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OMF System Prerequisites

This section of the OMF User Guide covers the minimum system requirements for running OMF.

Hardware Prerequisites

The hardware prerequisites provided in this section are generic, and constitute the minimum configuration.

Testbed Nodes

The testbed nodes are ideally small form factor (SFF) or embedded computers, with sufficient CPU performance to manage several concurrent Network Interface Cards(NICs).

The recommended configuration for each node is:

  • CPU Type: x86-compatible CPU
  • CPU Speed: VIA 1000MHz processors. While this is the current recommendation, the AMD Geode LX800 (500MHz) should suffice for a lower cost node. There may be some restrictions on the number of supported interfaces and their maximum bitrate.
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM. Note that the PC Engines range are commonly fitted with 256MB, non-expandable. This solution is to be tested in 1Q/2009. There may be some restrictions on the number of supported interfaces and their maximum bitrate.
  • Remote Power Control: It is desirable to have a method of powering the nodes up and down remotely. Two methods are forseen:
  • A PCI connecting control board, called "CM2", has been designed specifically for the VIA MB770 mainboard. This board is powered up by standby power, and has its own Ethernet NIC to receive power control commands.
  • Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) could potentially be used, and managed by a PoE capable managed switch at a central location. The PoE standard IEEE 802.3-2005 specifies 15.4 Watts output power at 48V nominal, which are significant constraints (both the power and the voltage). This solution is currently being investigated.
  • Ethernet ports: One or two built-in Ethernet ports with at least one supporting PXE network booting. It is advisable to have two ports, so that Ethernet experiments can be run without having to carry experiment management traffic on the interface under test.
  • Mass Storage: Two options have been tested:
  • A 2.5" (laptop size) hard drive, IDE or SATA connecting, of 40GB or more. Recently, the market has moved to SATA @ 80GB minimum, so that is the recommendation.
  • A flash memory device, either Compact Flash, or externally connecting USB flash memory of 2GB minimum. This is quite suitable, but it can increase the startup time for the experiment by about 1-2 minutes. Flash memory is recommended for outdoor use, where the environment can be a problem for mechanical hard drives.
  • Form Factor: The mini-ITX form factor is an industry standard, created by VIA. The boards are 170mm x 170mm. This form factor is well supported by the card vendors, as well as by enclosure vendors. For outdoor use, a smaller form factor is more appropriate, to fit in the well established 'Wrap-2" weather-proof case style (http://www.yawarra.com.au/hw-wrapoutdoor.php).
  • Expansion slots for NICs: The small form factor indicates the use of specific expansion types:
  • mini-PCI is recommended and widely available in mini-ITX form factor: it is well supported for Wi-fi cards, but not for 3G cards

Experiment Controller / Aggregate Manager

  • x86-compatible PC or Apple laptop/desktop (support for the Experiment Controller only)
  • two Ethernet cards
  • there are no minimum requirements for CPU, RAM and HDD space unless it can run the above mentioned linux distributions without problems

Software Prerequisites

Testbed Nodes

The Installation guide refers to a sample baseline image in frisbee format which we use in our testbeds. It is suggested that you start off using this image and then modify it to your needs. It's a voyage Linux (Debian based) x86 installation on a 1.2 GB partition with about 1GB of free space.

The following guidelines apply when you decide not to use our baseline image and build your own from scratch.

The general recommendation is that the nodes run a Debian flavour of Linux, with driver support for mass storage (USB, SATA), interface bus (PCI), and the NICs selected. The operating system is recommended to be based on one of the following:

Some specific points to keep in mind:

  • If the mainboard has a serial interface, a driver for that should be included, to provide a local console/diagnostic port. If there is no serial interface, a USB-serial adaptor could be used.
  • If the mainboard has an onboard Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), support for this should be included in the operating system - but only for use as a serial port replacement. Do not include the Graphical user interface such as Gnome.
  • Audio support is not required.
  • The kernel must be a recent 2.6 series Linux kernel. The 2.4 series is unsuitable as it does not support SATA disks, or the Atheros wi-fi chipset driver, or unionfs/aufs.
  • The Network Time Protocol(NTP) client is recommended to have some time synchronisation between nodes (optional).
  • The iptables tool should be installed on your testbed nodes if you would like to use & control packet filtering from your experiment script (optional).

Experiment Controller / Aggregate Manager

  • Preferably running the latest version of Ubuntu or Debian Linux