Joining PlanetLab

PlanetLab is organized as a Consortium of academic, industrial, and government institutions. Institutions join PlanetLab by taking the following two steps. Individuals that want to use PlanetLab should arrange to do so through their home institution. Click here for a list of institutions currently participating in PlanetLab.

Step 1: Apply for Membership

The first step is to apply for membership in the PlanetLab Consortium. This involves signing a Membership Agreement. Four different membership levels are available to for-profit companies (Charter, Full, Associate, and Sponsor), while academic institutions and non-profit organizations may join with no fee. (Academic institutions still need to have someone with signiture authority sign the membership agreement.) Before signing the agreement, you can familiarize yourself with the Consortium by reading its Governance Document.

You must also read the following Consortium policy documents:

• Hosting a Node: This documents outlines the responsibilities of a site that hosts PlanetLab nodes. All Consortium members (except at the Sponsor level) are expected to host PlanetLab nodes.

• Acceptable Use Policy: This document outlines permitted uses of PlanetLab, and the role each site plays in enforcing these rules.

It is required that you read these two documents before applying for membership.

Step 2: Connect Machines

• 2.1  Read the Technical Contact's Guide. If there are network administrators at your site that might be involved in supporting your PlanetLab nodes, have them read the Technical Contact's Guide as well. Note that your site will not be listed and your accounts cannot be created until step 2.5 (below) has been completed by the site and the information is verified against the approved membership agreement.

• 2.2  Acquire at least two machines that meet the minimum hardware requirements. We strongly recommend selecting machines from the list of machines that are known to work. We cannot ensure that machines that have not been certified will run the PlanetLab software. Note that the installation of PlanetLab software on these machines will completely initialize the hard disk, destroying any information already existing on them.

• 2.3  For each of the above machines, get static IP addresses (whether assigned via DHCP or manually) and DNS entries (forward and reverse). Machines must be outside firewalls, not NAT'ed, and be subject to as few traffic restrictions as possible. (The Hosting a Node document describes these requirements in more detail.)

• 2.4  Provide a "remote reboot" service for when machines are not accessible through the network. The preferred method is to purchase a network addressable power strip (you can get a four outlet strip for around $650) and send the address to PlanetLab Support. (You'll also need to send us the password, but don't do that until you contact the support staff with the address, as the support mailing list is open.)

• 2.5  Submit a connect request. (We apologize for the duplication of information between this and the membership agreement, but these two stages are not currently integrated.) When PlanetLab staff verifies the information from this web-based form against the approved membership agreement (usually in 2-3 days), you will receive an e-mail message indicating that you can proceed to the next step.

• 2.6  Install software on each machine, as outlined in the Node Installation section of the Technical Contact's Guide, to connect it to PlanetLab.

Additional Information

If you have additional questions about the PlanetLab Consortium, please send mail to info@planet-lab.org.

If need technical assistance connecting your machines to the PlanetLab infrastructure, please send mail to PlanetLab Support.