Install and run NS3 on Amazons EC2

This is simple step-by step on how to run NS3 on Amazon cloud. If you skip to 3 you can use same script on any other machine using Ubuntu.

This script will install needed packages, download ns3, make standard configuration, build ns-3-dev, and will run test.

Assuming you have Amazon account.

1. Create Ubuntu 12.04 image
2. Log in to it
3. Create file installns3.sh

vi installns3.sh
i

4. Copy following code into it:

#!/bin/bash
#original timer was published in
#http://www.linuxjournal.com/
#http://tiny.cc/en2niw 
#by Mitch Frazier
function timer()
{
 if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
  echo $(date '+%s')
 else
  local  stime=$1
  etime=$(date '+%s')
         if [[ -z "$stime" ]]; then stime=$etime; fi
         dt=$((etime - stime))
         ds=$((dt % 60))
         dm=$(((dt / 60) % 60))
  dh=$((dt / 3600))
  printf '%d:%02d:%02d' $dh $dm $ds
 fi
}
tmr=$(timer)
INSTALL_DIR="/home/ubuntu/dev/ns3"
#files to install 
APPS="gcc g++ python python-dev mercurial bzr gdb valgrind gsl-bin \
 libgsl0-dev libgsl0ldbl flex bison libfl-dev tcpdump sqlite sqlite3 \
 libsqlite3-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-dev vtun \
 lxc uncrustify doxygen graphviz imagemagick texlive texlive-extra-utils \ 
 texlive-latex-extra python-sphinx dia python-pygraphviz python-kiwi \
 python-pygoocanvas libgoocanvas-dev libboost-signals-dev \ 
 libboost-filesystem-dev openmpi-bin libopenmpi-dev openmpi-doc"
# update repos
RETVAL=$(sudo apt-get update)
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
 echo "Unable to update, reason: $?"
 echo $RETVAL
 exit 1
else
 echo "Successfully updated app repostitory"
fi
#function to handle instaliation 
function make_install(){
 if [ $# == 0 ]; then
         echo "must give at least one argument"
  exit 1
 fi
 for app in $*
 do
  #we do not care is packet is installed it is success
  RETVAL=$(sudo apt-get install -y $app 2>&1 >/dev/null)
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "Failure: can't install $app reson: $?"
          echo $RETVAL
          echo "Skipping package $app" 
  else
   echo "Succesfully installed $app"
  fi

 done
}

#create directory
if [ ! -d "$INSTALL_DIR" ]; then
 echo "Creating $INSTALL_DIR"
 RET=$(mkdir -p $INSTALL_DIR 2>&1 >/dev/null)
 if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Can not create directory $INSTALL_DIR. Reason: $?"
  echo $RET
  exit 1
 else
  echo "Succesfully created directory $INSTALL_DIR"
 fi
fi
#check if port is open

#install apps
make_install $APPS

cd $INSTALL_DIR
echo "Cloning repo"
RET=$(hg clone http://code.nsnam.org/ns-3-allinone)
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
 echo "Could not clone ns-3-allinone. REASON: $?"
 echo $RET
 exit 1
else
 echo "Cloning was successfull"
fi
cd "ns-3-allinone"
echo "Downloading ns3-dev"
chmod +x download.py
./download.py -n ns-3-dev
cd "ns-3-dev"
echo "Building standart ns3"
./waf configure --enable-tests
./waf build
echo "Running test"
chmod +x test.py
./test.py
printf 'Elapsed time: %s\n' $(timer $tmr) 
echo "Thank you! Enjoy NS3"

5. Save file and execute it.

#hit esc
:wq
chmod +x installns3.sh
./installns3.sh
#go grab coffee

6. It will take a while, I was using medium instance which took: ~34 min.

If you are to lazy to copy paste and bother, find "ubuntu-12.04-ns-3-dev" AMI in community AMI's I have published pre-installed and pre-build version of the image. It will save you time and buck too!

Cheers :)

Wireshark on AWS EC2

Updated on 28th Mars 2014, thanks Imran Hayder for suggestions! In some cases you may need to run wireshark on remote machine, especially if you want to in depth to understand what is going on.
Without any further blah blah, amusing you are using Ubuntu here is how to:

1. Create EBS, make sure to un-check "delete on termination"
2. Create and start Ubuntu 12.04 EC2
3. Log in to it
4. Check disk name

sudo fdisk -l 

5. Format disk

sudo mkfs -t ext4 /device/path

6. Create mount directory

sudo mkdir /home/data-storage

7. Mount disk

sudo mount /dev/DEVICE /home/data-storage

8. Make wireshark folder

sudo mkdir /home/data-storage/wireshark
#important change ownership!
sudo chown root:ubuntu /home/data-storage/wireshark
#allow group to read
sudo chmod -R 774 wireshark

9. Install wireshark

sudo apt-get install wireshark tshark

10. Run example

sudo su
cd /home/data-storage/wireshark
#tshark will capture eth0 for 10 seconds and save file to my.pcap
tshark -i eth0 -a duration:10 -w my.pcap

11. Copy file to local

#from your local machine, note intentional line brake due to layout of the blog.
cd wireshark
scp -i your.pem 
   ubuntu@your_ec2_dns.compute.amazonaws.com:/path-to/my.pcap .

Read the comments bellow for trouble shooting. Note, it is not advisable to copy paste commands since you may bet the html representation, and not what you should type in the terminal.