Minimalist DevStack Deployment: An Analysis of Performance and Swap Utilization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30871/jaic.v9i4.9792Keywords:
Computer Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Openstack, DevStack, Grafana, PrometheusAbstract
Cloud technology offers significant advantages; however, its high implementation costs and high hardware requirements pose barriers to small-scale deployments and educational institutions. This study addresses these challenges by investigating the performance of OpenStack deployed via DevStack on a single-node server equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB solid-state drive (SSD) under resource-constrained conditions. We implemented a resource tuning approach by turning off non-essential services (including Cinder, Heat, and Tempest) and adjusting Nova's memory configurations to minimize overhead. Real-time system monitoring was performed using Prometheus and Grafana to examine trends in CPU, memory, and swap utilization across three configurations: default, optimized (RAM=1024 MB), and minimalist (RAM=512 MB). Our empirical results show that the optimized setup enhances system efficiency, decreasing CPU use and memory usage from 86% to 70.90% while maintaining the ability to run up to ten virtual machines with varying operating systems (e.g., CirrOS, Ubuntu 24.04 Server LTS). However, the minimalist configurations, which aim for aggressive swap utilization and reach 100% swap saturation when running 8 VMs under idle workloads, consequently compromise overall system responsiveness despite lower CPU usage. Efficiency in this context is defined as conserving RAM and CPU usage without degrading basic system responsiveness. This highlights a critical trade-off between RAM conservation and overall system responsiveness. This research provides practical insights into designing cost-effective and lightweight OpenStack environments. It establishes a crucial threshold for memory optimization, preventing performance degradation caused by excessive swap usage, particularly in resource-constrained research settings.
Downloads
References
[1] T. Rosado and J. Bernardino, “An overview of openstack architecture,” International Database Engineering and Applications Symposium, 2014, doi: 10.48550/ARXIV.2210.09691.
[2] F. Mechraoui, P. Martins, and F. Caldeira, “OpenStack: a virtualisation overview,” International Journal of Information Technology and Management, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1–12, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.1504/IJITM.2024.136181.
[3] S. Pericherla, “Experimental Analysis of OpenStack Effect on Host Resources Utilization,” Emerging Science Journal, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 466–492, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2020-01246.
[4] S. Heuchert, B. P. Rimal, M. Reisslein, and Y. Wang, “Design of a small-scale and failure-resistant IaaS cloud using OpenStack,” Applied Computing and Informatics, vol. ahead-of-p, no. ahead-of-print, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1108/ACI-04-2021-0094.
[5] R. P. Anugrah, I. Yatini, M. A. Nugroho, and K. Kunci, “Implementasi Openstack Untuk Infrastruktur Private Cloud Computing (Studi Kasus Untuk Fasilitas Mahasiswa Utdi),” Joism : Jurnal of Information System Management, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 41, 2022.
[6] R. Firman, Yuhefizar, and H. Amnur, “Implementasi Openstack untuk Private Cloud pada mata kuliah Administrasi server,” JITSI : Jurnal Ilmiah Teknologi Sistem Informasi, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 75–79, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.30630/JITSI.1.2.11.
[7] A. S. Manalu, I. M. Siregar, N. J. Panjaitan, and H. Sugara, “Rancang Bangun Infrastruktur Cloud Computing Dengan Openstack Pada Jaringan Lokal Menggunakan Virtualbox,” Jurnal Teknik Informasi dan Komputer (Tekinkom), vol. 4, no. 2, p. 303, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.37600/TEKINKOM.V4I2.335.
[8] V. Jyotinagar and B. B. Meshram, “Developing an OpenStack Environment: An Exploration of Experimentation and the Diagnostic Research,” Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Edge Computing and Applications, ICECAA 2023, pp. 42–49, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ICECAA58104.2023.10212254.
[9] G. Bhatia, I. Al Noutaki, S. Al Ruzeiqi, and J. Al Maskari, “Higher Education using OpenStack,” 2018.
[10] A. Noertjahyana, H. N. Palit, and D. Kuntani, “Optimization of Computer Resources Using OpenStack Private Cloud,” World Symposium on Software Engineering, pp. 98–102, Sep. 2019, doi: 10.1145/3362125.3362138.
[11] L. Zhao, G. Hu, and Y. Xu, “Educational Resource Private Cloud Platform Based on OpenStack,” Computers, vol. 13, no. 9, Sep. 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13090241.
[12] Z. Kai, L. Youyu, L. Qi, S. C. Hao, and Z. Liping, “Building a private cloud platform based on open source software OpenStack,” in Proceedings - 2020 International Conference on Big Data and Social Sciences, ICBDSS 2020, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Aug. 2020, pp. 84–87. doi: 10.1109/ICBDSS51270.2020.00027.
[13] N. Hosamani, N. Albur, P. Yaji, M. M. Mulla, and D. G. Narayan, “Elastic Provisioning of Hadoop Clusters on OpenStack Private Cloud,” 2020 11th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies, ICCCNT 2020, Jul. 2020, doi: 10.1109/ICCCNT49239.2020.9225277.
[14] A. Noertjahyana, H. N. Palit, R. Chandra, J. Andjarwirawan, and L. P. Dewi, “Comparative Analysis of NFS and iSCSI Protocol Performance on OpenStack Cinder Technology,” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 171, pp. 1498–1506, Jan. 2020, doi: 10.1016/J.PROCS.2020.04.160.
[15] P. S. S. Patchamatla, “Network Optimization in OpenStack with Neutron,” International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, vol. 12, no. 03, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.15662/IJAREEIE.2023.1203002.
[16] P. S. Patchamatla and I. O. Owolabi, “Integrating Serverless Computing and Kubernetes in OpenStack for Dynamic AI Workflow Optimization,” no. February, 2025, doi: 10.15680/IJMRSET.2020.0312021.
[17] L. Chen, M. Xian, and J. Liu, “Monitoring System of OpenStack Cloud Platform Based on Prometheus,” in Proceedings - 2020 International Conference on Computer Vision, Image and Deep Learning, CVIDL 2020, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Jul. 2020, pp. 206–209. doi: 10.1109/CVIDL51233.2020.0-100.
[18] H. Wang, X. Zhang, Z. Ma, L. Li, and J. Gao, “An Microservices-Based OpenStack Monitoring System,” International Conference on Educational and Information Technology, pp. 232–236, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ICEIT54416.2022.9690713.
[19] E. Kristiani, C. T. Yang, C. Y. Huang, Y. T. Wang, and P. C. Ko, “The Implementation of a Cloud-Edge Computing Architecture Using OpenStack and Kubernetes for Air Quality Monitoring Application,” Journal on spesial topics in mobile networks and applications, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 1070–1092, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1007/S11036-020-01620-5.
[20] K. A. Sanjay, S. Sivakumar, S. S. Shreya, and H. L. Phalachandra, “ECOSTAR - Energy Conservation in Swift through Tiered Storage Architecture,” 2020 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing in Emerging Markets (CCEM), pp. 16–23, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.1109/CCEM50674.2020.00015.
[21] S. Alur, S. Kanamadi, S. Naik, S. Kamat, and D. G. Narayan, “Dynamic Virtual Machine Consolidation for Energy Efficiency in OpenStack-based Cloud,” International Conference on Computing Communication and Networking Technologies, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ICCCNT56998.2023.10307414.
[22] P. K. Prameela, P. Gadagi, R. Gudi, S. Patil, and D. G. Narayan, “Energy-Efficient VM Management in OpenStack-Based Private Cloud,” Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol. 735 LNEE, pp. 541–556, 2021, doi: 10.1007/978-981-33-6977-1_40.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Marco Kristyanto, Ahmad Miftah Fajrin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) ) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
