DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Course Code: DCSL803 Course: Cloud Computing Lab

Program: Final Year Computer Engineering Semester: VIII
SAP ID: 60004180013 Name: Bhavi Dave

EXPERIMENT NO. 5
Storage as a Service (SaaS) using ownCloud

AIM: Implementation of Storage as a Service using ownCloud.

OBJECTIVE: Explore Storage as a Service for remote file access using web interface and
understand security of web server and data directory.

TECHNOLOGY: ownCloud, CentOS, VirtualBox

THEORY: ownCloud is a suite of client–server software for creating and using file hosting
services. ownCloud functionally has similarities to the widely used Dropbox. The primary
functional difference between ownCloud and Dropbox is that ownCloud is primarily server
software. The company's ownCloud.online is a hosted service. The Server Edition of
ownCloud is free and open-source, thereby allowing anyone to install and operate it without
charge on their own private server. ownCloud supports extensions that allow it to work like
Google Drive, with online office suite document editing, calendar and contact
synchronization, and more. Its openness avoids enforced quotas on storage space or the
number of connected clients, instead of having hard limits (for example on storage space or
number of users) limits are determined by the physical capabilities of the server. Desktop
clients for ownCloud are available for Windows, macOS, FreeBSD and Linux, mobile clients
for iOS and Android devices. Files and other data (such as calendars, contacts or bookmarks)
can also be accessed, managed, and uploaded using a web browser. Updates are pushed to all
computers and mobile devices connected to the account. Encryption of files may be enforced
by the server administrator.

The ownCloud server is written in PHP and JavaScript scripting languages. ownCloud is
designed to work with several database management systems, including SQLite, MariaDB,
MySQL, Oracle Database, and PostgreSQL.

owncloud is a software only product and does not offer off-premise storage. This is in
contrast to Dropbox, for example, which offers off-premise storage. The storage capacity for
owncloud has to be provided on user-owned devices. ownCloud files are stored in
conventional directory structures and can be accessed via WebDAV if necessary. User files
are encrypted both at rest and during transit. ownCloud can synchronise with local clients
running Windows, macOS and various Linux distributions. ownCloud users can manage
calendars (CalDAV), contacts (CardDAV) scheduled tasks and streaming media (Ampache)
from within the platform. ownCloud permits user and group administration (via OpenID or
LDAP). Content can be shared by granular read/write permissions between users or groups.
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Alternatively, ownCloud users can create public URLs for sharing files. Furthermore, users
can interact with the browser-based ODF-format word processor, bookmarking service, URL
shortening suite, gallery, RSS feed reader and document viewer tools from within ownCloud.
ownCloud can be augmented with "one-click" applications and connection to Dropbox,
Google Drive and Amazon S3.

Install ownCloud as a virtual machine

An Appliance is a ready-made and prepackaged ‘guest’ operating system that contains all
software and settings you’ll need to run a complex software setup. You can just install it
inside your existing ‘host’ operating system, meaning the Windows, macOS or Linux that
runs on your desktop PC. There are many reasons to install ownCloud as an Appliance in a
virtual machine – one is ease of use, another is speed of deployment.

Instead of setting up the somewhat complex setup made up of, among others, the LAMP
stack containing the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, the MariaDB database
and the PHP scripting language, you can just download it as a pre-packaged solution called
an Appliance.

For our ownCloud Appliance (the ‘guest’ operating system) we built on the Univention
Corporate Server (UCS), an open source linux distribution that suits the needs of a lot of
organizations through built-in support for corporate favourites like Microsoft Active
Directory, Samba 4 and others.

To use the appliance, just install a virtualization software like ESXi, VirtualBox, VMware or
KVM. For the purposes of this manual, we’ll stick to VirtualBox. Download and install
VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads on your machine, it is available
for Windows, macOS, Linux and even Solaris. Then, download the ownCloud VirtualBox
Appliance Image from https://owncloud.com/download-server/ , it’s the .ova file that weighs
in at around 1.7 GB.
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Now start VirtualBox and select “File” -> “Import Appliance” and select the .ova file you just
downloaded.
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Then, check the settings and click ”Import”. If all went well, the appliance will open in a
separate window, while VirtualBox will show a Manager interface showing the status of your
virtual machines, just the one for now. In the separate window, configure your new appliance
– choosing the language, locale and keyboard settings as well as the IP address and the DNS
Server, among others. You can probably stick with the defaults.
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In the “domain setup” screen, you can choose to join an existing UCS machine cluster or a
Microsoft Active Directory Domain. If you don’t know how to do this, stick to “Manage
users and permissions on this system”.
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In the next screen, enter the name of your organization, your email address and set a
password. Be sure to write down or remember the password, it is the root password for your
appliance. Make sure you use a real, working email address you can access for it is used to
activate the Univention Corporate Server so you have access to the Univention App Center.
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An assistant process will then use the data you entered to configure the guest
system.

After the assistant is ready, click finish. In the next screen, the ownCloud appliance tells you
the IP address with which you can access the web interface to manage your new ownCloud –
please write it down!

You can now minimize all the VirtualBox windows on your host system and switch to your
browser. There, open the IP address of the appliance. It will prompt you to activate the
Appliance by uploading your license file. Open your email account, then save the ucs.license
file sent to you by UCS. Upload it, thereby activating the Appliance. After that, you should
see the ownCloud Portal.
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Click on Applications – ownCloud.

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You can then log in as ‘Administrator’ using the password you created in the setup process –
or with the username “owncloud” and the password “owncloud” (don’t forget to change the
passwords and the standard usernames, too).

To create a new user, click on Administrator dropdown menu on right-top corner and select
Users.
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OUTCOME: We successfully explored Storage as a Service for remote file access using
ownCloud web interface and understood security of web server, data directory and user
management.

CONCLUSION: ownCloud is an open source enterprise file sharing platform designed to

provide users with secure access to company files and documents from any device. APIs and
open architecture enable the addition of corporate branding and extension of core
functionality to meet evolving company needs. ownCloud is an open-source file sync, share
and content collaboration software that lets teams work on data easily from anywhere, on any
device. It provides access to your data through a web interface, sync clients or WebDAV
while providing a platform to view, sync and share across devices easily - all under your
control. ownCloud’s open architecture is extensible via a simple but powerful API for
applications and plugins and it works with any storage.

POSTLAB:

Q: Explain Software as a Service (SaaS) along with some examples.

Software as a service (or SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a
service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet,
freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management. SaaS applications are
sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever
the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access
to the application, including security, availability, and performance.

A good way to understand the SaaS model is by thinking of a bank, which protects the
privacy of each customer while providing service that is reliable and secure—on a massive
scale. A bank’s customers all use the same financial systems and technology without
worrying about anyone accessing their personal information without authorisation.

A “bank” meets the key characteristics of the SaaS model:

Multitenant Architecture - A multitenant architecture, in which all users and applications

share a single, common infrastructure and code base that is centrally maintained. Because
SaaS vendor clients are all on the same infrastructure and code base, vendors can innovate
more quickly and save the valuable development time previously spent on maintaining
numerous versions of outdated code.

Easy Customisation - The ability for each user to easily customise applications to fit their
business processes without affecting the common infrastructure. Because of the way SaaS is
architected, these customisations are unique to each company or user and are always
preserved through upgrades. That means SaaS providers can make upgrades more often, with
less customer risk and much lower adoption cost.
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Better Access - Improved access to data from any networked device while making it easier to
manage privileges, monitor data use, and ensure everyone sees the same information at the
same time.

SaaS Harnesses the Consumer Web - Anyone familiar with Amazon.com or My Yahoo! will
be familiar with the Web interface of typical SaaS applications. With the SaaS model, you
can customise with point-and-click ease, making the weeks or months it takes to update
traditional business software seem hopelessly old fashioned.

SaaS Trends - Organisations are now developing SaaS integration platforms (or SIPs) for
building additional SaaS applications. The consulting firm Saugatuck Technology calls this
the “third wave” in software adoption: when SaaS moves beyond standalone software
functionality to become a platform for mission-critical applications.

Examples - Salesforce, Dropbox, Google Application (G Suite)