Elastic management of web server clusters on distributed virtual infrastructures

Abstract

Cluster-based solutions are being widely adopted for implementing flexible, scalable, low-cost and highperformance web server platforms. One of the main difficulties to implement these platforms is the correct dimensioning of the cluster size, so as to satisfy variable and peak demand periods. In this context, virtualization is being adopted by many organizations as a solution not only to provide service elasticity, but also to consolidate server workloads, and improve server utilization rates. A virtualized web server can be dynamically adapted to the client demands by deploying new virtual nodes when the demand increases, and powering off and consolidating virtual nodes during periods of low demand. Furthermore, the resources from the in-house infrastructure can be complemented with a cloud provider (cloud bursting), so that peak demand periods can be satisfied by deploying cluster nodes in the external cloud, on an on-demand basis. In this paper, we analyze the scalability of hybrid virtual infrastructures for two different distributed web server cluster implementations: a simple web cluster serving static files and a multi-tier web server platform running the CloudStone benchmark.