Floodlight OpenFlow Controller GUI Applet

Floodlight OpenFlow Controller GUI Applet

OpenFlow Lab

Floodlight OpenFlow Controller GUI Applet

There is a new FloodLight OpenFlow SDN controller GUI out from a Marist College and IBM research group/internship. I am guessing it is the same IBM researcher that developed the FloodLight web UI. This applet allows one to instantiate a flow from the GUI along with a couple of other bells and whistles. It is great to see the public/private partnership. Kudos to both Marist and IBM for the contribution to the community.

OpenFlow

Avior uses the REST API which is one of the best visions BigSwitch has brought to the table. It is another tool for learning if one preferred a GUI to instantiate flows. Keep in mind adding individual flows would likely be a rare if ever occurrence, probably even less that using static routes in networks today but very similar in principle. Just as you would typically learn how to add a static layer3 route before dynamic routing protocols the idea is the same only we have many more options in the “Match + [Action|Instruction]” with 10-12 different L2/L3 header fields rather than just focusing on a next hop. Programmatic policy based routing. So take a peak, only takes a second, still some hangs and crashes but its a fun little app.

Video 1. Nice installation and UI walk through from the guys who developed this.

Installation Preperation

Install dependencies, apt-get for UB and yum for RH:
$apt-get install build-essential default-jdk ant python-dev eclipse git

Floodlight OpenFlow Controller GUI Applet

Start Floodlight

Clone the Github project and build the jar and start the controller:

FloodLight GUI

Download for your OS http://openflow.marist.edu/avior.html
From the machine you are running the controller on:
$ chmod +x run.sh
Ensure Floodlight is running.
That will start the Jar runtimes and pop open a window to point to your controller. If it is the same machine as where floodlight is running simply enter 127.0.0.1 for it to attach to the running Floodlight instance.

FloodLight Controller Web Interface<[/fancy_header3]

Once the service is running you can go to the web GUI and view topologies, flows etc or use curl statements to add remove datapaths.
View the GUI in a web browser http://localhost:8080/ui/index.html

About the Author

Brent SalisburyI have over 20 years of experience wearing various hats from, network engineer, architect, ops and software engineer. More at Brent's LinkedInView all posts by Brent Salisbury →

  1. Jason ParragaJason Parraga07-30-2012


    Hi Brent, I am the developer of the application and I would like to thank you for your review of Avior! I would like to note that the web UI is actually a product of Wes Felter from the Texas IBM lab. Lastly, I would just like to say that this project has been a great experience for me as an intern and I am actively working to improve the application and get rid of the bugs. Hope you check out v1.2 when it comes out shortly.

  2. Brent SalisburyBrent Salisbury07-30-2012


    Nice to meet you Jason. Thanks for clarifying that. Wasn’t sure if Felter was part of that or not. IBM is doing a nice job imo. I get even more excited when I see things coming out of R&E like this from Marist. Drop me a line when you put out 1.2 and keep it up, look forward to it.
    – Brent

  3. GlenGlen12-21-2012


    The download links seem to be delivering .php files and I’ve tried it on multiple platforms.

  4. Brent SalisburyBrent Salisbury01-01-2013


    Hey Glen, I just tested a couple of the links on the Marist site and was able to download the jars. Was that where you had problems?
    Thanks,
    -Brent

    • GlenGlen03-17-2013


      Yah that was where the issues were.
      The jar’s are coming down just fine now and I have it up and running. It’s looking promising.

      Thanks Brent,

      Glen

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