Colosseum User Guide

If this is your first time accessing the Colosseum, see the Quick Start Guide.

This article presents a listing of resources for users on how to use various components of the Colosseum as they are currently deployed in the Colosseum Architecture.

There are three primary resources that users can access in the Colosseum:

Resource

Availability

Authentication Method

Storage

Access From

Access To

SSH Gateway

Persistent

By SSH Key

Home directory with limited storage

Internet
File Proxy
SRN Containers

File Proxy

Persistent

Colosseum Account Password
Home directory with limited storage
User team network storage

SSH Gateway
Network Storage
SRN Containers

SRN Containers

When reserved

Container Password
Container userspace (non-persistent)
User team network storage

SSH Gateway

Network Storage

Using the Colosseum

Uploading SSH Public Keys

Access to Colosseum resources is provided primarily through SSH. Colosseum makes use of private/public keys to control user access. These key pairs are created by users on their local machines and the public key is uploaded to the Colosseum User Website. Follow these instructions to Upload SSH Public Keys.

Note

The security of this authentication method is based entirely on the secrecy of the private key file. Users are expected to take measures to protect the contents of this file from disclosure.

Accessing Colosseum Resources

Users can access their reserved SRN containers and the File Proxy server through the SSH gateway. See the instructions for Accessing Colosseum Resources.

Working with the Base LXC Container

Uploading an LXC Container

LXC containers developed by users must be uploaded to their team’s network storage directory prior to making a reservation through the User Website. See instructions on how to Upload an LXC Container through the SSH Gateway.

Making an SRN Reservation

Users use the User Website to reserve SRNs within the Colosseum using a Token System. User teams are allocated a certain amount of tokens, which are used to reserve SRNs. Users select containers for each reserved SRN. See instructions for Making a Reservation (Interactive and Batch Mode).

Accessing the SRN

Once a team’s reservation becomes available, users on that team will be able to log into their reserved SRNs running the container specified in the reservation request.

Logging on to an SRN

A user can log into the SRNs specified in the reservation response only through the SSH gateway. Users must have Uploaded SSH Public Keys to the website and are recommended to have a SSH Proxy Setup.

See the instruction for Logging on to an SRN.

Accessing Network Storage from an SRN

Users will have access to their team network storage folder on all of their allocated containers from the /share directory. Note: this path is different from the path on the File Proxy server.

Users must be logged into their container using the srn-user account to access the /share folder.

To see the contents of your team network storage folder, run:

sdruser@the-winning-team-container-v1-srn-001:~# ls /share
resources/   other/

Exercising SRN Capabilities

Using SRN Hardware

Users should consult the Colosseum Development Guide for information on how to access the hardware available from the containers on the SRNs.

ColosseumCLI for Practice Mode

SRNs now support a command line interface within the container which will allow users to request and configure resources during a practice-mode reservation. If users are using an older base container or an outdated ColosseumCLI, follow the instructions for Installing or Updating ColosseumCLI. For information on the syntax, see the ColosseumCLI page.

The ColosseumCLI supports the following capabilities:

RadioAPI for Batch Mode

In batch mode operation, users will need to conform to the Radio Command and Control (C2) API. This mode of operation is not yet supported within the Colosseum, but users are provided a description of this API to help plan for how to develop their Batch Mode containers in the Colosseum Development Guide.

Traffic Generation

The Colosseum includes a traffic generation system that provides traffic to the user radio design through the traffic network interface. It is up to the users to direct traffic arriving on the traffic interface (tr0) to their radio interface.

For a more detailed description of the traffic system, see Traffic Generation.

Prior to Session Tear-Down

At the end of a reservation, the user’s containers are removed from the SRNs. The current state of the container is not automatically saved, so all changes made and files or data created will be lost.

Save Image Snapshot

Users can save the state of their image through the Colosseum CLI. This will allow the user to save a new image file to the images directory on the user’s team network storage.

See the instructions to Save an Image Snapshot Using Colosseum CLI.

Copy files to Network Storage

Users can copy files to their attached network storage directories, which are mounted within the containers at /share/nas/<teamname>/. Users should allow enough time before the end of their reservation for any file copy operations to complete.

During both batch and interactive reservations, users will have access to a logging directory within a container which will be automatically copied to their teams’ shared directories. Any files written to this directory, along with traffic logs and collaboration server logs, will be copied at the end of a reservation.

This page provides information on how to make use of logging as well as the structure of those directories.

Using SRN Container Log Directories

During a reservation, each SRN will have a folder mounted within the container at /logs/. During a reservation, users can use this directory as a location for any files they automatically want to be saved at the end of a reservation. Users may find this feature useful in a number of ways, particularly during batch mode reservations.

Note

The /logs/ directory has a limit of 25 GB on each SRN, but users should keep in mind that their team’s network storage directories cannot exceed 500 GB. If the 500 GB limit is exceeded while the /logs directory copy is in progress, it will fail.

Accessing SRN Logs After a Reservation

After a reservation is complete, users can access their logs through the File Proxy server. Users can find their logs in their team’s shared drive root directory:

/share/nas/<teamname>/RESERVATION-<id>/

Within that folder, users can find the following subfolders:

Subfolder/File

Description

__CollabServer_SRN_YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log
Collaboration Server Log File
One per reservation

__srn_colbr_YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log
Collaboration Gateway PCAP File
One per gateway per reservation

--srn-<id>/
Folder with contents of /logs/ for each SRN in the reservation
One per SRN

traffic_logs/

Folder with MGEN logs from the traffic scenario that was executed during the reservation.