Home // International Journal On Advances in Intelligent Systems, volume 2, number 4, 2009 // View article

Automated Dependability Planning in Virtualised Information System

Authors:
Marco D. Aime
Paolo Carlo Pomi
Marco Vallini

Keywords: automatic system configuration; dependability ontology; virtualization.

Abstract:
Virtualisation technologies widely affect information dependability practices, and suggest novel approaches for dependable system configuration. We analyse how to exploit these peculiarities within a tool for semi-automated configuration of virtual information systems. We present the general architecture of the tool, which is the product of previous work focused on traditional information systems, and discuss how to update its configuration strategies when moving to virtual environments. We present the stepwise process that, starting from the model of the target service, computes a set of configuration plans that determine which virtual machines should be deployed, their internal configuration, and their intended interactions. Our tool also generates re-configuration templates to switch between different configuration plans in case of dependability problems or changed requirements. Actually, reaction plans are heavily affected by virtualisation technologies, which permit fast re-allocation and reconfiguration of virtual machines. We finally discuss the integration of our process with virtual machine management systems, in order to perform configuration and re-configuration in fully automated way.

Pages: 457 to 476

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2009. Used with permission.

Publication date: March 17, 2010

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2679