Short description of what is AbiCloud and what you need to install and deploy your first private cloud.

1. ABICLOUD TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
Document
DATE 28/04/2009

2. 1 Copyright Notice
© 2009 Soluciones Grid S.L. Copyright in this documentation belongs to Soluciones Gird
Sociedad Limitada. All rights are reserved. This documentation may not be reproduced in
whole or in part in any manner or form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by
electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this
documentation) other than in accordance with any applicable license agreement or with the
prior written consent of Soluciones Grid S.L. Any copies of this documentation must incorporate
this notice.
Abiquo, the Abiquo logo and Abicloud are trademarks of Soluciones Grid S.L.. Other
trademarks used may be owned by third parties.
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3. 2 Index
1 COPYRIGHT NOTICE .......................................................................................................................................2
2 INDEX .................................................................................................................................................................3
3 OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................................................................4
3.1 INTRODUCING ABICLOUD.............................................................................................................................4
3.2 ABICLOUD PRODUCT VERSIONS.....................................................................................................................5
3.3 WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH ABICLOUD?.........................................................................................................6
3.4 INTRODUCING THIS MANUAL.........................................................................................................................6
3.5 GLOSSARY ....................................................................................................................................................7
4 THE ABICLOUD ARCHITECTURE .....................................................................................................................9
4.1 ABICLOUD PLATFORM LOGICAL OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................9
4.2 THE ABICLOUD PLATFORM PHYSICAL ARCHITECTURE ...................................................................................10
4.3 ABICLOUD SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS .........................................................................................................14
4.4 ABICLOUD HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR TESTING DEPLOYMENTS.............................................................15
4.5 ABICLOUD HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR PRODUCTION DEPLOYMENTS ...................................................15
5 OTHER RESOURCES ........................................................................................................................................17
5.1 COMMUNITY PORTAL..................................................................................................................................17
5.2 INFORMATION ONLINE .................................................................................................................................17
5.3 CONTACT ...................................................................................................................................................17
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4. 3 Overview
3.1 Introducing AbiCloud
Abicloud is an open source infrastructure software for the creation and integral management
of Public & Private Clouds based on heterogeneous environments. The main aim of the project
is to offer users a tool with the capacity for scaling, management, automatic and immediate
provision of servers, storage, networks, virtual network devices as well as applications.
Nowadays companies have needs for different system architectures specific to a department
or work group.
Besides, there are companies with products which need to be scaled seasonally. Not being
able to attend to these requirements on demand in an adequate manner makes users feel
defrauded by a bad quality service and hence no longer use the product.
With AbiCloud, it is possible to provision the needs of these work groups for their environments
(development, tests, pre-production, production) immediately and instant de-provisioning
when no longer necessary. The infrastructure does not deplete but instead takes advantage of
its full capacity and reduces the value chain (provision problems), saves costs in space in the
data center, enhances electricity, number of persons dedicated to maintenance, etc.
With AbiCloud, small companies and start-ups can mount their own Private Cloud and obtain
all the benefits that they will attain with AbiCloud in a big company or in a Host Provider.
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5. 3.2 Abicloud product versions
Abicloud comes in three different versions targeting different business needs:
The community version of AbiCloud is distributed under a free software license; hence it
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is possible to adjust to specific needs, for example Universities, ISVs, SaaS providers, etc.
AbiCloud community is a collection of online resources for all those that wish to take
advantage of open version. Registration is free and does not require any compromise
for its ownership.
The enterprise version of AbiCloud is a set of premium modules on top of the community
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version of AbiCloud that let companies to access to advanced features not targeted to
small companies or startups.
The ISP/hosters version of AbiCloud is an extended version of the enterprise version of
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AbiCloud that let companies to resell the AbiCloud platform to their customers.
The premium modules are licensed by number of CPUs in the Cloud Cluster. Please contact
with Abiquo representatives to get more details about the premium modules catalogue and
pricing options.
ISP / Hosting
Premium
Enterprise
Core Community
Third party
Virtual Layer
Soft/Hard
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6. 3.3 What can you do with AbiCloud?
Manage your physical infrastructure:
Manage datacenters
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Manage Racks
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Manage Physicals Machines
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Manage Hypervisors
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Manage the state of your physical Machines vs. virtual infrastructure
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Manage enterprises/users:
Manage enterprises
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Manage users
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Control logged users
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Manage user profiles
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Manage Virtual Images:
Manage local repository
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Mange virtual images
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Define virtual images requirements.
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Manage Virtual Infrastructure:
Each enterprise has its virtual infrastructure
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Manage virtual data Centers
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Manage virtual Appliances
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3.4 Introducing This Manual
This manual introduces the basic concepts to help you understand the requirements for a
simple Cloud. It highlights the key features.
Note: You can find a quick introduction to the product in the document ‘AbiCloud Quick Start’.
You can find more information about the product in the community portal:
http://community.abiquo.com
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7. 3.5 Glossary
Please read this list before continuing with the document, no matter if you are a newbie or an
expert it will help to clarify some “nebulous” terms:
Cloud User
An enterprise user with privileges to create virtual Appliances and manage them
Data center
A data center is the physical infrastructure of a cloud provider. A cloud provider can be private
(a datacenter of a big company) or public (a hosting company)
Enterprise
The entity that agglutinates the virtual cloud infrastructure of a company. An enterprise can
create virtual datacenters, virtual Appliance, etc. This enterprise virtual infrastructure can be
isolated from other enterprise clouds.
Enterprise Cloud Admin
The enterprise user with the most privileges who manages the private cloud of the enterprise
and adds new Cloud users to its cloud infrastructure
Hypervisor
The virtualization technology installed on each Physical Machine that permits the creation of
virtual Machines
Node
The node is one of the components of the appliance (One virtual Image). For example 1
apache server is a node of the myWebSite Appliance
Physical Machine
A server on the data center
Rack
The physical box that contains physical machines
SysAdmin
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8. It's the user role that will be able to manage the virtual and physical infrastructure of the data
center and customize it to offer the cloud functionalities to enterprises
Virtual Appliance
The main object of AbiCloud. A virtual appliance is based on the OVF standard and it's the
component that defines a complex system (Virtual Images, network, storage, etc.). For
example, myWebSite can be an appliance composed of 1 load balancer, 2 apache servers
and 1 MySQL server.
Virtual Data Center
An abstract object to define a logical group of virtual appliances.
OVF
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open standard for packaging and distributing virtual
appliances or more generally software to be run in virtual machines. Abicloud is based in OVF
in order to benefit the interoperability between cloud providers and facilitate the integration
between different virtualization technologies.
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9. 4 The AbiCloud architecture
4.1 AbiCloud Platform logical overview
AbiCloud Platform is developed in a modular point of view in order to try to improve the
scalability of the system. This picture tries to show the block diagram of the infrastructure.
The AbiCloud project will be showing and improving the document in order to know the detail
of each module. Although, let's introduce them:
abiCloud_Server: Contains the global business logic of the cloud platform and interacts
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with the database. It's designed in JAVA and it's important to maintain and improve the
architecture in order to assure that you can create a multiple abicloud_Server in the
same architecture.
abiCloud_WS: It's the virtual factory of the platform. Interacts with different virtualization
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technologies in order to manage VM. The plug-in manager allows to create plug-ins for
each technology.
vBox --> It's open a first release with VirtualBox in order to allow people to test
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AbiCloud in a desktop environment.
XEN, KVM (Libvirt plug-in) --> Coming soon.
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VMware --> Working but not open yet.
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Others (xVM, Hyper-V, etc.) --> We want to offer a plug-in for each technology.
o
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10. abiCloud_VMS (Virtual Monitor System): It's the component developed to monitor the
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virtual infrastructure in order to know the events or states that are happening in the
cloud. The main idea is to update the VM states on user interface and generate log files
in order to feed third parties applications like a billing system. This component is in
developing and testing stage of its first release
AbiCloud Appliance Manager: This component allows the management, distribution
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and scalability of the repository, allowing the import of appliances that they are outside
the cloud platform. This component is in developing and testing stage of its first release
AbiCloud Storage management: This component is in definition stage and will be
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released on Q2'09 and will be the facade to integrate any storage system to the cloud
platform, in order to assign volumes to each company.
The abiCloud_client it's the RIA web application developed in FLEX that allows user to
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manage their private cloud wherever and whenever.
The OPEN API it's an important component that Abiquo has decide to define with the
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open Source Community in order to create an acceptable facade for the external
connection or federation of third party clouds.
For each component and new components that it should appear, AbiCloud project will expose
in this Wiki the technical information and developer guides in order to facilitate the contribution
of developers.
You can find more information about the product in the community portal:
http://community.abiquo.com
4.2 The AbiCloud platform physical architecture
There are several ways in which AbiCloud Platform can be deployed in your datacenters. Here,
three different scenarios are shown, starting from two basic layouts for the community version
and then showing a more advanced layout for AbiCloud with the Virtual Storage and Network
premium models.
4.2.1 Scenario 1 – Internal Private Cloud
This example demonstrates how to setup an Internal Private Cloud. An Internal Private Cloud is
a cloud that cannot be accessed from the Internet directly. In order to allow access to the
Private Cloud from internet you should consider our premium Network module or Scenario 2. It’s
also possible to configure the firewall to perform Network Addresses Translations (NATs) to one
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11. or more public IPs to private IPs of the Cloud Cluster. It’s out of the scope of this document to
explain how to perform this operation.
In the example below, we have defined three different networks:
The Management Network is the one to connect the AbiCloud Server components to
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the Cloud Cluster. Every single physical machine of the Cloud Cluster should have a
dedicated Network Interface Controller (NIC) for this network. Management,
monitoring, images deployment traffic will use this network. Size this network to the size
of your Cloud Cluster plus your AbiCloud servers.
The Cloud Cluster Network is the one to connect the Virtual Images of the Cloud. Every
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single physical machine of the Cloud Cluster should have at least a dedicated Network
Interface Controller (NIC) for this network. Application and Services delivery traffic will
use this network. Size this network to the size of the number of Virtual Machines that
could handle your Cloud Cluster. Normally, it can be from 4 to 20 times the number of
physical servers (depends on the hardware available).
The Public Network is the one to access the internet from the Cloud Cluster. In this
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scenario we have configured the network in such a way that virtual machines can
access the internet. The servers in the Management network can access the internet
too.
This configuration can be a good start for companies, universities, SaaS providers that want to
test the platform instead of a traditional dedicated hosting. In order to deploy a complete
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12. Cloud Computing platform, contact Abiquo for assistance on what premium modules you
would need.
4.2.2 Scenario 2 – Simple Public Cloud
This example demonstrates how to setup a Simple Public Cloud. The Virtual Machines of the
Cloud can be accessed from Internet directly. In order to allow access to a Public Cloud from
internet keeping your data secured in a Private Cloud you should consider our premium
Network module. The firewall should be configured to allow or deny traffic to the Cloud Cluster,
relying on the capabilities of the operating systems running in the virtual images to access or
deny the access to the network ports. It’s out of the scope of this document to explain how to
perform this operation.
In the example below, we have defined two different networks:
The Management Network is the one to connect the AbiCloud Server components to
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the Cloud Cluster. Every single physical machine of the Cloud Cluster should have a
dedicated Network Interface Controller (NIC) for this network. Management,
monitoring, images deployment traffic will use this network. Size this network to the size
of your Cloud Cluster plus your AbiCloud servers.
The Public Network is the one to access the internet from the Cloud Cluster. The Cloud
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Cluster network becomes the Public Network In this scenario. We have configured the
network in such a way that virtual machines have one or more public IPs assigned. All
virtual machines are visible from internet by default.
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13. This configuration can be a good start for ISPs that wants to test the platform as an alternative
to Virtual Private Servers (VPS). In order to deploy a complete Cloud Computing platform,
contact Abiquo for assistance on what premium modules you would need and how to plan the
deployment of the platform.
4.2.3 Scenario 3 – Private/Public Cloud with Virtual Storage
This example demonstrates how to setup a Private/Public Cloud with support for Virtual Storage
and Networking premium module. This setup allows to mix Public IPs and Private IPs individually
on each virtual machine, plus access to a Tier-0 and Tier-1 Virtual Storage system built to
provide fast access to data repositories (relational databases for instance).
In the example below, we have defined four different networks:
The Management Network is the one to connect the AbiCloud Server components to
•
the Cloud Cluster. Every single physical machine of the Cloud Cluster should have a
dedicated Network Interface Controller (NIC) for this network. Management,
monitoring, images deployment traffic will use this network. Size this network to the size
of your Cloud Cluster plus your AbiCloud servers. Notice that the Virtual Storage iSCSI
server is part of this network.
The Cloud Cluster Network is the one to connect the Virtual Images of the Cloud. Every
•
single physical machine of the Cloud Cluster should have at least a dedicated Network
Interface Controller (NIC) for this network. Application and Services delivery traffic will
use this network. Size this network to the size of the number of Virtual Machines that
could handle your Cloud Cluster. Normally, it can be from 4 to 20 times the number of
physical servers (depends on the hardware available).
The Public Network is the one to access the internet from/to the Cloud Cluster. In this
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scenario we have configured the network in such a way that virtual machines can have
a public IP bonded to their service NICs.
The Storage Network is a network specialized in data traffic between the Cloud Cluster
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and the iSCSI Storage. It’s a very demanding network in terms of speed and latency.
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14. This configuration can be the first step for ISPs and companies that want to deploy a complete
Cloud Computing platform. Contact Abiquo for assistance on what premium modules you
would need and how to plan the deployment of the platform.
4.3 AbiCloud software requirements
The Management platform runs inside a Tomcat Server that uses a MySQL database as the
persistent storage of information. The platform has been tested in other configurations (Oracle
databases), but the recommended database Server is MySQL 5.5:
Sun JDK 6.0
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Tomcat 6.X
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MySQL 5.5
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The automatic installer of AbiCloud includes Tomcat 6.x and MySQL 5.5 in the default
installation. So, if you download the binaries and run the installer the unique requirement is Sun
JDK 6.0.
The community version of AbiCloud only supports VirtualBox (2.1.0, 2.1.2 or 2.1.4, latest versions
are not tested) installed on each cloud node. Remember that AbiCloud is prepared to support
many virtualization technologies using a plug-in infrastructure. Abiquo has decided to start
offering the VirtualBox plug-in in the first release, because it has an easy installation process and
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15. the user doesn't needs special hardware infrastructure. Follow the instructions in the VirtualBox
site to install the software on each node.
The Management interface has been developed with Adobe FLEX. This technology needs an
Adobe Flash Player >9.0 to work. It has been successfully tested with Mozilla Firefox in several
flavors of Linux, Mac OSX and Microsoft Windows. Also, it has been tested in Windows
environments with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.
4.4 AbiCloud hardware requirements for testing deployments
For testing deployments almost any x86 hardware is valid. The minimum requirements are.
4.4.1 AbiCloud platform servers
1 x x86 32 Bit 1.6Ghz processor
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1 x 1GB memory
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1 x 100Mb Ethernet port
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100Gb Hard Disk space
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4.4.2 AbiCloud Cloud Cluster servers
1 x x86 32 Bit 1.6Ghz processor. Recommended with Virtualizacion Technology (VT or
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AMD-V).
1 x 1GB memory
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1 x 100Mb Ethernet port
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100Gb Hard Disk space
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Obviously the better hardware on the Cloud Cluster servers, the better.
4.5 AbiCloud hardware requirements for Production deployments
For Enterprise and ISPs deployment, you should consider first class hardware to deliver the best
Quality of Service. The following configurations or very similar should be considered. Contact
Abiquo if you need help sizing your system.
4.5.1 AbiCloud platform servers
AMD Opteron Model 1218 dual core processor (2.6GHz/1MB),
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2 x 1GB unbuffered ECC single rank DDR2-667 memory
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Service Processor, 4x 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 6x USB 2.0 ports, 1x I/O riser card with 2x
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16. 2 x XRB-ST1CE500G7K-SU 500GB 7.2K RPM SATA HDD
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1 x X5294A-Z-SU X2100M2/X2200M2:DVD-ROM drive
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4.5.2 AbiCloud Cloud Cluster servers
2 x Quad Core Intel Xeon E5405 (12MB L2, 2.00GHz,
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1333MHz FSB, 80W) 16GB (4x 4GB, 667MHz Fully-buffered DIMM), No HDD, no DVD, 1x
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PSU, ILOM,
4x 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 5x USB 2.0 ports, 1x 16-lane PCI-Express slot, no power
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cord, order
2 x XRBSS1CE146G15KZSU Int Disk 146GB 15K SAS HDD
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4.5.3 AbiCloud Cloud Storage servers
Contact Abiquo for detailed information about the requirements for Tier-1 & Tier 2 virtual
storage capabilities in your cloud.
4.5.4 AbiCloud Cloud Network devices
Contact Abiquo for detailed information about the requirements for Virtual Switching and Load
Balancing capabilities in your cloud.
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17. 5 Other Resources
5.1 Community Portal
This guide is intended to get you up and running, and to introduce some of the functionality
available in AbiCloud. If you need more information about the product, or modify the
AbiCloud core to adapt it to your needs, you should visit the Community Portal of Abiquo:
http://community.abiquo.com
Bugs, enhancements and change request can be entered through the JIRA Bug tracking
system. Registration is free and open to all users:
http://jira.abiquo.com
If you need to share your thoughts, help request or meet other members of the community, join
the channel #abiquo of the irc.freenode.net IRC network.
There are also two mailing lists available to developers:
http://lists.abiquo.com/mailman/listinfo/abicloud-devel: Mail list for abiCloud developers.
http://lists.abiquo.com/mailman/listinfo/abicloud-commits: Mail list for receive commits
information of abiCloud.
5.2 Information online
Product information can be found at:
http://www.abiquo.com/en/products/abicloud
5.3 Contact
Partnerships: partners@abiquo.com
Media and Public Relations: relations@abiquo.com
Community: community@abiquo.com
Careers: surpriseus@abiquo.com
Others: contact@abiquo.com
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