Mininet FAQ

Please add helpful, Frequently Asked Questions and high-quality answers below.

How can I get started with Mininet?

The best way to get started with Mininet is to install our ready-to-run virtual machine image from the MininetGettingStarted page, and then go through the MininetWalkthrough.

How do I figure out the command-line options for the mn command?

mn --help

I get an error every time I try to edit a wiki page - help!

Unfortunately you can't currently edit the wiki in https mode. Change the URL of the page from https to http and try again.

I am going to ignore your good advice and attempt to install Mininet from scratch - where can I find out how to do this?

We don't recommend or support this for the alpha release, so you're on your own. Even if you want to do a manual install eventually, you should really try the VM install first and the walkthrough to get familiar with the system.

If you absolutely have to do a manual install, some potentially helpful information may be found in the following places:

• MininetVMCreationNotes
• mininet/INSTALL
• mininet/util/install.sh

How do I use Mininet's Python API?

We provide a few examples of using the Python API in the mininet/examples directory.

We also provide Python DocStrings for every Mininet class and method, and you can view them using from within Python

>>> import mininet.node
>>> help(mininet.node.Node)

or by calling Python from within the Mininet CLI:

mininet> py help(h2)

In each case, pressing q should quit the pager.

Which versions of OpenFlow does Mininet support?

Mininet officially supports OpenFlow 1.0, and the Mininet VM image includes OpenFlow 1.0-compatible versions of the OpenFlow reference implementation as well as Open vSwitch. It is also possible to get Mininet to run with OpenFlow 0.8.9 with a few minor changes.

What OpenFlow switch implementations does Mininet support?

Mininet currently includes support for the user space reference implementations, as well as the Open vSwitch kernel implementation. All three are included in the VM image. If you are using OpenFlow? 0.8.9 and the kernel space reference implementation, that should also work (--switch kernel.)

The command line options are --switch user and --switch ovsk for the user reference and Open vSwitch kernel switches, respectively.