http://cs264.org

1. CS264: Introduction to Cloud Computing
Justin Riley
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers
Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2. What is Cloud Computing Anyway?
“Cloud computing” is a very fuzzy
term in general
Often includes everything and the
kitchen sink
Three broad categories:
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Image Credit: http://tomlambert.com/cloud-computing-will-rule-the-world/

3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Hardware On Demand

Pay for what you use

Full root access – you control the OS and Software Stack

Ability to scale computing resources up and down

No dealing with racks, networks, power, cooling,
housing, etc.

4. Amazon Web Services

5. Amazon Simple Storage Solution (S3)
“... a simple web service interface that can be used
to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any
time, from anywhere on the web”
Read, write, and delete objects
containing from 1 byte to 5
terabytes of data each.
Number of objects you can store
is unlimited.
Each object stored in a 'bucket'
and retrieved via a unique, user-
assigned key

6. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Resizable Compute Capacity
As much as you need, when you need it.
Scale up or down in minutes.

Complete Control via API
Create, scale, & manage instances programmatically.

Variety of Instance Sizes
CPU Power, Cores, RAM, Disk.

Wide Variety of Pre-built AMIs (Amazon Machine Images)
Hit the ground running with minimal system building effort.
Now: Linux, Windows, and OpenSolaris.

Secure & Flexible Network Security Model
Full control of access for each running instance.
Keypair required for SSH access.

7. Amazon EC2 Instance Types
Micro Standard High High Cluster Cluster
Memory CPU Compute GPU
Extra Extra
Micro Small Large XL 2 XL 4 XL Medium 4 XL 4XL
Large Large
Bits 32/64 32 64 64 64 64 64 32 64 64 64
RAM 7.5
613 MB 1.7 GB 15 GB 17.1 34.2 68.4 1.7 GB 7 GB 23 22
GB
Disk 850 850 1690
420 GB 160 GB 1690 GB 420 350 GB 1690 GB 1690 GB 1690 GB
GB GB GB
Virtual 2 NVIDIA
Cores Tesla
1 1 2 4 2 4 8 2 8 8 “Fermi”
GPUs
EC2
Compute 2 (Burst
Units 1 4 8 6.5 13 26 5 20 33.5 33.5
)
Firewall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
On-Demand Pricing
Linux
Per Hour $0.02 $0.085 $0.34 $0.68 $0.50 $1.00 $2.00 $0.17 $0.68 1.60 2.10
Window
$0.03 $0.12 $0.48 $0.96 $0.62 $1.24 $2.48 $0.29 $1.16 N/A N/A
s

8. “Spot” Instances

Bid for unused AWS capacity

Prices controlled by AWS based on supply and
demand

AWS can terminate Spot Instances without notice

Best approach to temporary requests for large
numbers of servers

Default maximum = 100 servers
(instead of 20 on-demand)

9. Amazon Machine Images (AMI)
Contains an entire operating system and software stack
that can be loaded onto one or more virtual machines
Instance
AMI Instance
Instance
Instance
Instance

10. Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS)

Persistent storage
Volume lifetime is independent of any particular EC2 instance.

General purpose
Raw, unformatted, block device. Use from Linux, Solaris or Windows.

High performance
Equal to or better than local EC2 drive.

High reliability
Built-in redundancy within availability zone.
AFR (Annual Failure Rate) between 0.1% and 1%.

Scalable
Volume sizes ranging from 1 GB to 1 TB.
Easy to create, attach, back up, restore, and delete volumes.

11. Amazon Elastic Block Storage Pricing

EBS Volumes

$0.10 per GB-month
of provisioned storage

$0.10 per 1 million I/O requests

No charge for mounting/unmounting
volume

EBS Snapshots to Amazon S3

$0.14 per GB-month of data stored

$0.01 per 1,000 PUT requests
(when saving a snapshot)

$0.01 per 10,000 GET requests
(when loading a snapshot)

12. Amazon EC2 Regions and Availability Zones
US East Region EU West Region
Availability Availability
Zone A Zone B
Availability Availability
Zone A Zone B
Availability
Zone C US West Region Singapore
Availability Availability Availability Availability
Zone A Zone B Zone A Zone B
Note: Conceptual drawing only. The number of Availability Zones may vary

13. Notes on Using EBS Volumes
●
EBS volumes can only be used with
instances in the same availability zone
they were created in
●
Analogous to a virtual “pen drive”
●
Can only attach a volume to one
instance at a time.

14. Amazon Web Services Console
Web-based management console for all AWS services
http://aws.amazon.com/console

15. Elastic MapReduce

Easily launch Map/Reduce
jobs on Amazon EC2

Uses Hadoop

Define Map/Reduce work
flows either at command line or
from AWS console

Mapper/Reducer code must
be stored on S3

Input/output data stored on S3

16. Introducing StarCluster
Developed at MIT
Under active development
Open source
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/stardev/cluster/
Easy to install and use ($ easy_install starcluster)
Simplifies creation and management of EC2 clusters

17. Why StarCluster?
EC2 provides raw compute power
There’s work to be done to create a usable cluster:

Software installation

AMI creation

AWS / SSH key management and distribution

Persistent Disk Storage and File Sharing

Configuration management

Higher-level management (cluster vs. instance)

18. StarCluster Features
Prebuilt 32 and 64 bit AMIs
Launch a cluster of EC2 instances:

One command (“starcluster”) to rule them all

Passwordless SSH pre-configured

Security group for SSH access

Shared disk volume (NFS)

Preinstalled libraries (OpenMPI, NumPy, SciPy, etc.)
Easy to install, configure, and use

19. StarCluster Architecture / Terminology
AWS Region
Cluster
Cluster
Cluster
Master Node001 NodeN
Client
EC2 EC2 … EC2
EC2 or Desktop
Running Linux
Master
Disk
Config File

20. Prerequisites
Client computer running Mac/Linux
AWS security credentials:

Access Key ID

Secret Access Key

Public Key (Keypair)
Cluster-aware application (something to run)

21. Steps
Install StarCluster on client
Configure StarCluster
Start cluster(s)
Use them
Stop cluster(s)

22. Configure StarCluster
Download your keypair to client
Edit .starcluster/config

23. Edit .starcluster/config
AWS Credentials
Must match KEYNAME
Name and location of file
downloaded in last slide
Name of EC2 keypair

24. Additional Configuration Options
Cluster size
AMI for nodes
Node instance type
Master instance type
AMI for master

25. Start Cluster
<client>: starcluster start mycluster

26. Start Cluster (Output - 1)
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
>>> Using default cluster template: smallcluster
>>> Validating cluster template settings...
>>> Cluster template settings are valid
>>> Starting cluster...
>>> Launching a 5-node cluster...
>>> Launching master node...
>>> Master AMI: ami-d1c42db8
>>> Creating security group @sc-jb1...
Reservation:r-edb9bd87
>>> Launching worker nodes...
>>> Node AMI: ami-d1c42db8
Reservation:r-e1b9bd8b
>>> Waiting for cluster to start...

27. Start Cluster (Output - 2)
>>> Waiting for cluster to start...
>>> The master node is ec2-50-16-41-160.compute-1.amazonaws.com
>>> Setting up the cluster...
>>> Using private key /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem (rsa)
>>> Creating cluster user: sgeadmin
>>> Using private key /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem (rsa)
>>> Using private key /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem (rsa)
>>> Using private key /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem (rsa)
>>> Using private key /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem (rsa)
>>> Configuring scratch space for user: sgeadmin
>>> Configuring /etc/hosts on each node
>>> Configuring NFS...
>>> Configuring passwordless ssh for root
>>> Configuring passwordless ssh for user: sgeadmin
>>> Generating local RSA ssh keys for user: sgeadmin
>>> Installing Sun Grid Engine...
>>> Done Configuring Sun Grid Engine
>>>

28. Start Cluster (Output – 3)
The cluster has been started and configured.
Login to the master node as root by running:
$ starcluster sshmaster jb1
or manually as sgeadmin:
$ ssh -i /home/ec2-user/keys-jbarr-us-east.pem
sgeadmin@ec2-50-16-41-160.compute-1.amazonaws.com
When you are finished using the cluster, run:
$ starcluster stop jb1
to shutdown the cluster and stop paying for service
>>> start took 5.337 mins

29. Check Cluster Status
<client>: starcluster listclusters
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
-----------------------------
jb1 (security group: @sc-jb1)
-----------------------------
Launch time: 2011-01-14T05:43:44.000Z
Zone: us-east-1c
Keypair: keys-jbarr-us-east
Cluster nodes:
master running i-3fad6653 ec2-50-16-41-160.compute-1.amazonaws.com
node001 running i-3bad6657 ec2-184-73-107-91.compute-1.amazonaws.com
node002 running i-35ad6659 ec2-174-129-124-218.compute-1.amazonaws.com
node003 running i-37ad665b ec2-50-16-32-211.compute-1.amazonaws.com
node004 running i-31ad665d ec2-50-16-31-114.compute-1.amazonaws.com

30. Access Cluster
SSH to master node as root:
<client>: starcluster sshmaster mycluster
SSH to any given node:
<client>: starcluster sshnode mycluster node001

31. StarCluster AMI
Ubuntu-based (8.10, 9.04, 10.04)
Automatically installs/configures:

OpenMPI

Oracle Grid Engine (formerly Sun Grid Engine)
Other pre-installed libraries:

ATLAS

LAPACK

NumPy

SciPy

32. Using Sun Grid Engine
Run all commands on master, as user sgeadmin:
<client>: starcluster sshmaster mycluster
<master>: su – sgeadmin
Important commands:

qstat – Examine work queue

qsub – Submit work

qhost – List hosts in grid

33. Sun Grid Engine – Queue and Host Status
Check the queue status using qstat:
Check the host status using qhost:

34. Sun Grid Engine – Running Scripts
-
#!/bin/bash
echo -n "Hello from script running on host "
hostname
time find /lib -type f -exec ls -l {} ;
echo "Goodbye from script"
<master-sge>: qsub -V -cwd exercise.sh
Your job 9 ("exercise.sh") has been submitted
The argument “-V” is used to pass the current
environment to the job once it's executed.

35. Watch Cluster in AWS Console

36. Other StarCluster Commands
listclusters
listinstances
createimage
createvolume (EBS)
listvolumes
showconsole

37. Stop Cluster
AWS charges accrue as long as the cluster is running!
Easy to start, easy to stop, so be parsimonious.
To stop the cluster:
<client>: starcluster stop jb1
StarCluster - (http://web.mit.edu/starcluster)
Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
Please submit bug reports to starcluster@mit.edu
Shutdown cluster jb1 (y/n)? y
>>> Shutting down i-3fad6653
>>> Shutting down i-3bad6657
>>> Shutting down i-35ad6659
>>> Shutting down i-37ad665b
>>> Shutting down i-31ad665d
>>> Removing cluster security group @sc-jb1
<client>:

38. Stop Cluster – Verify in Console

39. Creating EBS Volumes (made easy)
$ starcluster createvolume 100 us-east-1a
Automagically handles:

Launching instance in specified zone

Creating and attaching an EBS volume to the instance

Partitioning/formatting the EBS volume

40. Creating a Custom AMI
Create a custom AMI (image):

Launch instance of AMI

Install and configure desired libraries, tools, apps
$ starcluster createimage i-9c9c9c myimg myimgbucket

41. StarCluster Plugin System
Example Code (ubuntu.py):
Specify your own custom
install routines
Executed after default
cluster setup routines
Plugins currently exist for:
Hadoop (MapReduce),
ipcluster (Ipython cluster),
MPICH2, and more
Example Config:

42. Discussion / Q&A