Applications, Hypervisor-based Server Virtualization, And Container-based Virtualization

This assignment assesses the following Unit Learning Outcomes; students should be able to demonstrate their achievements in following.

1. Apply socio-technical contexts in modern network applications and management;
2. Utilise common and emerging types of middleware to design and manage networked applications;

Applications of all kinds are critical to the daily operations of enterprises all over the world. While hypervisor virtualization technology has become the standard for managing applications, software components, containers enable IT professionals to install, run, maintain, and upgrade applications and their surrounding environments quickly, consistently, and more efficiently than their hypervisor counterparts. This is making Containers a popular topic for many IT professionals, and is increasing traction in the enterprise.

Write a report addressing following question with the help of figures and example scenarios.

1. What is a Data Centre and discuss different operation performed in data centre, how data centres divided in Different tiers based on what criteria’s? Give example of few famous Australia based Data centres.
2. What is Hypervisor-Based Server Virtualization Technology, its use and explain at least two examples of it. Also, compare both examples based on their features and limitations.
3. What is container-based virtualization and why we need it? Discuss at least two examples of it and also, compare both examples based on their features and limitations.

Demonstration: Students should prepare presentation slides and take screen shots of slide and paste at the end of assignment draft. The tutor will ask each student 2-3 questions from submitted work. The demonstration from each student should not be more than 8 minutes.

Task 1

Write a report covering and detailing above applications while emphasizing on the following aspects:

• Field and Purpose of the application
• Working model of the application
• Scalability issues
• Features and Weaknesses of the application
• Socio-Technical aspects

Task 2

Prepared by: Mr. Ameet Kumar Moderated by: Dr. Fariza Sabrina July, 2018 Further instructions:

- Do not use Wikipedia as neither source nor reference.

- Read articles from the books or the ones published in journals and conferences for each topic and then rewrite those using your own words.

- Use IEEE style referencing, and make sure to properly reference any diagrams/ graphics. Submissions:

Students has to submit only one word document on Moodle which includes task 1 and task 2. At the end of task 1, copy the slides from task 2 and paste it into the same document then upload it onMoodle.

Network applications offer flexibility of data storage, manipulation and capability of having peer to peer communication. Network applications mean processing various programs irrespective of the platform or software’s that are required. This report covers three parts. In the first part it covers a detail study about data centres its uses and working model. The scalability issue along with its features and weaknesses are discussed. The second part deals with the hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, the two examples like KSM and linked clones are analysed, and it is compared with each other. The last part covers the analyses about the topic that is container-based virtualization. The two used container-based servers are discussed, and it is compared with each other.

A data centre is a group of computers that is used to organize process and store a huge amount of information [1]. Nowadays, businesses and organisations completely rely on data centre to store their information and make maximum utilization of all the resources.

The purpose of using data centre is making all the operations and processes of organisation centralized so that data can be accessed by the user from anywhere. Data centre are used by the organisation to enhance the overall security and reliability of information [2].  The purpose of using data centre is to use all the available IT assets in an optimized way so that all the applications could run easily.

The data centre can be seen as an important concept that is used to support many businesses. It adds up flexibility in all the operations by allowing user to deploy new services easily.  It works on the concept of layered approach that helps in improving the scalability, flexibility, performance and maintenance.

It supports the entire web services environment by allowing the organisation to store their information and build secure environment. It minimises the load of the network by storing the information over the cloud network. It enhances the overall step size by working on the capacity plan [3]. They work over private cloud by converting most of the work into automatic. The working motive of data centre is to reduce the computing load of the resources.

The tiers of data centre are divided as per the uptime. The 1 tiers simply uplink to the server and make sure that server do not have any redundant information. The second tier has the redundant capacity component [3]. The third tier offers all the features of above two and additionally it is used for multiple links. The tier 4 has everything in a dual powered mode.

Hypervisor-based Server Virtualization Technology

It is true that initially when, businesses are started it is difficult to determine the size and how far will business grow. If a data centre is built for a lifespan of 5 years but the capacity ends before it then there is no leverage to enhance the performance. Thus, it is difficult to expand a huge amount on building data centre and deciding at initial stage about the size [4]. It is completely unpredictable because the scalability completely depends upon the growth and success of the company.

Data centre offers various advantages to the applications like it guarantees uptime by ensuring that quality will be maintained by minimising the financial penalties [5]. It outsources the flexibility and allows expanding the area by considering the case of expansion. It also improves the cost saving and enhances the business focus.

The weakness faced due to data centre is unpleasant surprises in terms of cost, ownership issues and termination period. It is also important to check data security of the server before relying on it. Apart from that, it is difficult to handle the data centre without any loss. Thus, it is necessary to have replacement of all the services.

The socio technical aspects cover the evaluation of new technologies that outsource the data centre facilities. It is difficult outsourcing the services over the data centre and then retrieving the information [6]. It is difficult to recover the data at time of natural disaster, but it has somewhere saved the overall cost of an organisation. It has also reduced the overall IT management cost.

Examples- Some of the Australian based data centres are Telstra, Pipe Network and Vocus Communication. There are many data centres that are available in Australia and are widely used as it has increased the power and eliminated the issue of redundancy.  Apart from that, data centres are widely available and have enhanced the overall security of the network.

Hypervisor based server virtualization is a way of isolating the environments with the resources like memory, disk, processor and many other network adapters. It can be seen as an abstracted hardware that is used for sharing the hardware with other virtual machines [6]. It can be seen as a software that is used to improve the performance of virtual machines an also coves the overhead associated with each machine.

  The purpose of using hypervisor-based server-based technology is to interact with the hardware that lies below operating system [7]. They are installed on computers so that they can provide a virtualized hardware that is presented by the hypervisor.

Examples of Hypervisor-based Server Virtualization

The hypervisors are used for easy cloning of data services and reduce the replication of data. It is a cost-effective approach and especially used in virtual machines. It allows virtual machines to run on any hardware’s by offering significant amount of storage [8]. It helps in saving the overall storage space. Apart from that, it allows employees to work over remote areas is that they can access their information from anywhere over the internet.

The main advantages of using hypervisor-based server virtualization technology are easier backup and easy disaster recovery. It helps in better business continuity by reducing the implementation cost as it requires fewer servers [8]. It makes all the IT operations efficient by making the virtualization easy.  It helps the organisation to work in a less downtime area with fewer outages and quicker recovery.

The limitations of using hypervisor-based server virtualization are the upfront cost, license consideration and making all the IT staff aware about the virtual environment.

The example of available server-based virtualization technology is KSM that stands for kernel same page merging that permits user to share memory pages ad process on the same server. The other is linked clones that share all the virtual disks so that user can allow same software.

The two hypervisor server virtualizations that are discussed are KSM and liked clones. They differ from each other in many ways [11]. In case of kernel same page merging, it allows hypervisors to share similar memory pages over different processes but on the same server. All such pages are merged at a single location and it offers an efficient way of using the available memory. In case of linked clones, the files are available on a parent VM rather than its own server [9]. To work over linked clones, it is necessary to install VMware on their servers. In case of, KSM requires CPU resources to duplicate the pages by ensuring the information is not lost.  Linked clones are slower as compared to KSM as it has higher load on the host. On the other hand, KSM allow virtualization over host with approx. 16 GB of offering 1 GB memory to each. It offers high level of over commitment that allows to share duplicate memory pages.

The other name of container-based virtualization is containerization or application containerization [10]. It is a technique that is used for deployment of software and its execution. It helps in moving the application to cloud and working over IT operations.

Container-based Virtualization

The purpose of container-based virtualization is to increase the operations in an environment that is different. It can be said as an operating based virtualization that runs within the operating system. It is also called as container based as it runs on the kernel node with various isolated guest machines that are installed on top of it.

It is important to have a container-based virtualisation as it creates problem for the developers to operate over any network. It is a supportive approach that offers a run time environment that enhances flexibility. It helps in attaining maximum storage efficiency as containers work on single infrastructure by allowing operating system to take care of hardware’s [12]. It is used as it speeds up the development and also facilities agile environment services.

The example of container-based visualization that is discussed over here is dockers and Kubernetes. Docker is used to develop an application without worrying about any software dependencies. It is a simple interface that is used to build runtime environment [11]. It allows the applications to run locally by making the entire configurations related bug easy. It also makes publishing of applications easy by allowing applications to distribute them easily.

On the other hand, kubernetes can run on any platform that too anywhere like private or public cloud. It has advanced deployment tactics that support various deployment strategies. It has efficient secret and configuration management [13]. In some cases, it is a complex technology as it has its own concept for debugging and troubleshooting any bugs in the application.

They both work over the container centric platform that allows all the applications to run on one data centre or cloud. It is not like Docker that runs only docker containers. Kubernets are more powerful as compared to docker as it has a very powerful extensible APIs. The scalability is one of the concerns in dockers virtualization which can be resolved in case of Kuberntes. It also maintains proper updates of the micro services. Apart from that it is easy to develop or adapt to changes in case kubernetes. In case of Docker, applications could be developed and deployed easily. It can be easily be distributed over the network by maintaining the security [14]. In case of docker, the platform is quite complex that requires knowledge about Container-based virtualization is becoming critically important for technology developers. The virtualized technologies are used by many organizations. These organizations are beneficial as it helped them to distribute the workload to make the information technology atmosphere more flexible and scalable [15]. Container based virtualisation is been rapidly adopted by large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses.

Conclusion

Conclusion

From this report, it can be concluded that data centre is used by the society to enhance the overall security and reliability of data.  The purpose of using data centre is to make all the available IT assets available in an optimized way so that all the applications could run easily. Data centre face several issues in terms of scalability. In the second part it was found that virtual servers have brought various benefits to the organisation by making all the resources available and saving the overall cost of IT management services. It is a centralised management way that has full capabilities to make all the applications run over a network.  The virtualized technologies are used by many organizations. These organizations are beneficial as it helped them to distribute the workload to make the information technology atmosphere more flexible and scalable.

References

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