Chapter 13 Open-source cloud
computing solutions
Chen Xu, Zhipeng Gui, Jing LI, Kai Liu, Qunying Huang,
and Myra Bambacus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Objectives
• This chapter introduces four major cloud computing opensource solutions including CloudStack, Eucalyptus,
OpenNebula and Nimbus.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Materials
• Video:
o
Chapter_13-Video_1.mp4
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
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Learning Modules
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Introduction
CloudStack
Eucalyptus
OpenNebula
Nimbus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Introduction to open-source cloud computing
solutions
The architecture of IaaS managed by VIM
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Features provided by VIMs
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Managing and monitoring the life cycle of virtual machines (VMs)
Placing and replacing VMs dynamically on a pool of physical
infrastructure
Scheduling of VMs on physical machines
Providing networking capabilities to enable the VMs to be accessible
through network.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Modules
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Introduction
CloudStack
Eucalyptus
OpenNebula
Nimbus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
CloudStack – Function modules
• CloudStack provides: compute orchestration, Network-as-a-Service, user
and account management, a full and open native API, resource
accounting, and user-friendly User Interfaces (UI).
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
CloudStack - Architecture
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
CloudStack – Features of Architecture
• All resources are tied together through a shared architecture
comprising at least one hypervisor solution.
• CloudStack provides a core segmentation model based on
account management and resource allocation.
• It encompasses core functions such as the user interface and
image management, and allows cloud providers to provide
advanced services such as high availability and load balancing.
• All services are tied together through a series of web service
APIs which fully automate CloudStack to support unique
needs of consumers.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
CloudStack – General characteristics
• Scalability: It supports integration with both software and
hardware firewalls and load balancers to provide additional
security and scalability to a user’s cloud environment, such as
F5 load balancer and Netscaler.
• Cloud model: an IaaS cloud platform.
• Compatibility: Compatible with Amazon EC2 and S3 APIs,
vCloud APIs.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
CloudStack – General characteristics
 Deployment and interface: Web-based interface, command line tools, or a
RESTful API.
 Hypervisors: Vmware vSphere, Citrix XenServer, Xen Cloud Platform
(XCP).
 Reliability: a highly robust and scalable IaaS solution.
 OS support: Linux for managing the management server and computing
nodes.
 Cost: CloudStack itself is free software licensed under the Apache License.
However, costs may be incurred by using a commercial hypervisor.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Modules
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Introduction
CloudStack
Eucalyptus
OpenNebula
Nimbus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Eucalyptus – Function modules
• Eucalyptus based IaaS cloud services give consumers the
ability to run and control virtual machine instances deployed
across a variety of physical resources.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Eucalyptus - Architecture
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Eucalyptus – Features of Architecture
• Eucalyptus provides an IaaS solution to build private or hybrid
clouds.
• By virtualization of physical machines in the data center,
cloud providers can provide collections of virtualized
computer hardware resources, including compute, network,
and storage to cloud consumers.
• Consumers can access the cloud through command line tools
("euca2ools") or through a web-based dashboard such as
Hybridfox. Video: Chapter_13_Video_1.mp4
• Eucalyptus also supports an AWS-compatible API on top of
Eucalyptus for consumers to communicate with AWS.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Eucalyptus – General characteristics
• Scalability: Eucalyptus supports scalability starting with
Eucalyptus 2.0 at two levels: front-end transactional
scalability and back-end resource scalability ("Eucalyptus 2.0",
2013).
• Cloud model: an IaaS cloud platform.
• Compatibility: Eucalyptus provides compatibility with a range
of AWS features: Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, AMI, Amazon S3
and Amazon IAM.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Eucalyptus – General characteristics
• Deployment and interface: Amazon AWS APIs for EC2 and S3.
Euca2ools for interacting with Web services.
• Hypervisors: Xen, KVM and VMware Hypervisors.
• Reliability: Eucalyptus 3 improved the reliability of the IaaS cloud using
automatic failover and failback mechanisms.
• OS support: Eucalyptus 3.2 supports Windows Server 2003 and 2008,
Windows 7 and all Modern Linux Distributions such as RedHat, CentOS,
Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian.
• Cost: Users can choose between the open source free Eucalyptus Cloud
and the priced Eucalyptus Enterprise Cloud.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Modules
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Introduction
CloudStack
Eucalyptus
OpenNebula
Nimbus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – Function modules
• OpenNebula is designed to provide a solution for building
enterprise level data centers and IaaS clouds. Its modular
based architecture allows cloud builders to configure and
implement a diverse range of cloud services whereas
maintains high level of stability and quality.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula - Architecture
Internal architecture
Interfaces
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – Features of Architecture
• The core module manages and monitors virtual resources such as VMs,
virtual networks, virtual storage and images.
• It also handles client requests and invokes corresponding drivers to
perform operations on resources.
• Drivers serve as adapters to interact with middleware.
• Core functions are exposed to end users through a set of tools and APIs.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – General characteristics
• Scalability: OpenNebula has been employed in building large
scale infrastructure as well as highly scalable databases.
• Cloud model: an IaaS cloud platform.
• Compatibility: OpenNebula can be adapted to existing
infrastructure and integrated with various cloud services.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – General characteristics
• Deployment and interface: Cloud providers can develop customized tools
with cloud interfaces. Consumers can use either the Command Line
Interface (CLI) or the SunStone Web Portal to perform most operations,
especially the management of resources.
• Hypervisors: KVM, Xen and VMware
• Reliability: a specialized quality check module, OpenNebula QA, to ensure
the quality of every release.
• OS support: Major Linux and Windows versions are supported.
• Cost: While OpenNebula is a complete free solution, its enterprise
version, OpenNebulaPro is distributed on an annual subscription basis.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Learning Modules
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Introduction
CloudStack
Eucalyptus
OpenNebula
Nimbus
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Nimbus– Function modules
• The initial development of Nimbus system targeted
computing requirements of scientific studies.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Nimbus - Architecture
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – Features of Architecture
• The workspace comprises the front-end, the workspace service, and the
back-end, the VM workspace.
• The VM workspace is deployed onto the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)
node, which is a physical node.
• Once the deployment has been done, consumers can access the cloud
service node via the HTTP interface.
• Cumulus is a crucial component of Nimbus, serving as the front end to the
Nimbus VM image repository.
• Any VM image must be loaded into the Cumulus repository before
booting.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Nimbus – General characteristics
• Scalability: The Cumulus Redirection module of Nimbus manages
scalability. It can be configured to run as a set of replicated hosts to
support horizontal scalability.
• Cloud model: an IaaS cloud platform.
• Compatibility: Cumulus storage extends the Amazon S3 REST API, and is
S3 compatible.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
OpenNebula – General characteristics
• Deployment and interface: Users directly interact with VMs in the node
pool in almost the same way as interacting with a physical machine.
• Hypervisors: KVM, Xen and VMware
• Reliability: The reliability of Nimbus partially depends on the hardware
infrastructure the Cumulus builds on.
• OS support: Major Linux.
• Cost: Therefore there is no cost for the software.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Conclusion
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Conclusion
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Conclusion
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
Questions
1. What are the general features a virtual infrastructure manager (VIM)
should provide?
2. What are the general characteristics of CloudStack?
3. What are the general characteristics of Eucalyptus?
4. What are the general characteristics of OpenNebula?
5. Please describe the major differences between Nimbus and other VIMs
introduced in the chapter.
6. Use an example to illustrate which one of the three VIMs, CloudStack,
Eucalyptus, and OpenNebula, will be the most suitable solution forthe
example.
C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.
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C. Xu, Z. Gui, J. Li, K. Liu, Q. Huang, and M. Bambacus, 2013. Chapter 13 Open-source cloud computing solutions, In Spatial
Cloud Computing, edited by C. Yang, Q. Huang, Z. Li, C. Xu, K. Liu, CRC Press: pp. 223-240.