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virtualization revision 1.2.12.1 
      1 $NetBSD: virtualization,v 1.2.12.1 2009/01/26 05:17:44 snj Exp $
      2 
      3 NetBSD Virtualization Roadmap
      4 =============================
      5 
      6 This is a small roadmap document, and deals with the virtualization
      7 side of the operating system.
      8 
      9 NetBSD 5.0 will ship with the following virtualization elements in
     10 place:
     11 
     12 1. Xen 3 Dom0		[i386/amd64]
     13 2. Xen 3 DomU		[i386/amd64]
     14 3. Xen 3 PAE DomU	[i386]
     15 
     16 The following projects are expected to be included in NetBSD 6.0
     17 
     18 4. NetBSD/usermode
     19 5. virtualization jails via secmodel
     20 6. iSCSI booting
     21 7. iSCSI device cloning
     22 8. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
     23 9. Xen balloon driver support
     24 
     25 The timescales for 6.0 are not known at the present time, but we would
     26 expect to branch 6.0 late in 2009, with a view to a 6.0 release in
     27 early 2010.
     28 
     29 We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up.
     30 
     31 
     32 Some explanations
     33 =================
     34 
     35 4. NetBSD/usermode
     36 ------------------
     37 
     38 NetBSD/usermode is an port of NetBSD to a POSIX-compatible user-space, with
     39 the intention that it should be possible to run the usermode version of
     40 NetBSD on any POSIX-compatible operating system.
     41 
     42 Responsible: jmcneill
     43 
     44 5. Virtualization Jails via secmodel
     45 ------------------------------------
     46 
     47 One novel way of creating jails for virtualization is to use a new
     48 secmodel (part of the kauth framework), to isolate processes into
     49 jail-based virtual machines. This is the basis of a paper to appear
     50 in the AsiaBSDcon proceedings in March 2008.
     51 
     52 Responsible: bad
     53 
     54 6. iSCSI booting
     55 ----------------
     56 
     57 In order to make Xen domains migration-friendly, the storage that the
     58 domain uses must be based on some form of network-centric storage, either
     59 NFS, or a SAN or IP-SAN. For IP-SANs, iSCSI booting will be used.
     60 
     61 Responsible: agc
     62 
     63 7. iSCSI device cloning
     64 -----------------------
     65 
     66 To minimise the storage requirements for multiple domU booting, using
     67 a standard root filesystem or block device for the domU is required, along
     68 with some form of copy-on-write mechanism to preserve any modifications
     69 that are made.
     70 
     71 Responsible: agc
     72 
     73 8. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
     74 -----------------------------------------
     75 
     76 Xen domU migration is where a domU domain is moved from one dom0 to
     77 another dom0 on the same vlan (to avoid networking problems, the
     78 virtual arp address migrates with the domU itself).
     79 
     80 Responsible: bouyer
     81 
     82 9. Xen balloon driver support
     83 -----------------------------
     84 
     85 The balloon driver allows more memory to be added to a running Xen domU
     86 instance; this allows extra memory to be used by the domU for resource
     87 peak needs.
     88 
     89 Responsible: bouyer, cherry?
     90 
     91 
     92 Alistair Crooks
     93 Sun 25 Jan 2009 21:07:42 PST
     94