🖥️ Virtualization Using Cloud Computing

AWS EC2 · Docker · Flask · React Dashboard

A working cloud-based virtualization framework built on AWS Free Tier. Demonstrates VM-based and container-based virtualization, REST API orchestration, and a live web dashboard — all deployed within 24 hours at zero cost.

📄 Published as a conference paper: "Virtual Desktop Infrastructure using AWS WorkSpaces" — VIT Chennai, 2026.

---

📌 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Architecture
• Tech Stack
• Project Structure
• Setup & Deployment
• API Endpoints
• Screenshots
• Results Summary
• Team

---

🔍 Overview

This project implements a layered virtualization architecture on AWS, demonstrating how cloud-based virtual environments can be created, orchestrated, and monitored through a web interface.

Key achievements:

• Deployed an AWS EC2 Ubuntu instance as the virtualized host environment
• Ran multiple Docker containers (Nginx, HTTPD) as isolated virtual services inside EC2
• Built a Flask REST API to serve container status and metadata to the frontend
• Developed an HTML/JS dashboard that dynamically connects to the cloud backend via HTTP
• Achieved zero-cost operation using AWS Free Tier for the entire infrastructure
• Demonstrated distributed teamwork over cloud infrastructure (backend + frontend split)

---

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  AWS EC2 (Ubuntu)                   │
│                                                     │
│  ┌──────────────┐    ┌─────────────────────────┐    │
│  │  Flask API   │    │    Docker Containers     │    │
│  │  Port: 5000  │◄──►│  Nginx  (Port 8081:80)  │    │
│  │              │    │  HTTPD  (Port 8082:80)  │    │
│  └──────┬───────┘    └─────────────────────────┘    │
│         │                                           │
└─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┘
          │  HTTP (Public IP)
          ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  React/HTML Frontend│  ← Local or secondary machine
│  Dashboard UI       │
└─────────────────────┘

The system integrates three architectural layers:

Layer	Technology	Role
VM-based	AWS EC2 (Ubuntu t2.micro)	Isolated cloud virtual machine
Container-based	Docker (Nginx, HTTPD)	Lightweight isolated services
API / Control	Flask (Python)	REST interface for orchestration
Frontend	HTML + JavaScript	Live dashboard & monitoring UI
Optimization	AWS Free Tier + Docker runtime	Zero-cost resource management

---

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Cloud: AWS EC2 (Ubuntu Server, t2.micro — Free Tier)
• Containerization: Docker, Nginx, Apache HTTPD
• Backend: Python 3, Flask, Flask-CORS
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JavaScript (React-style dashboard)
• Networking: SSH (key-pair auth), HTTP REST, Public IP routing

---

📁 Project Structure

virtualization-using-cloud-computing/
│
├── app.py                  # Flask REST API (backend)
├── Dockerfile              # Docker image for Flask app
├── docker-compose.yml      # Multi-container orchestration
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── ec2-setup.sh            # EC2 bootstrap script
│
├── frontend/
│   └── index.html          # Web dashboard (connects to Flask API)
│
├── screenshots/            # Evidence screenshots from deployment
│   ├── ssh-ec2-access.png
│   ├── docker-containers.png
│   ├── flask-ec2-console.png
│   ├── nginx-web-interface.png
│   └── cost-comparison.png
│
└── README.md

---

🚀 Setup & Deployment

Prerequisites

• AWS account (Free Tier eligible)
• Docker installed locally (for testing)
• Python 3.8+

---

Step 1 — Launch EC2 Instance

1. Go to AWS Console → EC2 → Launch Instance
2. Choose Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (Free Tier)
3. Instance type: t2.micro
4. Create or select a key pair (.pem file) for SSH access
5. Allow inbound ports: 22 (SSH), 5000 (Flask), 8081, 8082 in Security Group

---

Step 2 — SSH into EC2

chmod 400 tanisha-key.pem
ssh -i tanisha-key.pem ubuntu@<your-ec2-public-ip>

---

Step 3 — Bootstrap the EC2 instance

Run the setup script (or manually execute each step):

# Update & install dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y python3-pip docker.io git

# Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/tanisha-ahl/virtualization-using-cloud-computing.git
cd virtualization-using-cloud-computing

# Install Python dependencies
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

---

Step 4 — Deploy Docker Containers

# Start Nginx container on port 8081
sudo docker run -d -p 8081:80 nginx

# Start Apache HTTPD container on port 8082
sudo docker run -d -p 8082:80 httpd

# Verify containers are running
sudo docker ps

Test the containers:

curl http://localhost:8081    # Should return Nginx welcome page
curl http://localhost:8082    # Should return HTTPD page

---

Step 5 — Start Flask API

python3 app.py

The API will be live at http://<your-ec2-public-ip>:5000

---

Step 6 — Connect the Frontend

Open frontend/index.html in your browser. Enter your EC2 public IP when prompted, and the dashboard will connect to your live cloud backend.

---

Using Docker Compose (Alternative)

To spin up the full stack with one command:

docker-compose up -d

---

📡 API Endpoints

Method	Route	Description
GET	/	Health check — returns welcome message
GET	/info	Backend metadata (platform info)
GET	/containers	Lists all running Docker containers

Example response — /containers:

{
  "containers": [
    { "id": "a3c45d", "image": "nginx", "status": "Up 3 minutes" },
    { "id": "b8f21e", "image": "httpd", "status": "Up 3 minutes" }
  ]
}

---

📸 Screenshots

Step	Description
	SSH Access — Secure terminal session into EC2 via key-pair auth
	Docker Containers — Nginx (8081) and HTTPD (8082) running and verified via curl
	Flask on EC2 — AWS Console showing instance running with Flask API deployed
	Nginx Web Interface — Nginx container accessible through the public IP
	Cost Comparison — AWS Free Tier vs Local Hosting vs Paid Cloud

---

📊 Results Summary

Layer	Technology	Key Outcome
VM-based	AWS EC2 (Ubuntu)	Isolated virtual environment on cloud
Container-based	Docker (Nginx + HTTPD)	Modular, scalable service deployment
Backend API	Flask (Python)	Dynamic content served from cloud
Frontend	HTML / JavaScript	REST API integration with live updates
Multi-User	Distributed team (A + B)	Remote collaboration over cloud infra
Cost	AWS Free Tier	Zero-cost full deployment

---

👥 Team

Person	Role
Tanisha Ahlawat	AWS setup, EC2 management, Docker, Flask backend
Sreenidhi J	Architecture design, optimization layer
Harshita Ranjan	Documentation, results analysis
Gnana Swathika (Faculty)	Advisor — Centre for Smart Grid Technology, VIT

---

📄 Publication

This project was submitted as a conference paper:

"Virtual Desktop Infrastructure using AWS WorkSpaces"
School of Electrical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai — 2026
Keywords: Cloud Computing · AWS EC2 · Docker · Flask · IaaS · Virtualization

---

📝 License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.