Scalable server system based on virtual machine duplication in wide area

ABSTRACT

In the Internet world, server systems play a crucial role in continuously supporting the 24/7 operation of the network. However, some problem issues have been identified with the current server systems on the Internet. In this research, we tackle two of these problems, i.e., the processing power and network bandwidths, and proposed solutions on these issues.

In this research, we use virtual machines to solve the above-mentioned problems. Generally, a virtual machine consists of some files which are easy to increase. By duplicating a virtual machine, we can increase processing power of the servers. Likewise, by tapping the wide bandwidth of a high-performance processing server, we can increase the network bandwidth. We call this idea, Server Proliferation.

We designed the Virtual Machine Control Protocol (VMCP) to implement Server Proliferation. VMCP has six basic functions; namely, to authenticate users, to get information, to apply information to a virtual machine, to transfer virtual machine, to control virtual machine, and to provide help functions. We implemented a prototype system of VMCP, called PIYO (ProlIferate and Yield Objects). PIYO is a server-client system. Lastly, we evaluated Server Proliferation by using PIYO.

REFERENCES

• 1: Yuko Kamiya, Toshihiko Shimokawa, "Scalable Server Construction Method Based On Virtual Machine Transfer and Duplication," Proceedings of International Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation IMETI 2008, Vol.2, pp. 273--278, June 2008
• 2: Home of the Xen hypervisor, http://www.xen.org/
• 3: Christopher Clark , Keir Fraser , Steven Hand , Jacob Gorm Hansen , Eric Jul , Christian Limpach , Ian Pratt , Andrew Warfield, Live migration of virtual machines, Proceedings of the 2nd conference on Symposium on Networked Systems Design & Implementation, p.273-286, May 02-04, 2005
• 4: VMware, VMotion Overview, Virtual Machine Migration, Virtualization, http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/vc/vmotion.html
• 5: Koichi Onoue , Yoshihiro Oyama, A Virtual Machine Migration System Based on a CPU Emulator, Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Virtualization Technology in Distributed Computing, p.3, November 17-17, 2006 [doi>10.1109/VTDC.2006.2]
• 6: Hoster-JP, http://grid.hoster.jp/
• 7: Toshihiko Shimokawa, Norihiko Yoshida, Kazuo Ushijima, "Server Selection Mechanism with Pluggable Selection Policies," Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part III (Fundamental Electronic Science), Vol. 89, No. 8, pp. 53--61 July, 2006

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems

General Terms:
Design, Performance

Keywords:
dynamic server increasing, server proliferation, virtual machine