- 11.1 Workload Distribution Architecture
- 11.2 Resource Pooling Architecture
- 11.3 Dynamic Scalability Architecture
- 11.4 Elastic Resource Capacity Architecture
- 11.5 Service Load Balancing Architecture
- 11.6 Cloud Bursting Architecture
- 11.7 Elastic Disk Provisioning Architecture
- 11.8 Redundant Storage Architecture
- 11.9 Case Study Example
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
11.7 Elastic Disk Provisioning Architecture
Cloud consumers are commonly charged for cloud-based storage space based on fixed-disk storage allocation, meaning the charges are predetermined by disk capacity and not aligned with actual data storage consumption. Figure 11.13 demonstrates this by illustrating a scenario in which a cloud consumer provisions a virtual server with the Windows Server operating system and three 150 GB hard drives. The cloud consumer is billed for using 450 GB of storage space after installing the operating system, even though the operating system only requires 15 GB of storage space.
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Figure 11.13 The cloud consumer requests a virtual server with three hard disks, each with a capacity of 150 GB (1). The virtual server is provisioned according to the elastic disk provisioning architecture, with a total of 450 GB of disk space (2). The 450 GB is allocated to the virtual server by the cloud provider (3). The cloud consumer has not installed any software yet, meaning the actual used space is currently 0 GB (4). Because the 450 GB are already allocated and reserved for the cloud consumer, it will be charged for 450 GB of disk usage as of the point of allocation (5).
The elastic disk provisioning architecture establishes a dynamic storage provisioning system that ensures that the cloud consumer is granularly billed for the exact amount of storage that it actually uses. This system uses thin-provisioning technology for the dynamic allocation of storage space, and is further supported by runtime usage monitoring to collect accurate usage data for billing purposes (Figure 11.14).
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Figure 11.14 The cloud consumer requests a virtual server with three hard disks, each with a capacity of 150 GB (1). The virtual server is provisioned by this architecture with a total of 450 GB of disk space (2). The 450 GB are set as the maximum disk usage that is allowed for this virtual server, although no physical disk space has been reserved or allocated yet (3). The cloud consumer has not installed any software, meaning the actual used space is currently at 0 GB (4). Because the allocated disk space is equal to the actual used space (which is currently at zero), the cloud consumer is not charged for any disk space usage (5).
Thin-provisioning software is installed on virtual servers that process dynamic storage allocation via the hypervisor, while the pay-per-use monitor tracks and reports granular billing-related disk usage data (Figure 11.15).
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Figure 11.15 A request is received from a cloud consumer, and the provisioning of a new virtual server instance begins (1). As part of the provisioning process, the hard disks are chosen as dynamic or thin-provisioned disks (2). The hypervisor calls a dynamic disk allocation component to create thin disks for the virtual server (3). Virtual server disks are created via the thin-provisioning program and saved in a folder of near-zero size. The size of this folder and its files grow as operating applications are installed and additional files are copied onto the virtual server (4). The pay-per-use monitor tracks the actual dynamically allocated storage for billing purposes (5).
The following mechanisms can be included in this architecture in addition to the cloud storage device, virtual server, hypervisor, and pay-per-use monitor:
- Cloud Usage Monitor – Specialized cloud usage monitors can be used to track and log storage usage fluctuations.
- Resource Replication – Resource replication is part of an elastic disk provisioning system when conversion of dynamic thin-disk storage into static thick-disk storage is required.