6 ms·

NVMM: A full, fast and flexible virtualization stack for NetBSD

150 points by pmarin 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jhfdbkofdcho 8y ago
Is this similar in purpose/function to bhyve?
- MisterTea 8y ago
  Yes.
- johnklos 8y ago
  From the article: When it comes to the userland emulators, NVMM does not provide one. In other words, it does not re-implement a Qemu, a VirtualBox, a Bhyve (FreeBSD) or a VMD (OpenBSD). Rather, it provides a virtualization API via the libnvmm library, which allows to effortlessly add NVMM support in already existing emulators.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
butterisgood 8y ago
Sounds a bit like the hypervisor framework on MacOS. They’re is xhyve (a port of bhyve) for Mac on that. Probably could port bhyve to this too? Haven’t looked.
- ysleepy 8y ago
  The article says as much: "It has some similarities with WHPX on Windows and HVF on MacOS."
  - equalunique 8y ago
    So, supposedly, NVMM could be to a NetBSD bhyve port what HVF is to the xhyve on MacOS?
hs86 8y ago
I wonder why each of the three major BSDs ended up with their own hypervisor implementation instead of sharing their code. There is now bhyve on FreeBSD, vmm on OpenBSD and now also NVMM on NetBSD. Is this kind of diversity a good thing? Interestingly, the non-BSD illumos has imported FreeBSD's bhyve (and their bootloader). I assumed that these smaller OS-communities would be more inclined to share the work among each other but for some reason this did not happen with their home-grown hypervisors.
- tannhaeuser 8y ago
  If you take this a step further then you could as well ask why there are at least four BSD forks at all.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
    Or, equally, why there are multiple Linux distros.
- protomyth 8y ago
  Different goals and the internals of each BSD have diverged pretty heavily.
  - snazz 8y ago
    Yes. The goal of OpenBSD vmm is primarily simplicity and a small, easily audit-able codebase. FreeBSD’s solution would not meet OpenBSD’s requirements and vice versa.
  - meruru 8y ago
    I understand the different goals part, but it would be nice if these technologies could run on other BSDs (and Linux). bhyve and vmm are exclusive to FreeBSD and OpenBSD respectively AFAIK.
    - protomyth 8y ago
      The second part is the plumbing is different these days. The split has gone on for a long time.
rwmj 8y ago
Why not implement the actual Linux KVM ioctls instead of a something similar yet different? You could then run qemu on top and get an actual "full stack" (ie. everything up to Open Stack or Kubevirt).
- equalunique 8y ago
  They tried this with Illumos (the OpenSolaris descendant which itself is a distant BSD descendant), but found that maintaining their fork of QEMU/KVM code was more difficult than porting over Bhyve from FreeBSD.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    (Open)Solaris is a SVR4 descendant; not a BSD descendant. SunOS however (until version 4, version 5 being Solaris) is a BSD descendant.
    - equalunique 8y ago
      Thank you for the details. Now we all know more.
sogubsys 8y ago
Maxime Villard gives us another awesome gift :) Thanks!
justinclift 8y ago
Next step, it'd probably be userful add support for it to Libvirt. That way the large amount of cross-platform virt software around - much of which is written to use Libvirt - could interface directly with it. :)

150 points by pmarin 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jhfdbkofdcho 8y ago

Is this similar in purpose/function to bhyve?

MisterTea 8y ago
Yes.
johnklos 8y ago
From the article: When it comes to the userland emulators, NVMM does not provide one. In other words, it does not re-implement a Qemu, a VirtualBox, a Bhyve (FreeBSD) or a VMD (OpenBSD). Rather, it provides a virtualization API via the libnvmm library, which allows to effortlessly add NVMM support in already existing emulators.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

butterisgood 8y ago

Sounds a bit like the hypervisor framework on MacOS. They’re is xhyve (a port of bhyve) for Mac on that. Probably could port bhyve to this too? Haven’t looked.

ysleepy 8y ago
The article says as much: "It has some similarities with WHPX on Windows and HVF on MacOS."
- equalunique 8y ago
  So, supposedly, NVMM could be to a NetBSD bhyve port what HVF is to the xhyve on MacOS?

hs86 8y ago

I wonder why each of the three major BSDs ended up with their own hypervisor implementation instead of sharing their code. There is now bhyve on FreeBSD, vmm on OpenBSD and now also NVMM on NetBSD. Is this kind of diversity a good thing? Interestingly, the non-BSD illumos has imported FreeBSD's bhyve (and their bootloader). I assumed that these smaller OS-communities would be more inclined to share the work among each other but for some reason this did not happen with their home-grown hypervisors.

tannhaeuser 8y ago
If you take this a step further then you could as well ask why there are at least four BSD forks at all.
- yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
  Or, equally, why there are multiple Linux distros.
protomyth 8y ago
Different goals and the internals of each BSD have diverged pretty heavily.
- snazz 8y ago
  Yes. The goal of OpenBSD vmm is primarily simplicity and a small, easily audit-able codebase. FreeBSD’s solution would not meet OpenBSD’s requirements and vice versa.
- meruru 8y ago
  I understand the different goals part, but it would be nice if these technologies could run on other BSDs (and Linux). bhyve and vmm are exclusive to FreeBSD and OpenBSD respectively AFAIK.
  - protomyth 8y ago
    The second part is the plumbing is different these days. The split has gone on for a long time.

rwmj 8y ago

Why not implement the actual Linux KVM ioctls instead of a something similar yet different? You could then run qemu on top and get an actual "full stack" (ie. everything up to Open Stack or Kubevirt).

equalunique 8y ago
They tried this with Illumos (the OpenSolaris descendant which itself is a distant BSD descendant), but found that maintaining their fork of QEMU/KVM code was more difficult than porting over Bhyve from FreeBSD.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  (Open)Solaris is a SVR4 descendant; not a BSD descendant. SunOS however (until version 4, version 5 being Solaris) is a BSD descendant.
  - equalunique 8y ago
    Thank you for the details. Now we all know more.

sogubsys 8y ago

Maxime Villard gives us another awesome gift :) Thanks!

justinclift 8y ago

Next step, it'd probably be userful add support for it to Libvirt. That way the large amount of cross-platform virt software around - much of which is written to use Libvirt - could interface directly with it. :)