Who can request an account?

Researchers, educators, developers, and operators from government, industry, and academia ​anywhere in the world can start a DETERlab project to perform experimental cyber security research. DETERlab also serves as a center for interchange and collaboration among security researchers, and as a tool to teaching classes in security. For more information on using DETER for education, please refer to the ​DETER Teacher's Guide.

DETER accounts are grouped by projects, so typically the first step to getting started with DETER is to request a project. If you are a student (graduate or undergraduate), your adviser or instructor should request a project that you can join.

Requesting a Project

To request a project on DETERlab, submit a project description using the DETERlab web interface ​https://www.isi.deterlab.net/reqaccount.php3. You will be asked a number of questions about your project and how you intend to use DETER. Please be as detailed as possible, especially when detailing any possible risks (if you do not provide sufficient detail it may delay approval). Upon submission, your application will be approved by the DETER executive committee; this generally takes a few days. They may contact you and ask for clarification. If you are curious about the progress on your application, you can Contact Us.

Get started now and ​request a new project on DETER!

Getting a User Account

If you submitted a request for a project that has been approved, you have also created a user account for yourself on DETERlab. If you wish to join an existing project, you can simply use the ​Apply for Project Membership form. Your project leader will be informed via email of your join request and will have to log in to approve your account.

The Basics

Once your project has been approved, you can create experiments.

To start an experiment, you'll need to provide an NS file that describes its topology. We've provided a number of sample topologies? that should be enough to get you started.

After your experiment has been created you can swap it in, swap it out, and terminate it. Swapping in allocates nodes and connects them according to the topology file. Swapping an experiment out releases the nodes and LANs that have been allocated to it. Terminating it removes all trace of the experiment from the testbed.

Once your experiment is swapped in, you can access your nodes through SSH?.

See the DeterResources for a more detailed list of our software and further documentation.

Getting Help

If you run into trouble, please contact us and we'll be happy to assist.