Virtual Machine Consolidation in Cloud Data Centers Using ACO Metaheuristic

In this paper, we propose the AVVMC VM consolidation scheme that focuses on balanced resource utilization of servers across different computing resources (CPU, memory, and network I/O) with the goal of minimizing power consumption and resource wastage. Since the VM consolidation problem is strictly NP-hard and computationally infeasible for large data centers, we propose adaptation and integration of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic with balanced usage of computing resources based on vector algebra. Our simulation results show that AVVMC outperforms existing methods and achieves improvement in both energy consumption and resource wastage reduction

A Survey of Virtual Machine Placement Techniques and VM Selection Policies in Cloud Datacenter

The large scale virtualized data centers have been established due to the requirement of rapid growth in computational power driven by cloud computing model . The high energy consumption of such data centers is becoming more and more serious problem .In order to reduce the energy consumption, server consolidation techniques are used .But aggressive consolidation of VMs can lead to performance degradation. Hence another problem arise that is, the Service Level Agreement(SLA) violation. The optimized consolidation is achieved through optimized VM placement and VM selection policies . A comparative study of virtual machine placement and VM selection policies are presented in this paper for improving the energy efficiency

Exploiting user provided information in dynamic consolidation of virtual machines to minimize energy consumption of cloud data centers

Dynamic consolidation of Virtual Machines (VMs) can effectively enhance the resource utilization and energy-efficiency of the Cloud Data Centers (CDC). Existing research on Cloud resource reservation and scheduling signify that Cloud Service Users (CSUs) can play a crucial role in improving the resource utilization by providing valuable information to Cloud service providers. However, utilization of CSUs' provided information in minimization of energy consumption of CDC is a novel research direction. The challenges herein are twofold. First, finding the right benign information to be received from a CSU which can complement the energy-efficiency of CDC. Second, smart application of such information to significantly reduce the energy consumption of CDC. To address those research challenges, we have proposed a novel heuristic Dynamic VM Consolidation algorithm, RTDVMC, which minimizes the energy consumption of CDC through exploiting CSU provided information. Our research exemplifies the fact that if VMs are dynamically consolidated based on the time when a VM can be removed from CDC-a useful information to be received from respective CSU, then more physical machines can be turned into sleep state, yielding lower energy consumption. We have simulated the performance of RTDVMC with real Cloud workload traces originated from more than 800 PlanetLab VMs. The empirical figures affirm the superiority of RTDVMC over existing prominent Static and Adaptive Threshold based DVMC algorithms

Load Balancing Using Dynamic Ant Colony System Based Fault Tolerance in Grid Computing

Load balancing is often disregarded when implementing fault tolerance capability in grid computing. Effective load balancing ensures that a fair amount of load is assigned to each resource, based on its fitness rather than assigning a majority of tasks to the most fitting resources. Proper load balancing in a fault tolerance system would also reduce the bottleneck at the most fit resources and increase utilization of other resources. This paper presents a fault tolerance algorithm based on ant colony system, that considers load balancing based on resource fitness with resubmission and checkpoint technique, to improve fault tolerance capability in grid computing. Experimental results indicated that the proposed fault tolerance algorithm has better execution time, throughput, makespan, latency, load balancing and success rate

Energy-Aware Adaptive Four Thresholds Technique for Optimal Virtual Machine Placement

With the increasing expansion of cloud data centers and the demand for cloud services, one of the major problems facing these data centers is the “increasing growth in energy consumption ". In this paper, we propose a method to balance the burden of virtual machine resources in order to reduce energy consumption. The proposed technique is based on a four-adaptive threshold model to reduce energy consumption in physical servers and minimize SLA violation in cloud data centers. Based on the proposed technique, hosts will be grouped into five clusters: hosts with low load, hosts with a light load, hosts with a middle load, hosts with high load and finally, hosts with a heavy load. Virtual machines are transferred from the host with high load and heavy load to the hosts with light load. Also, the VMs on low hosts will be migrated to the hosts with middle load, while the host with a light load and hosts with middle load remain unchanged. The values of the thresholds are obtained on the basis of the mathematical modeling approach and the -Means Clustering Algorithm is used for clustering of hosts. Experimental results show that applying the proposed technique will improve the load balancing and reduce the number of VM migration and reduce energy consumption

Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach for Container-based Cloud Applications: The SWITCH and ENTICE Workbenches

Many emerging smart applications rely on the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide solutions to time-critical problems. When building such applications, a software engineer must address multiple Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs), including requirements for fast response time, low communication latency, high throughput, high energy efficiency, low operational cost and similar. Existing modern container-based software engineering approaches promise to improve the software lifecycle; however, they fail short of tools and mechanisms for NFRs management and optimisation. Our work addresses this problem with a new decision-making approach based on a Pareto Multi-Criteria optimisation. By using different instance configurations on various geo-locations, we demonstrate the suitability of our method, which narrows the search space to only optimal instances for the deployment of the containerised microservice.This solution is included in two advanced software engineering environments, the SWITCH workbench, which includes an Interactive Development Environment (IDE) and the ENTICE Virtual Machine and container images portal. The developed approach is particularly useful when building, deploying and orchestrating IoT applications across multiple computing tiers, from Edge-Cloudlet to Fog-Cloud data centres

A comparison of resource allocation process in grid and cloud technologies

Grid Computing and Cloud Computing are two different technologies that have emerged to validate the long-held dream of computing as utilities which led to an important revolution in IT industry. These technologies came with several challenges in terms of middleware, programming model, resources management and business models. These challenges are seriously considered by Distributed System research. Resources allocation is a key challenge in both technologies as it causes the possible resource wastage and service degradation. This paper is addressing a comprehensive study of the resources allocation processes in both technologies. It provides the researchers with an in-depth understanding of all resources allocation related aspects and associative challenges, including: load balancing, performance, energy consumption, scheduling algorithms, resources consolidation and migration. The comparison also contributes an informal definition of the Cloud resource allocation process. Resources in the Cloud are being shared by all users in a time and space sharing manner, in contrast to dedicated resources that governed by a queuing system in Grid resource management. Cloud Resource allocation suffers from extra challenges abbreviated by achieving good load balancing and making right consolidation decision

Fault tolerance grid scheduling with checkpoint based on ant colony system

Task resubmission and checkpoint are among several popular techniques used in providing fault tolerance in grid computing. However, due to the lack of side-by-side comparison, it is not certain of the best technique that would not degrade the system performance in addition to providing fault tolerance capability. This study proposed Dynamic ACS-based Fault Tolerance in grid computing using resubmission to new resource, checkpoint technique and utilization of resource execution history with the aim to reduce execution and task processing time and to increase the success rate in grid environment. The proposed algorithm is compared with other relevant algorithms to measure the performance in terms of execution time, success rate and average processing time. The results suggest that the proposed algorithm with improved task resubmission, checkpoint and extended pheromone update formula gives better performance in managing execution failure as well as resource selection during task assignment or resubmission

Load balancing using dynamic ant colony system based fault tolerance in grid computing

Load balancing is often disregarded when implementing fault tolerance capability in grid computing. Effective load balancing ensures that a fair amount of load is assigned to each resource, based on its fitness rather than assigning a majority of tasks to the most fitting resources. Proper load balancing in a fault tolerance system would also reduce the bottleneck at the most fit resources and increase utilization of other resources. This paper presents a fault tolerance algorithm based on ant colony system, that considers load balancing based on resource fitness with re submission and checkpoint technique, to improve fault tolerance capability in grid computing. Experimental results indicated that the proposed fault tolerance algorithm has better execution time, throughput, make span, latency, load balancing and success rate

Evolutionary computing based QoS oriented energy efficient VM consolidation scheme for large scale cloud data centers using random work load bench

In order to assess the performance of an approach, it is unavoidable to inspect the performance with distinct datasets with diverse characteristics. In this paper we had assessed the system performance with random workbench datasets. A-GA (Adaptive Genetic Algorithm) based consolidation technique has been compared with other consolidation techniques including dynamic CPU utilization techniques, VM (Virtual Machine) selection and placement policies. The proposed consolidation system had exhibited better results in terms of energy conservation, minimal Service Level Agreement (SLA) violation and Quality of Service (QoS) assurance