Edge computing has been gaining popularity as it defines a model that brings compute and storage closer to where they are consumed by the end-user. By being closer to the end-user a better experience can be provided with a reduction in overall latency, lower bandwidth requirements, lower TCO, more flexible hardware/software model, while also ensuring security and reliability. In this talk, Abhishek discusses aligning Apache CloudStack with this evolving cloud computing model and supporting Edge Zones, which can be also looked upon as lightweight zones, with minimal resources. Abhishek Kumar is a committer of the Apache CloudStack project and has worked on the notable features such as VM ingestion, CloudStack Kubernetes Service, IPv6 support, etc. He works as a Software Engineer at ShapeBlue. ----------------------------------------- CloudStack Collaboration Conference 2022 took place on 14th-16th November in Sofia, Bulgaria and virtually. The day saw a hybrid get-together of the global CloudStack community hosting 370 attendees. The event hosted 43 sessions from leading CloudStack experts, users and skilful engineers from the open-source world, which included: technical talks, user stories, new features and integrations presentations and more.

1. Edge Zones In CloudStack
Get your cloud edged!
Abhishek Kumar
Software Engineer, ShapeBlue

2. Not something we will be discussing!

3. Agenda
• What’s Edge? Why Edge?
• Characteristics of a typical Edge site
• Use-cases
• Zones in CloudStack
• Traditional zone structure and deployment
• Challenges with traditional ACS Zones
• Edge zones in CloudStack
• Structure and deployment
• Supported functionalities
• Core vs Edge
• Demo
• Future work & improvements
• Feedback, suggestions, Q & A

4. Edge
Intelligence
Distributed
2020-
Mobile-
Cloud
Centralized
2005-2020
Client-
Server
Distributed
1980-2000
Mainframe
Centralized
1960-1980
What’s Edge? Why Edge?
Resilience
Cost
effective
Compliance
and Privacy
Context
Awareness

5. What’s Edge? Why Edge?
Edge computing is a type of
network architecture in which
device-generated data is
processed at or near the data
source.

6. What’s Edge? Why Edge?

7. What’s Edge? Why Edge?

8. Characteristics of a typical Edge site
Single host
Low power
device
No shared
storage
Limited
bandwidth
High latency
Harsh
environment
Lower latency
for end user
(or device)
Higher security
and privacy for
the user

9. Use-Cases – Applications on the Edge
Virtual
Network
Functions
•Perimeter Firewalls
•Internet of Things
(IOT) gateways
•Software Defined
WAN (SD-WAN)
•Secure web
gateways (SWGs)
•Content caching
Control
•Industrial
automation
•Point of Sales
Terminals
•Smart Grid
•Telematics
Analytics
•Predictive
equipment
maintenance
•Real-time
inventory analysis
•In-hospital patient
monitoring

10. Fast food chain running a hybrid cloud
• Simultaneously provide cloud services
from on premises (for management,
HR, finances, etc) to the edge (for
inventory management, POS, etc)
• Highly distributed
• Rough environment
• Space constraint
• Outlets will need resilient services
even case of intermittent connectivity
issues with the centralized server
• Low latency application response for a
good UX

11. Factories
• Very rough environment
• Lots of sensor data
• Real-time processing requirements
• Extremely low-latency requirements
• Complex safety requirements

12. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)
Who says your zone needs to be in a
static site?
• Autonomous vehicles
• Augmented Reality (AR)
• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Cloud gaming

13. Outside an Edge Device

14. Inside an Edge Device
Inside
• SDWAN VNF
• Virtual Firewall
• IOT Gateway
• User VM
Outside
• Desktops
• Access Point
• Robot
• Printer
• Sensors
• IP Camera

15. Zones in CloudStack
• Largest organizational unit within a
CloudStack deployment.
• Typically corresponds to a single
datacenter
• Provides physical isolation and
redundancy
• Visible to the end user

16. Structure of a Zone

17. Deployment of a Zone
Add zone
details
Add physical
network
details
Add pod Add cluster
Add host
Add primary
storage
Add secondary
storage
Launch

18. Challenges with traditional CloudStack zone
for edge deployment - Business
Traditional
zone
Resource
intensive
Centralized
Cost
inefficient

19. Challenges with traditional CloudStack zone
for edge deployment - Technical
Traditional
zone
Requirement
for shared
storage
Complex
deployment
System VM
overhead
Dedicated
management
range
Not scalable

20. Where’s the edge?
Traditional “core” zone
Edge zone

21. Edge Zones - The feature
• New feature, adding a new dimension
to CloudStack
• Coming in the next LTS release, 4.18.0
• Brings the concept of core zones and
edge zones
• Draft upstream PR:
https://github.com/apache/cloudstack
/pull/6840

22. Edge Zones
• Lightweight, low-cost zones for edge sites
• Typically allowing compute resource to be
placed closer to the user
• Incorporates the idea of edge computing
• Decentralized and low-latency
computing
• Surmounting resource limitations of
front-end devices
• Sustainable energy consumption
Source: alibabacloud.com

23. Structure of an Edge Zone

24. Deployment of an Edge Zone
Add minimal
zone details
Add physical
network details
Add host
Launch

25. Supported functionalities in Edge Zones
• Almost all the operations which are supported on
KVM hypervisor
With qemu-ev even storage migration between host with
local storageAccess to whole compute - no System
VMs needed
o Console access won’t be available in the first iteration
with the absence of CPVM
• Different networking models - L2 and shared network
o Kubernetes clusters can be deployed over shared
network
• Direct-download templates
o No secondary storage needed. Availability of
dependent functionalities such as snapshot backup,
upload volume and templates

26. Core vs Edge
Core Edge
Primary use Datacenter Remote sites
Hypervisor support Vmware, KVM, XCP-
ng/Xenserver/Citrix
Hypervisor
KVM
Shared storage Yes No
Local storage Yes Yes
Isolated Network Yes No
VPC Yes No
Shared Networks Yes Yes
L2 Networks No Yes

27. Demo: Example edge
zone deployment

28. Future work & improvements
• Support for other hypervisors
• Direct-download templates functionality to be
implemented for them
• VM console access
through KVM hosts and management server
• Support for other networking models
• Facilitate management plane connectivity
• Fine-tuning, polish UI

29. Q & A
Thank You
Reach me at:
Twitter: @shwstppr
Email: abhishek.kumar@shapeblue.com