Α study of virtualization technologies for the support of virtual labs

Abstract

This thesis presents the progress and evolution of virtualization, Cloud Computing and containerization technologies. The use of virtualization has led to the maximum use and utilization of physical servers, while the introduction of Cloud Computing provides the ability for any organization or user to access resources whenever they wish, without necessarily having their own data center. In addition, virtualization technology introduced virtual machines while containerization introduced containers. In recent years, the way containers are managed and orchestrated has been widely studied, while tools such as Kubernetes are becoming increasingly in demand for creating infrastructure to support applications and services. In recent years, the development of these technologies has also been used for purely educational purposes, with the creation of virtual laboratories. Their aim is to improve e-learning. The experimental part of this thesis aims to design and create virtual labs using Kubernetes software and custom Docker images, simulating the process of a physical lab.