Unikernels: Where are they now?

Talk given at Open Source Summit (North America). See abstract at: http://sched.co/BCt5

1. UNIKERNELS
 AMIR CHAUDHRY WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Open Source Summit NA
 13 Sep 2017 @amirmc
2. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL OVERVIEW ▸ Unikernel refresher ▸ Status updates: ▸ MirageOS, IncludeOS, HaLVM, Solo5 ▸ Summary ▸ Questions?
3. REFRESHER
4. ▸ Library OS ▸ Reusable components ▸ No separation between 'system' and app code ▸ Single-purpose appliances ▸ Minimalism all the way! STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL UNIKERNEL PHILOSOPHY
5. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL UNIKERNEL PHILOSOPHY ▸ Library OS ▸ Reusable components ▸ No separation between 'system' and app code ▸ Single-purpose appliances ▸ Minimalism all the way!
6. ▸ Small, lean, appliances ▸ Immutable by default ▸ Reduced TCB ▸ Much rejoicing! ▸ Multiple deployment options STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL BENEFITS ? unikernel
7. MIRAGEOS STATUS UPDATE:
8. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL MIRAGEOS ▸ Type-safety and correctness
 (in a pragmatic way) ▸ Multiple deployment targets
 (Unix, Xen, *BSD, ARM) ▸ Libs used in Docker products ▸ ISC Licensed
9. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL MIRAGEOS ▸ Type-safety and correctness
 (in a pragmatic way) ▸ Multiple deployment targets
 (Unix, Xen, *BSD, ARM) ▸ Libs used in Docker products ▸ ISC Licensed
10. ▸ Improved cloud deployments
 Deploy onto GCP in ~70s! ▸ New targets:
 virtio — QEMU (and GCP)
 uvkm — KVM, FreeBSD, OpenBSD
 qubes — QubesOS (on Xen)
 ▸ Much improved dev workflow
 Better versioning, logs system, error reporting, debugging
 STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL MIRAGEOS 3.0!
11. ▸ Improved cloud deployments
 Deploy onto GCP in ~70s! ▸ New targets:
 virtio — QEMU (and GCP)
 uvkm — KVM, FreeBSD, OpenBSD
 qubes — QubesOS (on Xen)
 hypervisor.framework ▸ Much improved dev workflow
 Better versioning, logs system, error reporting, debugging
 gdb support STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL MIRAGEOS 3.0!
12. INCLUDEOS STATUS UPDATE:
13. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS ▸ Focus on performance
 C++ principle of "zero overhead" ▸ Pragmatic approach to POSIX
 expanding support as required ▸ Multiple targets (QEMU, ESXi, etc) ▸ Apache Public License 2.0 #include <os> int main() { printf("Hello world! No Linux here!"); }
14. ▸ Very active project and growing quickly
 2k+ stars, ~200 forks, 35+ contributors ▸ Commercial company
 Based out of Oslo, Norway ▸ Broad support via libs
 Multicore virtual machines (SMP)
 Multiple network adapters ▸ LiveUpdate is a major feature
 In-place update of unikernels with zero downtime STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — CURRENT WORK
15. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — LIVE UPDATE Current application Memory
16. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — LIVE UPDATE Current application Upgraded application Memory
17. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — LIVE UPDATE Current application Upgraded application State Memory
18. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — LIVE UPDATE Current application Upgraded application State Memory
19. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — LIVE UPDATE Upgraded application State Memory
20. ▸ Working on load balancers and firewall apps
 Immutable VMs doing Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) ▸ Expanding language support
 NodeJS and Go are strongest contenders
 STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INCLUDEOS — ROADMAP
21. HALVM STATUS UPDATE:
22. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL HALVM ▸ Haskell — type-safety and purity ▸ Evolved from internal uses
 e.g. prototyping OS design ▸ Targets Xen Hypervisor ▸ BSD-3 Licensed
23. ▸ Commercial product — CyberChaff
 All HaLVM work is in support of CyberChaff STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL HALVM / CYBERCHAFF
24. ▸ Commercial product — CyberChaff
 All HaLVM work is in support of CyberChaff ▸ First project to generate revenue!
 NUC connected to network
 Can also run on EC2
 Looking into pure software option
 㱺T ▸ HaLVM 3 challenges
 How to write a minimal libc
 New targets STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL HALVM / CYBERCHAFF
25. ▸ Commercial product — CyberChaff
 All HaLVM work is in support of CyberChaff ▸ First project to generate revenue!
 NUC connected to network
 Can also run on EC2
 Looking into pure software option
 Team distracted by money!! 㱺 㱺 㱺 ▸ HaLVM 3 challenges
 How to write a minimal libc
 New targets STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL HALVM / CYBERCHAFF
26. SOLO5 STATUS UPDATE:
27. SOLO5 ? STATUS UPDATE:
28. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL BENEFITS (A REMINDER) ? unikernel ▸ Small, lean, appliances ▸ Immutable by default ▸ Reduced TCB ▸ Much rejoicing! ▸ Multiple deployment options
29. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL ? unikernel ▸ Small, lean, appliances ▸ Immutable by default ▸ Reduced TCB ▸ Much rejoicing! ▸ Multiple deployment options BENEFITS (A REMINDER)
30. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL LINUX / KVM QEMU libs/runtime monitor base App code BASE AND MONITOR
31. ▸ Base defines:
 - where unikernel can run,
 - how fast it boots,
 - what higher layers do. ▸ Monitor provides:
 - generic h/w abstractions
 - e.g. Mini-OS (Xen) or QEMU (KVM) STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL LINUX / KVM QEMU libs/runtime monitor base App code BASE AND MONITOR
32. ▸ Typically on a hypervisor ▸ Adds to the TCB! ▸ ‘General purpose’, 
 so not very minimal! ▸ … what do we really need? STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL BASE AND MONITOR LINUX / KVM QEMU libs/runtime monitor base App code
33. ▸ Solo5: a unikernel base
 Ukvm: a specialised monitor ▸ From folks at IBM Research ▸ Extends unikernel philosophy
 to the base and monitor ▸ Minimal interfaces (~5% code) ▸ Fast boot times (~10ms) STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL INTRODUCING SOLO5/UKVM LINUX / KVM unikernel
 +
 solo5 lib ukvm
34. ▸ Major part of the MirageOS 3.0 release ▸ Project is now multi-OS
 Ported to run on FreeBSD and OpenBSD ▸ Project is now multi-arch
 Solo5 base ported to run on ARM64
 ukvm monitor ported to run Linux/KVM on ARM64 ▸ IncludeOS support
 Mostly complete STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL SOLO5/UKVM — MILESTONES
35. ▸ ukvm is now a misnomer
 It’s grown way beyond just ‘kvm’ ▸ More comms about Solo5/ukvm
 Less well known than the unikernel projects
 Work on Solo5 benefits all supported projects ▸ Refresh the Solo5 APIs ▸ Support for Muen SK as a monitor
 A formally verified microkernel STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL SOLO5/UKVM — UPCOMING WORK
36. SUMMARY
37. STATE OF THE UNIKERNEL SUMMARY ▸ Steady growth across projects
 Each growing in their own way ▸ Early signs of convergence
 Excellent time to get involved ▸ Revenue! ▸ Docker images to get started
 Tool chains still different though ▸ Find out more at unikernel.org
38. THANK YOU!
 unikernel.org @amirmc
39. THANK YOU!
 QUESTIONS? unikernel.org @amirmc