Complex Questions

Student Name: Aman Singh UID: 21BCS5520

Branch: BE-CSE Section/Group:21BCS_FL_602/B
Semester: 6th Date of Performance: 08/04/2024
Subject Name: Cloud Computing and Distribution Systems Lab
Subject Code: 21CSP-378

Q1. Compare the latest Top 500 list with the Top 500 Green List of HPC systems. Discuss
a few top winners and losers in terms of energy efficiency in power and cooling costs.
Reveal the green- energy winners’ stories and report their special design features,
packaging, cooling, and manage- ment policies that make them the winners. How
different are the ranking orders in the two lists? Discuss their causes and implications
based on publicly reported data.

The latest editions of the TOP500 and Green500 lists provide a fascinating insight into the
current state of high-performance computing (HPC), highlighting the balance between raw
computational power and energy efficiency.

The TOP500 list as of November 2023 is led by the Frontier system at the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in the United States, marking a significant milestone as the only exascale machine
on the list with a performance of 1.194 Exaflops. This system is based on the HPE Cray EX235a
architecture and uses AMD EPYC 64C 2GHz processors along with AMD Instinct MI250X
accelerators. Notably, it boasts a power efficiency rating of 52.59 GFlops/watt, indicating its
exceptional balance of performance and energy efficiency.

Following Frontier, the Aurora system at the Argonne National Laboratory holds the second
spot, with an HPL score of 585.34 PFlops. It's noteworthy that Aurora's current figures are
based on only half of its planned final configuration, with expectations to exceed Frontier's
performance upon completion.

Comparing these rankings with the Green500 list, which prioritizes energy efficiency, reveals
a focus on sustainable computing practices. Systems like Frontier and LUMI highlight the
industry's push towards more environmentally friendly supercomputing options. LUMI, in
particular, stands out for its position as the largest system in Europe and its power efficiency,
showcasing the importance of green computing technologies.

The difference in ranking orders between the TOP500 and Green500 lists underscores the
varying priorities within the HPC community—raw computational power versus energy
efficiency. This dichotomy reflects a broader industry trend towards sustainability without
compromising on performance.
Systems leading the Green500 list often feature innovative cooling technologies, such as liquid
or ambient air cooling, and power management policies aimed at reducing energy consumption.
These design features, alongside the use of sustainable energy sources, exemplify the efforts
being made to create more eco-friendly computing environments.

The emphasis on energy-efficient computing is not just a matter of environmental responsibility

but also a practical consideration for reducing operational costs associated with power and
cooling in HPC systems. The advancements and design choices highlighted by the Green500
winners are critical for the future of supercomputing, aiming for a balance between
computational capabilities and sustainable practices.

In summary, the comparison between the TOP500 and Green500 lists reveals a dynamic and
evolving landscape in high-performance computing, where efficiency and sustainability are
becoming as crucial as performance. This shift towards green computing practices is likely to
continue shaping the design and operation of future HPC systems (TOP500) (TOP500).

Q2. Compare China’s Tianhe-1A with the Cray Jaguar in terms of their relative strengths
and weak- nesses in architecture design, resource management, software environment,
and reported applications. You may need to conduct some research to find the latest
developments regarding these systems. Justify your assessment with reasoning and
evidential information.

The Tianhe-1A and Cray Jaguar supercomputers represent significant achievements in the
evolution of high-performance computing, each with its own unique architectural design,
software ecosystem, and range of applications.

Tianhe-1A Architecture:
Tianhe-1A, developed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China,
represents a significant leap in supercomputing with its hybrid architecture combining CPUs
and GPUs for enhanced performance. Specifically, it integrates 14,336 Intel Xeon X5670
processors and 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs, along with 2,048 FeiTeng 1000
SPARCbased processors. The system boasts a theoretical peak performance of 4.701 petaflops
and uses a proprietary high-speed interconnect called Arch, which provides double the
bandwidth of InfiniBand, facilitating rapid data exchange among its components. Tianhe-1A
also employs the SLURM job scheduler to manage its 3,584 blades, 7,168 GPUs, and 14,336
CPUs. The total disk storage is 2 Petabytes, with a total memory size of 262 Terabytes,
organized via a Lustre clustered file system (Wikipedia).

Cray Jaguar:
While specific details on the Cray Jaguar were not directly retrieved in this session, historically,
the Cray Jaguar (later upgraded to Cray XK7 named Titan) was known for its powerful AMD
Opteron CPUs and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs architecture. It featured a high-performance
interconnect and used the Linux operating system, similar to Tianhe-1A. Cray's supercomputers
have been well-regarded for their powerful applications in scientific research, including climate
studies, biological research, and nuclear energy simulations. The programming environment
supported by Cray systems typically includes a rich set of compilers, libraries, and tools
optimized for performance on their architecture.

Software Ecosystem and Applications:

Both Tianhe-1A and Cray systems utilize Linux-based operating systems, ensuring a robust and
flexible environment for a wide range of scientific applications. Tianhe-1A's architecture and
software ecosystem support applications in petroleum exploration and aircraft design,
showcasing its capability to handle complex computations and simulations. This system is also
remarkable for its open access policy, providing services to international clients and
contributing significantly to research in areas such as solar energy through simulations that
push the boundaries of performance (Wikipedia).

Comparative Analysis:
While both systems are designed for high-performance tasks, Tianhe-1A's hybrid CPU-GPU
architecture and the integration of proprietary processors and interconnects highlight China's
strides in developing indigenous technology for supercomputing. The use of GPUs alongside
CPUs in Tianhe-1A is a testament to the evolving landscape of supercomputing, where parallel
processing capabilities are leveraged to achieve greater computational efficiency and
performance. On the other hand, Cray's supercomputers have historically emphasized
scalability, reliability, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies from both CPUs and
GPUs manufacturers, offering a balance of performance and power efficiency for complex
scientific computations.

In summary, Tianhe-1A and Cray Jaguar illustrate different approaches to supercomputing

architecture, reflecting broader trends in the field towards more heterogeneous and specialized
systems capable of supporting a diverse range of scientific applications. Both systems have
made significant contributions to advancing research and understanding in various scientific
fields, underpinned by their respective technological innovations and architectural designs.

Q3. Describe the approaches used to exchange data among the domains of Xen and design
experiments to compare the performance of data communication between the domains.
This is designed to familiarize you with the Xen programming environment. It may
require a longer period of time to port the Xen code, implement the application code,
perform the experiments, collect the performance data, and interpret the results.

To explore data exchange in Xen domains, let's start with an understanding of Xen hypervisor
architecture and its domain communication mechanisms. Xen is an open-source hypervisor
providing powerful, efficient virtualization. It's distinct for its paravirtualization capabilities,
allowing direct communication between virtual machines (VMs) or "domains" for higher
performance in comparison to full virtualization techniques.
Xen Architecture:
Dom0: The control domain with direct access to hardware and responsibility for managing
guest domains (DomUs).
DomU: Unprivileged domains running on the hypervisor, which can be either paravirtualized
(PV) or fully virtualized (HVM) VMs.
Communication Mechanisms:
Shared Memory: A method for inter-domain communication (IDC) allowing multiple domains
to access a common set of pages in memory. It's the foundation for most of the data exchange
in Xen, offering an efficient way to transfer data between domains.
Event Channels: Signaling mechanisms that notify domains about events, such as the
availability of new data in shared memory. They play a critical role in synchronizing access to
the shared memory.
Experiment Design for Data Exchange:
To evaluate the throughput, latency, and scalability of data exchange between Xen domains,
consider the following experimental setup:

Environment Setup: Prepare a Xen hypervisor environment with at least two guest domains
(DomUs) configured. Ensure that both domains have access to shared memory and event
channels for communication.

Data Exchange Mechanism Implementation: Implement a basic data exchange protocol using
shared memory for transferring data and event channels for signaling. This involves allocating
shared memory pages accessible by both sender and receiver domains and using event channels
to notify the receiver domain about the availability of new data.

Throughput Measurement: Design an experiment where increasing sizes of data packets are
transferred from the sender domain to the receiver domain. Measure the total time taken for the
transfer and calculate the throughput.

Latency Measurement: For latency measurements, send a small amount of data (to minimize
the effect of data size on transmission time) and measure the time from when the data is sent
until it is acknowledged by the receiver domain. This requires precise time-stamping and
synchronization between domains.

Scalability Testing: To test scalability, incrementally increase the number of sender and receiver
domains while keeping the data size constant. Measure how throughput and latency vary with
the number of communicating domains.

Data Collection and Analysis: Collect data for throughput, latency, and scalability under
various conditions. Analyze the results to understand the performance characteristics of data
exchange in Xen environments.

Considerations:
Security: Ensure that the shared memory regions are securely allocated and accessed, as
improper configuration can lead to security vulnerabilities.
Synchronization: Proper synchronization mechanisms must be in place to prevent race
conditions and ensure data integrity.
Environment Variability: Be aware that underlying hardware and workload on the hypervisor
can affect the results. Try to maintain a controlled environment for consistent measurements.
This experimental design requires access to a Xen setup and familiarity with Xen's API for
managing domains, shared memory, and event channels. Detailed documentation and
community forums can provide additional guidance on implementing these mechanisms.

By conducting these experiments, you can gain insights into the efficiency and scalability of
inter-domain communication in Xen, providing valuable data for optimizing performance and
resource utilization in virtualized environments.

Q4. Design a large-scale virtual cluster system. This problem may require three students
to work together for a semester. Assume that users can create multiple VMs at one time.
Users can also manipulate and configure multiple VMs at the same time. Common
software such as OS or libraries is preinstalled as templates. These templates enable users
to create a new execution environment rapidly. Finally, you can assume that users have
their own profiles, which store the identification of data blocks.

Designing a large-scale virtual cluster system involves multiple layers of architecture, each
critical for ensuring scalability, efficiency, and ease of management. This system would
leverage technologies such as virtual machines (VMs), containers, and orchestration tools like
OpenStack or Kubernetes to create a flexible and powerful computing environment. Here’s an
outline for such a system:

System Architecture:
Virtualization Layer: At the core of the system is the virtualization layer, responsible for
creating and managing VMs. This could be based on hypervisors like KVM for Linux, which
allows for the creation of VMs that operate independently with virtualized hardware.

Containerization: For more lightweight and efficient deployment, containers can run atop or
alongside VMs. Kubernetes, a container orchestration tool, can manage these containers,
allowing for auto-scaling, load balancing, and self-healing features.

Orchestration and Management: OpenStack, a cloud operating system, can manage large pools
of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a
dashboard or via the OpenStack API. Kubernetes can also play a critical role here, especially
for container orchestration.

Virtual Network Configuration:

Utilize software-defined networking (SDN) to create flexible and scalable network
configurations that can be adjusted as per the cluster's needs without changing physical
hardware.
Network functions virtualization (NFV) could be leveraged to virtualize network services like
firewalls, load balancers, and routers, which are traditionally bound to hardware.
Storage Management:
Implement distributed storage systems, such as Ceph, which integrates well with OpenStack,
offering highly scalable object, block, and file storage services.
For containerized applications, Kubernetes offers dynamic provisioning of storage resources
through Persistent Volumes (PV) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVC), ensuring applications
have access to persistent storage as needed.
Resource Allocation Strategies:
Use OpenStack's Nova for VM scheduling and placement, ensuring efficient utilization of
resources based on predefined policies.
Kubernetes schedules containers based on resource requirements, node availability, and other
constraints, optimizing resource use across the cluster. User Profiles and Software Templates
Management:
OpenStack’s Keystone provides identity services for user management, allowing administrators
to define roles and permissions for access to the cluster resources.
Kubernetes uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to regulate access to resources in a
cluster, offering fine-grained control over who can access what resources.
Common software templates can be managed through OpenStack's Glance for VM images and
Kubernetes ConfigMaps or Secrets for container configurations and sensitive data,
respectively. These allow for the rapid deployment of pre-configured systems or applications.
Considerations for Scalability and Efficiency:
Auto-scaling: Both OpenStack and Kubernetes support auto-scaling. OpenStack can auto-scale
VMs using Heat and Telemetry services, whereas Kubernetes can auto-scale pods based on
metrics like CPU utilization.
High Availability: Ensure the architecture supports high availability of services, with failover
mechanisms for critical components. This could involve redundant instances of services and
data replication across the cluster.
By integrating these components into a cohesive system, the large-scale virtual cluster system
can provide a robust platform for deploying a wide variety of applications, from web services
to complex computational workloads. Open-source tools like OpenStack and Kubernetes not
only offer a rich set of features for managing such a system but also benefit from the support
of active communities, providing updates, security patches, and new features over time.

Q5. Based upon case study https://cloud.google.com/learn/paas-vs-iaas-vs-saas. Check the

AWS cloud web site. Plan a real computing application using EC2, or S3, or SQS,
separately. You must specify the resources requested and figure out the costs charged by
Amazon. Carry out the EC2, S3, or SQS experiments on the AWS platform and report
and analyze the performance results measured.
For this task, let's consider a web application scenario that leverages AWS services for
computing, storage, and queuing. The application will be a photo-sharing service that allows
users to upload, view, and share photos. Here’s how AWS resources could be utilized for this
application:

Application Scenario: Photo-Sharing Service

Compute (EC2): Amazon EC2 instances will serve as the compute layer, hosting the web
servers and the application backend. EC2 instances can be scaled automatically with Auto
Scaling Groups to meet demand.

Storage (S3): Amazon S3 will store uploaded photos, serving as a durable, scalable, and secure
object storage. Thumbnails and original images can be stored in different buckets or folders
with appropriate access controls.

Queuing (SQS): Amazon SQS will manage the queue of photo processing tasks, such as
generating thumbnails or applying image filters. This decouples the upload process from image
processing, improving responsiveness.

Required AWS Resources:

EC2 Instances: Depending on the expected load, you might start with t3.medium instances for
the web server and application backend. Assume two instances for high availability.
S3 Buckets: One bucket for original images and another for thumbnails. Enable versioning and
lifecycle policies to manage objects efficiently.
SQS Queue: A single standard queue for image processing tasks.
Cost Estimation:
Cost estimation will vary based on usage patterns, data transfer, and specific resource needs.
Using the AWS Pricing Calculator, here’s a basic monthly cost estimation:

EC2 (t3.medium): Assuming 2 instances running 24/7 in the US East (N. Virginia) region, with
30 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) EBS volume each.
S3: Assuming 500 GB of storage for originals and 100 GB for thumbnails, with standard access.
SQS: Assuming 1 million requests.
This is a simplified estimate. For detailed pricing, including data transfer costs, S3 requests,
and more specific requirements, you should use the AWS Pricing Calculator.

Implementation Considerations:
Security: Utilize AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to securely control access to
AWS services and resources.
Scalability: Design the application to scale horizontally with load balancers and Auto Scaling
Groups for EC2 instances.
Data Transfer: Consider the costs associated with data transfer, especially if the application
becomes popular and experiences high traffic.
Monitoring and Management: Utilize AWS CloudWatch for monitoring resource usage and
application performance.
By leveraging AWS EC2, S3, and SQS, you can build a robust, scalable photo-sharing service
capable of handling variable workloads with efficiency. Remember, actual implementation
would require an AWS account and may incur costs based on the resources provisioned and the
usage patterns of your application. Always start with a cost estimate and closely monitor your
usage to manage expenses effectively.

Q6. Based upon case study https://cloud.google.com/learn/paas-vs-iaas-vs-saas Consider

two cloud service systems: Google File System and Amazon S3. Explain how they achieve
their design goals to secure data integrity and to maintain data consistency while facing
the problems of hardware failure, especially concurrent hardware failures.

The Google File System (GFS) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) are foundational
technologies in the world of distributed computing and cloud storage. Both are designed to
handle large amounts of data across many machines, but they employ different architectures,
consistency models, and strategies for ensuring data integrity and dealing with hardware
failures.

Google File System (GFS):

Architectural Design:

GFS is built to manage large-scale data across distributed systems. It uses a master-slave
architecture, where a single master manages metadata and operation coordination, while
multiple chunk servers store the actual data in chunks (typically 64MB in size). Data Integrity
and Consistency:

GFS employs a consistency model that accommodates appends and mutations efficiently. It
ensures data consistency through checksums for detecting corrupted data and uses a "record
append" operation to minimize the complexity of writing data concurrently.
Consistency is maintained by a combination of version numbers for each chunk and a lease
mechanism for mutations, ensuring that only one mutation can occur at a time for each chunk.
Hardware Failure Strategies:

GFS assumes that hardware failures are common. It replicates each data chunk across multiple
chunk servers (typically three replicas) to ensure reliability and availability. In the event of a
failure, the system automatically recreates the lost replica using one of the existing replicas.
Amazon S3:
Architectural Design:
S3 provides a simple web services interface to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any
time, from anywhere on the web. It is designed to offer scalability, high availability, and low
latency at commodity costs.
S3 organizes data in buckets and objects. Each object is stored in a highly available and durable
storage infrastructure designed for mission-critical and primary data storage. Data Integrity and
Consistency:

S3 provides comprehensive data integrity mechanisms, including checksums for data blocks to
detect corruption, and automatically repairs any detected corruption. S3 also offers strong
consistency, ensuring that once a write is successful, the data is immediately accessible for
reading.
S3’s consistency model guarantees that updates are atomic, meaning an update will either fully
succeed or fully fail, with no partial states visible to users.
Hardware Failure Strategies:

S3 is designed to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities. It replicates data across
multiple servers and data centers to ensure high durability and availability. S3 uses several
layers of error correction codes to automatically detect and repair any lost or corrupted data.
Comparison:
Consistency Model: GFS was initially designed with eventual consistency for updates, suitable
for its design era and intended use-cases, whereas S3 has moved towards offering strong
consistency guarantees, which is crucial for many modern applications.
Data Integrity: Both systems use checksums and replication for data integrity, but S3's approach
is more transparent and automatic from the user's perspective.
Hardware Failure Handling: Both systems are designed to handle hardware failures gracefully
without data loss. GFS relies on replication and manual intervention for repairing the system
state, whereas S3 automates replication and repair across multiple geographically distributed
data centers.
In conclusion, both GFS and S3 have been pivotal in the development of distributed file systems
and cloud storage services. While GFS laid the groundwork for distributed storage systems, S3
has built upon and extended these concepts into a highly scalable, reliable, and industry-leading
cloud storage service. The choice between GFS and S3 would typically depend on the specific
requirements of an application, including consistency needs, scalability, and operational
overhead.

Q7. Elaborate on four major advantages of using virtualized resources in cloud

computing applications. Your discussion should address resource management issues
from the provider’s perspective and the application flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and
dependability concerns by cloud users.

Virtualization in cloud computing offers a transformative approach to managing IT resources,

fundamentally altering how resources are allocated, utilized, and optimized. Here are the key
advantages:
Efficient Resource Management
Virtualization allows for resource pooling, where physical resources are abstracted and pooled
together to serve multiple consumers. This setup maximizes resource utilization by
dynamically allocating and reallocating resources based on demand, without the need for
physical configuration changes. Elasticity, a hallmark of cloud computing, further enhances
this by allowing systems to scale resources up or down automatically in response to workload
changes, ensuring optimal performance and avoiding overprovisioning.

Application Flexibility
With virtualized resources, applications are no longer tied to specific physical resources.
Ondemand resource provisioning means that developers and IT managers can deploy, scale,
and manage applications without worrying about underlying hardware constraints. This
flexibility supports a faster development cycle, enables experimentation, and allows for rapid
scaling of applications to meet user demand.

Cost-effectiveness
Pay-as-you-go pricing models are directly enabled by virtualization. Users only pay for the
resources they consume, transforming large upfront capital expenditures into manageable
operational expenditures. This model not only makes it more affordable for businesses to access
powerful IT resources but also ensures they are not paying for idle infrastructure. It aligns costs
with actual usage, offering significant financial efficiency and agility.

Improved Dependability
Virtualization enhances dependability through improved disaster recovery practices.
Virtualized environments can be replicated and restored more quickly than physical ones. In
the event of a disaster, virtual machines (VMs) can be migrated to another host or a backup
data center with minimal downtime, ensuring business continuity. The ability to snapshot and
clone VMs also allows for rapid recovery and testing of backup systems without impacting live
environments.

Virtualized resources in cloud computing significantly enhance operational flexibility, cost

efficiency, scalability, and reliability. This paradigm shift away from traditional physical
resource management to virtualized environments enables businesses to be more agile,
innovative, and competitive in the digital era.

Q8. Discuss the enabling technologies for building the cloud platforms from virtualized
and automated data centers to provide IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS services. Identify hardware,
software, and networking mechanisms or business models that enable multitenant
services.
Building cloud platforms involves a myriad of enabling technologies that span across hardware,
software, and networking. These technologies work in tandem to provide Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) in a multitenant
environment.

Hardware:
1. Servers: High-performance, scalable servers are crucial for cloud computing. They
provide the computational power required for processing and running applications.
2. Storage: Scalable storage solutions like SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS
(Network Attached Storage) are essential for managing the massive data volumes in the cloud.
3. Virtualization: Technologies like VMWare, Xen, and KVM enable the creation of
virtual machines, allowing multiple operating systems to run on a single physical machine,
thereby optimizing resource utilization.

Software:
1. Hypervisor: This is a fundamental piece of software for virtualization, enabling multiple
operating systems to share a single hardware host. Examples include ESXi, Hyper-V, and Xen.
2. Management and Automation Tools: Software like OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Terraform
helps in managing resources and automating deployment, scaling, and operations of application
containers across clusters of hosts.
3. Cloud Operating Systems: These are designed to operate in cloud environments, supporting
multitenancy, scalability, and network resource management. Examples include CloudStack
and OpenStack.

Networking:
1. SDN (Software Defined Networking): This technology allows cloud providers to manage
networking resources through software, offering flexibility and efficient resource management.
2. Load Balancers: They distribute incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure
no single server becomes overwhelmed, ensuring reliability and performance.
3. VPN and Encryption: Secure connections between the cloud and clients are essential,
ensuring data is safely transmitted over the internet.

Business Models for Multitenancy:

1. Subscription-Based Models: Users pay a subscription fee to access services, software,
or infrastructure.
2. Pay-As-You-Go: Charges are based on the actual usage of services, providing flexibility
and scalability to users.
3. Freemium Models: Basic services are provided for free, while advanced features or
resources are charged.

Q9. Develop an application that uses publish-subscribe to communicate between entities

developed in different languages. Producers should be written in C++, and consumers
should be in Code:. Distributed components communicate with one another using the
AMQP wire format.

Developing an application that communicates using the publish-subscribe model with

producers in C++ and consumers in Code: requires understanding the AMQP (Advanced
Message Queuing Protocol) wire format. Here’s a high-level guide:

1. Choose an AMQP Broker: RabbitMQ is a popular choice that supports AMQP and can act
as the messaging broker between your C++ producers and Code: consumers.
2. Implementing Producers in C++:
- Use a C++ AMQP library, such as `SimpleAmqpClient`, to publish messages.
- Establish a connection to the RabbitMQ server, create a channel, and declare a queue or topic
for messages.
3. Implementing Consumers in Code::
- Use a Code: AMQP library, like `RabbitMQ Code: Client`, to consume messages.
- Similar to C++, establish a connection to the RabbitMQ server, create a channel, and set up a
queue or subscribe to a topic. Use a callback function to process incoming messages.
4. Message Flow:
- Producers send messages to a queue or topic, and consumers listen on that queue or
subscribe to the topic to receive messages.

Q10. Use Taverna to build a workflow linking a module to extract comments on grids and
clouds (or your favorite topic) from Twitter, Flickr, or Facebook. The social networking
APIs can be found at www.programmableweb.com

1. Get API Keys: Register your application with Twitter, Flickr, or Facebook to obtain API
keys.
2. Understand the API: Each platform has its API for accessing comments. Review their
documentation to understand how to make requests.
3. Use Taverna: Taverna is a workflow management system. You can create a workflow
by dragging and dropping components that represent API calls to these platforms. You'll need
to:
- Use the HTTP Client tool in Taverna to make requests to the social media APIs.
- Parse the responses, which are usually in JSON format, to extract the comments. -
Optionally, add analysis or storage components to your workflow, depending on your project
needs.