How To Install GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, GreenCloud Simulator is an innovative simulation environment designed to model and analyze energy-efficient cloud computing data centers. Built upon the Network Simulator 2 (NS2) platform, GreenCloud Simulator allows researchers to evaluate the energy consumption, performance, and cost-effectiveness of various cloud architectures and resource allocation strategies. By simulating realistic workloads and data center configurations, users can gain valuable insights into optimizing energy efficiency without compromising Quality of Service (QoS).

Developed by a team of researchers from the University of Luxembourg and the Institut Mines-Télécom/Télécom SudParis, GreenCloud Simulator has become a go-to tool for academics and industry professionals alike. Its extensive feature set includes support for modeling different data center architectures, virtualization techniques, and power management schemes, making it a versatile solution for a wide range of research scenarios.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• To ensure a smooth installation and optimal performance, your machine should have at least 4GB of RAM and 20GB of free disk space.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Step 1. To prepare your Ubuntu system for the installation, start by updating the package lists and upgrading any existing packages to their latest versions. Open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04.

To begin the installation process, you’ll first need to download the GreenCloud simulator package from the official website using wget command:

wget https://download.uni.lu/GreenCloud/greencloud-v2.1.2.tar.gz

Once the download is complete, you’ll need to extract the contents of the compressed package. Navigate to the directory where the package was downloaded and run the following command to unzip the package:

tar zxvf greencloud-v2.1.2.tar.gz

GreenCloud simulator relies on several dependencies and libraries that need to be installed on your Ubuntu system before proceeding with the installation. These dependencies include essential build tools, development libraries, and specific versions of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).

To install the required dependencies, open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential autoconf automake libxmu-dev gcc-4.4 gcc-4.4-multilib

During the installation process, you may be prompted to confirm the installation of certain packages. Simply press “Y” and then Enter to proceed with the installation.

With the dependencies installed, you’re now ready to compile and install the GreenCloud simulator. Navigate to the “greencloud-v2.1.2” directory that was created when you extracted the downloaded package:

cd greencloud-v2.1.2

Inside this directory, you’ll find the necessary configuration and installation scripts. To begin the compilation process, run the following command:

./configure

Once the configuration process is completed successfully, you can start the actual installation by running the following command:

./install-sh

This script will compile the GreenCloud source code and install the simulator files in the appropriate directories within the “greencloud-v2.1.2” folder. The compilation process may take some time, depending on your system’s hardware specifications.

Step 3. Running Sample Simulation.

To verify that the GreenCloud simulator is installed correctly and to familiarize yourself with its basic functionality, you can run the sample simulation provided with the package. The sample simulation demonstrates a simple scenario with 144 servers and 1 cloud user, allowing you to observe the simulator’s behavior and output.

To run the sample simulation, navigate to the “greencloud-v2.1.2” directory (if you haven’t already) and execute the following command:

./run

This command will launch the GreenCloud simulator and load the sample simulation configuration. The simulator will open in a browser window, displaying the simulation progress and various metrics.

The sample simulation configuration files are located in the “greencloud-v2.1.2/simulation” directory. The main configuration file is named “main.tcl“, which defines the overall simulation settings, such as the number of servers, users, and simulation duration. Other important files include “topology.tcl“, which specifies the network topology, and “dc.tcl“, which defines the data center characteristics.

Feel free to explore these configuration files and experiment with different settings to observe how they impact the simulation results. You can modify the parameters, such as the number of servers, user workload, or data center power consumption, to analyze different scenarios and evaluate the performance and energy efficiency of the simulated cloud environment.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed the GreenCloud Simulator. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the GreenCloud Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the GreenCloud Simulator website.