Software rejuvenation in the cloud

TitleSoftware rejuvenation in the cloud
Publication TypeConference Proceedings
Year of Conference2012
AuthorsBruneo, D., F. Longo, A. Puliafito, M. Scarpa, and S. Distefano
Conference NameProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques (SIMUTools)
Pagination8-16
PublisherICST
Conference LocationDesenzano del Garda, Italy, 19-23 March 2012
ISBN Number9781450315104
KeywordsAvailability, cloud computing, Continuous phase type distributions, Continuous time Markov chain, Continuous time systems, Endocrinology, Java programming language, Markov processes, phase type distributions, Rejuvenation, Reliability, Reliability principles, Software rejuvenation, Virtual machine monitors, Virtual reality, Virtualized environment
Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how software rejuvenation can be used in a Cloud environment to increase the availability of a virtualized system composed of a single virtual machine monitor (VMM) on top of which a certain number of virtual machines (VMs) can be instantiated. We start from the assumption that the aging of a VMM increases with the number of VMs it is managing, thus characterizing the problem in terms of dynamic reliability. Therefore, by identifying the age of the VMM with its reliability and based on the conservation of reliability principle, we characterize the time to failure of the VMM through continuous phase type distributions. The system availability is thus modeled by an expanded continuous time Markov chain expressed in terms of Kronecker algebra in order to face the state space explosion and to keep memory of the age reached by the VMM in case the number of the hosted VMs change. Time-based rejuvenation is taken into consideration and the optimal timer is evaluated in order to maximize the VMM availability. Copyright © 2012 ICST.

URLhttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84922767370&partnerID=40&md5=a03b06eec703c94d55c0f4875f181902
DOI10.4108/icst.simutools.2012.247772