44b5b88f4c
As the StratoVirt VMM has been added, we can update the docs and make some intoduction to StratoVirt, thus users can know more about the hypervisor choices. Fixes: #8645 Signed-off-by: Zhigang Wang <wangzhigang17@huawei.com> Signed-off-by: Liu Wenyuan <liuwenyuan9@huawei.com>
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Hypervisors
Introduction
Kata Containers supports multiple hypervisors. This document provides a very high level overview of the available hypervisors, giving suggestions as to which hypervisors you may wish to investigate further.
Note:
This document is not prescriptive or authoritative:
- It is up to you to decide which hypervisors may be most appropriate for your use-case.
- Refer to the official documentation for each hypervisor for further details.
Types
Since each hypervisor offers different features and options, Kata Containers provides a separate configuration file for each. The configuration files contain comments explaining which options are available, their default values and how each setting can be used.
Note:
The simplest way to switch between hypervisors is to create a symbolic link to the appropriate hypervisor-specific configuration file.
| Hypervisor | Written in | Architectures | Type | Configuration file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACRN | C | x86_64 |
Type 1 (bare metal) | configuration-acrn.toml |
| Cloud Hypervisor | rust | aarch64, x86_64 |
Type 2 (KVM) | configuration-clh.toml |
| Firecracker | rust | aarch64, x86_64 |
Type 2 (KVM) | configuration-fc.toml |
| QEMU | C | all | Type 2 (KVM) | configuration-qemu.toml |
Dragonball |
rust | aarch64, x86_64 |
Type 2 (KVM) | configuration-dragonball.toml |
| StratoVirt | rust | aarch64, x86_64 |
Type 2 (KVM) | configuration-stratovirt.toml |
Determine currently configured hypervisor
$ kata-runtime kata-env | awk -v RS= '/\[Hypervisor\]/' | grep Path
Choose a Hypervisor
The table below provides a brief summary of some of the differences between the hypervisors:
| Hypervisor | Summary | Features | Limitations | Container Creation speed | Memory density | Use cases | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACRN | Safety critical and real-time workloads | excellent | excellent | Embedded and IOT systems | For advanced users | ||
| Cloud Hypervisor | Low latency, small memory footprint, small attack surface | Minimal | excellent | excellent | High performance modern cloud workloads | ||
| Firecracker | Very slimline | Extremely minimal | Doesn't support all device types | excellent | excellent | Serverless / FaaS | |
| QEMU | Lots of features | Lots | good | good | Good option for most users | ||
Dragonball |
Built-in VMM, low CPU and memory overhead | Minimal | excellent | excellent | Optimized for most container workloads | out-of-the-box Kata Containers experience |
|
| StratoVirt | Unified architecture supporting three scenarios: VM, container, and serverless | Extremely minimal(MicroVM) to Lots(StandardVM) |
excellent | excellent | Common container workloads | StandardVM type of StratoVirt for Kata is under development |
For further details, see the Virtualization in Kata Containers document and the official documentation for each hypervisor.