Install Mininet on an Amazon EC2 server

To install the Mininet SDN network simulator on a remote server running on Amazon’s EC2 cloud, follow the procedure shown below. After installing it, I did some basic tests and it seems that Mininet works well on the Amazon EC2 server.

From my laptop PC, I connect to the Amazon EC2 instance via SSH ((See my previous posts about setting up an Amazon EC2 micro-instance, adding users, and configuring it for remote access if you do not already have an Amazon EC2 server set up.)). In the example below, the server’s private key file AWS-PrivateKey.pem is stored in the folder ~/AWS and the server’s public IP address is 55.155.1.55. I had previously created a new user brian on the server.

brian@Laptop:~$ ssh -X -i ~/AWS/AWS-PrivateKey.pem [email protected]

To install the latest stable version of Mininet, plus all supporting software, execute the following commands on the Amazon EC2 server running Ubuntu Server 14.04.

brian@AWS:~$ sudo apt-get install git
brian@AWS:~$ git clone git://github.com/mininet/mininet
brian@AWS:~$ mininet/util/install.sh -a

To test the installation, run the following command:

brian@AWS:~$ sudo mn --test pingall

The benefit of installing Mininet on a remote server such as an Amazon EC2 instance is that I can now experiment with Mininet from any computer, including a tablet or smartphone, at any time as long as I have a connection to the Internet.

1 thought on “Install Mininet on an Amazon EC2 server”

  1. hi,
    I installed mininet in EC2 AWS, when I run xterm h1 in the mininet shell I get nothing. when I run xterm outside the mininet shell it works fine.

    if I type h1 xterm, I get the following error.
    Warning: This program is an suid-root program or is being run by the root user.
    ************
    The full text of the error or warning message cannot be safely formatted
    in this environment. You may get a more descriptive message by running the program as a non-root user or by removing the suid bit on the executable. xterm: Xt error: Can’t open display: %s
    **************

    any recommendations?

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