Network Performance Toolkit

This is an experimental version of a Knoppix Live-CD bootable disk. The network-performance-toolkit-v1.9.iso file can be downloaded and burned to a CD. Once this process is complete, the CD will boot a Web100-enhanced Linux 2.6.23-9 kernel and will start the five network performance tools (BWCTL, NDT, NPAD, OWAMP, and Thrulay) installed on this disk. All of these servers start up using a default configuration, which can be customized if the need arises. The disk also brings up the NTP daemon using a default configuration.

The initial steps are:

Download the following two (2) files*:

network-performance-toolkit.iso – This file contains the bootable image
network-performance-toolkit-cd-label.bmp – This file contains a image suitable for labeling the disk, complete with version numbers for each of the tools.
network-performance-toolkit/NPtoolkit_v1.9.md5 – This file contains the MD5 checksum for the NPToolike ISO image.

Burn the ISO to a CD-ROM – Use your favorite software to burn the image
Insert the CD-ROM into the tray and boot the system
After the boot process completes, enter the user name knoppix to access the system.

* Note that this will download the most current release of the toolkit. For previous versions, click HERE > >

During the boot process, you will notice that you are prompted to customize the tools. The customization process allows you to add specific information (i.e., physical location of the server or local link speed). After all the tools have been started, the boot process allows you to easily customize each tool. The customization files, along with log files, are stored on an external drive (e.g., a USB thumb drive) making it easy to move the server to a new location. There is a 20-second timer started to allow the boot process to complete should the user wish to use the default configurations.

It should also be noted that most of these tools archive test data for later analysis. The shutdown scripts are configured to save these log files to a permanent file system (usually a USB thumb drive). You can also create and save customized configuration files on this same drive. To setup this archival process:

Insert a USB thumb drive into an unused USB port on your computer.
Insert the NPtoolkit CD-ROM into the tray and boot the system.
After the boot process completes, enter the user name knoppix to access the system.
Mount the USB drive using the sudo mount /dev/sda1 command.*
Copy the knoppix.sh file to the USB drive cp /usr/local/etc/knoppix.sh /mnt/sda1.
Manually run the customization script customize.NPtools, select the tool, and follow the prompts.

The start/stop scripts for each tool will look for the knoppix.sh file during the boot and shutdown process. If this file is found during the boot process, the customized configuration files and old log files will be recovered and installed in the correct location. If the file is found during the shutdown process, the configuration and log files will be automatically saved to the USB drive.

FAQs for the NPToollkit are available HERE.

* Note, the NPtoolkit disk should automatically find and mount USB drives when they are installed and clean up when they are removed. Unfortunately, we have not figured out the steps necessary to accomplish this task yet. Anyone with experience should feel free to provide us with the steps necessary so they can be incorporated into the next release of this CD-ROM.

For more details about the BWCTL, NDT, OWAMP, and Thrulay tools visit the Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative web site http://e2epi.internet2.edu. For more details about the NPAD tool visit the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center (PSC) http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/pathdiag/ web page.