This chapter describes how to set up a CORE machine. Note that the easiest
way to install CORE is using a binary
package on Ubuntu or Fedora (deb or rpm) using the distribution's package
manager
to automatically install dependencies, see :ref:`Installing_from_Packages`.
Ubuntu and Fedora Linux are the recommended distributions for running CORE. Ubuntu |UBUNTUVERSION| and Fedora |FEDORAVERSION| ship with kernels with support for namespaces built-in. They support the latest hardware. However,
these distributions are not strictly required. CORE will likely work on other
flavors of Linux, see :ref:`Installing_from_Source`.
The primary dependencies are Tcl/Tk (8.5 or newer) for the GUI, and Python 2.6 or 2.7 for the CORE daemon.
..index:: install locations
..index:: paths
..index:: install paths
CORE files are installed to the following directories. When installing from
source, the :file:`/usr/local` prefix is used in place of :file:`/usr` by
Under Fedora, :file:`/site-packages/` is used instead of :file:`/dist-packages/`
for the Python modules, and :file:`/etc/systemd/system/core-daemon.service`
instead of :file:`/etc/init.d/core-daemon` for the system startup script.
.._Prerequisites:
Prerequisites
=============
..index:: Prerequisites
The Linux or FreeBSD operating system is required. The GUI uses the Tcl/Tk scripting toolkit, and the CORE daemon require Python. Details of the individual software packages required can be found in the installation steps.
.._Required_Hardware:
Required Hardware
-----------------
..index:: Hardware requirements
..index:: System requirements
Any computer capable of running Linux or FreeBSD should be able to run CORE. Since the physical machine will be hosting numerous virtual machines, as a general rule you should select a machine having as much RAM and CPU resources as possible.
A *general recommendation* would be:
* 2.0GHz or better x86 processor, the more processor cores the better
* 2 GB or more of RAM
* about 3 MB of free disk space (plus more for dependency packages such as Tcl/Tk)
* X11 for the GUI, or remote X11 over SSH
The computer can be a laptop, desktop, or rack-mount server. A keyboard, mouse,
and monitor are not required if a network connection is available
for remotely accessing the machine. A 3D accelerated graphics card
is not required.
.._Required_Software:
Required Software
-----------------
CORE requires the Linux or FreeBSD operating systems because it uses virtualization provided by the kernel. It does not run on the Windows or Mac OS X operating systems (unless it is running within a virtual machine guest.) There are two
different virtualization technologies that CORE can currently use:
Linux network namespaces and FreeBSD jails,
see :ref:`How_Does_it_Work?` for virtualization details.
**Linux network namespaces is the recommended platform.** Development is focused here and it supports the latest features. It is the easiest to install because there is no need to patch, install, and run a special Linux kernel.
FreeBSD |BSDVERSION|-RELEASE may offer the best scalability. If your
applications run under FreeBSD and you are comfortable with that platform,
this may be a good choice. Device and application support by BSD
may not be as extensive as Linux.
The CORE GUI requires the X.Org X Window system (X11), or can run over a
remote X11 session. For specific Tcl/Tk, Python, and other libraries required
to run CORE, refer to the :ref:`Installation` section.
..NOTE::
CORE :ref:`Services` determine what runs on each node. You may require
other software packages depending on the services you wish to use.
For example, the `HTTP` service will require the `apache2` package.
.._Installing_from_Packages:
Installing from Packages
========================
..index:: installer
..index:: binary packages
The easiest way to install CORE is using the pre-built packages. The package
managers on Ubuntu or Fedora will
automatically install dependencies for you.
You can obtain the CORE packages from the `CORE downloads <http://downloads.pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil/core/packages/>`_ page.
.._Installing_from_Packages_on_Ubuntu:
Installing from Packages on Ubuntu
----------------------------------
First install the Ubuntu |UBUNTUVERSION| operating system.
* Turn off SELINUX by setting ``SELINUX=disabled`` in the :file:`/etc/sysconfig/selinux` file, and adding ``selinux=0`` to the kernel line in
your :file:`/etc/grub.conf` file; on Fedora 15 and newer, disable sandboxd using ``chkconfig sandbox off``;
you need to reboot in order for this change to take effect
* Turn off firewalls with ``systemctl disable firewalld``, ``systemctl disable iptables.service``, ``systemctl disable ip6tables.service`` (``chkconfig iptables off``, ``chkconfig ip6tables off``) or configure them with permissive rules for CORE virtual networks; you need to reboot after making this change, or flush the firewall using ``iptables -F``, ``ip6tables -F``.
* Start the CORE daemon as root. Fedora uses the ``systemd`` start-up daemon
instead of traditional init scripts. CentOS uses the init script.
::
# for Fedora using systemd:
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start core-daemon.service
# or for CentOS:
/etc/init.d/core-daemon start
* Run the CORE GUI as a normal user:
::
core-gui
After running the ``core-gui`` command, a GUI should appear with a canvas
for drawing topologies. Messages will print out on the console about
connecting to the CORE daemon.
.._Installing_from_Source:
Installing from Source
======================
This option is listed here for developers and advanced users who are comfortable patching and building source code. Please consider using the binary packages instead for a simplified install experience.
.._Installing_from_Source_on_Ubuntu:
Installing from Source on Ubuntu
--------------------------------
To build CORE from source on Ubuntu, first install these development packages.
These packages are not required for normal binary package installs.
..parsed-literal::
sudo apt-get install |APTDEPS| \\
|APTDEPS2| \\
|APTDEPS3|
You can obtain the CORE source from the `CORE source <http://downloads.pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil/core/source/>`_ page. Choose either a stable release version or
the development snapshot available in the `nightly_snapshots` directory.
The ``-j8`` argument to ``make`` will run eight simultaneous jobs, to speed up
builds on multi-core systems.
..parsed-literal::
tar xzf core-|version|.tar.gz
cd core-|version|
./bootstrap.sh
./configure
make -j8
sudo make install
The CORE Manual documentation is built separately from the :file:`doc/`
sub-directory in the source. It requires Sphinx:
..parsed-literal::
sudo apt-get install python-sphinx
cd core-|version|/doc
make html
make latexpdf
.._Installing_from_Source_on_Fedora:
Installing from Source on Fedora
--------------------------------
To build CORE from source on Fedora, install these development packages.
These packages are not required for normal binary package installs.
..parsed-literal::
yum install |YUMDEPS| \\
|YUMDEPS2| \\
|YUMDEPS3|
..NOTE::
For a minimal X11 installation, also try these packages::
yum install xauth xterm urw-fonts
You can obtain the CORE source from the `CORE source <http://downloads.pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil/core/source/>`_ page. Choose either a stable release version or
the development snapshot available in the :file:`nightly_snapshots` directory.
The ``-j8`` argument to ``make`` will run eight simultaneous jobs, to speed up
builds on multi-core systems. Notice the ``configure`` flag to tell the build
system that a systemd service file should be installed under Fedora.
..parsed-literal::
tar xzf core-|version|.tar.gz
cd core-|version|
./bootstrap.sh
./configure --with-startup=systemd
make -j8
sudo make install
Note that the Linux RPM and Debian packages do not use the ``/usr/local``
prefix, and files are instead installed to ``/usr/sbin``, and
``/usr/lib``. This difference is a result of aligning with the directory
structure of Linux packaging systems and FreeBSD ports packaging.
Another note is that the Python distutils in Fedora Linux will install the CORE
Python modules to :file:`/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/core`, instead of
using the :file:`dist-packages` directory.
The CORE Manual documentation is built separately from the :file:`doc/`
sub-directory in the source. It requires Sphinx:
..parsed-literal::
sudo yum install python-sphinx
cd core-|version|/doc
make html
make latexpdf
.._Installing_from_Source_on_CentOS:
Installing from Source on CentOS/EL6
------------------------------------
To build CORE from source on CentOS/EL6, first install the `EPEL <http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL>`_ repo (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) in order
A kernel configuration file named :file:`CORE` can be found within the source tarball: core-|version|/kernel/freebsd8-config-CORE. The config is valid for
FreeBSD 8.x or 9.x kernels.
The contents of this configuration file are shown below; you can edit it to suit your needs.
::
# this is the FreeBSD 9.x kernel configuration file for CORE
include GENERIC
ident CORE
options VIMAGE
nooptions SCTP
options IPSEC
device crypto
options IPFIREWALL
options IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT
The kernel configuration file can be linked or copied to the kernel source directory. Use it to configure and build the kernel:
Change the number 8 above to match the number of CPU cores you have times two.
Note that the ``make install`` step will move your existing kernel to
``/boot/kernel.old`` and removes that directory if it already exists. Reboot to
enable this new patched kernel.
**Building CORE from Source on FreeBSD**
Here are the prerequisite packages from the FreeBSD ports system:
::
pkg_add -r tk85
pkg_add -r libimg
pkg_add -r bash
pkg_add -r libev
pkg_add -r sudo
pkg_add -r python
pkg_add -r autotools
pkg_add -r gmake
Note that if you are installing to a bare FreeBSD system and want to SSH with X11 forwarding to that system, these packages will help:
::
pkg_add -r xauth
pkg_add -r xorg-fonts
The ``sudo`` package needs to be configured so a normal user can run the CORE
GUI using the command ``core-gui`` (opening a shell window on a node uses a
command such as ``sudo vimage n1``.)
On FreeBSD, the CORE source is built using autotools and gmake:
..parsed-literal::
tar xzf core-|version|.tar.gz
cd core-|version|
./bootstrap.sh
./configure
gmake -j8
sudo gmake install
Build and install the ``vimage`` utility for controlling virtual images. The source can be obtained from `FreeBSD SVN <http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base/head/tools/tools/vimage/>`_, or it is included with the CORE source for convenience:
..parsed-literal::
cd core-|version|/kernel/vimage
make
make install
..index:: FreeBSD; kernel modules
..index:: kernel modules
..index:: ng_wlan and ng_pipe
On FreeBSD you should also install the CORE kernel modules for wireless emulation. Perform this step after you have recompiled and installed FreeBSD kernel.
..parsed-literal::
cd core-|version|/kernel/ng_pipe
make
sudo make install
cd ../ng_wlan
make
sudo make install
The :file:`ng_wlan` kernel module allows for the creation of WLAN nodes. This
is a modified :file:`ng_hub` Netgraph module. Instead of packets being copied
to every connected node, the WLAN maintains a hash table of connected node
pairs. Furthermore, link parameters can be specified for node pairs, in
addition to the on/off connectivity. The parameters are tagged to each packet
and sent to the connected :file:`ng_pipe` module. The :file:`ng_pipe` has been
modified to read any tagged parameters and apply them instead of its default
link effects.
The :file:`ng_wlan` also supports linking together multiple WLANs across different machines using the :file:`ng_ksocket` Netgraph node, for distributed emulation.
The Quagga routing suite is recommended for routing,
:ref:`Quagga_Routing_Software` for installation.
.._Quagga_Routing_Software:
Quagga Routing Software
=======================
..index:: Quagga
Virtual networks generally require some form of routing in order to work (e.g.
to automatically populate routing tables for routing packets from one subnet
to another.) CORE builds OSPF routing protocol
configurations by default when the blue router
node type is used. The OSPF protocol is available
from the `Quagga open source routing suite <http://www.quagga.net>`_.
Other routing protocols are available using different
Quagga is not specified as a dependency for the CORE packages because
there are two different Quagga packages that you may use:
*`Quagga <http://www.quagga.net>`_ - the standard version of Quagga, suitable for static wired networks, and usually available via your distribution's package manager.
`OSPF MANET Designated Routers <http://www.nrl.navy.mil/itd/ncs/products/ospf-manet>`_ (MDR) - the Quagga routing suite with a modified version of OSPFv3,
On FreeBSD |BSDVERSION| you can use ``make`` or ``gmake``.
You probably want to compile Quagga from the ports system in
:file:`/usr/ports/net/quagga`.
VCORE
=====
..index:: virtual machines
..index:: VirtualBox
..index:: VMware
CORE is capable of running inside of a virtual machine, using
software such as VirtualBox,
VMware Server or QEMU. However, CORE itself is performing machine
virtualization in order to realize multiple emulated nodes, and running CORE
virtually adds additional contention for the physical resources. **For performance reasons, this is not recommended.** Timing inside of a VM often has
problems. If you do run CORE from within a VM, it is recommended that you view
the GUI with remote X11 over SSH, so the virtual machine does not need to
emulate the video card with the X11 application.
..index:: VCORE
A CORE virtual machine is provided for download, named VCORE.
This is the perhaps the easiest way to get CORE up and running as the machine
is already set up for you. This may be adequate for initially evaluating the
tool but keep in mind the performance limitations of running within VirtualBox
or VMware. To install the virtual machine, you first need to obtain VirtualBox
from http://www.virtualbox.org, or VMware Server or Player from
http://www.vmware.com (this commercial software is distributed for free.)
Once virtualization software has been installed, you can import the virtual
machine appliance using the ``vbox`` file for VirtualBox or the ``vmx`` file for VMware. See the documentation that comes with VCORE for login information.
