Single system image: A survey

Single system image is a computing paradigm where a number of distributed computing resources are aggregated and presented via an interface that maintains the illusion of interaction with a single system. This approach encompasses decades of research using a broad variety of techniques at varying levels of abstraction, from custom hardware and distributed hypervisors to specialized operating system kernels and user-level tools. Existing classification schemes for SSI technologies are reviewed, and an updated classification scheme is proposed. A survey of implementation techniques is provided along with relevant examples. Notable deployments are examined and insights gained from hands-on experience are summarized. Issues affecting the adoption of kernel-level SSI are identified and discussed in the context of technology adoption literature

Building and Configuring a Custom Private Cloud Using Consumer Hardware

Pilve kasutamine on tänapäeval moodne trend erinevatele organisatsioonidele. Selle ajendiks on efektiivsus, sest pilv lubab kasutada olemasolevaid ressursse kõige paindlikumal ja efektiivseimal viisil. Bakalaureusetöö aluseks oli kapis seisev madala astme riistvara, mida keegi ei kasutanud. Töö põhipanus on see, et olemasolev riistvara ehitati üles privaatpilveks. Kuna privaatpilve sobib pigem kõrgklassi serveri tasemel riistvara, siis tekitab madala taseme riistvara mõningaid probleeme, kuid töö näitab, et nendest võib üle vaadata, kuna boonuseid on rohkem kui negatiivseid aspekte. Töö lõpptulemuseks on töötav OpenStacki implementatsioon, mida on kerge kasutada igaühel. See on igalt poolt kättesaadav ja piisavalt paindlik täitmaks erinevaid Tartu Ülikooli hajussüsteemide uurimisrühma vajadusi. Saadud infrastruktuur on kergelt skaleeruv ning füüsiliste masinate lisamine võtab vähem kui 30 minutit. Lisaks tagab OpenStack selle, et projektide ja kasutajate haldus on väga kerge ning teadlased saavad teha virtuaalmasinaid vähem kui minutiga.Moving into the cloud is a common trend for organizations to use existing hardware in an efficient way. organizations specifically use private or hybrid clouds. Existing unused hardware was the main problem in this thesis. Contribution of this thesis was a description of how to build and configure OpenStack using consumer grade hardware. Using low end hardware to build a working private cloud does have some disadvantages, but in our case, it was not that critical. In the end, there were more advantages than disadvantages. The end result is a working implementation of OpenStack, which is easy to use, accessible from anywhere in the world and flexible enough to fill the needs of Distributed Systems in University of Tartu platforms. This thesis and configurations in appendix provide a scalable solution - additional compute nodes can be setup with less than 30 minutes. Creation of virtual machines takes less than a minute by using a web interface, which is very easy to understand and use

The Analysis of OpenStack Cloud Computing Platform: Features and Performance, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2015, nr 3

Over the decades the rapid development of broadly defined computer technologies, both software and hardware is observed. Unfortunately, software solutions are regularly behind in comparison to the hardware. On the other hand, the modern systems are characterized by a high demand for computing resources and the need for customization for the end users. As a result, the traditional way of system construction is too expensive, inflexible and it doesn’t have high resources utilization. Present article focuses on the problem of effective use of available physical and virtual resources based on the OpenStack cloud computing platform. A number of conducted experiments allowed to evaluate computing resources utility and to analyze performance depending on the allocated resources. Additionally, the paper includes structural and functional analysis of the OpenStack cloud platform

Virtualization Components of the Modern Hypervisor

Virtualization is the foundation on which cloud services build their business. It supports the infrastructure for the largest companies around the globe and is a key component for scaling software for the ever-growing technology industry. If companies decide to use virtualization as part of their infrastructure it is important for them to quickly and reliably have a way to choose a virtualization technology and tweak the performance of that technology to fit their intended usage. Unfortunately, while many papers exist discussing and testing the performance of various virtualization systems, most of these performance tests do not take into account components that can be configured to improve performance for certain scenarios. This study provides a comparison of how three hypervisors (VMWare vSphere, Citrix XenServer, and KVM) perform under different sets of configurations at this point and which system workloads would be ideal for these configurations. This study also provides a means in which to compare different configurations with each other so that implementers of these technologies have a way in which to make informed decisions on which components should be enabled for their current or future systems

Virtualisation and Thin Client : A Survey of Virtual Desktop environments

This survey examines some of the leading commercial Virtualisation and Thin Client technologies. Reference is made to a number of academic research sources and to prominent industry specialists and commentators. A basic virtualisation Laboratory model is assembled to demonstrate fundamental Thin Client operations and to clarify potential problem areas

Challenges in real-time virtualization and predictable cloud computing

Cloud computing and virtualization technology have revolutionized general-purpose computing applications in the past decade. The cloud paradigm offers advantages through reduction of operation costs, server consolidation, flexible system configuration and elastic resource provisioning. However, despite the success of cloud computing for general-purpose computing, existing cloud computing and virtualization technology face tremendous challenges in supporting emerging soft real-time applications such as online video streaming, cloud-based gaming, and telecommunication management. These applications demand real-time performance in open, shared and virtualized computing environments. This paper identifies the technical challenges in supporting real-time applications in the cloud, surveys recent advancement in real-time virtualization and cloud computing technology, and offers research directions to enable cloud-based real-time applications in the future