Part three of this series by Xen Project Advisory Board Chairman Lars Kurth discusses early adopters of unikernel technology and why the technology’s future is so bright.
Early adopters are using unikernel technology to run websites, critical systems infrastructure, cutting-edge research or to operate as a network appliance. MirageOS, for example, is serving as a successful testbed for cutting-edge research at the University of Cambridge and other academic groups, while Galois’ clients use The Haskell Lightweight Virtual Machine (HaLVM) for a number of network services and functions.
“One of our clients used a combination of HaLVMs to provide a reliable, secure VPN solution for laptops. Internally, we have also used HaLVMs to implement a variety of network services, including encryption nodes, random number generators, and network sensors,” said Adam Wick, creator of the HaLVM and a research lead at Galois Inc.
OSv runs on Amazon Web Services and is so popular that the beta program is already over-subscribed. Cloudius Systems CEO Dor Laor believes many use cases will benefit from OSv, which offers superior I/O performance, manageability and ease of use. Caches, load balancers, NoSQL and other I/O intensive workloads are ideal targets for OSv, in his opinion.
At an even simpler level, many systems can be improved through the use of a few strategically placed unikernels, according to Galois. Why not insert a HaLVM that performs quick spot checks of all incoming data before passing it on to the server? If your system is sensitive to changes in load, why not insert a MirageOS unikernel that can perform rate limiting? Want to switch to SSL, but your server doesn’t support it — why not add a LING converter?
“Many breaches start with a hacker sending invalid messages to a server that has not been properly implemented. All of the above situations are ones in which the flexibility and scalability of unikernels can really shine, and I believe we will start to see people taking advantage of them over the next year,” said Wick.
The creator of MirageOS, Anil Madhavapeddy’s group is working on a new tool stack called Jitsu (Just-in-Time Summoning of Unikernels), which can start a unikernel in ~20ms in response to a network request.
“This lets us run millions of sleeping unikernels that awaken in response to a network request and live for a few seconds at a time. We’re calling this sort of infrastructure ‘dust clouds’ and expect that it will dramatically change the economics of hosting on the cloud,” he said. Jitsu will be presented at the USENIX NSDI conference this May in Oakland, California.
Amir Chaudhry, who leads the Nymote.org project based on MirageOS unikernels said, “The coming era of hyper-elastic clouds using MirageOS and Jitsu means that users do not have to run large, always-on VMs. Instead, users can provision services and applications only when there is demand, scaling out and back down automatically. This enables people to maintain a secure, personal online presence for a few dollars a year, adding additional services as desired. All without giving up their personal data to third-party services or having to become SysAdmins.”
Will enterprises deploy a mix of VMs, unikernels and containers? Or will unikernels eventually go mainstream and replace containers? Identifying the best set of technologies for an organization depends on the end goals, experts say. In some cases though, unikernels may very well be the technology of choice in the future.
“Docker is great when you want to put together a number of functions into a single component. If you want a LAMP stack, you’re probably better off just using a LAMP Docker instance and pressing ‘go.’ On the other hand, if you want a lightweight, single-service component that you can bring up and down quickly, or want to scale massively, then unikernels are going to be a clear winner,” Wick said.
New options for developers and SysAdmins are a certainty, as unikernels and container technologies are quickly evolving and hypervisors are branching into new areas such as embedded computing and ARM-based servers. This actually creates new opportunities across the board, according to Cloudius.
“Unikernels provide the best of all worlds – on the one hand they retain the rich hypervisor ecosystem and enable superior isolation, live migration and robust SLA. On the other, unikernels provide container-like properties such as sub-second boot time, density and simplicity,” Laor said.
Madhavapeddy believes unikernels and Linux container technologies are highly complementary to one another. In his opinion, numerous combinations will emerge with hypervisors still the technology of choice for securing multi-tenancy environments.
“I also expect to see a unikernel backend for Docker in 2015 that will enable developers to partition a particular workload across unikernels and Linux VMs,” Madhavapeddy said. “We will also see improved compatibility between the unikernel stacks as the interconnect standards settle down, enabling multiple language runtimes such as Java, OCaml, Go, Rust and Haskell to each run inside a VM and form a secure distributed system of unikernels.”
Martin Lucina, who is working on the Rump Kernel software stack, is focused on providing compatibility with existing applications. He points out that Docker and hypervisors operate at different technology layers, so one will not replace the other. He sees Rump Kernels as a Docker alternative in the future.
“Rump Kernel-powered unikernels can run existing software — Nginx, PHP and MySQL were all ported with little effort,” Lucina said. “Once we work out the remaining challenges in usability, I envision Rump Kernels replacing Docker for deploying services in many scenarios.”
Laor acknowledges that some organizations will want to simplify and stick with a single technology. By following Docker’s format as closely as possible with OSv, he hopes sophisticated users won’t have to compromise on a single technology. With unikernel projects focused on finding a balance between security, performance and portability, unikernels will likely play an important role when deploying any future networked infrastructure.
Here’s a closer look at key projects to watch in the coming months.
ClickOS — a high-performance, virtualized software middle box platform based on open source virtualization. Early performance analysis shows that ClickOS VMs are small (5MB), boot quickly (as little as 20 milliseconds), add little delay (45 microseconds) and more than 100 can be concurrently run while saturating a 10Gb pipe on an inexpensive commodity server.
Clive — is an operating system designed to work in distributed and cloud computing environments.
HaLVM — The Haskell Lightweight Virtual Machine (HaLVM) is a port of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler tool suite that enables developers to write high-level, lightweight VMs that can run directly on the Xen Project hypervisor.
LING — is highly compatible with Erlang/OTP and understands .beam files. Developers can create code in Erlang and deploy LING unikernels. LING removes the majority of vector files, uses only three external libraries and no OpenSSL.
MirageOS — Incubated by Xen Project, MirageOS is a clean-slate library operating system that constructs unikernels for secure, high-performance network applications across a variety of cloud computing and mobile platforms. There are now more than 60 MirageOS libraries and a growing number of compatible libraries within the wider OCaml ecosystem. With recent improvements to the toolchain and an increasing number of contributors, MirageOS makes it easier than ever to “compile your own cloud.”
OSv — new OS designed specifically for cloud VMs from Cloudius Systems. Able to boot in less than a second, OSv is designed from the ground up to execute a single application on top of any hypervisor, resulting in superior performance, speed and effortless management. Ssupport for C, Java, Ruby, node.js, and Scala application stacks avaialble as well as future suport for Golang.
Rump Kernels — provide free, portable, componentized, kernel quality drivers such as file systems, POSIX system call handlers, PCI device drivers, a SCSI protocol stack, virtio and a TCP/IP stack. These drivers may be integrated into existing systems, or run as stand-alone unikernels on cloud hypervisors and embedded systems.
Read Part 1 of this series: 7 Unikernel Projects to Take On Docker in 2015
Read Part 2 of this series: Why Unikernels Can Improve Internet Security
This week, Google opened up its App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) for porting Android apps to Chrome OS to all Android developers, according to OMG!Chrome.
The technology, which runs Android at near-native speed via a sandboxed Dalvik VM, was previously available only to selected developers, resulting in some 30 Android apps that have been ported to the Chrome Web Store. With the newly opened ARC Welder app, that number should increase dramatically by the end of the year. The story notes that the move runs the risk that developers will avoid the rigors of native Chrome App development written in web technologies in favor of “lazy ports.”
The ARC announcement, combined with the recent addition of the Chromebit TV stick and the affordable touch-enabled Flip Chromebook, bring Chrome OS ever closer to the eventual collision — or possibly merger — with the Google-driven Android.
The gradual unification of the two open source Linux platforms (open source, at least, in terms of the licensing) has been slowed by the fact that they differ fundamentally in the way they treat applications. Like Apple’s iOS, and most PC software, Android is an app-driven platform. You download an app and it runs natively on your device, even if it typically has a cloud component.
Chrome OS, on the other hand, is more like Firefox OS in that it’s built around the browser and HTML5. Although Google compromised somewhat on its pure cloud computing philosophy for Chrome OS, it’s still essentially built around the Chrome browser’s ability to run apps that run entirely in the cloud. The approach helps to deliver the simplified, highly secure Chrome OS user experience that has caught on so well with consumers and educators.
Until recently, the other main difference has been that Android has a touch interface, while Chrome OS is more of a traditional keyboard-and-mouse experience like the kind you find on most Linux, Mac, and Windows PCs. Currently, there are very few touch-enabled Chrome OS apps for the handful of touchscreen Chromebooks, but that’s about to change.
Also hinting at Android convergence is a new beta Chrome Launcher 2.0 that switches the Chrome OS UI to a more Android like “Material Design” look and feel built around Google Now. Specifically, the launcher offers faster access to Google Now’s informational and notification cards.
The development cycle for Ubuntu and all its flavors is coming to an end and the devs are getting ready for launch day. The Ubuntu MATE makers are now asking for the community’s help in order to put together a launch video.
Ubuntu flavors don’t have launch video, but Ubuntu MATE is the newest kind on the block and developers want to shake things up a little bit. They have already made a lot of improvements to the distribution, but there is no reason why they can’t also have… (read more)
Google has unveiled five new computers running its Linux-based Chrome OS, including the first Chrome OS stick computer and the lowest priced touchscreen Chromebook to date.
The new models move Chrome OS closer to the mobile embedded realm of Android, a trend underscored with Google now opening up its technology for porting Android apps to Chrome OS to any Android app developer. Google also showed off a beta Chrome Launcher 2.0 that switches the UI to a more Android-like Material Design look and feel, as well as Google Now.
All five new Chrome OS systems run on Rockchip’s quad-core, 1.8GHz RK3888 system-on-chip, helping to reduce prices to as low as $149 for the Haier and Hisense Chromebooks, both of which are available for pre-order. Other common features for the four Chromebook laptops include 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC flash, a microSD slot, a 720p front-facing camera, and two USB 2.0 ports. You also get 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Here’s a quick look at the new models, with more details and photos in our slide show of new Chrome OS devices (click on Gallery link below):
Although relatively few details have been released about the Chromebit, it appears to have less in common with Google’s $35 Chromecast dongle, which casts your Android phone content to a TV screen, than with a host of similar HDMI stick computers that offer full Android OSes of their own. These include some models such as the $110 MK903V, which use the same Rockchip RK3288 SoC.
While most Android stick computers target the consumer media player market, the Chromebit will focus primarily on educational and kiosk applications, according to The Verge. The Chromebit form-factor is essentially a miniaturized dongle version of Chromebox mini-PCs.
There have yet to be any Chrome OS tablets to date, but the convertible Flip could certainly be mistaken for one. At $249, the Flip is $30 cheaper than the Acer C720P-2661 and $50 less than the similarly touch-ready $299 HP Chromebook 14 G3. Google’s recently released second generation version of its high-resolution, touch-enabled Chromebook Pixel, meanwhile, has been reduced to start at $999.
Google also tipped three upcoming Chrome OS partnerships with Nexian, True, and Xolo, aimed at emerging markets. As AndroidNewsIndia reports, Nexian is an Indonesian smartphone vendor, while True is a Thai communications giant. Xolo is an Indian subsidiary of Lava International that sells a variety of phones and tablets. Xolo is also planning to release phones base on Google’s Android One, a Nexus-like program for affordable Android phones sold in emerging markets. Low-cost Chromebooks may soon be entering the same channels.
Until now, the lowest priced Chromebook was the $199 Acer C720, which we covered last July in our report on the surge in Chromebook sales. The new $149 Chromebooks are a serious challenge to Microsoft, especially in the education and emerging markets where Google is targeting the Haier and Hisense devices.
According to a Mar. 27 Digitimes report, Microsoft is already working with 3 Nod and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) on similarly priced consumer- and education-focused Chromebook competitors, respectively. The 11.6-inch Windows 10 notebooks will run on quad-core Intel Atom Z3000 (Bay Trail-T) processors and debut this summer for $149 to $179. The ECS model will be “sold mainly through the education channel that Intel and ECS built for their Classmate PC products,” says Digitimes.
Google’s new Chrome OS computers also challenge Intel, whose chips have run on the majority of Chromebooks. While more ARM-based models have appeared in recent years, including the popular, first generation Samsung Chromebook, this is the first multi-product Chromebook announcement where Intel was entirely absent.
Considering the Rockchip RK3288’s relatively novel Cortex-A17 and ARM Mali 760 GPU foundation, it’s unclear how well the quad-core SoC will compete with the Bay Trail Atoms. It’s certainly not competitive with the 4th Gen Intel Core “Haswell” processors found on high-end Chromebooks like the HP Chromebook 14, although battery life will no doubt be longer. In any case, the new wave of Chromebooks is a coup for China-based Rockchip, a company that has partnered with Intel on some of its Sofia Intel Atom SoCs.
The Intel Atom first emerged as the processor of choice in the short lived netbook boom of 2008-2010, both for Windows, as well as the Linux (mostly Ubuntu) based models that once owned 20 to 30 percent of the netbook market. Netbooks, which are roughly defined as low-cost notebooks with under 12-inch displays, never really went away. However, once Microsoft pressured Linux out of the market, the company joined with Intel and PC manufacturers to downplay netbooks in favor of more lucrative, higher-margin and slightly larger Ultrabooks, as well as the new tablet and convertible form factors that were emerging at the time.
Now, as tablet sales have started to fade, netbooks appear to be enjoying a bit of a rebound, driven by Chrome OS and the emerging nation market. Many Chromebooks have larger 13- and 14-inch displays, but the netbook-like 11-inch models have enjoyed strong sales. Once Microsoft chips in with its new $149 Chrome OS killers, it may be game on for netbooks once again.
