Vine Overlay

This tutorial provides instructions on how to take advantage of ViNe to connect VMs deployed through Nimbus on sierra and foxtrot.

ViNe is a user-level virtual networking middleware that establishes wide-area virtual networks supporting symmetric communication among public and private network resources. ViNe is particularly useful when deploying virtual clusters spanning multiple clouds with VMs on private networks.

Prerequisite

This procedure requires familiarity with launching virtual machines with Nimbus—specifically, how to set up and use the Nimbus cloud client and credentials (see s-nimbus).

Deploying a virtual cluster across foxtrot and sierra

Below is a simple example on how to construct a cluster spanning two administrative domains, sierra and foxtrot (we will use a private network on foxtrot). One VM in each site will be used.

“centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz” is a VM image that, when booted, automatically connects VMs to ViNe. Launch one instance on sierra and foxtrot (note that, by default, VMs on foxtrot use a private network).

Before launching on each site, make sure that the centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz image is included in the local image pool. You can verify that the image is available using:

$ ./bin/cloud-client.sh --list --conf conf/sierra.conf
$ ./bin/cloud-client.sh --list --conf conf/foxtrot.conf
...
[Image] ' centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz '           Read only
Modified: Jul 5 2011 @ 14:40   Size: 676457559 bytes (~645 MB)
...

Launch two VMs (one on sierra, and one on foxtrot):

$ ./bin/cloud-client.sh --run --hours 1 --name centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz --conf conf/sierra.conf

Launching workspace.

Workspace Factory Service:
   https://s83r.idp.sdsc.futuregrid.org:8443/wsrf/services/WorkspaceFactory...

Creating workspace "vm-020"... done.


       IP address: 198.202.120.121
         Hostname: vm-27.sdsc.futuregrid.org
       Start time: Fri Jul 15 15:25:36 EDT 2011
    Shutdown time: Fri Jul 15 16:25:36 EDT 2011
 Termination time: Fri Jul 15 16:27:36 EDT 2011

Waiting for updates.


"vm-020" reached target state: Running

Running: 'vm-020'

$ ./bin/cloud-client.sh --run --hours 1 --name centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz --conf conf/foxtrot.conf

Launching workspace.

Workspace Factory Service:
    https://f1r.idp.ufl.futuregrid.org:9443/wsrf/services/WorkspaceFactorySe...

Creating workspace "vm-019"... done.


       IP address: 172.31.10.102
         Hostname: fvm2.nimbus.ufl.futuregrid.intranet
       Start time: Fri Jul 15 15:23:13 EDT 2011
    Shutdown time: Fri Jul 15 16:23:13 EDT 2011
 Termination time: Fri Jul 15 16:25:13 EDT 2011

Waiting for updates.


"vm-019" reached target state: Running

Running: 'vm-019'

ViNe is necessary here because, without it, nodes on sierra have no way to ssh into foxtrot private IPs. In order to enable the communication with nodes on foxtrot, ViNe must be enabled on both foxtrot and sierra VMs. ViNe is enabled through the following command, which is already included in the rc.local file of centos-5.5-x64-vine.gz:

wget -P /tmp -N http://vine.acis.ufl.edu/vine/enablevine.php
. /tmp/enablevine.sh

We now get a virtual cluster that offers full connectivity among all VMs. Log in to the VM on sierra, and verify you can directly access the VM on foxtrot (with a private IP):

$ ssh root@198.202.120.121
Last login: Fri Jul  1 17:39:51 2011 from 172.31.10.34
-bash-3.2#
-bash-3.2# ping -c 3 172.31.10.102
PING 172.31.10.102 (172.31.10.102) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.31.10.102: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=66.6 ms
64 bytes from 172.31.10.102: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=64.4 ms
64 bytes from 172.31.10.102: icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=64.4 ms

--- 172.31.10.102 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 1999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 64.424/65.172/66.661/1.092 ms
-bash-3.2#