PlanetLab Scripts

These scripts make it easy to deploy and run a distributed Emerald program on many PlanetLab nodes. Here is what you have to do to start using them:

1. Personalise scripts

Edit the file config.sh and change the variable wd to a personal working dir under /tmp. The directory you specify here will be used to put all needed data in on the PlanetLab nodes. For example:

wd=/tmp/yourname

2. Add Main Program

Copy or link the program you want to run on the PlanetLab nodes to node-data/main.x. For example:

cd node-data
ln -s /home/user/uni/distobj/kilroy.x main.x

3. Specify nodes

Edit the file nodes.txt and insert the nodes, on which your program is to be executed. Note the following:

• The first node in the file will be the one, on which the Emerald program is launched. It will be started, when all other nodes are online.
• The second node in the file will be the first one to start up. All other nodes will connect to it.

4. Use the scripts

install.sh: Prepare all the nodes

Now you are ready to install your program on the nodes. Note that the user you use to run the script needs to have already SSH access to the nodes specified in nodes.txt.

./install.sh

start.sh: Launch Emerald on all the nodes

This will start all nodes and run the Emerald program on the last one to start up (the first one in nodes.txt). Note that the emerald VMs will continue running after the program finished. But if you run start.sh for the next time, the previously started VMs will be killed.

For subsequent starts you can use the -f switch. It will only restart the main node.

./start.sh [OPTIONS]
  -f
      Fast Start. Only starts the main node and connects to the reference node, which is still running from the previous launch.

output.sh: Watch the output of a specific node

To watch the output, a specific node is producing, you can watch the file output.log in your working directory. There is a script, that takes the address of a node and opens the program less there, which allows watching the outputs of that file:

./output.sh address.of.node.tdl

update.sh: Update Emerald program on all the nodes

If you have made changes to your program, you have to update the file on the nodes.

./update.sh [OPTIONS]
  -f
      Fast Start. Only updates the main node.

stop.sh: Stop Emerald on all the nodes

If you want to stop all running Emerald VMs, you can do so by executing

./stop.sh

clean.sh: Clean all data on all the nodes

You can delete all data on all nodes you were using by executing

./clean.sh

test-nodes.sh: Test nodes for accessability

If you have a text file which contains the addresses of nodes, on in each line, you can test, to which of them you have access, by executing:

./test-nodes.sh all-known-nodes.txt

This will print the address of a node, if it is accessible via SSH. You can for example use it, to generate a new nodes.txt:

./test-nodes.sh all-known-nodes.txt > nodes.txt