git: 2fc0dfb4ba - main - Status/2024Q1/bhyve.adoc: Add report

The branch main has been updated by salvadore:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/doc/commit/?id=2fc0dfb4ba3b057545fb5643d035552667fc7ee5

commit 2fc0dfb4ba3b057545fb5643d035552667fc7ee5
Author:     Chris Moerz <freebsd@ny-central.org>
AuthorDate: 2024-03-29 16:32:11 +0000
Commit:     Lorenzo Salvadore <salvadore@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2024-03-29 16:32:18 +0000

    Status/2024Q1/bhyve.adoc: Add report
    
    Reviewed by:    status (Pau Amma <pauamma@gundo.com>)
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+=== Bhyve Improvements
+
+Links: +
+link:https://callfortesting.org/[bhyve production users calls] URL: link:https://callfortesting.org[]
+link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/EnterpriseWorkingGroup[FreeBSD Wiki - Enterprise Working Group] URL: link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/EnterpriseWorkingGroup[] +
+link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/ChrisMoerz/bhyve_management[FreeBSD Wiki - EWG - bhyve and jails management tooling] URL: link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/ChrisMoerz/bhyve_management[] +
+link:http://static.bultmann.eu/s6-talk/#(1)[Jan Bramkamp's work on s6rc] URL:http://static.bultmann.eu/s6-talk/#(1)[] +
+link:https://github.com/christian-moerz/vmstated[vmstated on Github] URL: link:https://github.com/christian-moerz/vmstated[] +
+link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60NCrunXyw[YouTube - vmstated explained] URL: link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60NCrunXyw[]
+
+Contact: Chris Moerz <freebsd@ny-central.org>
+
+==== Bhyve I/O Performance Measurements
+
+
+Participants of the weekly bhyve production users calls recently discussed bhyve's I/O performance.
+Various ways of measuring and comparing were brought up, however it was quickly clear that there is currently no formal analysis and report on this.
+So, we started this effort in the hopes of better understanding the various impacts of configuration options for a guest on its I/O performance.
+We created a set of shell scripts that harness a FreeBSD guest for running package:benchmarks/fio[] I/O performance measurements under various configurations.
+This allows us to compare multiple criteria like bandwidth, latency, IOPS, and more.
+
+So far, we are testing for
+
+* different storage backends (i.e. ahci-hd, nvme, virtio-blk)
+* different memory settings
+* different CPU pinning options
+* different block sizes for the backing storage
+* different block sizes for accessing virtual disks
+
+We are also pitting results for different CPU manufacturers against each other and contrasting guest vs host performance to better understand the performance impact of virtualization.
+
+We plan to continue discussing our results during Michael Dexter's weekly bhyve production users call - come join us if you are interested.
+We also hope to be able to present the results at EuroBSDCon in Q3.
+
+==== Bhyve Virtual Machine Tooling
+
+Last year, Greg Wallace at the FreeBSD Foundation founded the Enterprise Working Group with the specific goal of addressing pain points of Enterprise users of FreeBSD.
+One of the work groups that emerged clustered around bhyve and jails management tooling.
+After collecting a set of desired features and functionality, one overarching key point for bhyve emerged: the desire to have configuration concepts and tooling for bhyve like the ones available for jails.
+
+While other desirable features were identified as well, i.e. TPM software emulation and snapshot/restore/host-migration, the conceptual tooling question won over those due to the lower degree of complexity and its clarity on goal and the path on how to take steps towards it.
+
+Technically, this means working out existing gaps around process supervision and virtual machine state management.
+First steps were taken by experimenting with existing frameworks (i.e. s6rc work by Jan Bramkamp) and eventually -- through discussions in the weekly bhyve production user's calls (organized by Michael Dexter) -- this led to a proof-of-concept implementation of "vmstated".
+
+Started as an experiment to better understand the problem space of process supervision and virtual machine state handling, vmstated is constructed of a daemon and vmstatedctl management utility.
+It is built with base-only tooling and libraries and leverages FreeBSD specific constructs like kqueue to minimize its resource impact.
+
+vmstated is configured via a UCL configuration file (similar to [.filename]#jails.conf#) and -- in combination with a man:bhyve_config|5] configuration file -- already provides highest flexibility in configuring virtual machines.
+vmstatedctl provides a jail-like command set to start, stop, and retrieve status information about guests.
+State transitions can easily be hooked via shell scripts and allow running additional commands for network or storage set up and tear down when relevant state changes occur.
+
+An initial release is already in ports as package:sysutils/vmstated[] and updates are pending commit; however, the newest version can be found on GitHub.
+We are considering expanding the work; we would also like to invite anyone interested to join us in this work!
+Patches, suggestions, feedback, etc. are all very much welcome!
+
+If you want to know more about our work, come join us at one of Michael Dexter's weekly bhyve production users calls or reach me mailto:freebsd@ny-central.org[by email].
+
+==== Documentation ===
+
+We managed to update a few parts of the Handbook and Porter's Handbook (thanks to mailto:emaste@FreeBSD.org[Ed Maste], mailto:jrm@FreeBSD.org[Joseph Mingrone], mailto:pauamma@gundo.com[Pau Amma], and mailto:rgrimes@FreeBSD.org[rgrimes@FreeBSD.org]):
+
+* several improvements and expansions to the virtualization chapter in the FreeBSD Handbook
+** using a man:bhyve_config|5] configuration file
+** jailing bhyve
+** experimental snapshot and restore feature
+** setting up a Windows guest
+* we also have a review (link:https://reviews.freebsd.org/D43940[D43940]) up for an initial step to improving the bhyve man page
+** this was intentionally started with a structural update first to separate the many `-s` flag options
+** once this lands, we can move to a more widespread update to the overall content
+
+Feedback is obviously very welcome -- on the existing content as well as any additional content we should be looking into!