The project in five facts.
Challenge, approach and results.
I have been involved in self-hosting various services in containers for quite some time. This diploma thesis seemed like an excellent opportunity for the author to deepen their knowledge and to set up a highly available distributed system for the first time. Services running on highly available systems are used every day, but we probably do not even realise this until something suddenly stops working. In the end, the product was also tested in both systems using a custom test script for testing mail servers, an analysis of the results was carried out, and an in-depth comparison regarding deployment in both systems was written.
Problem
I have been involved in self-hosting various services in containers for quite some time. This diploma thesis seemed like an excellent opportunity for the author to deepen their knowledge and to set up a highly available distributed system for the first time.
Solution and Method
Services running on highly available systems are used every day, but we probably do not even realise this until something suddenly stops working. Researching and implementing such a system enabled the author to become familiar with many challenges and solutions that are crucial for ensuring uninterrupted operation of services. Practically all of us nowadays use email, most of us use free solutions from large companies such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Gmail or Proton Mail. Email is one of the few services that the author had never hosted before, nor had they used cluster management systems, so they decided to study them and compare them with each other – they wanted to examine in detail the advantages, disadvantages, differences and similarities of the Kubernetes and Docker Swarm systems. Both container management systems are very popular.
In production, Kubernetes is more often found – the author was interested in why not Docker Swarm, which at first glance is simpler to configure. In the theoretical part, they researched and described containers, the Kubernetes and Docker systems, and since the subject of comparison is a mail server, they also wrote something about email and email solutions, and touched upon spam, with which every email user has experience. For the purposes of the BTEC hypothesis, they delved into big data, where they examined what big data actually is and what the connection is between it and email, and how big data can positively or negatively affect our security on the internet and our privacy.
Since this is a relatively complex project, in the practical part they wanted to present all the individual components used in great detail. First, they presented all the services that were set up in both systems, and also stated the reasons for their decision to use them. They then described in detail the procedures for setting up the product, from setting up the clusters themselves to setting up individual services and additional specifics in both systems.
Later, they also described the complexity of mail server configuration with an emphasis on security configuration.
Results
In the end, the product was also tested in both systems using a custom test script for testing mail servers, an analysis of the results was carried out, and an in-depth comparison regarding deployment in both systems was written.
Module, programme and stories.
Your diploma project for a real company.
A diploma thesis at Academia solves a challenge from a company – often the one where you do your 800 hours of placement. Read about the Programsko inženirstvo module or book a consultation.