Eucalyptus manual installation

Well, Eucalyptus does not come with Ubuntu any more from version 11.10. Why? Indeed there is no reason, all we can say, this the benefit of being open, you are free to make your own choice

Anyway, but that doesn’t mean Eucalyptus cannot be used with ubuntu anymore, that’s absurd, isn’t it

Installation detail: Eucalyptus ver. 2.0.2, Ubuntu 11.10, Two physical machines (one with two NICs)

First we are going to setup Cluster Controller (CC). Storage Controller (SC), Cloud Controller and Walrus also going to live in the same box.

sudo apt-get install eucalyptus-cloud eucalyptus-cc eucalyptus-walrus eucalyptus-sc

now we need to install and configure ntp (Network Time Protocol) for the time sync between two machines.

sudo apt-get install ntp

we need to modify the ntp.conf for this setup, but this may not be a good idea for large scale installation.

add the following lines to ntp.conf

server 127.127.1.0
fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10

and restart the ntp service.

finally it’s time to register cluster, storage controller and walrus.

sudo euca_conf --register-cluster cluster1 192.168.1.2
sudo euca_conf --register-walrus 192.168.1.2
sudo euca_conf --register-sc cluster1 192.168.1.2

For Node controller we need few more packages. To be in the safe side, I installed all the recommended and suggested packages.

sudo apt-get install bridge-utils libcrypt-openssl-random-perl libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl libcrypt-openssl-x509-perl open-iscsi powernap qemu-kvm vlan aoetools eucalyptus-nc

node has to be configured with a bridge as the primary interface

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.1.3

bridge_ports eth0
bridge_fd 9
bridge_hello 2
bridge_maxage 12
bridge_stp off

install and configure ntp by adding the following line

server 192.168.1.2

modify the qemu.conf file to make sure libvirt is configured to run as user “eucalyptus”

sudo vim /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

search and set: user = “eucalyptus”

modify the libvirt.conf file

unix_sock_group = "libvirtd"
unix_sock_ro_perms = "0777"
unix_sock_rw_perms = "0770"
auth_unix_ro = "none"
auth_unix_rw = "none"

as the modification is done, so now we have to stop and start libvirt for the changes to take place and also we have to make sure the sockets belong to the correct group

sudo /etc/init.d/libvirt-bin stop
sudo /etc/init.d/libvirt-bin start

chown root:libvirtd /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock
chown root:libvirtd /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock-ro

edit eucalyptus.conf and set private and public interface as br0

at this point the NC setup is done!

now we have to register this node from the CC like we did before

sudo euca_conf --register-nodes 192.168.1.3

and now you have your own private cloud!

tada!!!

The origin of Cloud Computing

Few days ago while I was having a conversation one of my colleagues on Cloud Computing, he suddenly asked me that how cloud was evolved. Well, then I recalled some of discreet information that I looked at before. Whenever, a non-technical person ask me about Cloud, I feel little messy with the info I know. Anyway, the basic question was pretty much same.

What is cloud computing? How cloud computing has been evolved? Who invented cloud computing?

What is cloud computing The answer is almost everywhere on the internet. Wikipedia also has a fantastic definition of cloud computing. Cloud Computing is all about service. In the cloud, everything you are getting or providing has to be as a service. If not, the highest possibility is that you are not dealing with Cloud. So basically the three parts of cloud is IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. The last two terms are pretty much understandable. Perhaps, two simple example is enough to define these two services. When we are talking about PaaS, that means we are talking about something like Google App Engine and when we are talking about SaaS, then we talking about services like Salesforce.com, Google Apps etc.

So here comes the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In a few words, here the vendors or the cloud service providers are outsourcing the hardware over the internet. This internet based computing models are called Cloud Computing.

1960s John McCarthy theorized of an eventual computing outsource model. He wrote that ‘computation may someday be organized as a public utility.’

There is no single term that defines cloud computing. It’s a collection of modern technologies, virtualization, Web Service and Service Oriented Architecture, Web 2.0 and Mashup.

NetCentric tried to trademark the ‘Cloud Computing’ in May 1997, patent serial number 75291765. But for some reason in April 1999 they abandoned it.

In  March 23, 2007 Dell also applied for the patent.

Cloud Computing vs. Cloud Service Though these two sounds similar, but the two terminology have some fundamental differences. In easy words, when the IT specialists are deploying an IT foundation with servers, storage, network, application software and IP networks etc. and making the system ready to provide service to end users, that refers to Cloud Computing. Cloud Service is mostly related to the end users, here the user is getting the services in real time over the internet. Cloud Service mostly deals with pricing, user interface, system interface, APIs etc.

In 1999, Salesforce.com introduced that enterprise application solutions can be provided using websites. Amazon web services came in 2002 and Google Doc in 2006.

Well, it is told, that Microsoft once tried to make the hype back in 2001. They created something called ‘Hailstorm’ and used the phrase ‘cloud’ of computers. It was a matter of surprise that I couldn’t found the product name on wiki. To know more about the fact this article worth a read.

In August 9, 2006 in a Search Engine Strategies Conference, Eric Schmidt pick the word ‘Cloud Computing’. He used it to explain PaaS/SaaS. But it is also told that Eric took control of the term as Amazon was launching EC2 later that same month and which is also known as classic Google FUD.

Security issues There is also a question about the security issues. Reliability, Availability, and Security (RAS) are the three greatest concerns about migrating to the cloud. Reliability is often covered by a service level agreement (SLA).