ciena/mininet repository overview

⁠Mininet Docker Image

This contains the files to construct a mininet docker image that can execute mininet simulated networks.

⁠Privileged Mode

It is important to run this container in Privileged mode (--privileged) so that if can manipulate the network interface properties and devices. I suspect this can also be achieved with the capabilities (--cap-add) features of docker, but this has not been investigated.

⁠Overview

This container by default executes the the mininet (mn) executable with the options to the docker run command passed as parameters to the mininet processes.

⁠Process Execution

If the first option to the docker run command begins with a /, it is assumed that this references a path to an executable and that executable is invoked with any other run time options to the docker container.

⁠URL Download and Execute

If the first option to the docker run command is a URL, hueristically determined, the file the URL references is downloaded and executed with any other run time options to the docker container. It is assumed that the URL references a python mininet script, but this is not verified.

⁠Security Concerns

Because this container can be use to download and run any executable from a given URL there are some security concerns as the downloaded executalbe could be malicious. As such please use caution when specifying a URL to download and run.

⁠Docker Compose

A sample docker-compose entry for this container

fabric:
  image: ciena/mininet
  container_name: fabric
  privileged: true
  stdin_open: true
  tty: true
  environment:
    MININET_SCRIPT: http://networks.company.com/fabric.py
    MININET_SCRIPT_OPTIONS: -switch_cnt 5
  links:
    - controller_1:primary_controller
    - controller_2:backup_controller1
    - controller_3:backup_controller2
  labels:
    org.onlabs.cord.name: fabric
    org.onlabs.cord.type: fabric