Tagged: openflow

NZ eResearch Symposium 2012 – nearly here

Less than one week until the biggest eResearch Symposium yet!

There is a diverse and engaged range of delegates spanning discipline, seniority and geographic origin. It will be a fascinating week in Wellington.

 

If you are attending the Symposium, come to our workshop to see live large file transfer demonstrations and learn what needs to be done to achieve them. The workshop is on 11-12:15pm Friday 6th July. You can also visit us at our booth during the event.

Register to take part in this exciting event. A full programme is available at www.eresearch.org.nz/nzers2012-programme.

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Software Defined Networking – The Openflow Bootcamp

Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and REANNZ recognised the growing national interest in Openflow and worked together to provide an opportunity to gain practical hands on Openflow experience in the form of a Bootcamp.

Attendance

The Openflow Bootcamp was the direct result of an earlier Openflow Workshop where attendees indicated they wanted to participate in a “doing” exercise.  Twenty seven people attended VUW on the 7 May and twenty three got their hands dirty, one of the workshop attendees even came over from Australia.

 

What they did

Josh Bailey of Google led the day and provided an overview of Openflow before taking attendees to the computer lab. The attendees worked in small groups to do everything from configure switches from scratch, to compile, install, troubleshoot and run RouteFlow, to configure Quagga from woe to go. The groups were able to make five openflow controlled switches (one Pronto and four HPs) come up in a full mesh. The first person to successfully bring up a RouteFlow controlled switch was VUW’s Mark Davies.

 

REANNZ’s Sam Russell gave a talk on pyswitch and explained in great detail the problems with the example code (broken for more than 2 switches by default, etc) and how he fixed it. His talk was at the end of the day and it was very clear the audience were very familiar with the topic and followed Sam’s explanation easily.

 

Contributors

Thank you very much to HP for providing the switches (which basically worked with RouteFlow out of the box) and to VUW’s Radek and Mark for setting up the lab.  Finally, thank you to those who attended on the day and made the bootcamp such a success. There is now even more interest in Openflow here in NZ………

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The Bootcamp is On!

What is the Bootcamp?

Scheduled for May 7, the Bootcamp is a hands-on, practical workshop intended to give those who are interested in implementing Openflow practical experience with that implementation process.

We’re helping to organise the Bootcamp because we believe software defined networking (SDN) gives our members further options in network design while reducing costs.

Openflow is an example of (SDN), and we’re very happy to play an active role in giving our members the tools and understanding they need to implement it (if they wish) within their own networks.

Remarkable level of interest

The level of interest for the Bootcamp (and for the Openflow workshop held back in February) has been impressively strong. We now have more than thirty people who have confirmed their interest in attending—and there are simply no more seats available.

Assuming that everyone is able to make it on the day, it should lead to a very busy session—and, hopefully, it should also give rise to a strong and active community of people interested in this technology.

The agenda is set

If you’re one of those people who are attending the session, the agenda should have already turned up in your inbox. If you have any questions, contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz).

Other than that, please ensure your tray is in the upright position, buckle yourselves in and get ready: the Bootcamp is on!

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The Bootcamp Agenda

The Bootcamp is a hands-on, practical workshop intended to give those who are interested in implementing Openflow practical experience with that implementation process—and it’s free to attend.

Scheduled for Monday 7 May and to be run by Josh Bailey of Google, the Bootcamp had attracted considerable interest. So far, more than 20 people—representing a wide range of organisations—have indicated their intention to attend.

On the day

So what can you expect on the day? In Josh’s words:

“We will build (and troubleshoot) an OpenFlow-based L3 router. Depending on time and how well the contributed hardware works, I’d like to get us to where we can build several and have them in a network speaking BGP to each other.”

The details will depend on what Bootcamp attendees are able to bring in on the day.

Josh continues, “Ideally, each person will have an OpenFlow switch and a machine running Ubuntu. If we have just one Ubuntu machine, I’ll work through bringing up one L3 router, then swap in the other hardware to demonstrate equivalency. If we have more than one Ubuntu machine, even if the number is less than the number of switches, then we can build an entire OpenFlow demonstration network.”

More information

The specific venue isn’t yet confirmed, but it will be somewhere within the boundaries of Victoria University. We’ll contact attendees closer to the date with the details.

Contact the engagement team (engagement@reannz.co.nz) to ask any questions you might have.

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New Zealand’s first operational Openflow enabled switch

Since 8 March 2012, REANNZ has been operating a switch with Openflow enabled.

Configured by our own Sam Russell, with Josh Bailey from Google’s help, we believe it’s the first such switch in the country. (Are we wrong? Let us know! We’d love to hear about others.)

What Openflow is

Openflow is technology that promises to give network operators more control of their infrastructure and reduce overall capital, complexity and operational costs.

For example, it could be used to allow data intensive research traffic to safely bypass firewalls, to dramatically increase data throughput and reduce costs.

What we did

For those interested in the specifics of what we did, we used a Pronto 3290 switch, supplied by Josh, with a NOX controller, and the technical details of the process we went through can be found on our wiki.

An overview without the really technical stuff

As you may know, Openflow switches can be set up so that the flows are entered manually. As this is the simplest way to set them up, this is how we began.

But then we started to get clever and set up the NOX controller with a pyswitch app. It wasn’t exactly straight-forward. Being an open-source, leading edge technology, it didn’t work right out of the box. We had to modify the pyswitch app, and with this Josh was again a huge help.

Now when the packets come through, they go to the controller, and the controller sets the flow. Just like magic.

History and future

All this has come about because of the Openflow workshop held a few weeks ago at Victoria University (thanks to Professor John Hine for helping to pull it together).

Due to the success of that event, we’re now putting together a more practical session where network engineers can get their hands dirty and write some code with Josh’s advice. Called the Bootcamp, we’re calling for expressions of interest from those who may wish to take part.

More information

For more information on the Bootcamp, check out this previous article, or contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz) to register your interest or to ask any questions you might have.

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Software Define Networking – the Bootcamp

As mentioned in a previous news item, the recent Openflow workshop generated a significant level of interest—so much so that we’re proposing a follow-up, more hands-on event.

The Bootcamp

To be run by Josh Bailey of Google (who spoke at the workshop), the Bootcamp is intended to give those who are interested in implementing Openflow practical experience with that implementation process.

Code will be written. Networks will be defined by software. And Josh will be there to walk you through it.

Are you interested?

If you want to get your hands dirty, have an OpenFlow switch available and want to write code, now is the time to act. Let us know as early as you can. You don’t have to commit as yet; we’re simply looking to get an idea of who may wish to take part so we can start to make plans.

More information

Contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz) to register your interest or to ask any questions you might have.

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Openflow wrap-up

The Openflow Workshop went ahead as scheduled on Tuesday 28 February 2012. It was a packed house, with representatives from a wide variety of organisations and sectors in attendance.

Attendance

As expected, there was a strong showing from the Universities and research organisations, but there was also considerable interest from the commercial sector in the form of Citilink and Hewlett Packard, and government made an appearance as well.

Additionally, several members of the REANNZ team attended, including Chief Executive Steve Cotter who was one of the workshop presenters, Sam Russell (Network Support), Richard Stephen (Deputy Operations Manager), and Desi Ramoo (Member Engagement Specialist), who was instrumental in putting the workshop together.

Desi RamooDesi

“It was very pleasing to see such interest in the workshop,” Desi said. “As well as those who attended in person, there was significant activity online, with people tuning in and out as their schedules (or specific interest) dictated.” Although the absolute numbers of individual online viewers wasn’t tracked, Desi estimates that there were “upwards of twenty” people who tuned in during the day.

Because of the level of interest, Desi is looking into setting up a follow-up event, tentatively called the Bootcamp. We’ll be publishing more on this soon.

Sam

Sam RussellIn part because of the workshop, Sam has become something of an Openflow evangelist. He would like New Zealand to be at the forefront of Openflow, and is more than willing to do what he can to help promote Science DMZ.

Why? Because, in his words, “The workshop has persuaded me that this is where the future of networking is. Openflow gives rise to a much more ideal networking situation. It’s hardware independent, which means that networkers are no longer effectively locked into using one type of switch.

“It also lets you have a centralised config, which means you can avoid the complexities of distributed decision making at the same time as enabling better testing; you can do a software proof that your network changes will work, without resorting to ‘try it and see’.

“All in all, network development ought to be able to progress much faster.”

Richard StephensRichard

Richard agrees with Sam’s perspective, but also highlights the reality that there will be challenges ahead.

“The real effort will be in understanding the full ecosystem and management of interconnected Openflow enabled networks,” he says. “Having a centralised management system is likely to have a significant impact on organisations’ resourcing needs—and on the cost of making any changes. It will be interesting to observe how the established players in the industry adjust their value proposition.”

When asked if this could stifle the development of Openflow and similar technologies, Richard says, “It can’t be stopped. Pandora’s box is open.” But he also adds, “It’s early days yet, and more work needs to be done. Watch this space.”

A final word

Overall, the consensus was that the workshop was a great opportunity not only to learn more about Openflow, but also as an engagement activity. It was a chance for REANNZ to support Josh Bailey (Google) and Victoria University, to show our members that we want to work with them, and to get feedback from them as to what they want.

We look forward to similar opportunities in the future.

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Openflow workshop – reminder

The Openflow Workshop that REANNZ, Victoria University and Google are collaborating to deliver is happening tomorrow (Tuesday 28 February 2012).

As you may be aware, there are no more seats available at the workshop itself, but you can avoid missing out entirely by tuning in to the live streaming.

Details

The workshop will be streamed from 10.00am to 4.00pm, with breaks for lunch and afternoon tea. Details on how to access the video stream can be found in a previous REANNZ news story.

Speakers will include Professor John Hine from Victoria University, Steve Cotter from REANNZ and Josh Bailey from Google.

Those of you wishing to tune in for specific talks can find the full programme here, but please be aware that the times listed are subject to change, depending on the level of interest shown by the workshop attendees.

Last-minute questions

If you have any last minute questions, please contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz)

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Openflow workshop – on the day

As you may be aware, REANNZ, Victoria University and Google are collaborating to deliver a workshop on OpenFlow, which is a method of implementing Software Defined Networking.

The workshop is being presented at Victoria University and being streamed live on 28 February 2012. The programme described below should be thought of as an indication of what will happen on the day, but the presenters may speak for longer or shorter times, depending on the level of interest shown.

Programme

The anticipated timings on the day are:

Time

Speaker

Topic

09:30 to 10:00am

 Morning tea

10:00 to 10:15am

 John Hine, Director of e-Research, Dean of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, Victoria University Initiating OpenFlow research in NZ

10:15 to 10:30am

 Steve Cotter, Chief Executive of REANNZ Science DMZ

10:30 to 12:15pm

 Josh Bailey, Software Engineer, Google OpenFlow: introduction and demo

12:15 to 01:00pm

 Lunch

01:00 to 02:30pm

 Josh Bailey, Software Engineer, Google Building an OpenFlow research network

02:30 to 03:00pm

 Afternoon tea

03:00 to 04:00pm

 Josh Bailey, Software Engineer, Google Identifying OpenFlow projects

Streaming

The workshop will be streamed from 10.00am to 4.00pm on February 28. Details on how to access the video stream can be found in this previous REANNZ news item.

If you have any questions, please contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz)

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Openflow Workshop 28 February 2012 Update

As mentioned in a previous news story, REANNZ, Victoria University and Google are collaborating to deliver a workshop that will draw attention to OpenFlow, which is a method of implementing Software Defined Networking (SDN).

High Demand

The demand for the workshop has been surprisingly high, so much so that there are no seats remaining.

Desi Ramoo, Member Engagement Specialist at REANNZ says, “We’re obviously very pleased with the interest shown. It speaks volumes about the networking community’s drive to be actively engaged in the investigation and implementation of new technologies—and this should lead to increasingly efficient and robust networks in the future.”

For those who haven’t booked, there is still an opportunity to take part. As Desi says, “Due to demand, Victoria University has organised for the OpenFlow workshop to be streamed live.”

Streaming

You can access the video stream in a number of ways, including:

  • via your computer
  • via an H.323 Endpoint, or
  • via a telephone or ISDN unit.

Via desktop

To connect via your computer, we recommend that you install and test the necessary scopia desktop application beforehand.

To install the application, go to http://sds.karen.net.nz/scopia?client and follow the process.

To test that your software and hardware are setup correctly, you can join the 24hr test room at any time by entering the meeting id 6222.

These are the details you need to view the Openflow Workshop:

  • Meeting Subject: Open Flow Workshop
  • Meeting ID: 6902
  • Meeting PIN: 6902

Via an H.323 Endpoint

To connect from an H.323 Endpoint, please dial 130.195.23.14 to connect to the bridge directly, or 130.195.23.21 if you are behind a firewall.

Enter the corresponding number to the left of your meeting name in the navigation menu using Touch Tones (DTMF), or press 0 and enter: 6902 followed by #

Via a telephone or ISDN unit

To connect from a telephone or ISDN unit, please dial: +64 4 499 8283. When prompted for a meeting id, enter: 6902 followed by #

NB: Usual tolls will apply

Workshop details

The workshop will be streamed from 10.00am to 4.00pm on February 28th 2012, with breaks for lunch and afternoon tea.

If you have any questions, please contact Desi Ramoo (desi.ramoo@reannz.co.nz).

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