ELCM (Experiment Life-Cycle Manager)

Requirements

• Python 3.10.x (see requirements.txt for a detailed view of required packages)

Optional integrations:

5Genesis components

• Portal Version 2.4.0 (22/12/2020) or later
• Dispatcher Commit 2c05c28e812fb712f73b51ab78c1d190c0f50d0e (04/01/2021) or later
• Katana Slice Manager Version 2.2.6 (14/07/2020) or later

Third party components

• Grafana (tested with version 5.4)
• Grafana reporter (tested with version 2.1.0, commit 41b38a0)
• InfluxDB (tested with version 1.7.6)
• OpenTAP (tested with version 9.9 (Windows))

Deployment

Installation procedure

Additional dependencies may be needed depending on your environment. For example, older Windows version may require certain Visual C++ redistributables to be installed, and the following packages are known to be required on many Ubuntu distributions: gcc python3.10 python3.10-venv python3.10-dev.

This repository includes two sets of scripts for use on Linux (.sh) and Windows (.ps1) machines. In general, these scripts should be able to perform most of the actions required for instantiating the ELCM, however, depending on the deployment environment some actions may fail or require additional tweaking. The contents of the scripts can be used as a guide for manual installation, and a description of the actions performed by the scripts is included below for use as reference.

1. Ensure that Python 3.10.x is installed. For environments with multiple Python versions note the correct alias.

   For example, older Ubuntu distributions refer to Python 2.x by default when invoking python, and reference Python 3.10 as python3 or python3.10. Use the --version parameter to check the version number.

2. Clone the repository to a known folder
3. Run install.sh <python_alias> or install.ps1 <python_alias> (depending on your OS). The script will:

• Display the Python version in use (ensure that this is 3.10.x)
• Create a Python virtual environment for exclusive use of the ELCM.
• Install the required Python packages (using pip)

Most issues occur during this step, since it is highly dependent on the environment. In case of error, note the name of the package that could not be installed, the error message and your OS distribution. Performing an Internet search with this information usually yields a solution. Once solved you may re-run the script (delete the venv folder that was created by the script if necessary) until all packages are correctly installed.

4. Run start.sh or start.ps1 (depending on your OS). This will create an empty configuration file (config.yml). If necessary, press ctrl+c (or your OS equivalent) in order to close the server.
5. Ensure that the config.yml is available in the ELCM folder and customize its contents. Information about all the possible configuration values can be found below.

Starting the ELCM

Before using the scripts for starting a production ELCM instance consider changing the <YOUR SECRET KEY HERE> value to a random string (for more info see this answer.). This is particularly important if the ELCM port is exposed to the Internet (in this case also consider using waitress, as can be seen in the Portal scripts).

Please note that it is not recommended exposing the ELCM to the open Internet, regardless of these tips.

Once configured, the ELCM can be started by running start.sh <port_number> or start.ps1 <port_number>. If not specified, the server will listen on port 5001. In order to stop the server, press ctrl+c (or your OS equivalent) in the terminal where the server is running.

Documentation

Detailed usage documentation can be found in the docs folder of this repository.

1. ELCM Configuration
2. Platform Registry:
   1. Facility Configuration
   2. TestCase Parameters
   3. TestCase Dashboard, PDF Creation
   4. Resources, Scenarios and Network Slices
3. TestCase Definition:
   1. Task Order and Execution Flow:
      1. Experiment Composition, Top-Level Tasks and Children
      2. Flow Control Tasks
   2. Available Tasks:
      1. General Tasks
      2. EVOLVED-5G Tasks
   3. Variable Expansion and Execution Verdict
   4. MONROE Experiments
   5. Implementing Additional Tasks
4. Distributed Experiments

Appendix

1. REST Endpoints
2. Experiment Descriptor

Authors

• Bruno Garcia Garcia

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.