Eucalyptus is a paid and open-source computer software for building Amazon Web Services (AWS)-compatible private and hybrid cloud computing environments, originally developed by the company Eucalyptus Systems. Eucalyptus is an acronym for Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems. Eucalyptus enables pooling compute, storage, and network resources that can be dynamically scaled up or down as application workloads change. Mårten Mickos was the CEO of Eucalyptus. In September 2014, Eucalyptus was acquired by Hewlett-Packard and then maintained by DXC Technology. After DXC stopped developing the product in late 2017, AppScale Systems forked the code and started supporting Eucalyptus customers.
History
The software development had its roots in the Virtual Grid Application Development Software project, at Rice University and other institutions from 2003 to 2008. Rich Wolski led a group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and became the chief technical officer at the company headquartered in Goleta, California before returning to teach at UCSB.
Eucalyptus software was included in the Ubuntu 9.04 distribution in 2009. The company was formed in 2009 with $5.5 million in funding by Benchmark Capital to commercialize the software.
The co-founders of Eucalyptus were Rich Wolski (CTO), Dan Nurmi, Neil Soman, Dmitrii Zagorodnov, Chris Grzegorczyk, Graziano Obertelli and Woody Rollins (CEO). Eucalyptus Systems announced a formal agreement with Amazon Web Services in March 2012.
Hewlett-Packard acquired Eucalyptus in September 2014, although by the end of 2016 its public cloud offering HPE Helion was shut down. Eucalyptus team was transferred to the HPE Enterprise Services division, which split away from HPE and merged with Computer Sciences Corporation forming DXC Technology on April 1, 2017. DXC chose to stop development and support of Eucalyptus in 2017, prompting AppScale Systems, led by members of the Eucalyptus founding team, to fork the code. AppScale Systems started commercially supporting and developing the software, which was renamed AppScale ATS, since late 2017.
Software architecture
Eucalyptus commands can manage either Amazon or Eucalyptus instances. Users can also move instances between a Eucalyptus private cloud and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud to create a hybrid cloud. Hardware virtualization isolates applications from computer hardware details.
Eucalyptus uses the terminology: Images – An image is a fixed collection of software modules, system software, application software, and configuration information that is started from a known baseline (immutable/fixed). When bundled and uploaded to the Eucalyptus cloud, this becomes a Eucalyptus machine image (EMI). Instances – When an image is put to use, it is called an instance. The configuration is executed at runtime, and the Cloud Controller decides where the image will run, and storage and networking is attached to meet resource needs. IP addressing – Eucalyptus instances can have public and private IP addresses. An IP address is assigned to an instance when the instance is created from an image. For instances that require a persistent IP address, such as a web-server, Eucalyptus supplies elastic IP addresses. These are pre-allocated by the Eucalyptus cloud and can be reassigned to a running instance. Security – TCP/IP security groups share a common set of firewall rules. This is a mechanism to firewall off an instance using IP address and port block/allow functionality. Instances are isolated at TCP/IP layer 2. If this were not present, a user could manipulate the networking of instances and gain access to neighboring instances violating the basic cloud tenet of instance isolation and separation. Networking – There are three networking modes. In Managed Mode, Eucalyptus manages a local network of instances, including security groups and IP addresses. In System Mode, Eucalyptus assigns a MAC address and attaches the instance's network interface to the physical network through the Node Controller's bridge. System Mode does not offer elastic IP addresses, security groups, or VM isolation. In Static Mode, Eucalyptus assigns IP addresses to instances. Static Mode does not offer elastic IPs, security groups, or VM isolation. Access Control – A user of Eucalyptus is assigned an identity, and identities can be grouped together for access control.
Components
Eucalyptus has six components: