Request Access

The Mid-Atlantic Network Facility for Research, Experimentation, and Development (MANFRED) has recently started allowing access to the Substrate to individuals outside of its operating organization. Users and researchers within the GENI community are invited to use this facility to perform experiments and/or advance their research.

The current capabilities of the Substrate include:

• virtual machines (via PlanetLab slices)
• programmable network hardware (via NetFPGA cards)
• dedicated, end-to-end dynamic Ethernet VLAN circuits (via the DRAGON network)

As a participant of Cluster B in Spiral 1, MANFRED has deployed and is using the PlanetLab GENI Control Framework. GENIWrapper is installed and running on our deployment. Once your account is approved, you may use GENIWrapper's client software to maintain and manage your slice(s). Management access to substrate resources is provided via SSH.

Request An Account

To get started, please visit our PlanetLab MyPLC portal at https://max-myplc.dragon.maxgigapop.net.

Click the "Create an Account" link in the lower left-hand corner:

Fill out the registration form, selecting "Mid-Atlantic Crossroads PlanetLab Central" for the "Site" option, then click "Register":

Complete Account Setup Process

You will receive an e-mail at the address you provided which includes a confirmation link. Please click this link to complete the registration process. You should be taken to a screen which looks like the following:

Our administrators will receive a notification message indicating that you have successfully created a new account. Your account will be enabled once we review the information that you supplied. We may contact you before enabling your account to get more information about how your work is related to GENI and/or if you have any specific requirements.

Once your account is enabled, you will receive an e-mail message indicating that your account is enabled. Visit https://max-myplc.dragon.maxgigapop.net and login with the e-mail address and password that you provided:

After logging in, click the "My Account" on the left-hand bar:

Update Account Details

In the Details section, please fill out the "URL" and "Bio" for our reference. Please include any information relevant to your involvement within the GENI community.

Upload Public RSA Key

You must upload a public RSA key to access substrate resources. Click the triangle next to "No key !!":

You will be presented with an upload form, asking you to choose a key file to upload:

NOTE: Only RSA keys are supported at this time, as the GENIWrapper software does not support DSA keys. If this changes in the future, this webpage will be updated.

If you already have a public RSA key to upload, click "Choose File" and browse to the location of your public key, then click "Upload key".

If you do not already have a public RSA key, please create one using ssh-keygen -t rsa. This can be done from the shell prompt on many hosts, for example:

This process creates two files: planetlab_id_rsa contains your private RSA key while planetlab_id_rsa.pub contains your public RSA key. Please keep your private RSA key file protected and do not distribute the contents of this file to anybody else.

Upload your public RSA key file, planetlab_id_rsa.pub, using the web form. Your screen should now look something like the following:

Congratulations! This completes the account request process, and you are now one step closer to accessing the substrate resources. For more information on what to do next, please see our wiki page on Accessing Slices.