What is a 'unikernel'?
ma.ttias.be
What is a 'unikernel'?
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#2Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same?
When I just had a full VM with a full stack running on some hypervisor I could treat it just like a physical machine so management tools worked pretty much the same (with a few little exceptions). When containers came into the mix it just hit me with so much more work to admin. Unikernels seem like a lot of work too.
Am I alone in thinking this??
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#3All my code is position independent and my compiler only makes position idependent code.
My OS is ring-zero-only. Just in time compilers do not need a linker in a single address space -- they just insert the address of the function call.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#4Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same? When I just had a full VM with a full stack…
I'm thinking that for my smallish deployment setup I'm just going to do things the tried and true way for a while until the practices surrounding containers stabilize a bit and I don't feel like I would be playing catchup every week. The amount of time I would have to spend setting this stuff up is huge compared to the benefit. It's all still fascinating though to keep up with from an observer's standpoint.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#5From the article:
> Even core modules in the Linux kernel don't apply to every installation. Things like USB drivers are useless in a virtualised "cloud" environment, but are still included in the kernel.
You don't have to compile them in, or load them as modules, if you don't want. Or am I confused about what they're trying to say?
I've been using Linux for long enough to recall when you had to recompile your kernel in order to add device drivers...
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#6Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same? When I just had a full VM with a full stack…
Seems pretty weird that we think it's normal to run a computer that simulates several physical computers, each running an operating system built for the mainframe in a 70s university CS department closet that then only ever runs one user and one application. You just think it's easier because you're used to it. I'm glad that this development is happening. In a few years when it's mature, we'll all have a saner setup to work with.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#7Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same? When I just had a full VM with a full stack…
Seems pretty weird that we think it's normal to run a computer that simulates several physical computers, each running an operating system built for the mainframe in a 70s university CS department closet that then only ever runs one user and one application. You just think it's easier because you're used to it. I'm glad that this development is happening. In a few years when it's mature, we'll all have a saner setup…
>In a few years when it's mature, we'll all have a saner setup to work with.
I'm happy you get to work in an environment with no legacy applications that require a specific old operating system but that's not the case for a massive portion of sysadmin jobs.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#8Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same? When I just had a full VM with a full stack…
I don't think containers are related to unikernels. The whole point of containers is to sacrifice a bit of performance in order to gain convenience.
Whereas for unikernels, it's the opposite
> Unikernels leverage the advantages of virtualisation to create an operating system that's as specialised and optimised as possible.
It makes no sense to craft a hyper efficient kernel and then run Ruby on it. If your requirements are such that Linux is too slow, you are probably an HFT. Or Google.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#91) How does a unikernel differ from a library OS? Is a unikernel a kind of library OS?
2) Is the specialization the important aspect? I see OSv referred to as a unikernel but it does no specialization, it supports almost the entire Linux ABI. I'd argue it is a library OS, though.
Re: What is a 'unikernel'?
#10Am I the only one getting a bit fatigued by all of this now? I think when we hit containers I just got a bit tired of going even further down the rabbit hole. Yes I might get a little more performance or stability or whatever from a container vs a full VM or a unikernel vs a container but it just gets more frustrating to manage in my experience. Anybody else feel the same? When I just had a full VM with a full stack…
In time there will probably be mature build tools to compile unikernels from application sources. Instead of running maven or gradle to output a jar, you'll output a unikernel VM image. Containers complicate things because they add an extra layer onto a host OS. With unikernels there will be a layer removed, the host OS itself. You'll still need tools to manage and orchestrate the VMs running the unikernels, but I think things will get simpler, not more complicated.