ARCHIVED: Using IaaS clouds on FutureGrid

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Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing encompasses techniques that have driven major recent advances in information technology that supports elastic, on-demand, "pay as you go" computing as a service. A key technology behind IaaS cloud computing is resource virtualization, as well as cloud middleware that allows managing virtualized resources clusters through service interfaces.

The FutureGrid testbed provides capabilities for users to experiment with open-source cloud middleware and virtualization platforms. A variety of options are available for using these platforms in the testbed. The content below will help you select the FutureGrid capabilities best suited to your goals, and will also provide links to the respective tutorials.

Nimbus clouds

Nimbus is an open-source service package that allows users to run virtual machines (VM) on FutureGrid hardware. You have the option of either uploading your own VM image or customizing an image provided by FutureGrid administrators. When you boot a VM, it is assigned a public IP address (and/or an optional private address), and you are authorized to log in as root via SSH. You can then run services, perform computations, and configure the system as desired.

Nimbus is available across various FutureGrid sites, and the open-source hypervisors Xen and KVM are in use in FutureGrid Nimbus clouds. Nimbus is the recommended platform if you are interested in experiments within a cloud, across clouds, or in clouds not amenable to para-virtualization (since the Nimbus/KVM cloud [alamo] supports "classic" virtual machines).

For tutorials on getting started with Nimbus, see:

OpenStack clouds

OpenStack is a recently open-sourced, IaaS cloud-computing platform founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, and is used widely in industry. It includes the components Compute (Nova), Object Storage (Swift), and Image Service (Glance). OpenStack Nova supports an Amazon Web Services (AWS)-compliant EC2-based web service interface for interacting with the cloud service, and can be used with the same client-side eucatools package that is used with Eucalyptus.

FutureGrid currently features the OpenStack Nova compute cloud. OpenStack Nova is useful for experiments within a cloud, and for comparing cloud middleware stacks.

For tutorials on getting started with OpenStack, see:

Eucalyptus clouds

Eucalyptus is an open-source software platform that implements IaaS-style cloud computing. Eucalyptus provides an Amazon Web Services (AWS)-compliant EC2-based web service interface for interacting with the cloud service. Additionally, Eucalyptus provides services such as the AWS-compliant Walrus and an interface for managing users and images.

Eucalyptus is also available on distributed FutureGrid resources. This is particularly useful if you're interested in experiments within a cloud or across clouds, or for comparing cloud middleware stacks.

For tutorials on getting started with Eucalyptus, see ARCHIVED: Where can I find instructions for using Eucalyptus on FutureGrid? [novice].

Virtual appliances for training and education

The IaaS cloud stacks on FutureGrid allow the use of "virtual appliances" as an environment, where hands-on, executable educational and training modules can be created, shared, and leveraged by the FutureGrid community. Using these appliances, students can deploy virtual machines and virtual private clusters, where they can experiment with various grid- and cloud-computing middleware stacks.

For tutorials on getting started with educational virtual appliances, see:

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Last modified on 2018-01-18 17:19:56.