opennetworking/mn-stratum repository overview

⁠Stratum-enabled Mininet

Docker image that can execute a Mininet emulated network using stratum_bmv2 as the default switch.

⁠Obtain image

Alternatively, you can obtain the image from Docker Hub:

docker pull opennetworking/mn-stratum

This image is updated daily and built from the master branch of Stratum.

⁠Run container

To run the container:

docker run --privileged --rm -it opennetworking/mn-stratum [MININET ARGS]

After running this command, you should see the mininet CLI (mininet>).

It is important to run this container in privileged mode (--privileged) so mininet can modify the network interfaces and properties to emulate the desired topology.

The image defines as entry point the mininet executable configured to use stratum_bmv2 as the default switch. Options to the docker run command ([MININET ARGS]) are passed as parameters to the mininet process. For more information on the supported mininet options, please check the official mininet documentation.

For example, to run a linear topology with 3 switches:

docker run --privileged --rm -it opennetworking/mn-stratum --topo linear,3

⁠gRPC server ports

Each switch is bound to a different gRPC port, starting from 50001 and increasing. To connect an external client (e.g. an SDN controller) to the switches, you have to publish the corresponding ports.

For example, when running a topology with 3 switches:

 docker run --privileged --rm -it -p 50001-50003:50001-50003 opennetworking/mn-stratum --topo linear,3

⁠Logs and other temporary files

To allow easier access to logs and other files, we suggest sharing the /tmp directory inside the container on the host system using the docker run -v option, for example:

docker run ... -v /tmp/mn-stratum:/tmp ... opennetworking/mn-stratum ...

By using this option, during the container execution, a number of files related to the execution of stratum_bmv2 will be available under /tmp/mn-stratum in the host system. Files are contained in a directory named after the switch name used in Mininet,e.g. s1, s2, etc.

Example of these files are:

• s1/stratum_bmv2.log: contains the stratum_bmv2 log for switch s1;
• s1/chassis-config.txt: the chassis config file used at switch startup;
• s1/grpc-port.txt: the gRPC port associated to this switch;
• s1/onos-netcfg.json: sample configuration file to connect the switch to the ONOS SDN controller;

⁠Bash alias

A convenient way to quickly start the mn-stratum container is to create an alias in your bash profile file (.bashrc, .bash_aliases, or .bash_profile) . For example:

alias mn-stratum="rm -rf /tmp/mn-stratum && docker run --privileged --rm -it -v /tmp/mn-stratum:/tmp -p50001-50030:50001-50030 --name mn-stratum --hostname mn-stratum opennetworking/mn-stratum"

Then, to run a a simple 1-switch 2-host topology:

$ mn-stratum
*** Creating network
*** Adding controller
*** Adding hosts:
h1 h2
*** Adding switches:
s1
*** Adding links:
(h1, s1) (h2, s1)
*** Configuring hosts
h1 h2
*** Starting controller

*** Starting 1 switches
s1 ....⚡️ stratum_bmv2 @ 50001

*** Starting CLI:
mininet>

Or a linear one with 3 switches and 3 hosts:

$ mn-stratum --topo linear,3
*** Creating network
*** Adding controller
*** Adding hosts:
h1 h2 h3
*** Adding switches:
s1 s2 s3
*** Adding links:
(h1, s1) (h2, s2) (h3, s3) (s2, s1) (s3, s2)
*** Configuring hosts
h1 h2 h3
*** Starting controller

*** Starting 3 switches
s1 .....⚡️ stratum_bmv2 @ 50001
s2 .....⚡️ stratum_bmv2 @ 50002
s3 .....⚡️ stratum_bmv2 @ 50003

*** Starting CLI:
mininet>