Integration of LXD System Containers with OpenStack, CHEF and its Application on a 3-Tier IoT Architecture

Abstract

Internet of Things has moved from being a 2-tier server-client into a 3-tier server-gateway-client architecture. The gateway plays a vital role in this 3-tier architecture with intelligence being built into it. With no proper standardization and with more vendors having proprietary apps, which are shared in this multi-tenant gateway, it demands sandboxing and isolation of apps at the gateway.

My thesis explores light weight LXD System containers and state of the art configuration management tools like Chef, to build an architecture, leveraging Infrastructure as a Code, creating an app delivery pipeline to deploy apps in jailed environments at an IoT Gateway while maintaining a minimal overhead. The framework also provides ways to automate tests for deployment validation.