Expedient User Tutorial

In this tutorial you will do the following:

1. Create an account and get permission to create a new project (Create a Project).
2. Start a slice with OpenFlow and PlanetLab resources (Create a Slice).

Create a Project

Go to the Expedient site, and click on the Register link. Fill-in your username, email, and password. An email will be sent to you to activate your account. Once activated, log into your account.

The home page has four sections.

• Messages: Here you can look at messages you have received, delete old ones, and send messages to other users.
• Aggregates: This is a list of resource aggregates that are available at Expedient.You can use this section to add and remove resource aggregates from Expedient. Resource aggregates are collections of resources that are made available to Expedient users. You will need permission to add or remove aggregates.
• Projects: This section will list the projects of which you are a member.
• Permission Management: Here you can see a list of pending permission requests that others have made to you.

Users create slices within the context of projects. A project has a set of members with different roles. Roles give users permissions to do various actions in the project such as changing the project’s information, adding users to the project, or creating slices.

Click on the Create button in the Projects section. You will most likely encounter a “Permission Denied” page. You will need to request the permission from someone who can allow you to create a project. Most likely, this would be an administrator. So select a user to make the request to (Permission Owner), add a message that helps the administrator make a decision to allow you to create a project, and click Request.

Once your administrator approves the request, you can go back to the homepage and try to create the project again. Choose a simple descriptive short name, add a description for the project, and click Save.

You will be redirected to the project’s detail page where you can manage the project.

Each project has a set of members. Each member can have multiple roles. Roles are project-specific and they define the set of permissions a member has for the project.

The project page has the following sections:

• Members: Shows list of members and links to add/remove/update members.
• Role Requests: When members try an action they do not have permission to execute, they will be redirected to a page where they can request a role that allows them to execute that action. This lists any roles other members have requested from you.
• Aggregates: This section lists the resource aggregates the project is allowed to use. Slices you create can only use aggregates in this list.
• Slices: List of the slices in the project.
• Roles: List of roles in the project.

Each new project gets two default roles: “researcher” and “owner”. The “researcher” role only allows the user to create and delete slices, while the “owner” role allows a user to do everything.

Add a Member

Let’s start by adding another member to the project. Click on Add Members in the “Members” section. Select another user you want in the project, select researcher role, and click on Add. The delegate checkbox can be used to allow the user to give the roles you give him to others.

Add Aggregates

Now we should add aggregates to the project. Click on Add Aggregates. You will see a list of the aggregates that are available in Expedient. Click the Select button for the ones you would like to use (choose at least one OpenFlow Aggregate and one PlanetLab Aggregate). Some other types of aggregates might require additional steps before an aggregate is added to the project.

Create a Slice

Now let’s create a slice. Click on Create Slice in the “Slices” section. Fill the form and click Save. The page you see is your slice’s detail page.

The Management box on the right allows you to edit basic information about the slice, as well as start and stop the slice.

Add Aggregates

As in the project detail page, you have to add aggregates to the slice in order to be able to reserve resources from that aggregate. Select the PlanetLab and OpenFlow aggregates to add them to the slice.

When you add an OpenFlow Aggregate, you will need to provide the URL of the controller for your slice. All OpenFlow aggregates that you add will use the same information, although it may be requested multiple times. So if you change it for one, you also change it for all.

Click Done.

Add Resources

To add resources to the slice, you will need to use a “User Interface Plugin”. Each such plugin specializes in some subset of resources. Click on Manage Resources to select a plugin to add OpenFlow and PlanetLab resources. Click on Open for the HTML Table UI plugin.

Here you’ll see information about the PlanetLab and OpenFlow resources that are available for the slice. To select a tree from all the resources present, click on Select Tree. When you are done selecting the resources you want in the slice, click Next.

Select FlowSpace

Select the flowspace that you want the controller to receive by specifying it here. Click Save and then Next when done.

Download RSA keys

Expedient generates an RSA key and uses it to create the PlanetLab slice for you. Here you can download the provate key that you can use to login to your PlanetLab nodes. Use the given login username to login to the PlanetLab nodes.

When you are done, click Done to go back to the detail page. You can always come back here later to edit your slice.

Start the Slice

At this point nothing has been created at the actual resource aggregates themselves. To start your slice, click on Start Slice.

Stop the Slice

Click Stop Slice to free the resources associated with your slice at the resource aggregates.