Re: Illumos and bhyve

Hi Greg,

On Fri, 27 Dec 2024, Greg Wallace wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> In reviewing the issue tracker (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pM3boLIcKj26lq7XbwGMBXW0-F84We3r_Xc3zovHjaQ/edit?usp=sharing) 
>
> I spotted the update in cell M18. (One all sidenote about spreadsheet hygiene, when adding an update, please include your name.)
>
> Is anyone interested in doing a review of the linked repo to see what it would entail to bring Illumos bhyve management code into bhyve? I know they've put
> significant effort into live migration for instance.

I did check the user space daemon by 0xide a while back:
https://github.com/oxidecomputer/propolis

That's the user space component that runs on top of the Illumos based
bhyve they're running. As far as I could tell back then: it's based on
Rust, which is great in terms of marshalling and unmarshalling data when
sending machine state across a network. Porting that to FreeBSD (i.e. C)
is going to be a major undertaking.

A few months back there was a very lively conversation about bringing Rust
into base. It was even discussed during the developer summit, if I
remember correctly. I do remember that distinctly because I wasn't there
in person but watched the live stream and would have loved to raise bhyve
as a side benefit, when it was brought up. I do understand how much effort
rust in base would create though.

We might be able to patch up bhyve's kernel module to allow 0xide's rust
daemon from ports. I'd be happy to be proven wrong (in the positive
sense), I should add.

Thia is still going to be considerable work, I imagine. Maybe it would be
worth a GSoC project?

I could run through a code review on 0xide and FreeBSD's kernel code to
get a better understanding on the differences, though I imagine there's
people better suited to do this (i.e. with more kernel experience), and
who would be able to pull this off more quickly than me.

chris

>
> If there are any takers, please reply on here or to me so we can map out a plan.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ---Greg Wallace
> Director of Partnerships
> [images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcCtGVcNyNgZPByRISaVlEZNSxcr9UK16TFA&s]
> Schedule a meeting
> netactuate.com | anycast.com
> M +1 919.247.3165
> linkedin.com/in/gtewallace/
>
>