KNet

KNet is a Virtual Network Tobology builder, Primarily used as SDN Test Environment.

KNet builds the Virtual Network Topology with Switches, Nodes, Links. KNet uses Dockers for building the Nodes, openvswitch for switches.

KNet support QoS parameter configuration for the Links, such as bandwidth, latency, jitter and packetloss.

KNet supports the CLI and Web Interface.

Detailed Document is available in readthedocs

Getting Started

KNet can be installed on any Linux distributions. But we have tested only Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04.

Minimum hardware configuration required is 4GB RAM, 2 Core processors. Higher configuration gives better result.

Prerequisites

The following script installs the prerequisites in Ubuntu system.

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knetsolutions/KNet/master/install.sh | sh

Installing

KNet is developed in Python 2.7. I suggest to install it in VirtualEnv as below.

Create a Python Virtual environment

export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
cd $HOME
virtualenv knet
. knet/bin/activate

Example output

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cd $HOME
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ virtualenv knet
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python2
New python executable in /home/ubuntu/knet/bin/python2
Also creating executable in /home/ubuntu/knet/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pkg_resources, pip, wheel...done.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ . knet/bin/activate
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Installing KNet

Install the KNet in the virtual environment as below

git clone https://github.com/knetsolutions/KNet
cd KNet
pip install --process-dependency-links .

Example Output:

(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ git clone https://github.com/knetsolutions/KNet
Cloning into 'KNet'...
remote: Counting objects: 231, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (89/89), done.
remote: Total 231 (delta 135), reused 226 (delta 133), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (231/231), 718.91 KiB | 409.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (135/135), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cd KNet/
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~/KNet$ pip install --process-dependency-links .
Processing /home/ubuntu/KNet
Collecting six==1.11.0 (from KNet==1.0)
.....(output omitted)
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~/KNet$

Congrats... Installation Completed.

Few Things to know about KNet.

Topology

Topology consists of Nodes, Switches, Links, QoS, Network Objects. Nodes are build as Docker Containers. Switches are openvswitch switches.

Topology input file

User should write Topology in YAML file. This Topology file will be input to the KNet for Topology Creation.

Example Topology files(linear,ring,mesh,parial mesh, tree) are available in examples folder.

CLI

KNet comes with simple CLI (Command Line Interface). It supports the following commands

Help
CreateTopology
DeleteTopology
GetTopology
DeleteNode
DeleteSwitch
AdminDownLink
AdminUpLink
PingAll
Ping
Exit

To get the detailed help for a command

Help CreateTopology

UI (Web Interface)

KNet comes with Web Interface. Its used for Viewing the Topology. Configuration is NOT supported. This Web Interface displayes Topology in Graphical representation and reflects the topology changes.

Node

Nodes are build as Docker Containers. ubuntu image is used as default Node image. The default management interface is available for this Node. Node is just a another real Ubuntu Machine. User can install any sofware (apache, mysql, traffic generator, etc) and use it.

docker commands can be used to control the nodes.

Switch

Openvswitch is used for building switches. openswitch commands can be used to debug the switches.

Cleanup Script

Cleanup script is included in the repo(cleanup.sh).

Suppose, you created topology and exit the cli without deleted the topology. The Topology footprints (docker containers, switches) exists in the system. So next time , topology creation may fail.

Its best practice before you start the KNet application, runs the cleanup script. It cleans all the docker nodes,openvswitches exists in your system.

Testing

Start the SDN Controller

ryu-manager --verbose apps/simple_switch_13.py

Start the KNet UI

Run in the VirtualEnvironment,

cd $HOME/KNet
python ui/webserver.py >/dev/null 2>&1 &

Open the Browser with below URL to see the topology diagram

http://localhost:5000/index.html

Run in the VirtualEnvironment,

Start the KNet CLI

Start the CLI

cd $HOME/KNet
python python KNet/cli.py

Create a Topology In the KNet cli prompt, use "CreateTopology" command to creates a topology.

Example:

KNet-cli#CreateTopology /home/ubuntu/KNet/examples/topo0.yaml
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
| Status  |     Name      |                  Links                   |  Switches   |    Controller    |     Nodes      |
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
| Created | Simple Star T | [u'a1->switch1', u'a2->switch1', u'a3->s | ['switch1'] | tcp:0.0.0.0:6633 | ['a1', 'a2', ' |
|         |   opology 1   |         witch1', u'a4->switch1']         |             |                  |   a3', 'a4']   |
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
KNet-cli#

Now you can check the Topology Diagram in the UI http://localhost:5000/index.html.

Make sure, you delete the Topology "DeleteTopology" before you exit the shell.

KNet-cli#DeleteTopology
****--------- Topology Deleted---------****
KNet-cli#Exit
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~/KNet$

Built With

Dockers - The Docker Containers
Openvswitch - Open vSwitch is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch
Next UI Toolkit - NeXt UI is a Javascript/CSS framework for rendering Network Topology

Contributing

Todo.

Versioning

For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.

Authors

KNet Solutions

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

lamr14/KNet