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Apache CloudStack is a highly scalable IaaS cloud computing platform that provides an orchestration layer, automating the creation, provisioning, and configuration of IaaS components. CloudStack turns the existing virtual infrastructure into a cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform.
CloudStack works with multiple hypervisors, and a single deployment can contain multiple hypervisor implementations.
CloudStack deployment consist of the Management Server and the resources to be managed. The Management Server itself can be deployed in a multi-node installation where the servers are load balanced. MySQL can be configured to use replication to provide for failover in the event of database loss.
CloudStack offers an administrator web interface used for provisioning and managing the cloud and an end-user web interface that is used for running VMs and managing VM templates. CloudStack also provides a REST-like API interface for the operation, management, and use of the cloud.
The Management Server orchestrates and allocates the resources. It runs in an embedded Jetty server container and requires a MySQL database to store data.
For this paper, a single Management Server is used, and the MySQL database is installed locally on that same VM.
The infrastructure consists of minimum one host running the hypervisor software.
Resources within the cloud are managed as follows:
For more information about the terminologies, see CloudStack Terminology
The following figure shows a high-level logical architecture of CloudStack at zone level:
Figure 6. CloudStack Architecture
Note: For more information, see CloudStack Architecture overview.