Software Defined Networks monitoring and visualization system.
Authors: Andreas Schmidt, Philipp S. Tennigkeit, Michael Karl
Website: OpenNetworking @ Saarland University
Institution: Telecommuncations Chair - Saarland University
Version: 2015.8.0
The next few simple steps will guide you through the installation process. Typically this takes about five to ten minutes.
We assume the sources are extracted and reside in the folder <project root>. We recommend putting the sources in a subdirectory of /opt, but this depends on your setup.
The software is regularly tested on a Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Mac OS X 10.10.3, Ubuntu 14.04, Fedora 20, Fedora 21 and Fedora 22. Other operating systems might require different steps than these mentioned here.
It is compatible with most modern browsers (e.g. Chrome >=30, Firefox >=25, Internet Explorer >=11, Opera >=17, Edge).
* git
* openssl
* nodejs 0.10.20 or newer
* npm 1.3.11 or newer
These can be installed via your package manager (Linux, e.g. apt-get) or via an installer (Windows). * At first, Git needs to be installed. On Linux based operating systems you may want use your package manager or compile from source. Using windows based machines, the easiest way is to install git from git-scm.com. * To make use of OpenSSL on Windows tbs-certificates.co.uk provides a guide how to install and configure OpenSSL.
In order to have gulp and bower as command line utilities, you have to enter the following: npm install -g gulp bower
Install Node.js packages, bower packages as well as build the JavaScript sources. This works similar for Windows, Linux-like and Mac systems:
cd <project root>
npm install
bower install
gulp
As this program is using HTTPS for secure communication, you are required to use a certificate. This can be an official, commercial one or a self signed.
Go to your project folder and create a new directory named cert.
Linux
cd <project root>
mkdir cert
cd cert
Windows
cd <project root>
md cert
cd cert
Now, either paste your own certificate into the folder or create a self-signed one using the following steps (remember to have OpenSSL installed):
Linux
openssl genrsa -out key.pem 1024
openssl req -new -x509 -key key.pem -out cert.pem -days 730
Windows
The Path depends on your system architecture and your personal configuration:
C:\OpenSSL-Win64\bin\openssl.exe genrsa -out key.pem 1024
C:\OpenSSL-Win64\bin\openssl.exe req -new -x509 -key key.pem -out cert.pem -days 730
Afterwards enter your organizations details and this should leave you with the files key.pem and cert.pem in <project root>/cert.
Before starting the application, the sdn-conf.json has to be in place. The easiest way is to copy the existing sdn-conf.default.json to sdn-conf.json and adapt the values to the application's needs. Therefore the following parameters can be modified:
appPort: usually set to 443, to allow HTTPS communication on the well-known port. For using the well-known ports such as 443 (https) and 80 (http) you may need to run this application with administration rights (root).credentials: the web interface is secured by a simple name/password check without any sophisticated user management. Therefore one can specify these parameters here. THE DEFAULT VALUES SHOULD BE CHANGED FOR "PRODUCTIVE" SETUPSisHttpRedirectEnabled: this can be set to false, when the normal port 80 should not be used for redirecting to the SSL encrypted instance of the application.isDemoMode: this can be set to true, in order to disable controls for changing connection string and controller type on the configuration page. In this mode, the credentials are shown on the login page for easier access.operatorUrl: specify a URL of the institution that operates the visualization.
Remember that you might need to configure your firewall.
You might also want to change the logo at <project root>/public/images/OperatorLogo.png. It should be a PNG file with 150 x 130 px and consist of two rows. The upper row contains the image in saturated version and the lower in an desaturated version. Ensure that the images are properly aligned, so that the visual effect behaves properly. The link's target can be changed as specified above.
There are two common options for running the application. In either case there will be an application running under localhost:appPort.
Linux
cd <project root>
sudo /usr/bin/nodejs main.js
Windows
cd <project root>
node main.js
Linux
cd <project root>
sudo nohup /usr/bin/nodejs main.js > output.log &
The package includes the file sdn-viz.conf, which is a prepared for copying it into /etc/init/. It requires the npm package forever to be installed globally, which can be done via npm install -g forever.
The only required modification to the file is the directory (<project root>), which you have to specify. The respective line contains a TODO comment. You might also consider to change the logs output.
As soon as the application is running, the connection to the controller has to be configured. This can be done on the website's Configuration page. The minimal setup includes an IP and port for the controller's API endpoint.
It is also recommended to specify a controller name and contact mail address.
The main section (Node Information) is later used to augment individual devices and groups of those with additional information (type, color, URL, location and purpose).
The code for client-side is concatenated and uglified using gulp. The package comes with a compiled version of the latest code (/public/dist.min.js). If you change anything, you have to execute gulp in the <project root>.
In order to have gulp as a command line utility you have to enter the following:
sudo npm install -g gulp
The code on the server side can be changed at any time. As Node.js is requiring subpackages only once, a restart of the application might be necessary.
Please send us feedback via email on any problems you might encounter during installation and operation that are not covered here. The software and documentation are under constant development and improvements are highly appreciated. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask them.
This is most likely due to a running webserver on the current system that binds port 80. This can be fixed by setting the isHttpRedirectEnabled flag to false or by disabling the other service, e.g. apache, which binds port 80.
Remember to run gulp whenever you change frontend code and to restart the nodejs server, whenever the backend code is changed.