SSH CLI Tools

SSH CLI Tools provides a set of commands for interacting remotely and easily with IoT-Lab Linux nodes. See here to get more information on this kind of node.

All available actions provided by SSH CLI Tools are available as sub-commands of iotlab-ssh.

The provided sub-commands are:

Sub-command	Function
flash	Flash the given firmware on the nodes co-microcontroller
reset	Reset the nodes co-microcontroller
wait-for-boot	Block the execution until all nodes have booted or maximum wait time has expired
run-script	Run a given script in background (screen session) on the given nodes
run-cmd	Run a command on the given nodes
copy-file	Copy a file on SSH frontend homedir directory (~/shared/.iotlabsshcli)

SSH CLI Tools can be used in conjunction with the IoT-Lab CLI Tools commands like iotlab-auth and iotlab-experiment.

Installation:

You need python pip. To do a system-wide install of the ssh-cli-tools use pip (or pip3 for Python 3):

$ sudo pip install iotlabsshcli

Pip version >= 9.0 is known to work ; you may need to upgrade. See INSTALLING.md for details on installation options.

Requirements:

Linux nodes are reachable through a gateway SSH server (IoT-LAB SSH frontend). For this reason you must verify that your SSH public key used by ssh-cli-tools has been recorded in your IoT-LAB user profile. You can find how to configure your IoT-LAB SSH access in this documentation.

Examples:

Start an experiment, wait for it to be ready, wait for all nodes boot:

$ iotlab-experiment submit -d 120 -l saclay,a8,1-10
{
    "id": 65535
}
$ iotlab-experiment wait
Waiting that experiment 65535 gets in state Running
"Running"
$ iotlab-ssh wait-for-boot
{
    "wait-for-boot": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-3.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-5.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-6.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-7.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-9.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-10.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ],
        "1": [
            "node-a8-4.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-8.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Note: node-a8-4 and node-a8-8 are broken in Saclay.

Flash a firmware on the co-microcontroller of the working nodes:

$ iotlab-ssh flash <firmware.elf> -l saclay,a8,2-3+5-7+9-10
{
    "flash": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-3.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-5.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-6.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-7.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-9.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-10.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Reset the co-microcontroller of one node:

$ iotlab-ssh reset -l saclay,a8,2
{
    "reset": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Use the --verbose option to get the commands output:

$ iotlab-ssh --verbose reset -l saclay,a8,2
Connecting via SSH proxy saclay.iot-lab.info:22 -> node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info:22
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Open On-Chip Debugger 0.9.0-dirty (2016-04-15-00:55)
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Licensed under GNU GPL v2
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info] For bug reports, read
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     adapter speed: 1000 kHz
[...]
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     TargetName         Type       Endian TapName            State
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     --  ------------------ ---------- ------ ------------------ ------------
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info] 0* stm32f1x.cpu       cortex_m   little stm32f1x.cpu       running
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Info : JTAG tap: stm32f1x.cpu tap/device found: 0x3ba00477 (mfg: 0x23b, part: 0xba00, ver: 0x3)
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Info : JTAG tap: stm32f1x.bs tap/device found: 0x06414041 (mfg: 0x020, part: 0x6414, ver: 0x0)
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     shutdown command invoked
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Return Value: 0
{
    "reset": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Run a command on two nodes:

$ iotlab-ssh --verbose run-cmd "uname -a" -l saclay,a8,2-3
Connecting via SSH proxy saclay.iot-lab.info:22 -> node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info:22
[node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Linux node-a8-2 3.18.5-iotlab+ #9 Thu Sep 1 16:17:22 CEST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux
[node-a8-3.saclay.iot-lab.info]     Linux node-a8-3 3.18.5-iotlab+ #9 Thu Sep 1 16:17:22 CEST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux
{
    "run-cmd": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info",
            "node-a8-3.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Run a command on SSH frontend:

$ iotlab-ssh --verbose run-cmd "uname -a" --frontend
[saclay.iot-lab.info]       Linux saclay 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u1 (2016-09-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux
{
    "run-cmd": {
        "0": [
            "saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Copy file on SSH frontend homedir directory (~/shared/.iotlabsshcli):

$ iotlab-ssh copy-file test.tar.gz
{
    "run-cmd": {
        "0": [
            "saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}
$ iotlab-ssh run-cmd "tar -xzvf ~/shared/.iotlabsshcli/test.tar.gz -C ~/shared/.iotlabsshcli/" --frontend
{
    "run-cmd": {
        "0": [
            "saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Note: shared homedir directory is mounted (via NFS) by Linux nodes during experiment.

Run the script /tmp/test.sh on node-a8-2 in saclay:

$ iotlab-ssh run-script /tmp/test.sh -l saclay,a8,2
{
    "run-script": {
        "0": [
            "node-a8-2.saclay.iot-lab.info"
        ]
    }
}

Note: a screen session is launched on the node to actually run the script and provide easy access to outputs if needed. When the script ends, the screen session is terminated and the logs are gone.

root@node-a8-2:~# screen -ls
There is a screen on:
       1877.<login>-<exp_id>   (Detached)
1 Socket in /tmp/screens/S-root.

Note: similar to run command you can pass the --frontend option if you want to launch a script in background on the SSH frontend.