CloudStack: Difference between revisions

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Apache CloudStack is the RCS Virtual Machine (VM) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering for University of Calgary Researchers in order to allow them to quickly deploy VMs to support short term projects. It is intended as a proof of concept or for prototyping environments, where resources are quickly spun up as required. Once the project matures, the expectation would be to transition to a more permanent environment such as I.T. VMware.
Apache CloudStack is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering that allows researchers to quickly deploy virtual machines for research projects. This service is part of Research Computing Services' Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) and is free for all University of Calgary researchers and principal investigators.


Researchers have a great degree of freedom in how they use CloudStack. As such, they are solely responsible for maintaining any VMs they deploy. The expectation is that the owners of the VMs will be patching and doing other maintenance work on a regular basis.
== Use cases ==
CloudStack allows you to create virtual machines for a wide range of workloads and use cases, including:


Note, as the CloudStack deployment is a research environment, it is not intended for long term resilient service provision.
* Running an internal or public facing web site
* Running a database
* Experiment with new software tools
* Test out the latest release of a software package
Please note that CloudStack is offered as a research environment and is supported as such. For workloads that demand high availability and high uptime, this may not be the appropriate choice. Researchers are solely responsible for maintaining any VMs they deploy. The expectation is that the owners of the VMs will be patching and doing other maintenance work on a regular basis.  We will be more than happy to provide guidance on this process.  


==Release Date==
Contact us at [mailto:support@hpc.ucalgary.ca support@hpc.ucalgary.ca] for details.
We expect that CloudStack will be available for UofC researchers at the end of March.
 
==Requesting Access==
=== Differences between RCS HPC and CloudStack ===
Requests to use CloudStack are done though I.T's Service Now request software. The request form is being finalized and further instruction will be forthcoming.
There are some overlaps between the CloudStack offering and our existing High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster environment.
==End User Agreement==
{| class="wikitable"
Please see https://rcs.ucalgary.ca/CloudStack_End_User_Agreement
!
!RCS HPC Cluster
!CloudStack
|-
|CPU intensive workloads
|Yes; 48 CPUs per node, 100's of nodes
|No; 1-8 CPUs per VM
|-
|Memory intensive workloads
|Yes; up to 2TB memory per node
|No; up to 32GB memory per VM
|-
|High storage requirement workloads
|Yes; shared multi-petabyte storage
|No; up to 1TB per account
|-
|Data classification
|Level 1 & 2 (ARC), Level 3 & 4 (MARC)
|Level 1 & 2 only
|-
|Customized software requirements
|Yes; use singularity containers
|Yes
|-
|Custom OS configuration
|No
|Yes
|-
|Persistent software or services
|No; time limited jobs only
|Yes
|-
|Managed environment
|Yes
|No; self managed VMs only
|-
|Research support by analysts
|Yes
|Limited
|}
Not sure if you need a virtual machine or a compute cluster? Is this the "Cloud"? Contact us at [mailto:support@hpc.ucalgary.ca support@hpc.ucalgary.ca] and we will assist you in using this service to support your research goals.
 
== Getting access to CloudStack ==
If you are a researcher or principal investigator, please review our [[CloudStack End User Agreement]] and then request a CloudStack account through [https://ucalgary.service-now.com/it?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=e3c1d6e91be48554cca5ecefbd4bcb6c Service Now].
 
Once your account is ready, please refer to the [[CloudStack User Guide]] for details on using CloudStack.
 
__NOTOC__

Revision as of 16:57, 9 June 2022

Apache CloudStack is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering that allows researchers to quickly deploy virtual machines for research projects. This service is part of Research Computing Services' Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) and is free for all University of Calgary researchers and principal investigators.

Use cases

CloudStack allows you to create virtual machines for a wide range of workloads and use cases, including:

  • Running an internal or public facing web site
  • Running a database
  • Experiment with new software tools
  • Test out the latest release of a software package

Please note that CloudStack is offered as a research environment and is supported as such. For workloads that demand high availability and high uptime, this may not be the appropriate choice. Researchers are solely responsible for maintaining any VMs they deploy. The expectation is that the owners of the VMs will be patching and doing other maintenance work on a regular basis. We will be more than happy to provide guidance on this process.

Contact us at support@hpc.ucalgary.ca for details.

Differences between RCS HPC and CloudStack

There are some overlaps between the CloudStack offering and our existing High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster environment.

RCS HPC Cluster CloudStack
CPU intensive workloads Yes; 48 CPUs per node, 100's of nodes No; 1-8 CPUs per VM
Memory intensive workloads Yes; up to 2TB memory per node No; up to 32GB memory per VM
High storage requirement workloads Yes; shared multi-petabyte storage No; up to 1TB per account
Data classification Level 1 & 2 (ARC), Level 3 & 4 (MARC) Level 1 & 2 only
Customized software requirements Yes; use singularity containers Yes
Custom OS configuration No Yes
Persistent software or services No; time limited jobs only Yes
Managed environment Yes No; self managed VMs only
Research support by analysts Yes Limited

Not sure if you need a virtual machine or a compute cluster? Is this the "Cloud"? Contact us at support@hpc.ucalgary.ca and we will assist you in using this service to support your research goals.

Getting access to CloudStack

If you are a researcher or principal investigator, please review our CloudStack End User Agreement and then request a CloudStack account through Service Now.

Once your account is ready, please refer to the CloudStack User Guide for details on using CloudStack.


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