Abstract:

In this work, a cloud infrastructure for virtualizing laboratory computers is presented. The aim is its use for learning optics technologies and computer services within the scope of subjects that are currently taught in the studies of Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Jaen.

The goal of virtualization is to imitate the hardware implementation needed. Using these programs, we can create "virtual machines" where operating systems and software required for the labs can be installed. Some applications to create virtual machines are VMware or Virtualbox.

Using virtualization presents some advantages:
• Security. If an installed application in a virtual machine is vulnerable, the attack will take place only in a restricted area, affecting the associated resources of that
machine.
• Backup system. It can be programmed to back up the entire virtual machine. Also, a limited backup just enough to re-start the machine is possible.
• Robustness to hardware errors. If the physical system (server) hosting the application virtualization and virtual machines fail, another server and virtual machines
copy can substitute them.
• Ease to manage migrations.
• Testing applications installed in the virtual machine without instability problems, since save points can be used within the machine and in this way, it is possible to undo the last performed installation.

A really interesting scenario is the use of virtualization systems using cloud computing. Cloud computing is a current trend that involves the supply of computing resources as services. Major suppliers provide services to multiple customers remotely via Internet.

Three types of services offered in the cloud can be differentiated:
• Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS.
• Platform as a Service, PaaS.
• Software as a Service, SaaS.

The IaaS is based on the outsourcing of data processing machines and storage model. With this model a separation between the perceived infrastructure by users and the real systems where operations are performed is obtained.

In the market there are different pay platforms like VMware or free and open platforms. In this project, it is proposed to use the so-called OpenNebula open platform.
The full open version of this system allows a complete interoperability with the existing components in the infrastructure.

References:
[1] [AWS2013] “What is Cloud Computing?”. Amazon Web Services, 2013.
[2] [Ham2012] Hamdaqa, Mohammad (2012). “Cloud Computing Uncovered: A Research Landscape”. Elsevier Press. pp. 41–85. ISBN 0-12-396535-7.
[3] [Nist2011] “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing”. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2011.
[4] [OpenNebula2014] “OpenNebula documentation”. OpenNebula web site, 2014.
[5] url: http://opennebula.org/documentation

Keywords:

Cloud computing, virtual machine, virtual laboratory.