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virtualization revision 1.4.6.1 
      1 $NetBSD: virtualization,v 1.4.6.1 2012/04/17 00:02:56 yamt 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 Features that will be in 6.0:
     10 1. NetBSD/usermode
     11 5. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
     12 6. Xen balloon driver support
     13 
     14 Features which may make future releases:
     15 2. virtualization jails via secmodel
     16 3. iSCSI booting
     17 4. iSCSI device cloning
     18 
     19 We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up.
     20 
     21 
     22 Some explanations
     23 =================
     24 
     25 1. NetBSD/usermode
     26 ------------------
     27 
     28 NetBSD/usermode is an port of NetBSD to a POSIX-compatible user-space,
     29 with the intention that it should be possible to run the usermode
     30 version of NetBSD on any POSIX-compatible operating system.  This code
     31 has been committed to the repository by jmcneill, and updated by reinoud
     32 and jmcneill. usermode can now boot up to X11, can use a vnc console,
     33 and is under active development now. This is most definitely in 6.0.
     34 
     35 Responsible: jmcneill, reinoud
     36 
     37 2. Virtualization Jails via secmodel
     38 ------------------------------------
     39 
     40 One novel way of creating jails for virtualization is to use a new
     41 secmodel (part of the kauth framework), to isolate processes into
     42 jail-based virtual machines. This is the basis of a paper given by
     43 bad@ at AsiaBSDcon in March 2008. This will not make 6.0
     44 
     45 Responsible: bad
     46 
     47 3. iSCSI booting
     48 ----------------
     49 
     50 In order to make Xen domains migration-friendly, the storage that the
     51 domain uses must be based on some form of network-centric storage, either
     52 NFS, or a SAN or IP-SAN. For IP-SANs, iSCSI booting will be used. This
     53 is dependent on the in-kernel iSCSI initiator project completing. This will not make 6.0
     54 
     55 Responsible: agc
     56 
     57 4. iSCSI device cloning
     58 -----------------------
     59 
     60 To minimise the storage requirements for multiple domU booting, using
     61 a standard root filesystem or block device for the domU is required, along
     62 with some form of copy-on-write mechanism to preserve any modifications
     63 that are made. This will not make 6.0
     64 
     65 Responsible: agc
     66 
     67 5. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
     68 -----------------------------------------
     69 
     70 Xen domU migration is where a domU domain is moved from one dom0 to
     71 another dom0 on the same vlan (to avoid networking problems, the
     72 virtual arp address migrates with the domU itself). jym has committed
     73 this code, and it will be in 6.0
     74 
     75 Responsible: jym, bouyer
     76 
     77 6. Xen balloon driver support
     78 -----------------------------
     79 
     80 The balloon driver allows more memory to be added to a running Xen domU
     81 instance; this allows extra memory to be used by the domU for resource
     82 peak needs. cherry has made a preliminary balloon driver and this has been
     83 further updated and tested by jym. This will be in 6.0.
     84 
     85 Responsible: jym, cherry
     86 
     87 
     88 Alistair Crooks
     89 Sat Jan 14 11:38:50 PST 2012
     90