HermitCore - A Rust-based, lightweight unikernel for a scalable and predictable runtime behavior

The project HermitCore is a new unikernel targeting a scalable and predictable runtime for high-performance and cloud computing. HermitCore extends the multi-kernel approach (like McKernel) with unikernel features for a better programmability and scalability for hierarchical systems.

We decided to develop a version of the kernel in Rust. We promise that this will make it easier to maintain and to extend our kernel. All code beside the kernel will be still developed in their preferred language (C/C++/Go/Fortran).

Consequently, this branch represents the transmission from C to Rust. Currently, the Rust-based version supports not all features of the C-based version. However, it is a starting point and runs within a hypervisor. The multi-kernel approach is currently in the Rust-based version not yet fully supported and under development.

Contributing

HermitCore is being developed on GitHub. Create your own fork, send us a pull request, and chat with us on Slack.

Requirements

The build process works currently only on x86-based Linux systems. To build the HermitCore kernel and applications you need:

• CMake
• Netwide Assember (NASM)
• recent host compiler such as GCC
• HermitCore cross-toolchain, i.e. Binutils, GCC, newlib, pthreads
• Rust compiler (nightly release)
• Install xargo with cargo install xargo
• Xargo depends on the rust source code, which we can install with rustup component add rust-src.

HermitCore cross-toolchain

We provide prebuilt packages (currently Ubuntu 18.04 only) of the HermitCore toolchain. The packages based on the C version branch and can be installed as follows:

$ echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://dl.bintray.com/hermitcore/ubuntu bionic main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
$ sudo apt-get -qq update
$ sudo apt-get install binutils-hermit newlib-hermit pte-hermit-rs gcc-hermit libhermit-rs

If you want to build the toolchain yourself, have a look at the repository hermit-toolchain, which contains scripts to build the whole toolchain.

Depending on how you want to use HermitCore, you might need additional packages such as:

• QEMU (apt-get install qemu-system-x86)

Building the Rust-based Kernel

Preliminary work

To use the Rust-based version, HermitCore has to build from source. For this purpose, the repository with its submodules has to be clone.

$ git clone git@github.com:hermitcore/libhermit-rs.git
$ cd libhermit-rs
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update

Building the library operating systems and its examples

To build Rust-based kernel and its examples, go to the directory with the source code, create a subdirectory build, and call in the new directory cmake followed by make.

$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install

If your toolchain is not located in /opt/hermit/bin then you have to supply its location to the cmake command above like so:

$ cmake -DTOOLCHAIN_BIN_DIR=/home/user/hermit/bin ..

Assuming that binaries like x86_64-hermit-gcc and friends are located in that directory. To install your new version in the same directory, you have to set the installation path and to install HermitCore as follows:

$ cmake -DTOOLCHAIN_BIN_DIR=/home/user/hermit/bin -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/user/hermit ..
$ make
$ make install

Note: If you use the cross compiler outside of this repository, the compiler uses per default the library operating systems located by the toolchain (e.g. /opt/hermit/x86_64-hermit/lib/libhermit.a).

Proxy

Part of HermitCore is a small helper tool, which is called proxy. This tool helps to start HermitCore applications within a virtual machine or bare-metal on a NUMA node. In principle it is a bridge to the Linux system. If the proxy is register as loader to the Linux system, HermitCore applications can be started like common Linux applications. The proxy can be registered with following command.

$ sudo -c sh 'echo ":hermit:M:7:\\x42::/opt/hermit/bin/proxy:" > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register'
$ # dirct call of a HermitCore appliaction
$ /opt/hermit/x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello

Otherwise the proxy must be started directly and get the path to HermitCore application as argument. Afterwards, the proxy start the HermitCore applications within a VM ore bare-metal on a NUMA node.

$ # using QEMU
$ HERMIT_ISLE=qemu /opt/hermit/bin/proxy /opt/hermit/x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello

Testing

As classical standalone unikernel within a virtual machine

HermitCore applications can be directly started as standalone kernel within a virtual machine.

$ cd build
$ make install DESTDIR=~/hermit-build
$ cd ~/hermit-build/opt/hermit
$ # using QEMU
$ HERMIT_ISLE=qemu bin/proxy x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello
$ # using uHyve
$ HERMIT_ISLE=uhyve bin/proxy x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello

With HERMIT_ISLE=qemu, the application will be started within a QEMU VM. Please note that the loader requires QEMU and uses per default KVM. Furthermore, it expects that the executable is called qemu-system-x86_64.

With HERMIT_ISLE=uhyve, the application will be started within a thin hypervisor powered by Linux's KVM API and therefore requires KVM support. uhyve has a considerably smaller startup time than QEMU, but lacks some features such as GDB debugging. In principle, it is an extension of ukvm.

In this context, the environment variable HERMIT_CPUS specifies the number of cpus (and no longer a range of core ids). Furthermore, the variable HERMIT_MEM defines the memory size of the virtual machine. The suffix of M or G can be used to specify a value in megabytes or gigabytes respectively. Per default, the loader initializes a system with one core and 2 GiB RAM. For instance, the following command starts the stream benchmark in a virtual machine, which has 4 cores and 6GB memory.

$ HERMIT_ISLE=qemu HERMIT_CPUS=4 HERMIT_MEM=6G bin/proxy x86_64-hermit/extra/benchmarks/stream

To enable an ethernet device for uhyve, we have to setup a tap device on the host system. For instance, the following command establish the tap device tap100 on Linux:

$ sudo ip tuntap add tap100 mode tap
$ sudo ip addr add 10.0.5.1/24 broadcast 10.0.5.255 dev tap100
$ sudo ip link set dev tap100 up
$ sudo bash -c 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tap100/proxy_arp'

Per default, uhyve's network interface uses 10.0.5.2as IP address, 10.0.5.1 for the gateway and 255.255.255.0 as network mask. The default configuration could be overloaded by the environment variable HERMIT_IP, HERMIT_GATEWAY and HERMIT_MASk. To enable the device, HERMIT_NETIF must be set to the name of the tap device. For instance, the following command starts an HermitCore application within uhyve and enable the network support:

$ HERMIT_ISLE=uhyve HERMIT_IP="10.0.5.3" HERMIT_GATEWAY="10.0.5.1" HERMIT_MASk="255.255.255.0" HERMIT_NETIF=tap100 bin/proxy x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello

If qemu is used as hyervisor, the virtual machine emulates an RTL8139 ethernet interface and opens at least one TCP/IP ports. It is used for the communication between HermitCore application and its proxy. With the environment variable HERMIT_PORT, the default port (18766) can be changed for the communication.

As multi-kernel on a real machine

Coming soon...

Building your own HermitCore applications

You can take usr/tests as a starting point to build your own applications. All that is required is that you include [...]/HermitCore/cmake/HermitCore-Application.cmake in your application's CMakeLists.txt. It doesn't have to reside inside the HermitCore repository. Other than that, it should behave like normal CMake.

Debugging

If the application is started via make qemu, debugging via GDB is enabled by default on port 1234. When run via proxy (HERMIT_ISLE=qemu), set HERMIT_DEBUG=1.

$ gdb x86_64-hermit/extra/tests/hello
(gdb) target extended-remote :1234
Remote debugging using :1234
0xffffffff8100b542 in ?? ()

Tips

Optimization

You can configure the -mtune=name compiler flag by adding -DMTUNE=name to the cmake command when configuring the project.

Please note, if the applications is started within a VM, the hypervisor has to support the specified architecture name.

If QEMU is started by our proxy and the environment variable HERMIT_KVM is set to 0, the virtual machine will be not accelerated by KVM. In this case, the -mtune flag should be avoided.

TCP connections

With the environment variable HERMIT_APP_PORT, an additional port can be open to establish an TCP/IP connection with your application.

Dumping the kernel log

By setting the environment variable HERMIT_VERBOSE to 1, the proxy prints at termination the kernel log messages onto the screen.

Network tracing

By setting the environment variable HERMIT_CAPTURE_NET to 1 and HERMIT_ISLE to qemu, QEMU captures the network traffic and creates the trace file qemu-vlan0.pcap. For instance with Wireshark you are able to analyze the file.

Monitor

If HERMIT_MONITOR is set to 1 and HERMIT_ISLE to qemu, QEMU establishes a monitor which is available via telnet at port 18767. With the environment variable HERMIT_PORT, the default port (18766) can be changed for the communication between the HermitCore application and its proxy. The connection to the system monitor is automatically set to HERMIT_PORT+1, i.e., the default port is 18767.

Credits

HermitCore's Emoji is provided free by EmojiOne.