MIXXCLOUD is a cloud environment project that integrates load balancing and auto-scaling using both IaaS and LBaaS models. The project is designed to provide high availability, fault tolerance, and security for modern cloud applications.
The main goals of MIXXCLOUD are to:
- Distribute traffic efficiently: Implement load balancers that evenly distribute incoming requests to multiple server instances.
- Ensure high availability: Use techniques such as the Centralized Agents for Redundancy in Datacenter (CARD) to provide failover capabilities.
- Support auto-scaling: Integrate an interface to scale instances dynamically based on demand.
- Provide multi-tenancy: Allow tenants to create and manage Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), subnets, and instances.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and LBaaS: Offer two load balancing models within the same environment.
- VPC & Subnet Management: Enable tenants to create isolated networks with custom subnets and instances.
- High Availability and Fault Tolerance: Leverage redundant load balancers and health-check mechanisms to maintain service continuity.
- Security: Implement firewall rules, DDoS protection, and IP blacklisting to secure tenant applications.
- Auditability: Log API calls and system events for transparency and debugging.
MIXXCLOUD employs a layered architecture that includes:
- VPCs and Subnets: Isolated layer-3 networks with dedicated Linux bridges and VXLAN overlays for inter-host communication.
- Load Balancers: Two models are supported:
- IaaS Load Balancers: Deployed on the VPC router and distribute traffic using iptables DNAT rules.
- LBaaS Load Balancers: Run at the instance level within a subnet.
- Auto-scaling Integration: APIs allow auto-scalers to add or remove target IPs from the load balancer's pool.
- CARD Mechanism: A centralized agent monitors load balancer health and ensures that endpoint IPs are always assigned to active nodes.
The following example shows how a load balancer distributes incoming traffic (from IP 10.10.10.2 on port 8080) to three backend instances using weighted DNAT rules:
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -p tcp -d 10.10.10.2 --dport 8080 \
-m statistic --mode random --probability 0.33 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.1.106:80
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -p tcp -d 10.10.10.2 --dport 8080 \
-m statistic --mode random --probability 0.5 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.1.103:80
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -p tcp -d 10.10.10.2 --dport 8080 \
-j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.1.102:80Explanation:
These rules show how traffic is probabilistically routed to different backend servers. The --probability flag helps balance load by directing roughly 33% of the traffic to one server, 50% to another, and the remaining traffic to a third server.
MIXXCLOUD includes a CLI tool (built with Python and Click) that allows tenants to manage:
- Tenants and VPCs: Create, list, and delete VPCs.
- Subnets and Instances: Define subnets and launch containerized instances.
- Load Balancers: Configure load balancing rules, add or remove IPs from target groups, and view load balancer status.
The CLI also supports a YAML-based topology file to automate infrastructure creation. For example:
Tenant_name:
VPC_name:
lb:
name: app
type: IAAS
subnets:
- name: S1
cidr: 192.168.45.0/24
servers:
- name: A1
image: zecaro/php-info
vcpu: 1
mem: 1024m
region: east
weight: 1
- name: A2
image: zecaro/php-info
vcpu: 1
mem: 1024m
region: east
weight: 1
- name: S2
cidr: 192.168.46.0/24
servers:
- name: A3
image: zecaro/php-info
vcpu: 1
mem: 1024m
region: east
weight: 1
- name: A4
image: zecaro/php-info
vcpu: 1
mem: 1024m
region: east
weight: 1 Explanation:
This YAML example defines a complete tenant infrastructure in a single file:
-
Tenant Level:
The top-level key (here, "Tenant_name") represents the tenant. -
VPC Definition:
Under the tenant, "VPC_name" defines a Virtual Private Cloud that contains:- A load balancer (
lb) named "app" using the IAAS model. - Multiple subnets.
- A load balancer (
-
Subnet S1:
- CIDR: 192.168.45.0/24
- Servers:
- A1 and A2: Each server uses the "zecaro/php-info" image, has 1 vCPU, 1024 MB of memory, is deployed in the east region, and is assigned a weight of 1 for load balancing.
-
Subnet S2:
- CIDR: 192.168.46.0/24
- Servers:
- A3 and A4: Configured similarly to servers A1 and A2.
Overall, this structure enables you to automatically create a tenant’s environment with a VPC that includes a load balancer and two subnets, each hosting a set of servers. The weight values help determine how traffic is balanced across the servers in each subnet.
- Database: MIXXCLOUD uses MongoDB to store the state of all cloud entities (instances, subnets, VPCs, load balancers).
- Audit Logs: Every API call is logged to ensure accountability and traceability. For instance, API calls for tenant operations are recorded in log files such as
JK_api_log.log.
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/mixxcloud.git cd mixxcloud -
Install dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
-
Launch the CLI:
python mixxcloud_cli.py
-
(Optional) Deploy using a YAML topology file:
python infrastructure.py topology.yaml
- Yo-Che Lee
- Sumalatha Mashetty
- Jay Karan Telukunta
- Deepak Rajendran
MIT License