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Setting up the host for the NetFPGA

Here we provide the links and directions followed to set up a working NetFPGA host. The directions can be found on the following site: ​http://netfpga.org/netfpgawiki/index.php/Guide

Installing CentOS

CentOS is the recommended OS for use with NetFPGA. The most current version is 5.3, which is not listed as a version of CentOS that works with NetFPGA, but was used anyways.

For the installation, the net install iso was chosen because of its small size. This can be found on any mirror site.

• CentOS mirrors : ​http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/
• Network installation of CentOS : ​http://www.tonybhimani.com/2007/12/20/centos-51-network-install-instructions/

Before installing the netFPGA base package, make sure to update the kernel, since the dependencies for NetFPGA software require a newer version of the kernel than the one for 5.3. To install the basic drivers, install teh yum repository and GPG key, followed by the netFPGA base package.

rpm -Uhv http://netfpga.org/yum/el5/RPMS/noarch/netfpga-repo-1-1_CentOS5.noarch.rpm
yum install netfpga-base
/usr/local/NF2/lib/scripts/user_account_setup/user_account_setup.pl

The directions then go over installing CAD tools, but since we are just trying to make the FPGA into an !OPenFlow switch, we skip over that section of the guide. cd into the NetFPGA directory, then make, make install, and reboot.

make
#a bunch of output showing status
make install
#more outputs
reboot

after the machine has rebooted, check that drivers are loaded. The PID should show up:

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/lsmod | grep nf2
nf2                    22540  0 

Finally, verify the interfaces with /sbin/ifconfig -a at the terminal. This is the output for our setup:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1C:C0:B4:EC:D4  
          inet addr:192.168.202.102  Bcast:192.168.203.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21c:c0ff:feb4:ecd4/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:825 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:212 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:76080 (74.2 KiB)  TX bytes:21489 (20.9 KiB)
          Interrupt:50 Base address:0xa000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1162 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1162 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2004680 (1.9 MiB)  TX bytes:2004680 (1.9 MiB)

nf2c0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:4E:46:32:43:00  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1986  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:58 

nf2c1     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:4E:46:32:43:01  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1986  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:58 

nf2c2     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:4E:46:32:43:02  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1986  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:58 

nf2c3     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:4E:46:32:43:03  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1986  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:58 

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4  
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Installing the OpenFlow implementation (OpenFlow-NetFPGA-090)

After successfully installing the drivers, you can install the OpenFlow switch with the following command:

[root@localhost ~]# yum install netfpga-openflow_switch