=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1400/paper7
|storemode=property
|title=OCCIware - A Formal and Tooled Framework for Managing Everything as a Service
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1400/paper7.pdf
|volume=Vol-1400
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/staf/ParpaillonMBDP15
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==OCCIware - A Formal and Tooled Framework for Managing Everything as a Service==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1400/paper7.pdf
OCCIware - A Formal and Tooled Framework
for Managing Everything as a Service
Jean Parpaillon1 , Philippe Merle2 , Olivier Barais1 , Marc Dutoo3 , and Fawaz
Paraiso2
1
Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex,
France
2
Inria Lille - Nord Europe, 40 Avenue Halley, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
3
Open Wide, 151 Boulevard Stalingrad, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
Abstract. The OCCIware project aims at building a comprehensive,
coherent while modular model-driven toolchain for managing any kinds
of cloud resources, especially Data Center as a Service, Deployment as a
Service, Big Data as a Service, and Linked Open Data as a Service. Lever-
aging the Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) and its core model,
the OCCIware toolchain applies a model-driven engineering approach
based on a formal model of cloud resources and systems. This approach
allows for better modularity, clear separation between functional (cloud
resources) and non-functional concerns (security, scalability, reliability,
etc.). The project brings together ten French partners - academics, SMEs,
associations - and is supervised by a Strategic Orientation Committee
of eleven top industrial and academic experts. The OCCIware project
has been selected by French Ministry of Industry and funded by French
Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI).
1 Project Facts and Figures
Name: OCCIware
Call: French Ministry of Industry, “Investissement d’Avenir” (Investment for
Future) programme, 4th “Cloud Computing and Big Data” call.
Source of funding: French “Banque Publique d’Investissement” (Public Bank
for Investment).
Amount of funding: 3,3 Me.
Overall total budget: 5,6 Me.
Man power: 72 men/year.
Project consortium: 10 partners (see Table 1).
Involved people: http://www.occiware.org/bin/view/About/Contributors
Project Website: http://www.occiware.org
Project duration: 36 months.
Current Status: Started from December 2014.
Standardization Impact: supported by Open Grid Forum (OGF) standard
development organization [6].
Support: Five French competitive clusters supporting the project (Systematic,
Minalogic, PICOM, Images & Réseaux, Solutions Communicantes Sécurisées).
Strategic Orientation Committee: The complete list of members is avail-
able at http://www.occiware.org/bin/view/About/Strategic_Orientation_
Committee
Open Source Software Resources: https://github.com/occiware
# Name Type Work Package (bold:
lead)
1 Open Wide SME WP1, all
2 ActiveEon SA SME WP4, all
4 Institut Mines Télécom / Télécom SudParis Academic All
4 Inria Academic WP2, all
5 Linagora GSO SME WP5, all but WP3
6 Obeo SME WP3, all but WP4
7 OW2 Consortium Association WP1 and WP6
8 Pôle Numérique Association All
9 Scalair SME All but WP3
10 Université Jospeh Fourier - Grenoble Academic All but WP3
Table 1. OCCIware Project Partners
2 Project Overview
2.1 Objectives
While cloud computing has become a reality in most IT domains, migrating
existing software to the cloud or developing new innovative added-value cloud
resources still require important R&D efforts. Indeed, cloud computing is plagued
by heavy partitioning between cloud layers, technical implementations and busi-
ness domains. For instance, while actual as well as “de facto” market standards
have appeared in cloud computing, they are still tied to a particular layer: in-
frastructure (IaaS), platform (PaaS) or application (SaaS) [22] - actually mostly
IaaS, and hardly SaaS.
The aim of the FSN Investissements d’Avenir (Cloud & Big Data 4) OCCI-
ware project is to lower cloud computing adoption costs and break up barriers
between its various layers, implementations, domains, by bringing to Open Cloud
Computing Interface (OCCI) from Open Grid Forum (OGF) the power of for-
mal methods, model driven engineering (MDE), and Models@run.time, in order
to design, model, analyse, simulate, develop, deploy and execute every cloud
computing resource as a service.
The OCCIware project aims at providing a comprehensive, coherent while
modular model-driven toolchain for managing any kinds of cloud resources, espe-
cially Data Center as a Service, Deployment as a Service, Big Data as a Service,
and Linked Open Data as a Service. By using a simple resource-oriented meta-
model, the OCCIware toolchain will allow to address any kind of resource-based
software, drastically reducing development time by using Models@run.time ap-
proach [16] and/or code generation while improving overall quality and non-
functional aspects of developed software, thanks to the separation of concerns.
Technically, the OCCIware toolchain is extending the Open Cloud Com-
puting Interface from Open Grid Forum, by turning its core model [24] into a
formal resource-oriented meta-model and designing new models addressing dif-
ferent domains. It also provides an Eclipse engineering framework for designing,
testing and simulating cloud resources. Finally, the OCCIware toolchain includes
a generic runtime for executing such designed cloud resources. In its architecture,
the runtime implements the separation of concerns allowed by the meta-model,
bringing security, reliability and scalability at no cost to developers of cloud
resources.
The OCCIware project will be showcased in four demonstrators targetting
Data Center as a Service, Deployment as a Service, Big Data as a Service, and
Linked Data as a Service. The OCCIware project will be disseminated through
Open Source communities (OW2 Consortium, Eclipse Foundation) and stan-
dardization bodies (OGF, DMTF) with help from eleven top international indus-
trial and academic experts of the OCCIware’s Strategic Orientation Committee.
2.2 Innovations Beyond the State of the Art
Formal methods have been used succesfully in a large variety of domains like
processor checking, embedded and critical systems. Aeolus ANR [13] and Man-
coosi FP7 [21] projects have delivered the most comprehensive formal model of
complex distributed systems. Their project leader is a member of the Strategic
Orientation Committee. The OCCIware project aims at describing these models
thanks to a single formal meta-model. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowl-
edge, formal methods have not been used in the domain of cloud computing. The
OCCIware project aims at proposing the first formal model for designing
and analysing every kind of cloud-based resource-oriented systems.
This formal model will be based on the first-order relational logic and will be
encoded with the Alloy lightweight specification language defined by Pr. Daniel
Jackson from MIT [20]. Thanks to Alloy Analyser [14], we will analyse both the
OCCIware meta-model and models of cloud resources in order to check their
consistency, verify their properties and generate model instances automatically.
Several research projects such as FP7 REMICS [9], FP7 MODAClouds [3],
FP7 SeaClouds [10], FP7 PaaSage [8], SINTEF CloudML [1], Eclipse Winery
[12], StratusML [11], to cite a few, tackled the provisioning and deployment
of multi-cloud applications on existing IaaS and/or PaaS resources through a
model-driven engineering approach. These work do not tackle the design and
execution of new kinds of cloud resources. Unlike the OCCIware project aims at
providing a model-driven engineering approach to manage every kind
of cloud computing resources.
Several cloud computing standards already exist. The DMTF’s Open Virtual-
ization Format (OVF) standard defines a standard packaging format for portable
virtual machine images. The DTMF’s Cloud Infrastructure Management Inter-
face (CIMI) standard defines a RESTful API for managing IaaS resources only
[19]. The OASIS’s Cloud Application Management for Platforms (CAMP) stan-
dard targets the deployment of cloud applications on top of PaaS resources [4].
The OASIS’s Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications
(TOSCA) standard defines a language to describe and package cloud application
artifacts and deploy them on IaaS and PaaS resources [5]. The Eclipse Win-
ery project provides an open source Eclipse-based graphical modelling tool for
TOSCA [12] when the OpenTOSCA project provides an open source container
for deploying TOSCA-based applications [7] [15]. The FP7 SeaClouds project
[10] is based on both OASIS’s CAMP and TOSCA standards. The OGF’s Open
Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) recommendations [25] propose a generic
resource-oriented model [24] for managing any kind of cloud resources, includ-
ing IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Both OVF and OCCI address orthogonal concerns
and then are complementary. OCCI is concurrent to CIMI because both ad-
dress IaaS resource management but OCCI is more general purpose as it can be
used also for any kind of PaaS and SaaS resources. CAMP and TOSCA can use
OCCI-based IaaS/PaaS resources, so these standards are complementary. The
OCCIware project is based on and extending the OCCI recommenda-
tions.
The FUI CompatibleOne [18] [27] and FP7 Contrail [2] projects have used
OCCI recommendations for addressing cloud services interoperability and some
partners of the OCCIware project were already involved in these projects. While
these two projects have successfully achieved their functional goals, the lack of
formal OCCI specifications prevents them to be easily extensible and limits
the automation of their implementations. Turning the OCCI core model into
a formal meta-model then designing a set of standard models out of it is one
objective of the OCCIware project. The OCCIware project will provide a formal
OCCI model supported by a model-driven toolchain facilitating the
design, development, and execution of any kind of OCCI-based cloud
resources.
2.3 OCCIware User Story
The OCCIware project outcomes can be illustrated through the following user
story. Let a fully resource-oriented application “BeRest”. It consumes the follow-
ing resources through REST web services: compute and storage (IaaS), train and
flight timetables (Linked Open Data) and personal calendars (SaaS). It provides
the following service as resources: travel booking.
Thanks to our formal meta-model and its associated domain-specific language
(see Section 3.1), the specifications of resources, including requirements and
produced services can be expressed in an homogeneous way and can be verified
at design time.
The OCCIware engineering studio (see Section 3.2) provides both Eclipse-
based graphical modeler and textual editor to modelize cloud resources of this
application. These tools are then able to expose the application’s cloud resources
through different points of view, adapted to each actor:
– architects for designing the application,
– developers for mapping the design onto implementation,
– CIO for evaluating overall foreseen infrastructure cost.
Finally, the OCCIware runtime (see Section 3.3) is able to execute the ap-
plication, ie mapping resources onto existing services (e.g. Amazon EC2 for
infrastructure resources) and exposing “BeRest” services as OCCI resources.
OCCIware studio tools will be able to configure the runtime for existing features
and/or generating extensions through well-known extension points, for handling
new features.
3 Project Organization and Outcomes
The OCCIware project has been split up to six work packages:
– Transversal activities: Management (WP1) and Communication and Dis-
semination (WP6),
– Technical work packages: Foundations (WP2), Eclipse toolchain (WP3),
and Runtime (WP4),
– Use Cases and Demonstrators (WP5).
In addition to internal steering committee, a Strategic Orientation Committee
has been set up to monitor the adequacy of OCCIware strategy with industrial
needs and scientific rapidly evolving state-of-the-art.
3.1 WP2 - Foundations
Theorical foundations of the project will produce scientific and formal tools,
starting from the OCCI Core Specification. The following outcomes are expected.
The global technical architecture of the project results in a precise de-
scription of components and interfaces between the components developed
in the project. It is planned to update this document with regard to feedback
provided when implementing this architecture.
The OCCI formal model is a formalization of OCCI Core Model. The result
is a proven meta-model and a set of constraints on this meta-model. This
metamodel will be encoded with Alloy.
An OCCI dedicated language will be developed to express both static and
dynamic aspects of the OCCIware models. It may be used for describing
resources, manipulate them and simulate interactions between them.
Various OCCI resource models will be developed to address all OCCIware
use-case requirements, as well as non-functional aspects of the runtime.
3.2 WP3 - Eclipse Toolchain
The Eclipse-based toolchain must help application developers but also CIOs
to embrace the resource-oriented paradigm. The Eclipse Modeling Framework
(EMF) is particularly suited for producing this kind of tools. The Obeo partner,
as a recognized Eclipse expert and active member of the Eclipse community, will
lead these tasks.
First, the OCCI meta-model will be translated into an Ecore meta-model.
Eclipse tools will be leveraged to produce a text editor for the dedicated OCCI
language implemented on top of Eclipse XText4 . As the toolchain is dedicated
not only to developers but also architects, a graphical modeler will be designed
and developed on top of Eclipse Sirius5 . A model-driven simulator will then be
developed on top of CloudSim6 [17]. The link between the modeling environment
and executed applications will be implemented with various code generators or
connectors. Generators will generate runtime artifacts like code, configuration
files, etc. Connectors will implement the causal link between models and run-
ning cloud resources, making OCCIware Models@run.time a reality. Finally, a
decision-support tool will be developed to help evaluating the transition from
legacy applications to cloud resource-based approach.
3.3 WP4 - Runtime Support
Leveraging the model-driven engineering approach, an execution platform will
be able to interpret OCCI models at runtime, providing developers with non-
functional aspects in the most transparent and efficient way. While developers
can easily model their core business, turning these models into cloud resource-
based applications requires a lot more skills due to non-functional aspects: scal-
able deployment, security, fault-tolerance, etc. Built on top of a kernel able to
interpret OCCI models, connectors to existing cloud management interfaces will
be developed for monitoring, supervision and distributed deployment. A web-
based administration console for OCCI resources is also expected.
3.4 WP5 - Demonstrators and Use-Cases
Four use cases will be developed in the OCCIware project with the objectives
of (1) providing requirements to technical work packages, (2) validating the
outcomes of the latter and (3) demonstrating the use of the OCCIware toolchain
in real industrial environments. The following use cases have been defined:
Datacenter as a Service will demonstrate the use of OCCIware for datacen-
ter management (IaaS) ;
Deploy@OCCIware will offer interoperability layer above existing deploy-
ment and monitoring solutions ;
4
https://eclipse.org/Xtext/
5
https://eclipse.org/sirius/
6
http://www.cloudbus.org/cloudsim/
BigData and HPC will use OCCIware to propose scientific applications exe-
cution environment as a service ;
LinkedData as a Service will demonstrate the use of OCCIware tools for
open linked data based applications.
4 Dissemination and Exploitation
Standardization of methodologies, languages and tools dedicated to resource-
oriented software development is the objective of the OCCIware project. Their
adoption by targeted audiences will then be a key indicator of the project success.
A particular effort has been planned for disseminating technical and scientific
results to following targeted communities:
– Scientific communities through publications in top journals and confer-
ences. Our precise metamodel for Open Cloud Computing Interface is already
published in [23].
– Industrial communities will be addressed through industrial events and
business clusters.
– All technical outcomes will be published under open source license and then
proposed to most appropriate Open Source communities (OW2, Eclipse,
etc.). Our open source erocci generic OCCI Models@run.time is already
available at [26].
– Finally, a close relation with OGF Standards Definition Organization
has been established since the beginning of the project while connections
with DMTF and OASIS organizations also exist with the project organiza-
tion, through OW2 partner and Strategic Orientation Committee members.
Exploitation of the results by partners differs by their really business:
– Service providers (Scalair, Pôle Numérique) intend to improve their au-
dience by providing services of high quality, accessible through standard
technologies at a lower cost, challenging big actors in their respective mar-
ket.
– Integrators and software editors (Linagora, Open Wide, ActiveEon,
Obeo) will benefit from automated development toolchain for integrating
at limited cost resource-oriented approach to their existing applications, en-
abling the access to the huge PaaS and SaaS market.
– Research institutions will benefit from the project by establishing their
expertise in the first ever formal framework dedicated to the everything-as-
a-service paradigm.
5 Conclusion
As the huge majority of software industry is moving toward a fully resource-
oriented delivery model, it is time to offer developers a comprehensive toolchain
leveraging this convergence to lower development costs and increase the overall
quality of resource-oriented applications. The OCCIware project aims at build-
ing this toolchain by bringing together existing technological and scientific tools
usually promoted in separated communities: formal methods, model-driven engi-
neering, meta-models, Models@run.time, REST architecture style, devops prac-
tices. The added value of the project being measurable through its adoption
by software developers and scientifics, a particular effort is put to disseminate
the OCCI meta-model, models and associated tooling to scientific and industrial
communities, but also open source and standardization organizations.
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