This document discusses Apache CloudStack, an open-source cloud computing platform for automating deployment and management of large networks of virtual machines. It describes CloudStack as a cloud orchestrator that coordinates existing database, storage, and virtualization resources to provide cloud services like creating and migrating virtual machines. The document outlines some benefits of CloudStack such as being free, compatible with different infrastructure components, reliable, scalable, and with an open-source code base. It also notes some limitations like implementation challenges and undocumented bugs.

1. ORCHESTRATING
A CLOUD WITH
APACHE
CLOUDSTACKGustavo El Khoury Seoane
Jahleel Kerr
Jonne Tuomela
Mahmod AlDwaikat
Sadiq Saif

2. WHAT IS A CLOUD ORCHESTRATOR?
▪ Coordinates existing database, storage and virtualization resources
▪ Provides the actual cloud experience everybody knows
▪ Allows the execution of logically simple tasks (create VM, migrate VM,
create snapshot and such) that require many actions across
components: create VHD file, add database entries, update website
look and feel…
▪ Corresponds to the Remote Management System and (sometimes)
Remote Administration System

3. HOW CAN WE CHOOSE ONE?
▪ Many choices are available, and the comparison can be a bit hazy
▪ Depending on the company’s needs and existing infrastructure,
licensing costs and complexity may become too high
▪ Sometimes, existing solutions may not adapt 100% to the company’s
need and wants

4. ENTER A FREE, OPEN SOLUTION
▪ What if we could use a product that provides:
▪ Complete access, free of cost
▪ High compatibility with the existing infrastructure
▪ Reliability, scalability and fault tolerance
▪ Open-source access to the source code, forking included
▪ If this sounds convenient, Apache Cloudstack may be the product you
should be using

5. SOME OF THE BENEFITS
▪ Really flexible license:
▪ Free of cost, allows modification and redistribution without extra fees (certain
conditions apply, per Apache Licensing)
▪ Compatiblity:
▪ It allows to use, simultaneously, multiple providers of virtualization, storage and
database systems
▪ Works in an ad-hoc manner, with an easy installation and almost no special
requirements
▪ Reliability and scalability:
▪ On simulated environments developed by Citrix, it has been tested with over 1000
hosts, hundreds of storage devices and ~10000 VMs
▪ Provides fault tolerance and HA environments

6. NOT EVERYTHING IS RAINBOW-COLORED
▪ Even though it’s a solid solution, it still has its flaws
▪ Some of the drawbacks include:
▪ Since it’s still in development, implementation can be a bit difficult
▪ Documentation may be a bit limited on certain scenarios
▪ It’s suited mostly for private clouds, since it doesn’t include billing management
▪ Some undocumented bugs!

7. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
▪ For the management/storage server:
▪ CentOS 6.3+ is recommended, but Ubuntu/Debian is also supported
▪ 4GB of RAM, x84 64-bit CPU (the more cores the better)
▪ At least 50GB of storage
▪ At least one NIC (if storage is provided, the more bandwidth the better)
▪ For the Hypervisor host:
▪ HVM support (this is flexible)
▪ 4GB of RAM (system VMs are created)

8. DEMO TIME!
▪ Two stages are being demoed:
▪ Installation stage:
▪ Virtualized networks done
▪ Existing XenServer hosts have been created and configured
▪ Storage server and MySQL databases created and configured
▪ We’ll be demoing the configuration wizard of Cloudstack
▪ Usage stage
▪ With Cloudstack configured, we’ll create a VM