virtualization revision 1.8 1 $NetBSD: virtualization,v 1.8 2025/05/19 18:02:53 nia 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
13 Features which may make future releases:
14 2. virtualization jails via secmodel
15 3. iSCSI booting
16 4. iSCSI device cloning
17 5. Arm64 (aarch64) support in NVMM
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 a 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. Arm64 (aarch64) support in NVMM
78 ----------------------------------
79
80 Initial work was done on porting nvmm(4) to ARMv8.0 by Ryo Shimizu
81 and presented at 2023 AsiaBSDCon. Due to his very sad passing, the
82 port is now without a maintainer. It would be amazing if someone
83 picked up and finished this work.
84
85 https://github.com/IIJ-NetBSD/netbsd-src/compare/master...ryo:netbsd-src:wip/aarch64_el2
86
87 Alistair Crooks
88 Sat Jan 14 11:38:50 PST 2012
89