perfSONAR-VM Installation Guide
Last updated:
Activity:
Dissemination Level:
Authors:
02-09-2012
SA2 T3
PU
D. Stoykov
Document Revision History
Version
0.1
Date
Description of change
Person
02-09-12
First draft issued
D. Stoykov
Table of Contents
1
Introduction
1
2
Installation
2
2.1
System Requirements
2
2.1.1
Supported platforms
2
2.1.2
Hardware requirements
2
2.2
3
VM installation
2
Guest OS setup
4
3.1
Initial (mandatory) steps
4
3.1.1
Set root password
4
3.1.2
Configure hostname and network settings
4
3.2
Bibliography
Optional setup
5
3.2.1
Restrict SSH access
5
3.2.2
Configure time servers
5
3.2.3
Configure an e-mail alias for the root account
5
3.2.4
Configure SMTP relay servers
6
7
iii
Introduction
1
The perfSONAR-VM is a preconfigured virtual appliance intended to simplify deployment of perfSONAR
measurement points (MPs). It is based on the CentOS 6.3 operating system and contains all the measurement
components of perfSONAR – BWCTL-MP, OWAMP-MP and a HADES MP. BWCTL-MP and OWAMP-MP are
fully functional and ready to receive measurement requests out of the box. The HADES MP has the necessary
packages and dependencies installed; however it still requires the configuration files to be pushed from the
central server before it will operate.
The perfSONAR-VM is delivered in two formats:

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) package, which can be deployed on any hypervisor that supports the
OVF standard.

VMware virtual machine format (a .vmx and a .vmdk file). This allows for faster and more convenient
deployment on VMware products, such as VMware ESX/ESXi, VMware Workstation and VMware
Player.
1
2
Installation
2.1
System Requirements
2.1.1
Supported platforms
The following platforms are supported by the VMware format version:

VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 or later

VMware Workstation 6.5.0 or later

VMware Player 3.0 or later

VMware Server 2.0
The OVF version can be deployed on any virtualization platform that conforms to the standard.
2.1.2
Hardware requirements
The perfSONAR-VM is configured with the following resources:

1 virtual CPU (core)

1 GB RAM (can be lowered in memory-constrained environments)

16 GB disk space provisioned
o
~ 3 GB will be actually occupied on systems that support thin provisioning
VM installation
2.2

For the VMware version, download the perfsonar-vm.vmx and perfsonar-vm.vmdk files into a single
directory.
o
For desktop software (VMware Workstation, VMware Player) open the virtual machine by
double-clicking on the perfsonar-vm.vmx file. Make sure the network adapter is using a bridged
network connection.
o
For ESX/ESXi/vSphere:
2


use the VMware Converter to deploy the virtual machine (select ”VMware workstation
or other VMware virtual machine” as source type).

upload both files to a directory on the datastore, then right-click on the .vmx file,
choose “Add to Inventory” and follow the prompts.
For the OVF version, refer to documentation of your preferred hypervisor for instruction on how to
deploy a virtual machine from the OVF template.
Regardless of the platform, make sure the virtual network interface is bridged to the proper network segment in
case there is more than one available.
3
Guest OS setup
3
After booting the virtual machine, login to the console with the following default credentials:
User: root
Password: perfsonar
Initial (mandatory) steps
3.1
After performing these steps the server is connected to the network and ready to perform measurements.
3.1.1
Set root password
Change the root password by issuing the passwd command. Unless
~]# passwd
Changing password for user root.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
~]#
3.1.2
Configure hostname and network settings
Use the system-config-network interactive tool to configure network settings (hostname, static IP address,
network mask, default gateway, DNS servers).
Alternatively, direct editing of the network configuration files can be used.

/etc/sysconfig/network

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

/etc/resolv.conf
After configuration is finished, restart the network service:
~]# /etc/init.d/network restart
4
3.2
Optional setup
3.2.1
Restrict SSH access
By default SSH access is enabled from all hosts on the network and on the Internet. To increase security it is
recommended to restrict access to only those hosts that will be used to manage the server. To do so edit the
/etc/hosts.allow file, find the line starting with sshd and replace the ALL keyword with the IP addresses of
the hosts should be able to connect via SSH.
sshd: 172.16.0.5 172.16.0.1
3.2.2
Configure time servers
The NTP daemon is enabled by default, but is set up to sync with public servers from the pool.ntp.org project.
In order to get more precise results, which is important for one-way delay measurements, it is recommended to
replace them with ones closer to your location. Ideally that would be stratum 1 time servers within your
institution or NREN.
1. In the file /etc/ntp.conf, comment the existing server definition lines and add new ones in
accordance with the recommendations above.
#server 0.centos.pool.ntp.org
#server 1.centos.pool.ntp.org
#server 2.centos.pool.ntp.org
server ntp.example.org
server ntp2.example.org
2. Restart the NTP daemon.
~]# service ntpd restart
3. Verify time synchronization is working correctly by checking logging output:
~]# tail -f /var/log/messages
After some time you should see a line similar to this:
Aug 26 07:02:34 mx1 ntpd[2118]: synchronized to 91.210.88.73, stratum 1
3.2.3
Configure an e-mail alias for the root account
By default the root account receives mail from the system with regularly generated reports or upon certain
unexpected critical events. Therefore it is recommended to redirect all e-mail destined to the root account to
another address, that will be regularly checked by the person or team responsible for the server.
5
To do so edit the file /etc/aliases and add a line similar to this:
root:
support@example.com
Then update the aliases database by running:
~]# newaliases
3.2.4
Configure SMTP relay servers
While a networked host may be able to deliver outgoing mail by itself, it is recommended and often required to
configure a mail relay server (smart host). To do so edit the file /etc/postfix/main.cf and add a line similar to this:
relayhost = [smtp.example.com]
Then reload the postfix mail transfer agent (MTA) configuration:
~]# service postfix reload
6
Bibliography
1.
Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines. http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/Timekeeping-In-VirtualMachines.pdf .
2010. VMware Inc.
2.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide.
http://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/ . 2012. Red Hat, Inc.
3.
BWCTL MP Installation Guide. https://forge.geant.net/forge/display/perfsonar/Documentation .2012. A. Guerrero,
Sz. Trocha, R. Karch
4.
OWAMP MP Installation Guide. https://forge.geant.net/forge/display/perfsonar/Documentation .2012. H. Calim, Sz.
Trocha, R. Karch
5.
7