Setup the SDN environment

In this section, we provide a step-by-step guide on how to set up an SDN environment for the testbed in two different virtualization options: ESXi hypervisor and virt-manager. Our guide covers several essential steps, includig setting up the host networking, deploying an SDN controller, configuring SDN switches and testing the SDN environment.

VMware ESXi

The ESXi deployment consists on several steps:

  1. Creating a virtual Switch
  2. Create Port Groups for the virtual switch
  3. Create and setup the Gateway VM
  4. Create and setup the Controller VM
  5. Create and setup Openvswitch VM

Create a virtual Switch

There are two ways to create a virtual switch in the VMware ESXi: GUI and CLI. We provided the necessary steps in the following section.

GUI

  1. In the Navigator pane on the left, click on the Networking tab
  2. Click on Virtual Switches tab
  3. To add a new switch, click on the Add standard virtual switch button
  4. Enter a name for the new Switch in the vSwitch Name field.

CLI

  1. Connect to the ESXi server using SSH. Make sure that the ESXi SSH is enabled on the host.
ssh root@$ESXiIP
 
 
  1. Use the esxcli command to create the virtual switch. For this scenario, the switch will have the default setting, but it’s possible to set the MTU, Link Discovery, and Security.
esxcli network vswitch standard add -v vSwitch1
 
 
  • -v → Specifies the vSwitch name.

Create Port Groups for the created Virtual Switch

GUI

  1. In the Navigator pane on the left, click on the Networking tab
  2. Click on Port Groups tab
  3. To add a new port group, click on the Add port group button
  4. Enter the following attributes for the port group:
    1. Enter a name in the Name field
    2. Enter the corresponding VLAN ID in the VLAN ID field
    3. Select the created Virtual Switch
    4. Set all the Security policies to accept: Promiscuous Mode, MAC adress changes, and Forged transmits

We are going to be creating a port group for each VM type. Use the following table as a reference to create the corresponding port groups.

NameVLAN ID
OVS-GW-11
OVS-Controller-22
OVS-CP-33
OVS-UP-44
OVS-gNB-55
OVS-srsRAN-66
OVS-UE-77

CLI

  1. Connect to the ESXi server using SSH. Make sure that the ESXi SSH is enabled on the host.
ssh root@$ESXiIP
 
 
  1. Use the esxcli command to create the port group.

The following command allows to create new portgroups to a virtual switch in the ESXi envrionment

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-GW-1 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
 
 
  • –portgroup-name → Specifies the name of the new port group that you want to create
  • –vswitch-name → Specifies the name of the vSwitch where you want to create the new port group

The following command allows to set the VLAN ID of the recently created port group.

  • -p → Specifies the name of the port group that you want to modify
  • –vlan-id → sets the VLAN ID of the port group
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-GW-1 --vlan-id 1
 
 

The following command allows to set the security policies for a port group using the ESXi CLI.

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-GW-1 -f true -m true -o true
 
 
  • –portgroup-name → Specifies the name of the port group you want to configure.
  • -o true → Sets the Promiscuous Mode policy which it’s true in this case to accept.
  • -m true → Sets the MAC Address Changes policy, which in this case it’s true to accept.
  • -f true → Sets the Forged Transmits policy, which it’s true in this case to accept.

We are going to be creating a port group for each time of VM. Use the following table as a reference to create the corresponding port groups.

NameVLAN ID
OVS-GW-11
OVS-Controller-22
OVS-CP-33
OVS-UP-44
OVS-gNB-55
OVS-srsRAN-66
OVS-UE-77

You can also use the following created commands to create all the required ports based on the table values

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-GW-1 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-GW-1 --vlan-id 1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-GW-1 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-Controller-2 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-Controller-2 --vlan-id 2
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-Controller-2 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-CP-3 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-CP-3 --vlan-id 3
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-CP-3 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-UP-4 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-UP-4 --vlan-id 4
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-UP-4 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-gNB-5 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-gNB-5 --vlan-id 5
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-gNB-5 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-srsRAN-6 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-srsRAN-6 --vlan-id 6
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-srsRAN-6 -f true -m true -o true
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=OVS-UE-7 --vswitch-name=vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p OVS-UE-7 --vlan-id 7
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy security set --portgroup-name=OVS-UE-7 -f true -m true -o true
 
 

Create Gateway VM

GUI

  1. In the Navigator pane on the left, click on the Virtual Machines tab
  2. Click on Create/Register VM tab
  3. In the New Virtual Machine wizard, select the following:
    1. Select Creating Type > Create a new virtual machine
    2. Select a name and Guest OS >
      1. Name: GW
      2. Compatibility: ESXi 7.0 U2 virtual machine
      3. Guest OS family: Linux
      4. Guest OS version: Ubuntu Linux (64 bit)
    3. Select the inventory location where the virtual machine should be created
    4. Select the customize settings as it shows the figure below. The ISO used is ubuntu 20.04
    5. Finish the wizard and power on the VM

The gateway has two Network Adapters. The first network adapter is coming from the virtual switch that is connected to the physical NIC of the device where Vmware ESXi has been installed. The second network adapter is coming the virtual switch that is not connected to a NIC to keep the testbed network isolated from the institution network. We will proceed to configure this Network Adapter in future steps after configuring the Ubuntu VM for the Gateway.

Setup the GW VM

Modify the network configuration

  1. Select the GW virtual machine and Open console in new window
  2. In the top right corner of the screen displayed on the console, click on the network icon
  3. Click on Settings

  1. In this case, the VM has two network connections. For the first network connection (ens160), we will leave the default settings.
  2. For the second connection, we will click on the gear icon next to the connection name to access the settings for that connection and modify it based on the figure below.
    1. IPv4 Method: Manual
    2. Addresses:
      1. Address: 192.168.233.1
      2. Netmask: 255.255.255.0
      3. Gateway:
      4. DNS: 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install openssh-server -y
 
 

Start a new ssh session with the GW VM. I’m using MobaXterm

Once the SSH session has been established, proceed to upgrade the system

The following commands is to allow the second interface in the Gateway VM to allow traffic coming from the VMs connected to the OVS.

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.233.0/24 -o ens160 -j MASQUERADE
 
 

Also using this ssh session, it is possible to create another ssh session to access the VMs of our testbed. By using an ssh session, it allows us to have a centralized environment where we can copy and paste different commands.

Create the controller VM

GUI

  1. In the Navigator pane on the left, click on the Virtual Machines tab
  2. Click on Create/Register VM tab
  3. In the New Virtual Machine wizard, select the following:
    1. Select Creating Type > Create a new virtual machine
    2. Select a name and Guest OS >
      1. Name: Controller
      2. Compatibility: ESXi 7.0 U2 virtual machine
      3. Guest OS family: Linux
      4. Guest OS version: Ubuntu Linux (64 bit)
    3. Select the inventory location where the virtual machine should be created
    4. Select the customize settings as it shows the figure below. The ISO used is ubuntu 20.04
    5. Finish the wizard and power on the VM

Setup the Controller VM

Modify the network configuration

  1. Select the Controller virtual machine and Open console in new window
  2. In the top right corner of the screen displayed on the console, click on the network icon
  3. Click on Settings

  1. In this case, the VM has two network connections. For the first network connection (ens160), we will leave the default settings.
  2. For the second connection, we will click on the gear icon next to the connection name to access the settings for that connection and modify it based on the figure below.
    1. IPv4 Method: Manual
    2. Addresses:
      1. Address: 192.168.230.1
      2. Netmask: 255.255.255.0
      3. Gateway:
      4. DNS: 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install openssh-server -y
 
 

Start a new ssh session with the GW VM. We are using MobaXterm

The following commands is to allow the second interface in the Controller VM to allow traffic coming from the OVS.

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.230.0/24 -o ens160 -j MASQUERADE
 
 

Also using this ssh session, it is possible to create another ssh session to access the VMs of our testbed. By using an ssh session, it allows us to have a centralized environment where we can copy and paste different commands.

Install Opendaylight

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get -y install unzip
sudo apt-get -y install openjdk-8-jre
sudo update-alternatives --config java
ls -l /etc/alternatives/java
echo 'export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
echo $JAVA_HOME
sudo apt install curl -y 
curl -XGET -O https://nexus.opendaylight.org/content/repositories/opendaylight.release/org/opendaylight/integration/karaf/0.8.4/karaf-0.8.4.zip
unzip karaf-0.8.4.zip
cd karaf-0.8.4/
./bin/karaf clean
 
 
opendaylight-user@root>feature:install odl-restconf  odl-mdsal-apidocs odl-dlux-core
 
 

Connect to UI Connect to http://:8181/index.html#/login, using the credentials of admin/admin.

Create a VM for the Openvswitch

  1. In the Navigator pane on the left, click on the Virtual Machines tab
  2. Click on Create/Register VM tab
  3. In the New Virtual Machine wizard, select the following:
    1. Select Creating Type > Create a new virtual machine
    2. Select a name and Guest OS >
      1. Name: OVS
      2. Compatibility: ESXi 7.0 U2 virtual machine
      3. Guest OS family: Linux
      4. Guest OS version: Ubuntu Linux (64 bit)
    3. Select the inventory location where the virtual machine should be created
    4. Select the customize settings as it shows the figure below. The ISO used is ubuntu 20.04
    5. Finish the wizard and power on the VM

Setup the OVS VM

Modify the network configuration

  1. Select the OVS virtual machine and Open console in new window
  2. In the top right corner of the screen displayed on the console, click on the network icon
  3. Click on Settings

  1. In this case, the VM has seven network connections. Find the MAC address of the port that is connected to the SDN controller since it’s the one that provides internet connection to the Openvswitch for install the necessary tools. In this case, our network connection is ens192
  2. For the ens192, we will click on the gear icon next to the connection name to access the settings for that connection and modify it based on the figure below.
    1. IPv4 Method: Manual
    2. Addresses:
      1. Address: 192.168.230.5
      2. Netmask: 255.255.255.0
      3. Gateway:192.168.230.1
      4. DNS: 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4

  1. For the other six network connections, set them as disable as the IPv4 Method
  2. After that reboot the vm to make the changes effective.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install openssh-server -y
 
 

Using the ssh session in the SDN controller session in MobaXterm, proceed to start an ssh session to access the Openvswitch and be able to setup the environment

controller@controller:~$ ssh ovs@192.168.230.5
The authenticity of host '192.168.230.5 (192.168.230.5)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:UM/hRiQmY5+SS2sCXCFG7E0JWbo5g23iLwbM6P8ucB0.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.230.5' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
ovs@192.168.230.5's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.11.0-27-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

395 updates can be applied immediately.
2 of these updates are standard security updates.
To see these additional updates run: apt list --upgradable

Your Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is supported until April 2025.

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

ovs@ovs:~$
 
 

Instal Openvswitch and necessary network tools

sudo apt install openvswitch-switch -y
sudo apt install -y net-tools iproute2 bridge-utils iputils-ping tcpdump traceroute
 
 

Create and configure the bridge

sudo ovs-vsctl add-br br0

 sudo ip addr add 192.168.233.1/24 dev br0
 sudo ip link set br0 up

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.233.0/24 -o ens160 -j MASQUERADE
 
 

Add interfaces to the switch

sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens160
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens161
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens193
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens224
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens225
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ens256
 
 

Verify that the interfaces have been added to the ovs

sudo ovs-vsctl show
 
 

Set the external SDN controller

sudo ovs-vsctl set-controller br0 tcp:192.168.230.1:6633
sudo ovs-vsctl set bridge br0 protocols=OpenFlow13
sudo ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 -O OpenFlow13 "table=0,priority=100,actions=normal"
sudo ovs-ofctl -O OpenFlow13 dump-flows br0
 
 

Reboot ovs VM after adding the ports, and proceed to add the following commands since it gets deleted after rebooting

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.233.0/24 -o ens160 -j MASQUERADE
 
 

Virt-manager

For this virtualization option, we tested on ubuntu 20.04. Therefore is recommended to use Ubuntu 20.04 to deploy virt-manager

Install virt-manager

Update the machine

sudo apt update
 
 

Install virt-manager

sudo apt install virt-manager
 
 

Launch virt-manager

sudo virt-manager
 
 

If you get an error saying that QEMU/KVM -Not connected, reboot the machine and try again to launch virt-manager

Install Openvswitch

Instal Openvswitch and necessary network tools

sudo apt install openvswitch-switch -y
sudo apt install -y net-tools iproute2 bridge-utils iputils-ping tcpdump traceroute
 
 

Create and configure the bridge

sudo ovs-vsctl add-br br0

sudo ifconfig br0 192.168.233.1/24 

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.233.0/24 -o ens160 -j MASQUERADE
 
 

Add ports to the switch

sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 cp -- set Interface cp type=internal
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 up -- set Interface up type=internal
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 srsran -- set Interface srsran type=internal
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 gnb -- set Interface gnb type=internal
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 ue -- set Interface ue type=internal
 
 

Verify that the interfaces have been added to the ovs

sudo ovs-vsctl show
 
 

Set the external SDN controller

sudo ovs-vsctl set-controller br0 tcp:192.168.230.1:6633
sudo ovs-vsctl set bridge br0 protocols=OpenFlow13
sudo ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 -O OpenFlow13 "table=0,priority=100,actions=normal"
sudo ovs-ofctl -O OpenFlow13 dump-flows br0