On 10/2/07, Axel Neumann axel@open-mesh.net wrote:
Hello,
We have used OpenVZ (linux-2.6.18-openvz-028.035.1) for emulating batman and olsr. Further background information about the setup is given here: http://open-mesh.net/batman/doc/evaluation/setup-details and about the general evaluation methodology here: http://open-mesh.net/batman/doc/evaluation
Not yet documented but: Recently also managed to run openVZ (with many virtuaized debian systems) inside of qemu-kvm. Used this for proof of concept, testing and performance evaluation.
This has the advantage of:
- having all relevant data in a qemu image.
- The image could be easily transferred to another machine (actually Iam
waiting to move it to texas).
- could be easily backupped
- Any misconfiguration inside qemu does never harm your real system !!
The following worked:
On 2GHz core duo notebook (qemu using only one processor and 800MB Ram)
- More than 100 virtual instances idling in parrallel
- About 60 virtual instances running olsr or batman in parrallel
use brctl, ebtables, TC, and NETEM for configuring virtual networks with
- dedicated links
- dedicated packetloss, delay for unicast and broadcast traffic
Having all the tools like wireshark, tcpdump, ... for network monitoring,.
Being able to monitor all virtualized VZ processes from the qemu system.
If somebody is interested in using or even helping to document and extend that system, would be really appreciated.
I have tested the OpenVZ livecd with a small window manager (consumes 128MB in RAM), and with 10 instances running batman or olsr, it works fine with 512MB of RAM, but my problem is that the livecd does not supports ebtables it seems, which I need to configure for avoiding bridge shortcuts between the nodes.
Does anybody has experience with ebtables? Does it needs a kernel patch? Or it is just user-space?
OpenVZ looks very promising for network simulators, it consumes very few memory, especially if you use a mounted HD to store the filesystem.
-- Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion at ffii.org> FFII Brussels - +32-484-566109 - +32-2-4148403