[kata-dev] Kata on Fedora experiment (modular kernel)

Stefan Hajnoczi stefanha at redhat.com
Tue Jul 3 07:59:02 UTC 2018


On Mon, Jul 02, 2018 at 07:32:13PM +0100, Dr. David Alan Gilbert wrote:
> * Fox, Kevin M (Kevin.Fox at pnnl.gov) wrote:
> > Can a stock kernel with all the probing still intact ever perform as well as a custom one with all the non relevant stuff stripped out? Subsecond pod starting is very handy.

I haven't benchmarked it.  What is the command-line to start a second
container in the existing VM?  By default Kata launches a new VM.

> It's an interesting question; hopefully it can get close if we:
>   a) Configure the virtual hardware appropriately

kata-runtime already does this in the sense that only necessary devices
are configured.

>   b) Pass kernel command line options to tell the probes to get out of
> the way

kata-runtime already does this.  Here is the kernel command-line:

  tsc=reliable
  no_timer_check
  rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1
  i8042.direct=1
  i8042.dumbkbd=1
  i8042.nopnp=1
  i8042.noaux=1
  noreplace-smp
  reboot=k
  console=hvc0
  console=hvc1
  iommu=off
  cryptomgr.notests
  net.ifnames=0
  pci=lastbus=0
  debug
  panic=1
  initcall_debug
  nr_cpus=4
  ip=::::::<blob>::off::

initcall_debug is a strange one since it can slow things down by
printing lots of output to the console.  I haven't measured how much
difference it makes though.

>   c) Maybe pass firmware/ACPI data for the same type of thing.
>      (Not investigated)

Firmware startup time can definitely be reduced.  Up until now people
have custom-compiled SeaBIOS to get great startup times, but similar
times could be achieved with runtime detection.

Stefan
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