$NetBSD: virtualization,v 1.2 2008/03/19 20:34:34 jmmv Exp $ NetBSD Virtualization Roadmap ============================= This is a small roadmap document, and deals with the virtualization side of the operating system. NetBSD 5.0 will ship with the following virtualization elements in place: 1. Xen 3 Dom0 [i386/amd64] 2. Xen 3 DomU [i386/amd64] 3. Xen 3 PAE DomU [i386] The following elements and projects are pencilled in for 5.0, but please do not rely on them being there. 4. NetBSD/usermode 5. virtualization jails via secmodel The following projects are expected to be included in NetBSD 6.0 6. iSCSI booting 7. iSCSI device cloning 8. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume 9. Xen balloon driver support We expect to branch for the 5.0 release in April or May 2008, which would put a NetBSD 5.0 Release date in Q4 2008. An annual release cycle would thus mean that 6.0 would be branched in April or May 2009. Pictorially, this looks like: 2008 2009 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug |===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===| | ------- 5.0 --------- | | ------- 6.0 branch release branch 1-3 4,5 6 7 8 9 We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up. Some explanations ================= 4. NetBSD/usermode ------------------ NetBSD/usermode is an port of NetBSD to a POSIX-compatible user-space, with the intention that it should be possible to run the usermode version of NetBSD on any POSIX-compatible operating system. Responsible: jmcneill 5. Virtualization Jails via secmodel ------------------------------------ One novel way of creating jails for virtualization is to use a new secmodel (part of the kauth framework), to isolate processes into jail-based virtual machines. This is the basis of a paper to appear in the AsiaBSDcon proceedings in March 2008. Responsible: bad 6. iSCSI booting ---------------- In order to make Xen domains migration-friendly, the storage that the domain uses must be based on some form of network-centric storage, either NFS, or a SAN or IP-SAN. For IP-SANs, iSCSI booting will be used. Responsible: agc 7. iSCSI device cloning ----------------------- To minimise the storage requirements for multiple domU booting, using a standard root filesystem or block device for the domU is required, along with some form of copy-on-write mechanism to preserve any modifications that are made. Responsible: agc 8. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume ----------------------------------------- Xen domU migration is where a domU domain is moved from one dom0 to another dom0 on the same vlan (to avoid networking problems, the virtual arp address migrates with the domU itself). Responsible: bouyer 9. Xen balloon driver support ----------------------------- The balloon driver allows more memory to be added to a running Xen domU instance; this allows extra memory to be used by the domU for resource peak needs. Responsible: bouyer Alistair Crooks Thu Mar 6 22:36:19 GMT 2008