Virtual appliance size optimization with active fault injection

Virtual appliances store the required information to instantiate a functional Virtual Machine (VM) on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud systems. Large appliance size obstructs IaaS systems to deliver dynamic and scalable infrastructures according to their promise. To overcome this issue, this paper offers a novel technique for virtual appliance developers to publish appliances for the dynamic environments of IaaS systems. Our solution achieves faster virtual machine instantiation by reducing the appliance size while maintaining its key functionality. The new virtual appliance optimization algorithm identifies the removable parts of the appliance. Then, it applies active fault injection to remove the identified parts. Afterward, our solution assesses the functionality of the reduced virtual appliance by applying the-appliance developer provided-validation algorithms. We also introduce a technique to parallelize the fault injection and validation phases of the algorithm. Finally, the prototype implementation of the algorithm is discussed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm through the optimization of two well-known virtual appliances. Results show that the algorithm significantly decreased virtual machine instantiation time and increased dynamism in IaaS systems. © 2012 IEEE

Towards efficient virtual appliance delivery with minimal manageable virtual appliances

Infrastructure as a Service systems use virtual appliances to initiate virtual machines. As virtual appliances encapsulate applications and services with their support environment, their delivery is the most expensive task of the virtual machine creation. Virtual appliance delivery is a well-discussed topic in the field of cloud computing. However, for high efficiency, current techniques require the modification of the underlying IaaS systems. To target the wider adoptability of these delivery solutions, this article proposes the concept of minimal manageable virtual appliances (MMVA) that are capable of updating and configuring their virtual machines without the need to modify IaaS systems. To create MMVAs, we propose to reduce manageable virtual appliances until they become MMVAs. This research also reveals a methodology for appliance developers to incorporate MMVAs in their own appliances to enable their efficient delivery and wider adoptability. Finally, the article evaluates the positive effects of MMVAs on an already existing delivery solution: the Automated Virtual appliance creation Service (AVS). Through experimental evaluation, we present that the application of MMVAs not only increases the adoptability of a delivery solution but it also significantly improves its performance in highly dynamic systems. © 2013 IEEE

Automatic service deployment using virtualisation

Manual deployment of the application usually requires expertise both about the underlying system and the application. Automatic service deployment can improve deployment significantly by using on-demand deployment and self-healing services. To support these features this paper describes an extension the Globus Workspace Service [10]. This extension includes creating virtual appliances for Grid services, service deployment from a repository, and influencing the service schedules by altering execution planning services, candidate set generators or information systems. © 2008 IEEE

Service-oriented production grids and user support

Currently several production Grids offer their resources for academic communities. These Grids are resource-oriented Grids with minimal user support. The existing user support incorporates Grid portals without workflow editing and execution capabilities, brokering with no QoS and SLA management, security solutions without privacy and trust management, etc. They do not provide any kind of support for running legacy code applications on Grids. Production Grids started the migration from resource-oriented Grids to service-oriented ones. The migration defines additional requirements towards the user support. These requirements include solving interoperability among Grids, automatic service deployment, dynamic user management, legacy code support, QoA and SLA-based brokering, etc. This paper discusses some aspects of the user support needed for service-oriented production Grids

Automatic deployment of interoperable legacy code services

The Grid Execution Management for Legacy Code Architecture (GEMLCA) enables exposing legacy applications as Grid services without re-engineering the code, or even requiring access to the source files. The integration of current GT3 and GT4 based GEMLCA implementations with the P-GRADE Grid portal allows the creation, execution and visualisation of complex Grid workflows composed of legacy and nonlegacy components. However, the deployment of legacy codes and mapping their execution to Grid resources is currently done manually. This paper outlines how GEMLCA can be extended with automatic service deployment, brokering, and information system support. A conceptual architecture for an Automatic Deployment Service (ADS) and for an x-Service Interoperability Layer (XSILA) are introduced explaining how these mechanisms support desired features in future releases of GEMLCA

Legacy code support for production grids

In order to improve reliability and to deal with the high complexity of existing middleware solutions, today's production Grid systems restrict the services to be deployed on their resources. On the other hand end-users require a wide range of value added services to fully utilize these resources. This paper describes a solution how legacy code support is offered as third party service for production Grids. The introduced solution, based on the Grid Execution Management for Legacy Code Architecture (GEMLCA), do not require the deployment of additional applications on the Grid resources, or any extra effort from Grid system administrators. The implemented solution was successfully connected to and demonstrated on the UK National Grid Service. © 2005 IEEE

One click cloud orchestrator: Bringing complex applications effortlessly to the clouds

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.Infrastructure cloud systems offer basic functionalities only for managing complex virtual infrastructures. These functionalities demand low-level understanding of applications and their infrastructural needs. Recent research has identified several techniques aimed at enabling the semi-automated management and using applications that span across multiple virtual machines. Even with these efforts however, a truly flexible and end-user oriented approach is missing. This paper presents the One Click Cloud Orchestrator that not only allows higher level of automated infrastructure management than it was possible before, but it also allows end-users to focus on their computational problems instead of the complex cloud infrastructures needed for their execution. To accomplish these goals the paper reveals the novel building blocks of our new orchestrator from the components closely related to infrastructure cloud to the ways virtual infrastructures are modeled. Finally, we show our initial evaluation and study on how the orchestrator fulfills the high level requirements of end-users

Experiences with deploying legacy code applications as grid services using GEMLCA

One of the biggest obstacles in the wide-spread industrial take-up of Grid technology is the existence of a large amount of legacy code programs that is not accessible as Grid Services. On top of that, Grid technology challenges the user in order to intuitively interconnect and utilize resources in a friendly environment. This paper describes how legacy code applications were transformed into Grid Services using GEMLCA providing a user-friendly high-level Grid environment for deployment, and running them through the P-GRADE Grid portal. GEMLCA enables the use of legacy code programs as Grid services without modifying the original code. Using the P-GRADE Grid portal with GEMLCA it is possible to deploy legacy code applications as Grid services and use them in the creation and execution of complex workflows. This environment is tested by deploying and executing several legacy code applications on different sites of the UK e-Science OGSA testbed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005

Enhancing Federated Cloud Management with an Integrated Service Monitoring Approach

Cloud Computing enables the construction and the provisioning of virtualized service-based applications in a simple and cost effective outsourcing to dynamic service environments. Cloud Federations envisage a distributed, heterogeneous environment consisting of various cloud infrastructures by aggregating different IaaS provider capabilities coming from both the commercial and the academic area. In this paper, we introduce a federated cloud management solution that operates the federation through utilizing cloud-brokers for various IaaS providers. In order to enable an enhanced provider selection and inter-cloud service executions, an integrated monitoring approach is proposed which is capable of measuring the availability and reliability of the provisioned services in different providers. To this end, a minimal metric monitoring service has been designed and used together with a service monitoring solution to measure cloud performance. The transparent and cost effective operation on commercial clouds and the capability to simultaneously monitor both private and public clouds were the major design goals of this integrated cloud monitoring approach. Finally, the evaluation of our proposed solution is presented on different private IaaS systems participating in federations. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht