virtualization revision 1.2 
1$NetBSD: virtualization,v 1.2 2008/03/19 20:34:34 jmmv Exp $
2
3NetBSD Virtualization Roadmap
4=============================
5
6This is a small roadmap document, and deals with the virtualization
7side of the operating system.
8
9NetBSD 5.0 will ship with the following virtualization elements in
10place:
11
121. Xen 3 Dom0		[i386/amd64]
132. Xen 3 DomU		[i386/amd64]
143. Xen 3 PAE DomU	[i386]
15
16The following elements and projects are pencilled in for 5.0, but
17please do not rely on them being there.
18
194. NetBSD/usermode
205. virtualization jails via secmodel
21
22The following projects are expected to be included in NetBSD 6.0
23
246. iSCSI booting
257. iSCSI device cloning
268. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
279. Xen balloon driver support
28
29We expect to branch for the 5.0 release in April or May 2008, which would
30put a NetBSD 5.0 Release date in Q4 2008. An annual release cycle would
31thus mean that 6.0 would be branched in April or May 2009.
32
33Pictorially, this looks like:
34
35 2008                                        2009
36 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
37|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|
38
39                | ------- 5.0 --------- |                       | ------- 6.0
40              branch                  release                 branch
41
42 1-3     4,5                  6      7       8          9
43
44We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up.
45
46
47Some explanations
48=================
49
504. NetBSD/usermode
51------------------
52
53NetBSD/usermode is an port of NetBSD to a POSIX-compatible user-space, with
54the intention that it should be possible to run the usermode version of
55NetBSD on any POSIX-compatible operating system.
56
57Responsible: jmcneill
58
595. Virtualization Jails via secmodel
60------------------------------------
61
62One novel way of creating jails for virtualization is to use a new
63secmodel (part of the kauth framework), to isolate processes into
64jail-based virtual machines. This is the basis of a paper to appear
65in the AsiaBSDcon proceedings in March 2008.
66
67Responsible: bad
68
696. iSCSI booting
70----------------
71
72In order to make Xen domains migration-friendly, the storage that the
73domain uses must be based on some form of network-centric storage, either
74NFS, or a SAN or IP-SAN. For IP-SANs, iSCSI booting will be used.
75
76Responsible: agc
77
787. iSCSI device cloning
79-----------------------
80
81To minimise the storage requirements for multiple domU booting, using
82a standard root filesystem or block device for the domU is required, along
83with some form of copy-on-write mechanism to preserve any modifications
84that are made.
85
86Responsible: agc
87
888. Xen domU migration, suspend and resume
89-----------------------------------------
90
91Xen domU migration is where a domU domain is moved from one dom0 to
92another dom0 on the same vlan (to avoid networking problems, the
93virtual arp address migrates with the domU itself).
94
95Responsible: bouyer
96
979. Xen balloon driver support
98-----------------------------
99
100The balloon driver allows more memory to be added to a running Xen domU
101instance; this allows extra memory to be used by the domU for resource
102peak needs.
103
104Responsible: bouyer
105
106
107Alistair Crooks
108Thu Mar  6 22:36:19 GMT 2008
109