Besides inheriting the functions provided by a

legacy OS, Cloud OS also possesses essential

CloudIMS CloudSBC Other APP
cloud capabilities: sharing, elasticity, quick deploy-
ment, recycling, monitoring, and measurement.

A cloud operating system is a type of operating system

designed to operate within cloud computing and virtualization
environments. A cloud operating system manages the
operation, execution and processes of virtual machines, virtual VM VM VM
servers and virtual infrastructure, as well as the back-end
hardware and software resources. (source: techopedia.com)
The capabilities of the Cloud OS must be imple- Cloud OS
mented through the usage of VMs.

解决方案

Hardware

Cloud Insights: NFV Theory and Practice

The Cloud OS blends the virtualization and cloudification technologies so that

01 Cloud Operating System

In the NFV architecture, the cloud OS plays a crucial role as
Guest Guest hardware resources can be virtualized for the formation of VMs. A VM relies on
the hardware in different positions.

a nexus. Application VM VM
The following is a definition of the legacy OS:
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer
hardware and software resources and provides common services for Through the virtualization technologies, the compute,
computer programs. (source: Wikipedia) Cloud OS storage, and network resources of the hardware can
be divided into smaller units. Through cloudification
The OS abstracts the hardware through hardware driver and
technologies, virtualized hardware resources form
library files to shield hardware differences. In this way, stan- Operating System Hypervisor
different VMs for the upper-layer applications to use.
dard interfaces and services can be provided for application
software to run on a stable platform. The hardware abstrac-
tion enables program developers to focus on software func-
tions without considering hardware differences. The OS also
Compute Storage network
provides rich input and output and the monitoring function of
the system software and hardware status.
Hardware

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 Therefore, Hypervisor is the core component of the Cloud OS. The management component is another important part The business essence cloudification is remote access, customization, and sharing of resources. The cloud services must
of the Cloud OS. provide network-based access and offer access portals at the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS layers. Customization requires that
resource scaling be provided and each layer can be opened up as a service. Customization is realized through virtual
The essence of the cloud technology is flexible resource scheduling for resource migration and scaling. In this way,
resource scheduling, which is consistent with the technical essence. In addition, the cloud architecture must isolate differ-
scale-in and scale-out can be performed and the service system reliability can be ensured.
ent consumers who are sharing the services, deliver resources for different layers, and manage the accounts and rights
According to the architecture design objective, the Cloud OS must be capable of forming a VM by using the virtualized for accessing the resources intended for a specific layer.
resources from different hardware and even from different data centers (DCs) to support the upper-layer applications. In The management component and the Hypervisor comprise the Cloud OS.
this way, applications are constructed on different hardware capabilities. The hardware capabilities come from different
The Hypervisor virtualizes and abstracts hardware resources. The management component combines and manages
physical boards, hosts, and even DCs. The management component of the Cloud OS implements the resource
the virtualized resources for the creation of VMs as the Guest OS.
combination function, that is, VM creation. In addition, the management component offers the VM scale-up, scale-down, A number of vendors have launched their Cloud OS products consisting of open-source or closed-source Hypervisor and
and deletion capabilities, as well as status information required by virtual resource monitoring, management, and other management component. The following figure shows the architecture of the Cloud OS products provided by Huawei,
related functions. Citrix, and VMware. As an emerging field, the NFV is undergoing quick changes, with new concepts proposed one after
another. Therefore, the products from the vendors are subject to constant adjustments.

Guest 1 Guest 2
NFVI

VM 1 VM 2
Cloud OS
Huawei
FusiorSphere
Citrix
XenServer
VMWare
vSphere
Management
Cloud OS
Management OpenStack CloudStack vCenter Server

OpenStack

Hypervisor Hypervisor Hypervisor Hypervisor Hypervisor

Hypervisor
vSphere Hypervisor
Xen KVM Xen ESX/ESXi
(former name)

Hardware
(compute,networking,storage)

Huawei E9000 HP C7000 OceanStor 5500 CloudEngine 6800 ...

In the architecture shown in the preceding figure, virtualization is the prerequisite for cloudification. The resources for
VMs must be virtualized. However, cloudification does not completely rely on virtualization. In some scenarios, the man-
agement component can directly manage the physical hardware and constructs certain special applications on the
physical devices without the assistance of the virtualization layer. In the next chapter, we are going to discuss OpenStack, the most popular management component for Cloud OS.

In the current cloud architecture, resources for all VMs must be virtualized. Therefore, the Hypervisor is mandatory in
the Cloud OS and can operate without the Cloud OS.

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