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 :)