Microservice Dynamic Architecture-Level Deployment Orchestration

Abstract

We develop a novel approach for run-time global adaptation of microservice applications, based on synthesis of architecture-level reconfiguration orchestrations. More precisely, we devise an algorithm for automatic reconfiguration that reaches a target system Maximum Computational Load by performing optimal deployment orchestrations. To conceive and simulate our approach, we introduce a novel integrated timed architectural modeling/execution language based on an extension of the actor-based object-oriented Abstract Behavioral Specification (ABS) language. In particular, we realize a timed extension of SmartDeployer, whose ABS code annotations make it possible to express architectural properties. Our Timed SmartDeployer tool fully integrates time features of ABS and architectural annotations by generating timed deployment orchestrations. We evaluate the applicability of our approach on a realistic microservice application taken from the literature: an Email Pipeline Processing System. We prove its effectiveness by simulating such an application and by comparing architecture-level reconfiguration with traditional local scaling techniques (which detect scaling needs and enact replications at the level of single microservices). Our comparison results show that our approach avoids cascading slowdowns and consequent increased message loss and latency, which affect traditional local scaling.

Proactive-Reactive Global Scaling, with Analytics

“…We introduce a platform that DevOps can use to perform proactive and reactive global scaling. In doing so, we do not start from scratch, and we build on previous work on global scaling, proposing a redesign able to capture proactive scaling on the existing reactive global scaling platform from [5,7,9]. Our new architecture is immediately useful.…”

“…1 are the components of the platform. Specifically, the elements with continuous-line borders are the ones inherited from previous work [5,7,9]. The main new elements, drawn with a dotted border, are the Predictive Module and the Actuation Module.…”

“…For completeness, we first describe the elements of the platform already present in the original proposals [5,7,9], and then dedicate to the new components for proaction, i.e. Actuation and Predictive Modules.…”

“…Background Our work focuses on global scaling [4,5,6,7,8,9]; which orchestrates the scaling of all microservices in a given architecture. This contrasts with local scaling, intended as the mainstream interpretation of (auto)scaling [2], which scales microservices in an uncoordinated way.…”

“…Problem Existing global scaling approaches focus on smoothing out domino effects [4,6,8] or on removing them by design [5,7,9]. This "by-design" approach performs the coordinated scaling of the microservices based on a quantification of their functional relations.…”