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Xen: Hypervisor for the Cloud - CCC13
The document discusses Russell Pavlicek's background and insights as an evangelist for the Xen Project, emphasizing its role as a flexible and secure open-source hypervisor for cloud computing. It highlights the architecture, components, and advantages of the Xen hypervisor, including its stability, security measures, and orchestration capabilities, making it suitable for various deployment scenarios. Additionally, the text addresses the evolution of virtualization technologies and the importance of disaggregation for enhancing security and performance in cloud infrastructures.
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Xen: Hypervisor for the Cloud - CCC13
- 1. Russell Pavlicek Xen ProjectEvangelist Russell.Pavlicek@XenProject.org Xen: FOSS Hypervisor for the Cloud @RCPavlicek Skype: russpavlicek
- 2. So Who’s theFat Geek up Front?
- 3. • Linux usersince 1995; Linux desktop since 1997 • Linux advocate before I ever saw the software • Early Linux advocate at Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq • Former FOSS columnist for Infoworld, Processor magazines • Former panelist on The Linux Show webcast • Wrote book, Embracing Insanity: Open Source Software Development (2000) • Speaker at about 50 Open Source conferences • Became Xen Project Evangelist employed by Citrix in January 2013 • Not a Xen Project expert… yet About the Speaker...
- 4. A Word Aboutthe Xen Stack • The main components: – Xen Hypervisor, the central FOSS project – Xen Cloud Platform, the Cloud enabled subproject • With its enablement layer, XAPI – These are the subjects of this talk • And then there’s: – XenServer, a popular Xen-based product • Xen Cloud Platform + • There’s a XenServer talk tomorrow
- 5.
- 6. IT: Pre-Cloud • Stabilityis Paramount – The value of IT to the corporation is consistent service availability – Service capacity specified a year or more in advance – What’s up, stays up • Change is Bad – Change to status quo is disruptive and dangerous – Changes are beaten into submission until they become part of the new status quo – and then they are no longer changes
- 7. IT in theCloud • Availability of Services is Paramount – The value of IT to the corporation is consistent service availability at levels matching dynamic business demand – Service capacity must move with business needs – What’s up when depends on what’s needed when • Change is Good – Services must change to cover the needs of the moment – Lack of change = lack of value
- 8. Layers of theCloud App Operating System Layer Virtualization Layer Cloud Orchestration Layer
- 9. Virtualization in theCloud • It must be stable • It must be secure • It must be configurable on a large scale – The “user at machine” paradigm does not work – If it requires a mouse, you’re in trouble • It must take orchestration (APIs, command line) • It must be multi-tenant • It must not lock you into one concept or provider of Cloud
- 10. Xen: Stable • Solidtrack record –Amazon bets their AWS cloud business on us • Linux Foundation Project Partners: –AMD, Amazon, Cisco, Citrix, Intel, Oracle, Samsung, Verizon, and more
- 11. Xen: Secure • SELINUX •FLASK – NSA involvement – If the NSA cares enough to secure Xen, you can rely on Xen security • Disaggregation – Segment device drivers into discrete VMs
- 12. Xen: Configurable atScale • Toolstacks give rich API and command line capabilities • Not GUI-centric • Empowers orchestration via scripting, power tools (Puppet, Chef, etc.), GUIs, and Cloud layers
- 13. Single Host Basic Functions MultipleHosts Additional Functionality Xen: Rich Toolstacks Increased level of functionality and integration with other components Default / XL (XM)Toolstack / Console Libvirt / VIRSH XAPI / XE Hypervisor Single Host Additional Functionality Xen Hypervisor
- 14. 14 Xen: Tools forDifferent Solutions Increased level of functionality and integration with other components Default / XL (XM)Toolstack / Console Libvirt / VIRSH Products Oracle VM Huawei UVP Citrix XenServer Project XAPI / XE Xen Hypervisor
- 15. 15 Xen: Tools forDifferent Clouds Increased level of functionality and integration with other components Default / XL (XM)Toolstack / Console Libvirt / VIRSH Used by … Project XAPI / XE Products Oracle VM Huawei UVP Citrix XenServer Xen Hypervisor
- 16. Focus on XAPI:The Cloud Layer Multiple Hosts Additional Functionality XAPI / XE Xen Hypervisor • VM lifecycle: live snapshots, checkpoint, migration • Storage XenMotion: Migrate VMs between hosts or pools without shared storage (while the VM is running) • Resource pools: flexible storage and networking • Event tracking: progress, notification • Upgrade and patching capabilities • Real-time performance monitoring and alerting • Templates for Windows and Linux guests • Open vSwitch support built-in (default) More info: wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/XCP_Release_Features
- 17. Xen: A Multi-tenantSolution • Multiple groups share common resources securely – Clouds require sharing common resources – Organizations often need their VMs to be visible to each other, but entirely invisible to all other VMs – Xen Cloud Platform makes this happen – Critical ability for hosting providers
- 18. Xen: Doesn’t lockyou in • Xen does not force its view of the Cloud on you • Xen does not force you to use a “favored” Cloud solution • This is one of the reasons why Cloud innovation happens in the world of FOSS: It gives power to the Cloud, but allows Cloud orchestration solutions to innovate • There is no attempt to bend your efforts to the will of some corporate business plan
- 19. XAPI : OrchestrationChoices Multiple Hosts Additional Functionality XAPI / XE Xen Hypervisor
- 20.
- 21. • See thefollowing teams on the new XenProject.org site: – Hypervisor – XAPI – ARM Hypervisor (for Servers as well as Mobile Devices) – Mirage OS • Governance : mixture between Linux Kernel and Apache – Consensus decision making – Sub-project life-cycle (aka incubator) – PMC style structure for team leadership News: Xen Project in Linux Foundation
- 22. Xen contributor communityis diversifying 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 2010 2011 2012 Citrix UPC SUSE Amazon University AMD GridCentric Individual NSA Intel Fujitsu iWeb Misc Oracle Spectralogic University of British Columbia • The number of “significant” active vendors is increasing • New feature development driving new participation
- 23. More Xen Features •Live Migration of VMs: XenMotion (in Xen Cloud Platform) • High Availability: Remus • Wide variety of Control Domains supported • Even wider variety of Guest Domains • Multiple virtualization modes improve performance
- 24.
- 25. Hypervisor Architectures Type 1:Bare metal Hypervisor A pure Hypervisor that runs directly on the hardware and hosts Guest OS’s. Provides partition isolation + reliability, higher security Host HW Memory CPUsI/O HypervisorScheduler MMUDevice Drivers/Models VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps
- 26. Hypervisor Architectures Type 1:Bare metal Hypervisor A pure Hypervisor that runs directly on the hardware and hosts Guest OS’s. Type 2: OS ‘Hosted’ A Hypervisor that runs within a Host OS and hosts Guest OS’s inside of it, using the host OS services to provide the virtual environment. Provides partition isolation + reliability, higher security Low cost, no additional drivers Ease of use & installation Host HW Memory CPUsI/O Host HW Memory CPUsI/O HypervisorScheduler MMUDevice Drivers/Models VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Host OS Device Drivers Ring-0 VM Monitor “Kernel “ VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps User Apps User-level VMM Device Models
- 27. Xen: Type 1with a Twist Type 1: Bare metal Hypervisor Host HW Memory CPUsI/O HypervisorScheduler MMUDevice Drivers/Models VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps
- 28. Xen: Type 1with a Twist Type 1: Bare metal Hypervisor Host HW Memory CPUsI/O HypervisorScheduler MMUDevice Drivers/Models VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Host HW Memory CPUsI/O Hypervisor VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Xen Architecture Scheduler MMU
- 29. Xen: Type 1with a Twist Type 1: Bare metal Hypervisor Host HW Memory CPUsI/O HypervisorScheduler MMUDevice Drivers/Models VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Host HW Memory CPUsI/O Hypervisor VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Xen Architecture Scheduler MMU Control domain (dom0) Drivers Device Models Linux & BSD
- 30. Xen Project andLinux • Xen Hypervisor is not in the Linux kernel • BUT: everything Xen and Xen Guests need to run is • Xen packages in all distros (not RHEL6, but CentOS 6) – Install Control Domain (Dom0) Linux distribution – Install Xen package(s) or meta package – Reboot – Configure stuff: set up disks, peripherals, etc. More info: wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Category:Host_Install
- 31. Basic Xen Concepts 31 Controldomain (dom0) Host HW VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Memory CPUsI/O Console • Interface to the outside world Control Domain aka Dom0 • Dom0 kernel with drivers • Xen Management Toolstack Guest Domains • Your apps Driver/Stub/Service Domain(s) • A “driver, device model or control service in a box” • De-privileged and isolated • Lifetime: start, stop, kill Dom0 Kernel HypervisorScheduler MMU XSM Trusted Computing Base
- 32. Basic Xen Concepts:Toolstack+ 32 Control domain (dom0) Host HW VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Console Memory CPUsI/O Dom0 Kernel Toolstack HypervisorScheduler MMU XSM Console • Interface to the outside world Control Domain aka Dom0 • Dom0 kernel with drivers • Xen Management Toolstack Guest Domains • Your apps Driver/Stub/Service Domain(s) • A “driver, device model or control service in a box” • De-privileged and isolated • Lifetime: start, stop, kill Trusted Computing Base
- 33. Basic Xen Concepts:Disaggregation 33 Control domain (dom0) Host HW VMn VM1 VM0 Guest OS and Apps Console Memory CPUsI/O One or more driver, stub or service domains Dom0 Kernel Toolstack HypervisorScheduler MMU XSM Console • Interface to the outside world Control Domain aka Dom0 • Dom0 kernel with drivers • Xen Management Toolstack Guest Domains • Your apps Driver/Stub/Service Domain(s) • A “driver, device model or control service in a box” • De-privileged and isolated • Lifetime: start, stop, kill Trusted Computing Base
- 34. Xen : Typesof Virtualization
- 35. Xen Virtualization Vocabulary •PV – Paravirtualization – Hypervisor provides API used by the OS of the Guest VM – Guest OS needs to be modified to provide the API • HVM – Hardware-assisted Virtual Machine – Uses CPU VM extensions to handle Guest requests – No modification to Guest OS – But CPU must provide VM extensions • FV – Full Virtualization (another name for HVM)
- 36. Xen Virtualization Vocabulary •PVHVM – PV on HVM drivers – Allows H/W virtualized guests to use PV disk and I/O drivers – No modifications to guest OS – Better performance than straight HVM • PVH – PV in HVM Container (coming in 4.4) – Almost fully PV – Uses HW extensions to eliminate PV MMU – Possibly best mode for CPUs with virtual H/W extensions
- 37. The Virtualization Spectrum FullyVirtualized (FV) VS VS VS VH FV with PV for disk & network P VS VS VH PVHVM P P VS VH PVH P P P VH Fully Paravirtualized (PV) P P P P VH Virtualized (HW) P Paravirtualized VS Virtualized (SW) HVM mode/domain PV mode/domain Xen 4.4
- 38. The Virtualization Spectrum FullyVirtualized (FV) VS VS VS VH FV with PV for disk & network P VS VS VH PVHVM P P VS VH PVH P P P VH Fully Paravirtualized (PV) P P P P Scope for improvement Poor performance Optimal performance HVM mode/domain Xen 4.4 PV mode/domain
- 39. The Virtualization Spectrum FullyVirtualized (FV) VS VS VS VH FV with PV for disk & network P VS VS VH PVHVM P P VS VH PVH P P P VH Fully Paravirtualized (PV) P P P P Scope for improvement Poor performance Optimal performance HVM mode/domain Xen 4.4 PV mode/domain Important: Xen automatically picks the best option based on HW & OS capabilities and available drivers. As a Xen user I chose a HVM or PV domain.
- 40. Split Control Domaininto Driver, Stub and Service Domains – See: ”Breaking up is hard to do” @ Xen Papers – See: “Domain 0 Disaggregation for XCP and XenServer” Used today by Qubes OS and Citrix XenClient XT Prototypes for XAPI Disaggregation See qubes-os.org Different windows run in different VMs
- 41. More Security Increased serviceabilityand flexibility Better Robustness Better Performance Better Scalability Benefits of Disaggregation Ability to safely restart parts of the system (e.g. just 275ms outage from failed Ethernet driver)
- 42. Next: XAPI ArchitectureDiagram Before and After Disaggregation
- 43. CPUCPU RAM RAMNIC (or SR- IOVVF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) RAID Xen Dom0Network drivers NFS/ iSCSI drivers Qemu xapi Local storage drivers NFS/ iSCSI drivers Network drivers Qemu eth eth eth eth scsi User VM User VM NB gntdev NB NF BF NF BF qemu qemu xapi vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged syslogd vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged tapdisk blktap3 storaged gntdev gntdev Dom0 xenopsd libxl healthd Domain manager Dom0 . . . . Xen xapi
- 44. CPUCPU RAM RAMNIC (or SR- IOVVF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) RAID Dom0 Network driver domain NFS/ iSCSI driver domain Qemu domain xapi domain Logging domain Local storage driver domain NFS/ iSCSI driver domain Network driver domain User VM User VM NB gntdev NB NF BF NF BF dbus over v4v qemu xapi xenopsd libxl healthd Domain manager vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged syslogd vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged tapdisk blktap3 storaged gntdev gntdev eth eth eth eth scsi Xen Xen D o m 0 dbus over v4v . . .
- 45. 45 Xen Security Advantages •Even without Advanced Security Features – Well-defined trusted computing base (much smaller than on type-2 HV) – Minimal services in hypervisor layer • Xen Security Modules (or XSM) and FLASK – XSM is Xen equivalent of LSM (Linux Security Modules) – FLASK is Xen equivalent of SELinux – Developed, maintained and contributed to Xen by NSA – Compatible with SELinux (tools, architecture) – XSM object classes maps onto Xen features More info: http://www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/ a-brief-tutorial-on-xens-advanced-security-features
- 46. 46 Xen Security Modules(XSM) -- FLASK • What does FLASK provide? – Granular security • Can a guest domain talk with other guest domains? • Can a guest domain only communicate with the Control Domain? • Can a Guest domain have memory which cannot be read by the Control Domain? • What type of device model is used in this domain? • The ability to define multiple security roles on the domain level • User types can be defined and assign roles • Policy constraint logic More info: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Security_Modules_:_XSM-FLASK
- 47. CPUCPU RAM RAMNIC (or SR- IOVVF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) NIC (or SR- IOV VF) RAID Xen Dom0 Network driver domain NFS/ iSCSI driver domain Qemu domain xapi domain Logging domain Local storage driver domain NFS/ iSCSI driver domain Network driver domain eth eth eth eth scsi User VM User VM NB gntdev NB NF BF NF BF qemu xapi xenopsd libxl healthd Domain manager vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged syslogd vswitch networkd tapdisk blktap3 storaged tapdisk blktap3 storaged gntdev gntdev FLASK policy restricting access D o m 0 . . . dbus over v4v dbus over v4v Xen
- 48.
- 49. Fully functional forARM v7 & v8 ARM v7: Versatile Express, Arndale & Samsung Chromebook ARM v8: Fast Model Xen 4.3 for ARM Servers
- 50. ARM SOC Xen +ARM = a perfect Match ARM Architecture Features for Virtualization Hypervisor mode : EL2 Kernel mode : EL1 User mode : EL0 GIC v2 GT 2 stage MMU I/O Device Tree describes … Hypercall Interface HVC
- 51. ARM SOC ARMArchitecture Features for Virtualization EL2 EL1 EL0 GIC v2 GT 2 stage MMU I/O Device Tree describes … HVC Xen + ARM = a perfect Match Xen Hypervisor
- 52. ARM SOC ARMArchitecture Features for Virtualization EL2 EL1 EL0 GIC v2 GT 2 stage MMU I/O Device Tree describes … HVC Xen + ARM = a perfect Match Xen Hypervisor Any Xen Guest VM (including Dom0) Kernel User Space HVC
- 53. ARM SOC ARMArchitecture Features for Virtualization EL2 EL1 EL0 GIC v2 GT 2 stage MMU I/O Device Tree describes … HVC Xen + ARM = a perfect Match Xen Hypervisor Dom0 only Any Xen Guest VM (including Dom0) Kernel User Space I/O PV back PV frontI/O HVC
- 54. One mode torule them all x86: PVHVM P P VS VH x86: PVH P P P VH ARM v7 & v8 P VH VH VH Scope for improvement Optimal performance HVM mode/domain PV mode/domain
- 55. Code Size ofx86 and ARM Hypervisors X86 Hypervisor 100K -120K LOC Any x86 CPU ARM Hypervisor for mobile Devices 60K LOC ARM v5 – v7 (no virtual extensions) (extra code for RT) ARM Hypervisor for Servers 17K LOC ARM v7+ (w/ virtual extensions)
- 56.
- 57. Application stacks onlyrunning on Xen APIs Works on any Xen based cloud or hosting service Examples – ErlangOnXen.org : Erlang – HalVM : Haskell – Mirage OS : Ocaml Benefits: – Small footprint – Low startup latency – Extremely fast migration of VMs Library Operating Systems Xen Control domain (dom0) Host HW Guest VMn Apps HW Drivers PV Back Ends Library OS embedded in Language run-time Dom0 Kernel
- 58. • Recently addedto Xen Project incubator • In beta stage: first release on its way • Clean-slate protocols implementations, e.g. – TCP/IP, DNS, SSH, Openflow (switch/controller), HTTP, XMPP, ... – New applications using next generation XAPI (disaggregated XAPI architecture) Mirage OS More info: http://www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/ mirage-extreme-specialisation-of-virtual-appliances
- 59.
- 60. • Release isImminent! • Xen ARM for Servers • Extend scope of Xen Security Modules • qxl Spice support for 3d acceleration • Updated and improved libvirt drivers for Xen • Lots of other stuff: – scalability, performance, better NUMA support, … Coming in Xen 4.3 (June 26, 2013) More info: http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.3
- 61. • Establish ashared test infrastructure – Most major contributors are duplicating effort – Mirage OS provides interesting opportunities • Usability and better distribution integration – Example: Xen + XAPI in CentOS 6.4 • More focus on downstreams – Examples: CloudStack and Xen Orchestra • Disaggregation in Xen toolstacks (e.g XAPI) • Better Libvirt and virt-manager integration – Embed Xen more into the Linux ecosystem and provide benefits for the wider Linux community What’s next (and already happening)
- 62. • Document Days(monthly; today in fact) • Test Days (prior to release) • Mailing Lists and IRC • XenProject.org (sign up, it’s free!) Getting Started with Xen Project Xen Hackathon, Next one details TBD 2014 Xen Developer Summit, 10/25-26, Edinburgh Xen User Summit, 9/18, New Orleans CFPs open right now!
- 63. Thank You! Slides availableunder CC-BY-SA 3.0 From www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr @RCPavlicek Skype: russpavlicek • News: blog.XenProject.org • Web: XenProject.org – Help for IRC, Lists, … – Stackoverflow-like Q&A • Wiki: wiki.XenProject.org • Presentations: slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr • Videos: vimeo.com/channels/xen