[kata-dev] [Announce] virtio-fs released with Kata Containers support

Dr. David Alan Gilbert dgilbert at redhat.com
Tue Dec 11 09:03:11 UTC 2018


* Tao Peng (bergwolf at hyper.sh) wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 3:25 AM Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha at redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> Hi Stefan,
> 
> > Dear Kata Containers Community,
> > I'm delighted to announce the first release of virtio-fs, a new shared
> > file system for virtual machines that is designed for container use
> > cases, including shared volumes.
> >
> > Unlike virtio-9p and NFS over AF_VSOCK, virtio-fs aims to take advantage
> > of the co-location between the virtual machine and the hypervisor in
> > order to achieve local file system semantics and improve performance.
> >
> > For example, it can use Linux Direct Access (DAX) to access file
> > contents directly from the host page cache.  This reduces communication
> > with the file server and avoids duplicating data into each sandbox VM.
> > It also means that mmap MAP_SHARED on a shared volume is coherent
> > between sandbox VMs.
> >
> > The Linux kernel code (including performance numbers) has been posted
> > here:
> > https://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=154446243324255&w=2
> >
> Excellent!  Both performance and POSIX compliance look just as
> promised. It's a good replacement for 9pfs and indeed very suitable
> for kata containers.
> 
> > Kata Containers integration is already available so you can benchmark
> > and test virtio-fs.  The project is under active development and we
> > still expect to make significant changes based on feedback and
> > collaboration.
> >
> > We hope virtio-fs is interesting as a next step in overcoming
> > virtio-9p's performance and limitations.  Let us know how it performs!
> >
> > You can read more about virtio-fs here:
> > https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/
> >
> > The Kata HowTo is here:
> > https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/howto-kata.html
> >
> > The Kata runtime and agent changes are fairly straightforward and
> > comparable to virtio-9p.  There are several other code changes due to
> > using a Fedora initramfs, systemd, and modular kernel.  These are not
> > essential to virtio-fs but are simply how I preferred to develop and
> > test.
> >
> Could you please send these changes on github so that we can properly
> review and get them merged? Please separate preparation patches as
> they can be merged before virtio-fs is mergeable. Thanks!
> 
> > The FAQ on the virtio-fs website explains the main technical features.
> > Please let me know if you have any questions or need help getting it
> > running!  I'm also on #kata-dev IRC if you need a hand.
> >
> I tried to follow the instructions on the virtio-fs website and got
> stuck at cloning https://gitlab.com/virtio-fs/qemu.git. It seems to be
> private atm?

Oops, missed that one; fixed!

Dave

> Cheers,
> Tao
> -- 
> bergwolf at hyper.sh
--
Dr. David Alan Gilbert / dgilbert at redhat.com / Manchester, UK



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