Distributed Management Task Force Research Articles

Digital forensics cloud log unification: Implementing CADF in Apache CloudStack

Cloud computing is an important step in our era, delivering many advantages in business and our daily life. However, as every new technology, various challenges are brought into light with one of them being the misuse of Cloud computing environments for criminal activities. As such, Cloud service providers have to establish adequate forensic capabilities in order to support forensics investigations in the event of illegal activities in the cloud. In order to help forensics investigations, this paper deals with log format unification in cloud platforms using Distributed Management Task Force's (DMTF) Cloud Auditing Data Federation (CADF) standard. CADF event logging is utilised in the widely used OpenStack, and we have modified the Apache CloudStack platform to become forensically sound. Furthermore, we investigated the existing CloudStack platform along with the proposed CADF event model implemented, with regards to the principles of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on handling digital evidence. The results are provided in this paper as well as an automated parsing tool/CADF event consumer, named C.Lo.D, which is freely available and can be downloaded from Github.

Availability analysis of design configurations to compose virtual performance‐optimized data center systems in next‐generation cloud data centers

SummaryNext‐generation cloud data centers are based on software‐defined data center infrastructures that promote flexibility, automation, optimization, and scalability. The Redfish standard and the Intel Rack Scale Design technology enable software‐defined infrastructure and disaggregate bare‐metal compute, storage, and networking resources into virtual pools to dynamically compose resources and create virtual performance‐optimized data centers (vPODs) tailored to workload‐specific demands. This article proposes four chassis design configurations based on Distributed Management Task Force's Redfish industry standard applied to compose vPOD systems, namely, a fully shared design, partially shared homogeneous design, partially shared heterogeneous design, and not shared design; their main difference is based on the used hardware disaggregation level. Furthermore, we propose models that combine reliability block diagram and stochastic Petri net modeling approaches to represent the complexity of the relationship between the pool of disaggregated hardware resources and their power and cooling sources in a vPOD. These four proposed design configurations were analyzed and compared in terms of availability and component's sensitivity indexes by scaling their configurations considering different data center infrastructure. From the obtained results, we can state that, in general, when one increases the hardware disaggregation, availability is improved. However, after a given point, the availability level of the fully shared, partially shared homogeneous, and partially shared heterogeneous configurations remain almost equal, while the not shared configuration is still able to improve its availability.

EFT: Novel Fault Tolerant Management Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

The main application of wireless sensor networks is monitoring, and the nodes of these networks are located usually in harsh environments. Network management is the most important factor in network operation and efficiency. From the perspective of distributed management task force, management should have FCAPS features. In the FCAPS word, the letter F stands for Fault tolerance, the letter C stands for configuration, the letter A represents the accounting, the letter P represents the performance, and the letter S stands for the security. So the first feature is fault tolerance. This paper proposes a management framework for wireless sensor networks that both increases the quality of fault tolerance and decreases the energy consumption of the network. Due to the very fact that the nature of the relationship between energy consumption and fault tolerance is essentially a trade-off, the proposed framework will bilaterally increase the network lifetime. Based on the results, implementing this framework will noticeably increase fault tolerance and decrease the energy consumption. Moreover, for protocols with cluster heads that change frequently at the end of each round, simulations have shown comparatively more success.

A New Hybrid Fault Tolerance Approach for Internet of Things

In the Distributed Management Task Force, DMTF, the management software in the Internet of things (IoT) should have five abilities including Fault Tolerance, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security. Given the importance of IoT management and Fault Tolerance Capacity, this paper has introduced a new architecture of Fault Tolerance. The proposed hybrid architecture has used all of the reactive and proactive policies simultaneously in its structure. Another objective of the current paper was to develop a measurement indicator to measure the fault tolerance capacity in different architectures. The CloudSim simulator has been used to evaluate and compare the proposed architecture. In addition to CloudSim, another simulator was implemented that was based on the Pegasus-Workflow Management System (WMS) in order to validate the architecture that is proposed in this article. Finally, fuzzy inference systems were designed in a third step to model and evaluate the fault tolerance in various architectures. Based on the results, the positive effect of using various combined Reactive and Proactive policies in increasing the fault tolerance in the proposed architecture has been prominently evident and confirmed.

An Overview of the Most Important Reference Architectures for Cloud Computing

In this paper we have presented the main characteristics of the most important reference architectures designed for the cloud computing environment. Specifically, we have introduced the proposed architectures of the worldwide cloud computing companies like Cisco, IBM and VMware and we also had a look the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reference architecture which is the starting point for all proposed architectures in the field. As one would expect, the provider dependent reference architectures are written is such a way to suit the services and products of the company, while NIST's architecture is a more general model with more comprehensive architectural details that we highlighted in this article. In the end of the article we draw out some conclusions regarding the existing reference architectures for cloud computing.Keywords: Reference Architecture, Cloud Computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).1IntroductionCloud computing is the new term used for utility computing, with emphasis offering IT resources over the Internet, in exchange of storing and operating resources locally. In the existing literature there are a plethora of different reference architectures, models and frameworks for cloud computing. Usually, a reference framework for cloud computing tries to offer the baseline that stands designing some interoperable cloud services and also their integration in the existing infrastructures of the Internet and private corporations. a regular basis, a reference framework should offer a draft or an architectural template that could be used by others that wish to adopt similar solutions. A reference model consists in explaining the concepts and relationships which sustain reference architecture, while the term reference framework refers to both (architecture + model of reference) [1]. A cloud computing architecture of a cloud like solution represents the structure of such a system. The term also refers to conceiving proper documentation of the architectural system of a cloud computing solution, facilitating the communication between the investors, taking initial decisions and it also allows the reuse of the design components and templates for other similar projects [2].A reference model of cloud architecture represents the abstracting of the cloud computing concepts and relationships, which can be used to train organizations and to create standards and guidelines in the purpose of aiding these application concepts. Groups of organizations like DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force) - are the initiators of a wiki page www.cloud-standards.org [3]. Cloud Security Alliance or Open Security Architecture develops reference models for cloud which can be used by different companies in the purpose of adopting new cloud technologies. Also, companies being active in the field (Cisco, IBM, VMware and others), also other federal agencies (GSA and others) are working some reference models of their own which have specific characteristics. Next we will present four of the most important reference architectures in the field:· Reference architecture CISCO - Cisco Cloud Reference Architecture Framework [4]· Reference architecture IBM - IBM CCRA [5]· Reference architecture National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [6]· Reference architecture VMware - Architecting vCloud [7]2 CISCO reference architectureThe CISCO reference architecture is based the cloud definition provided by NIST, in which is stated, shortly, that a cloud represents IT services offered using a network. More precisely, the cloud is a model in which the IT resources and services are abstracted from the infrastructure and are provided on demand and at scale in an environment for multiple tenants. On demand stands for resources which can be supplied and billed for only when they are used. …

Systems and Virtualization Management: Standards and the Cloud. A report on SVM 2013

Hosted by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and collocated with the International Conference on Network and Service Management, SVM 2013 was the seventh International DMTF Academic Alliance Workshop on Systems and Virtualization Management (SVM). SVM 2013 was held in Zurich, Switzerland on October 18, 2013. Featuring seven presentations surrounding cloud, OpenSAF, open standards, and CIM, SVM 2013 also included a joint poster session with another workshop, an invited talk by a guest speaker, a keynote speech given by the DMTF President, Jeff Hilland, and closed with an informal interactive group discussion.

Systems and Virtualization Management : Standards and the Cloud (A report on SVM 2012)

Hosted by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and collocated with the International Conference on Network and Service Management, SVM 2012 was the sixth International DMTF Academic Alliance Workshop on Systems and Virtualization Management. SVM 2012 was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 26, 2012. Featuring presentations surrounding cloud, OVF, open standards, and CIM, SVM 2012 also included a poster session, lightning talks, and a keynote speech given by the DMTF President, Jeff Hilland. This report provides a summary of the highlights that took place at the workshop.

Policy management: leveraging the open virtualization format with contract and solution models

Over the past decade, virtualization technology has taken the world over by storm. This explosion has led the industry to market already existing virtualization technology, also known as infrastructure as a service, with the buzz word cloud computing. There has been much promise for return on investment, leading to significant research and a myriad of innovations in this domain. Despite the best efforts of industry leaders, there are still challenges with respect to enterprise security and policy management. In this article, we present the fundamentals of machine virtualization and simple network virtualization. We then provide a brief overview of network policy management throughout the evolution of virtualization. We then segue into current industry trends and some of its novel innovations. Throughout the article we discuss the challenges with respect to policy management. We finalize by analyzing existing solutions and building on them and those of the Distributed Management Task Force.

Standards and New Technology for Systems and Virtualization Management: A Report on SVM’08

Intended as a forum for active discussions and the foundation of new cooperations, the second international workshop on Systems and Virtualization Management (SVM’08) was held at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching n. Munich, Germany, on October 21st/22nd, 2008. It was jointly organized by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF, see http://www.dmtf.org), which is an industry organization leading the development of management standards for enterprise environments, and the Munich Network Management Team (MNMTeam, see http://www.mnm-team.org), which is a group of researchers from the Munich universities as well as the LRZ that has been established more than 20 years ago and focuses on integrated network, systems, and security management. Systems management has recently seen growing interest in virtualization technology and the need to manage the virtualization of servers, storage, and network resources. The goal of SVM’08 was to illuminate related standards and research issues, covering areas such as:

QoS-aware model driven architecture through the UML and CIM

The specification of Quality of Service (QoS) constraints over software design requires measures that ensure such requirements are met by the delivered product. Achieving this goal is non-trivial, as it involves, at least, identifying how QoS constraint specifications should be checked at the runtime. In this paper we present an implementation of a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) based framework for the runtime monitoring of QoS properties. We incorporate the UML2 superstructure and the UML profile for Quality of Service to provide abstract descriptions of component-and-connector systems. We then define transformations that refine the UML2 models to conform with the Distributed Management Taskforce (DMTF) Common Information Model (CIM) (Distributed Management Task Force Inc. 2006), a schema standard for management and instrumentation of hardware and software. Finally, we provide a mapping the CIM metamodel to a .NET-based metamodel for implementation of the monitoring infrastructure utilising various .NET features including the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface.

VERIFICATION AND PREDICTION OF TIMED PROBABILISTIC PROPERTIES OVER THE DMTF CIM

Understanding nonfunctional aspects of system behavior is an essential component of practical software development and maintenance. Many nonfunctional system properties, such as reliability and availability, involve time and probabilities. In this paper, we present a framework for runtime verification and prediction of timed and probabilistic nonfunctional properties of component-based architectures, built using the Meta-Object Facility and the Distributed Management Task Force's Common Information Model (CIM) standard. We describe a Microsoft .NET-based implementation of our framework. We define a language for describing timed probabilistic behavior based on Probabilistic Computational Tree Logic (PCTL). We provide a formal semantics for this language in terms of observed application execution traces. The semantics is interesting in that it permits checking of required timing behavior both over the overall average of traces and also over local "trends" in traces. The latter aspect of the semantics is achieved by incorporating exponential smoothing prediction techniques into the truth function for statements of our language. The semantics is generic over the aspects of an application that are represented by states and state transitions. This enables the language to be used to describe a wide range of nonfunctional properties for runtime verification and prediction purposes. We explain how statements of our language are used to define precise contracts for system monitoring, through relating the semantics to an extended CIM monitoring infrastructure.

The CIM Metrics Model: Introducing flexible data collection and aggregation for performance management in CIM

We describe new extensions to the CIM Metrics Model, termed BaseMetrics Submodel, whose scope is to define schema extensions capable of specifying and subsequently instantiating new performance measurement data at the runtime of a system. The model has been developed by the Metric Extensions Working Group of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) in which the authors actively participate. The BaseMetrics submodel has been adopted by the CIM Technical Committee and is part of the CIM schema. In addition, we present an extension to the BaseMetrics submodel that allows the definition and aggregation of arbitrary performance data at runtime to address the requirements of service level agreements and workload management systems. Two examples illustrate the applicability of the model to real-life data collection and aggregation scenarios in distributed computing environments.

A middleware architecture for distributed systems management

This paper presents a middleware solution for global management of any kind of distributed system, such as networks of PCs/workstations, clusters or server farms. Our approach lies in an object-oriented software architecture that models all kind of management information using the common information model (CIM) developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). The classes and attributes obtained after the modeling process are mapped to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository. This paper discusses the key features of our middleware that allows that any element (physical, logical, device, user or system) can be managed using a network-oriented and topology-independent approach. A representative example of management domain illustrates the procedures followed to build management applications using our middleware architecture.

Network Management Information Models

Summary In the first part of this paper, a basic introduction to network management is given and the demand for standards and models of management information is addressed. Existing and new network management standards are then classified, and an overview on the Common Information Model CIM and the Web-Based Enterprise Management WBEM is given. Furthermore, classes for a Network Security Service and finally a Firewall Policy Model are proposed. The proposals are CIM extensions for security management and are being discussed with the Distributed Management Task Force DMTF to become a standard.

A directory-hosted network management information model: A CIM/DEN implementation

The building of network-wide network management applications is a largely unaccomplished goal of the communications industry. Currently, two complementary and converging efforts are under way — the Common Information Model (CIM) and the directory enabled networks (DEN) initiatives, now both under the auspices of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). The former defines object-modeling formalisms for specifying a network information model as well as a set of base schemas. The latter defines a model schema that is intended for storage using directory software technology. This paper describes a prototype software implementation of a DEN/CIM system. The prototype produces a Java <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∗</sup> implementation of an information model generated from any schema description presented in CIM's formal modeling language, the managed object format (MOF) syntax. The expected users of this system are modeler components, which communicate with managed devices via the simple network management protocol (SNMP), and client components, which perform application functionality by operating on model objects obtained from a directory.