Build your own frisbee image

Technologically, we can convert any operating system into a frisbee image file and load it on the nodes in Witestbed. However, If you need run your experiments throught nodehandler4(omf) and ruby scripts, the frisbee image must following some rules below.

1. It must be the image of a linux-base operation system that is able to support essential hardware devices of the node. The essential devices includes,
   

• VIA C3 processor
• hard driver with SATA interface
• Realtek Rtl-8169 Gigabit ethernet port
• VIA VT6102 Rhine-II 100/10baseT Ethernet port if you want to let nodes access internet.
• Atheros AR5212/AR5213 802.11 wireless card
  

2. Nodeagent4 and necessary supportive software, such as ruby, must be ready in the system. Nodeagent4 must be correctly configured and launched when system boots up. More information about the configuration of Nodeagent4 could be found here. The way to install and lauch Nodeagent4 in Debian is as following

• Add the lines below into file /etc/apt/sources.list if it does not exist.

  deb http://apt.orbit-lab.org/orbit testing main
  deb http://apt.orbit-lab.org/orbit unstable main
  deb http://apt.orbit-lab.org/orbit stable main
  

• Install it with commands below

  apt-get update
  apt-get install nodeagent4
  

• If necessary, run command "update-rc.d nodeagent4 defaults" to add init script links.
  

3. Some cleanning working should be done before you run 'imagezip' to convert it into a frisbee image. You may do it by running ​a shell script.

After all these steps, you may run imagezip to convert the whole disk into a frisbee image file. Usually, the destination file should be saved in a NSF path, so it will not make any change to the source disk when imagezip is running. Following commands are just for example.

mount -t nfs 10.10.0.10:/home/node /mnt
imagezip -o -z 9 /dev/sda /mnt/exmapleImage.ndz

The first command mounts path "/home/node" on machine "10.10.0.10" to local path "/mnt". Before you run it, you must configure NFS file server on 10.10.0.10. For more information about NFS, please refer the man page of "exports", "nfsd" and "mounted"

The second command converts the whole hard driver "/dev/sda" into frisbee image file "exmapleImage.ndz" under path "/mnt". This command may take half hour or more to scan the whole disk. You may get all options by just running "imagezip".