SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud A. Langs, C. Mehlig (Telespazio VEGA), S. Ferreri (Terma GmbH), M. Sarkarati (ESA/ESOC) 22/02/2019

Overview Introduction Platform-as-a-Service Software-as-a-Service Deployment Concept Cloud Based Provisioning The SIMSAT Cloud Agent and Daemon The Cloud Management API User Interface Performance Analysis Conclusions and Future Work SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Confidential/Restricted/Internal/General Introduction CORBA Naming Service SIMSAT Operational Spacecraft Simulators Simulation Kernel MMI Daemon SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Confidential/Restricted/Internal/General Introduction Nowadays: Operational Simulator Delivery and Deployment ESA Dedicated Hardware Simulator Delivery SIMSAT … Simulator #1 Simulator #1 Generic Models Reference Architecture Ground Models … Simulator #2 Simulator #... … … SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Introduction Simulator Delivery ESA Cloud Simulator #1 Simulator #2 SIMCLOUD: Cloud Based Deployment and Runtime Simulator Delivery ESA Cloud Simulator #1 Simulator #2 Simulator #1 Simulator #1 SIMSAT Generic Models Ground Models Reference Architecture Simulator #2 Simulator #2 Simulator #... … SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Deployment Concept „Deployments“ Folder Containing a „Deployment“ per Operational Simulator SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Cloud Based Provisioning Original and SIMCLOUD Approach for Starting Simulators in SIMSAT Original SIMSAT SIMCLOUD Start of daemon by the simulator user Start of cloud agent & daemon by the cloud operator VM / HW Central PaaS 1 Daemons Sim Sim Start SIMSAT MMI to open a simulation on a specific daemon Start SIMSAT MMI to open a simulation by name/version 2 MMI Simulation Selection Daemon reports avail. simulators of single share folder Sim A Sim B Sim C Agent reports avail. simulators of deployments folder Sim A Sim B Sim C 3 Simulation Launch Launch of the simulation on the dedicated machine Launch of the simulation on the ESA Cloud 4 SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Cloud Based Provisioning SimCloud Main Components Modified SIMSAT MMI Central PaaS server Cloud management layer ESA vCloud Shared file server with deployments SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Cloud Based Provisioning The SIMSAT Cloud Agent and Daemon Cloud Agent manages a number of Cloud Daemons Types of Cloud Daemons: shared elastic Cloud Agent can create additional VMs each running a Cloud Daemon SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Cloud Based Provisioning The Cloud Management API Additional layer using the VMware vCloud API Controls the virtual datacentre hosting the VMs in the ESA Cloud VMs are 1. created 2. started 3. configured 4. shut down 5. deleted SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

User Interface Selection by simulator name/version User confirmation „Open Simulation“ Dialog Selection by simulator name/version User confirmation SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

User Interface started on an existing machine Possible Results: Operational Simulator is … started on an existing machine not started at all (user aborts) started on a new VM SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Performance Analysis Multiple operational simulators Overview Multiple operational simulators Comparison between Physical machine(s) Virtual machine Virtual machine on the ESA Cloud Credits: ESA SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Performance Analysis Virtualization Overhead Bepi Colombo Maximum speed factor while running simulator with Ground Stations „Free running“ mode after restored operational simulation state Virtualization costs 10-30% performance SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Performance Analysis Maximum speed factor Physical vs. Virtual: Test Cases Performance relative to physical machine (G8) Maximum speed factor Generation time of operational configurations Simulator performance with multiple parallel emulators high logging rate under heavy load (with/without payload models) Performance highly dependent on choice/set-up of the virtualization layer SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Future Work Deployment Concept in the SIMSAT product SIMCLOUD: From Proof-of-Concept to the SIMULUS Product Deployment Concept in the SIMSAT product Multi-User Multi-Version Multi-Mission Multi-SIMSAT SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Future Work Webinterface for the PaaS SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Conclusions SIMCLOUD… … changed the architecture, design and code of multiple SIMULUS components … eases the runtime environment for simulator users Virtualization and Cloud Concepts… … can be a valuable alternative … benefits the end user simplified interaction elasticity and gentle usage of resources SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019

Image Sources SIMULUS logo: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/10/Simulus_no_claim Mission images: ESA SESP 2015 - SIMCLOUD: Running Operational Simulators in the Cloud 22/02/2019