KNet

KNet is a Virtual Network Tobology builder. Some of the places, it can be used as,

1. SDN Test Lab.
2. Networking Lab
3. Security Test Environment
4. Test Environment for Containarized Applications

KNet builds the Virtual Network Topology with Switches, Hosts, Routers, and Servers. KNet uses Dockers for building the Nodes, openvswitch for switches.

KNet support QoS parameter configuration for the Links, such as bandwidth, latency, jitter and packetloss.

KNet supports the CLI and Web Interface.

Documents

1. Detailed Document is available in readthedocs

2. Youtube videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmWmbAsiimI&list=PLSO7MDepKLNCrHGrRcAyUWWUEFCOrjC4B

Support / Mailing List

User can register in the below mailing list, and raise queries.

www.freelists.org/list/knet

Example Topologies

Getting Started

Currently KNet is compatible with Python 2.7 only.

KNet can be installed on any Linux distributions. But we have tested only ** 16.04.**

Minimum hardware configuration required is 4GB RAM, 2 Core processors. Higher configuration gives better result.

Prerequisites

The following script installs the prerequisites in Ubuntu 16.04 system.

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knetsolutions/KNet/master/install.sh | bash

Installing

Install Knet as below,

pip install knet

This installs the knet-cli executable script. Just run knet-cli command to get in to CLI.

How to Run CLI

Execute the below command to get in to KNet CLI

knet-cli

CLI Commands

CLI supports the following commands

Available Commands 
****************************************************
Exit -------Exit
Version -------Version
TcpTest -------TcpTest
TcpTest_Detach -------TcpTest
Exec -------Execute commands in the node
UdpTest -------UdpTest
UdpTest_Detach -------UdpTest
Cleanup -------Cleanup
CreateTopology -------Create Topology in SDN Test Bed
DeleteTopology -------Delete the Topology in SDN Test Bed
GetTopology -------Get the Topology objects in Detail
DeleteNode -------Delete the Node in the Topology
DeleteSwitch -------Delete the Switch in the Topology
AdminDownLink -------Admin down the Link
AdminUpLink -------Admin up the Link
PingAll -------Ping All nodes with each other
Ping -------Ping the soruce node to destination node
****************************************************

To get the detailed help for a command

Help CreateTopology

Few Things to know about KNet.

Topology

Topology consists of Hosts, Servers, Routers, Switches, Links, QoS, . Hosts, Servers, Routers are build as Docker Containers. Switches are openvswitch switches.

Topology input file

User should write Topology in YAML file. This Topology file will be input to the KNet for Topology Creation.

Example Topology files(linear,ring,mesh,parial mesh, tree) are available in https://github.com/knetsolutions/knet-example-topologies repository.

Hosts

Host is built as Docker Containers. Alpine Linux image is used as base Image. Iperf, tcpdump, ping, traceroute, curl tools are preinstalled.

Server

Server is built as Docker Containers. Alpine Linux image is used as base Image. Apache web server is preinstalled.

Router

Router is built as Docker Containers. Alpine Linux image is used as base Image. bird routing package is preinstalled.

Switch

Openvswitch is used for building switches. openvswitch kernel data module is used.

UI - Web Interface

KNet UI is optional component. It is used for Viewing the Topology. This Web Interface displayes Topology in Graphical representation and reflects the topology changes.

KNet UI repo is available in https://github.com/knetsolutions/knet-ui

UI Installation

git clone https://github.com/knetsolutions/knet-ui
cd knet-ui
python ui/webserver.py

UI can be accessible in http://localhost:5000/index.html

Testing

Start the SDN Controller

ryu-manager --verbose apps/simple_switch_13.py

Start the Knet CLI

knet-cli

Create a Topology Note : Topology example files available in https://github.com/knetsolutions/knet-example-topologies In the KNet cli prompt, use "CreateTopology" command to creates a topology.

Example:

KNet-cli#CreateTopology /home/ubuntu/knet-example-topologies/1.0/topo0.yaml
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
| Status  |     Name      |                  Links                   |  Switches   |    Controller    |     Nodes      |
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
| Created | Simple Star T | [u'a1->switch1', u'a2->switch1', u'a3->s | ['switch1'] | tcp:0.0.0.0:6633 | ['a1', 'a2', ' |
|         |   opology 1   |         witch1', u'a4->switch1']         |             |                  |   a3', 'a4']   |
+---------+---------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------+
KNet-cli#

Start the KNet UI

cd knet-ui
python ui/webserver.py

Open the Browser with below URL to see the topology diagram

http://localhost:5000/index.html

Now you can check the Topology Diagram in the UI http://localhost:5000/index.html.

Make sure, you delete the Topology "DeleteTopology" before you exit the shell.

KNet-cli#DeleteTopology
****--------- Topology Deleted---------****
KNet-cli#Exit
(knet) ubuntu@ubuntu:~/KNet$

Built With

• Dockers - The Docker Containers
• Openvswitch - Open vSwitch is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch
• Next UI Toolkit - NeXt UI is a Javascript/CSS framework for rendering Network Topology

Contributing

Todo.

Versioning

For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.

Authors

KNet Solutions

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License - see the LICENSE.md file for details