Workload-Based Software Rejuvenation in Cloud Systems

TitleWorkload-Based Software Rejuvenation in Cloud Systems
Publication TypeConference Proceedings
Year of Conference2013
AuthorsD., B., D. S., L. F., P. A, and S. M
Conference NameIEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
Volume62
Pagination1072–1085
Keywordscloud computing, Dynamic Availability, Kronecker algebra, phase type distributions, Time-based Rejuvenation
Abstract

Cloud Computing is a promising paradigm able to rationalize the use of hardware resources by means of virtualization. Virtualization allows to instantiate one or more virtual machines (VMs) on top of a single physical machine managed by a virtual machine monitor (VMM). Similarly to any other software, a VMM experiences aging and failures. Software rejuvenation is a proactive fault management technique that involves terminating an application, cleaning up the system internal state, and restarting it in order to prevent the occurrence of future failures. In this work, we propose a technique to model and evaluate the VMM aging process and to investigate the optimal rejuvenation policy that maximizes the VMM availability under variable workload conditions. Starting from dynamic reliability theory and adopting symbolic algebraic techniques, we investigate and compare existing time-based VMM rejuvenation policies. We also propose a time-based policy that adapts the rejuvenation timer to the VMM workload condition improving the system availability. The effectiveness of the proposed modeling technique is demonstrated through a numerical example based on a case study taken from the literature.

DOI10.1109/TC.2013.30