).
    You can still make the object module combined.o by just enterring make. Also, you can now enter make debug to enable the MSRDEBUG macros instead of modifying the header file. There may be some additional minor modifications to the Makefile in the weeks ahead.
  • A firewall was installed. Traffic into the testbed is limited to a small number of services, and ALL traffic originating from within the testbed is DROPPED at the firewall. This means that you can push (pull) data into (from) the testbed from (to) your remote client, but you can not initiate connections from within the testbed to the outside.
  • The electronic patch panel is now implemented as a set of VLANs using gigabit ethernet switches instead of an ATM switch.
  The RLI still looks the same, but it will require getting a new jar file and a small change to the SSH tunnel. See the Getting Started page to get the new RLI and make changes to your SSH tunnel as described in RLI SSH Tunneling.
• General Resource Reservation System (Fall 2006, Spring 2007) We have added the framework to our resource reservation system for handling arbitrary hardware resources. We continue to work on parts related to the GENI Project.
• Linux 2.6 and Other End Host OSes (Winter 2006) We have upgraded end hosts to Linux 2.6.9. It is likely that we will upgrade to Linux 2.6.13 very soon. During the Fall, we will be looking into using Xen on our end hosts to support multiple OSes.
• TCP Parameters (Mar 15, 2006):
  The page Tutorial => Summary Information => ONL Linux 2.4 TCP has been added. It describes the TCP parameters and how to modify some of their values.
• Beta RLI (Mar 9, 2006):
  The current RLI is here . But there is a beta version which can be obtained from the Web link betaRLI.jar or by logging into any ONL host and copying it from ~onl/export/betaRLI.jar. If you are interested in using it, you should first read Tutorial => Summary Information => betaRLI. Note: It is important that you save your configuration/experiment files before switching to this version of the RLI because the formats are different.
• Java (Mar 9, 2006):
  You can now compile a java program on onl03 and can run java on the endhosts. Note that you cannot compile java on the ONL endhosts. JDK 5.0 has been installed on onl03, and JRE 5.0 has been installed on all of the endhosts. These have only been tested in a limited manner ("Hello World" program on a single host). Send email to testbed-ops@arl.wustl.edu if you encounter problems.
• SACK ON/OFF (Mar 9, 2006; Revised Mar 14):
  You can now turn SACK ON/OFF through the two scripts located in /usr/local/bin/net/ AFTER your experiment has committed. (NOTICE that the location is in the net subdirectory.) By default, SACK is turned ON after an endhost has been rebooted. Here are the usage examples:

  	sudo /usr/local/bin/net/sack-off
  	sudo /usr/local/bin/net/sack-on
  

  So, if you want to turn off SACK on $n1p2, you need to SSH to $n1p2 first, and then run the "sudo /usr/local/bin/net/sack-off" command. If you want to do this everywhere, you will likely want to setup password-free SSH using an agent, and then write a script to change the SACK setting everywhere. Send email to testbed-ops@arl.wustl.edu if you encounter problems.
• Other TCP Parameters (Mar 14, 2006):
  Below are five other scripts that are sometimes useful when configuring TCP. All scripts can be executed through the sudo facility.
  • /usr/local/bin/net/timestamps-on
    This turns ON the timestamp option (RFC 1323). By default, the timestamp option is ON after a reboot.
  • /usr/local/bin/net/timestamps-off
    This turns OFF the timestamp option (RFC 1323).
  • /usr/local/bin/net/tcp-route-flush
    This needs to be called before EACH new TCP connection to have any effect within a single experimental session. It prevents Linux 2.4 from using its cached values for ssthresh, and RTO estimator variables from the previous connection.
  • /usr/local/bin/net/net-max-backlog
    This sets the maximum number of packets that can be queued at the receiver. The default is 300 packts, but calling this script sets it to 3,000 packets. This is typically useful when using long fat pipes that have delays in the hundreds of milliseconds.
  • /usr/local/bin/net/ifconfig-txqueuelen
    This sets the maximum number of packets that can be queued at the sender. The default is 100 packts, but calling this script with no arguments sets it to 1,000 packets. This is typically useful when using long fat pipes that have delays in the hundreds of milliseconds. The script can also be called with one argument (the number of packet buffers) that is chosen from 100, 200, ... , 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, ... , 10000.
• External Network Interface Environment Variables (Jan 19, 2006):
  External network interfaces (e.g., onl21) can now be referenced through environment variables. For example, a user can use $n1p2 to refer to the control network interface on host n1p2 which actually refers to the corresponding network interface to the testbed network. This feature means that scripts can be made immune to actual hardware allocations, and the user has an easier means of referring to the external network interface (the alternative is to select the host icon to display the actual external network name). See Tutorial => The Remote Laboratory Interface => RLI Basics.
• Beta mode distributed queueing (Aug 15, 2005): We have implemented a form of distributed queueing. Normally, it is turned OFF, but if you left double click the middle of an NSP icon, the dialogue box will allow you to turn it on.
• Security (Jun 10, 2005): In order to improve overall security on the ONL we have closed all SSH access to ONL hosts, except from onl03. So, to access a machine onlXX you will first have to go to onl03, then to onlXX.
• Security (Jun 13, 2005): In our on-going efforts to improve security, we have closed SSH access to ONL hosts to all users except those who have a current experiment involving that host. For instance, user 'joe' can't access the host onl42 unless onl42 is part of a currently running experiment of joe's. Note that this is still being tested, and may or may not be permanent.
• Priviledged Tools (Jun 20, 2005): The sudo facility allows ordinary users to run priviledged commands (e.g., tcpdump, httpd-start). The password time-out period is now 8 hours. The typical usage is to enter your password in response to 'sudo -v' before you run an sudo command. Then any subsequent sudo commands will not prompt you for another password for 8 hours or your experiment is terminated. However, if you call sudo from within a script, you will be asked for a password every time it is called from within a script. See sudo(1) and sudoers(5).