report for two topics 2 pages per topic
CENG-10012 Research Assignment 2 Page 1 Instructions: • Research 2 of the following topics. • Each topic must be 2.5 – 3 pages of 1.5 spaced, 11-point font size. • If you are using diagrams in your explanation, they must not comprise more than a half page per topic. • Do not copy text or diagrams from textbooks or internet sources into your work. Such submissions will probably be graded as 0 and cited for academic dishonesty. • Cite your references. References must be on a separate page. • Each topic should include at least 3 references. • Use the template provided as a starting point for this assignment. • Ensure that the body of your report uses full sentences and paragraphs. Topics Topic 1 – Containers In this course we have been working with servers created as traditional virtual machines. In these VM’s all the components of a computer are either synthesized or shared with the host system. VM’s like this have an operating system and the applications required support the desired functions (e.g. a DNS server, DHCP server). A very popular trend in virtualization is so-called containerized virtualization. Containers function much like traditional virtual machines but have a much lower resource footprint. Where a typical host computer with 8GB of RAM can run 2 or maybe 3 traditional VMs, the same host can run dozens of containerized VM’s. A big player in this space is Docker (https://www.docker.com/). For this topic, consider the following: a. Describe how containers work. Consider the technologies that containers are built upon. Compare them with traditional hypervisors. A diagram (that you create) will help. b. A key feature of Virtualization is VM isolation. How do containers achieve this? c. What are the risks/benefits of containers? d. If containers require fewer resources than traditional VM’s, why would we ever use traditional VMs? Are there any good use-cases for traditional VMs over containers? Provide compelling examples. e. Docker maintains a repository of containers (https://hub.docker.com/). What is its purpose and how is it used? https://www.docker.com/ https://hub.docker.com/ CENG-10012 Research Assignment 2 Page 2 Topic 2 – Security Getting servers working and serving data are obvious objectives. Ensuring servers operate securely is also an important goal. Consider how the following list of concepts can be used to improve server security. You will need to research a minimum of 8 concepts, which includes the list below. Required are clear explanations and descriptions. For example, if you are talking about firewalls, it is not enough to simply mention that firewalls are good for security. Instead, explain what they are and best practices for setting them up and using them, for example. These concepts are generic to either Windows or UNIX, unless otherwise indicated: • Principle of Least Privilege • Firewalls • UNIX groups • Physical access to servers Remember, you need to research and explain a minimum of 8 concepts in total, all related to server security. Topic 3 – Performance Like the constantly increasing need for more server storage, there is a similar need for more performance. That may include things like more network throughput or disk throughput. Research strategies, technologies and techniques that can be used to boost server performance. There are many possible ideas you can investigate, but one that you must consider is a technique called load balancing. Load balancing is commonly used with web servers. Consider the case where a large company is running a webserver. As web traffic increases, they will deploy more webservers and balance (i.e. spread) the traffic across this pool of webservers. For example, the first website request is handled by Server A, the next request by Server B and so on. The public is unaware of this – they simply see a website that appears to be sourced from a single IP address, as you would expect if the company had just a single web server. Investigate how network traffic is balanced across a pool of web servers while presenting only a single public IP address. A diagram is necessary here. What happens if one or more servers in such a pool fails? Are there any drawbacks to this approach? For this topic, you need to investigate load balancing and at least 2 other strategies for improving server performance. You do not have to limit your thinking to just virtual machines. Student and Number CENG-10012 Advanced Server Research Assignment #2 Statement of Authorship I, STUDENT NAME, STUDENT NUMBER certify that this material is my original work. No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement. I have not made my work available to anyone else. Insert Your Topic #1 Title Here Insert Your Topic #2 Title Here References 1. URL of website 2. Last name, first name, Article or Book, Pages X-X Page 2