A runtime model based monitoring approach for cloud

Monitoring plays a significant role in improving the quality of service in cloud computing. It helps clouds to scale resource utilization adaptively, to identify defects in services for service developers, and to discover usage patterns of numerous end users. However, due to the heterogeneity of components in clouds and the complexity arising from the wealth of runtime information, monitoring in clouds faces many new challenges. In this paper, we propose a runtime model for cloud monitoring (RMCM), which denotes an intuitive representation of a running cloud by focusing on common monitoring concerns. Raw monitoring data gathered by multiple monitoring techniques are organized by RMCM to present a more intuitive profile of a running cloud. We applied RMCM in the implementation of a flexible monitoring framework, which can achieve a balance between runtime overhead and monitoring capability via adaptive management of monitoring facilities. Our experience of utilizing the monitoring framework on a real cloud demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach. ? 2010 IEEE.EI