Ixia-c three back-to-back pairs setup with Docker Compose

Overview

This lab is an extension of Ixia-c back-to-back traffic engine setup. Community Edition of Ixia-c supports up to 4 traffic engine ports. If the number of ports you need exceeds four, a commercial subscription to Ixia-c should be used. In this example, the testbed has 3 pairs of Ixia-c ports, and thus requires a valid license to work.

Diagram

Prerequisites

Linux host or VM with sudo permissions and Docker support
Docker

Install components

Install docker-compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Install otgen

bash -c "$(curl -sL https://get.otgcdn.net/otgen)" -- -v 0.6.2

Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH variable (by default this is not the case on CentOS 7)

cmd=docker-compose
dir=/usr/local/bin
if ! command -v ${cmd} &> /dev/null && [ -x ${dir}/${cmd} ]; then
  echo "${cmd} exists in ${dir} but not in the PATH, updating PATH to:"
  PATH="/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"
  echo $PATH
fi

Clone this repository

git clone --recursive https://github.com/open-traffic-generator/otg-examples.git

Deploy lab

Create 3 veth pairs

sudo ip link add name veth0 type veth peer name veth1
sudo ip link set dev veth0 up
sudo ip link set dev veth1 up
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth0.disable_ipv6=1
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth1.disable_ipv6=1

sudo ip link add name veth2 type veth peer name veth3
sudo ip link set dev veth2 up
sudo ip link set dev veth3 up
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth2.disable_ipv6=1
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth3.disable_ipv6=1

sudo ip link add name veth4 type veth peer name veth5
sudo ip link set dev veth4 up
sudo ip link set dev veth5 up
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth4.disable_ipv6=1
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.veth5.disable_ipv6=1

Launch the deployment and adjust MTUs on the veth pair

cd otg-examples/docker-compose/b2b-3pair
sudo -E docker-compose up -d
sudo ip link set veth0 mtu 9500
sudo ip link set veth1 mtu 9500
sudo ip link set veth2 mtu 9500
sudo ip link set veth3 mtu 9500
sudo ip link set veth4 mtu 9500
sudo ip link set veth5 mtu 9500

Make sure you have all seven containers (six Ixia-c Traffic Engine + one KENG Controller) running:

sudo docker ps

The result should look like this

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                                           COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS     NAMES
c28385dc0225   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_1_1
5c46871913bb   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_4_1
c22280a15ae5   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/keng-controller:0.1.0-3          "./bin/controller --…"   3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_controller_1
0297de3fbe49   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_2_1
bc533d7cc650   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_3_1
412896aca3a8   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_5_1
1f82918b1f13   ghcr.io/open-traffic-generator/ixia-c-traffic-engine:1.6.0.85   "./entrypoint.sh"        3 seconds ago   Up 2 seconds             b2b-3pair_traffic_engine_6_1

Run OTG traffic flows

Start with running traffic flows only between two pairs of ports using otg.2pairs.yml configuration. This is within the limits of Community Edition and should work:
```
otgen run -k -f otg.2pairs.yml -m flow | otgen transform -m flow | otgen display -m table
```
Now run traffic flows defined in otg.3pairs.yml, which has 6 ports in total. Without a license, the following error message will be returned: ERRO[0000] the configuration has 6 port(s) of type Ixia-c, maximum 4 ports of type Ixia-c is supported in community edition
```
otgen run -k -f otg.3pairs.yml | otgen transform -m flow | otgen display -m table
```

Destroy the lab

To destroy the lab, including veth pair, use:

sudo docker-compose down
sudo ip link del name veth0 type veth peer name veth1
sudo ip link del name veth2 type veth peer name veth3
sudo ip link del name veth4 type veth peer name veth5