kata-containers/src/runtime-rs

runtime-rs

What is runtime-rs

runtime-rs is a core component of Kata Containers 4.0. It is a high-performance, Rust-based implementation of the containerd shim v2 runtime.

Key characteristics:

• Implementation Language: Rust, leveraging memory safety and zero-cost abstractions
• Project Maturity: Production-ready component of Kata Containers 4.0
• Architectural Design: Modular framework optimized for Kata Containers 4.0

For architecture details, see Architecture Overview.

Architecture Overview

Key features:

• Built-in VMM (Dragonball): Deeply integrated into shim lifecycle, eliminating IPC overhead for peak performance
• Asynchronous I/O: Tokio-based async runtime for high-concurrency with reduced thread footprint
• Extensible Framework: Pluggable hypervisors, network interfaces, and storage backends
• Resource Lifecycle Management: Comprehensive sandbox and container resource management

Crates

Crate	Description
shim	Containerd shim v2 entry point (start, delete, run commands)
service	Services including TaskService for containerd shim protocol
runtimes	Runtime handlers: VirtContainer (default), LinuxContainer(experimental), WasmContainer(experimental)
resource	Resource management: network, share_fs, rootfs, volume, cgroups, cpu_mem
hypervisor	Hypervisor implementations
agent	Guest agent communication (KataAgent)
persist	State persistence to disk (JSON format)
shim-ctl	Development tool for testing shim without containerd

shim

Entry point implementing containerd shim v2 binary protocol:

• start: Start new shim process
• delete: Delete existing shim process
• run: Run ttRPC service

service

Extensible service framework. Currently implements TaskService conforming to containerd shim protocol.

runtimes

Runtime handlers manage sandbox and container operations:

Handler	Feature Flag	Description
VirtContainer	virt (default)	Virtual machine-based containers
LinuxContainer	linux	Linux container runtime (experimental)
WasmContainer	wasm	WebAssembly runtime (experimental)

resource

All resources abstracted uniformly:

• Sandbox resources: network, share-fs
• Container resources: rootfs, volume, cgroup

Sub-modules: cpu_mem, cdi_devices, coco_data, network, share_fs, rootfs, volume

hypervisor

Supported hypervisors:

Hypervisor	Mode	Description
Dragonball	Built-in	Integrated VMM for peak performance (default)
QEMU	External	Full-featured emulator
Cloud Hypervisor	External	Modern VMM (x86_64, aarch64)
Firecracker	External	Lightweight microVM
Remote	External	Remote hypervisor

The built-in VMM mode (Dragonball) is recommended for production, offering superior performance by eliminating IPC overhead.

agent

Communication with guest OS agent via ttRPC. Supports KataAgent for full container lifecycle management.

persist

State serialization to disk for sandbox recovery after restart. Stores state.json under /run/kata/<sandbox-id>/.

Build from Source and Install

Prerequisites

Download Rustup and install Rust. For Rust version, see languages.rust.meta.newest-version in versions.yaml.

Example for x86_64:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source $HOME/.cargo/env
rustup install ${RUST_VERSION}
rustup default ${RUST_VERSION}-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Musl Support (Optional)

For fully static binary:

# Add musl target
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

# Install musl libc (example: musl 1.2.3)
curl -O https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/snapshot/musl-1.2.3.tar.gz
tar vxf musl-1.2.3.tar.gz
cd musl-1.2.3/
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/
make && sudo make install

Install Kata 4.0 Rust Runtime Shim

git clone https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers.git
cd kata-containers/src/runtime-rs
make && sudo make install

After installation:

• Config file: /usr/share/defaults/kata-containers/configuration.toml
• Binary: /usr/local/bin/containerd-shim-kata-v2

Install Without Built-in Dragonball VMM

To build without the built-in Dragonball hypervisor:

make USE_BUILTIN_DB=false

Specify hypervisor during installation:

sudo make install HYPERVISOR=qemu
# or
sudo make install HYPERVISOR=cloud-hypervisor

Configuration

Configuration files in config/:

Config File	Hypervisor	Notes
configuration-dragonball.toml.in	Dragonball	Built-in VMM
configuration-qemu-runtime-rs.toml.in	QEMU	Default external
configuration-cloud-hypervisor.toml.in	Cloud Hypervisor	Modern VMM
configuration-rs-fc.toml.in	Firecracker	Lightweight microVM
configuration-remote.toml.in	Remote	Remote hypervisor
configuration-qemu-tdx-runtime-rs.toml.in	QEMU + TDX	Intel TDX confidential computing
configuration-qemu-snp-runtime-rs.toml.in	QEMU + SEV-SNP	AMD SEV-SNP confidential computing
configuration-qemu-se-runtime-rs.toml.in	QEMU + SEV	AMD SEV confidential computing
configuration-qemu-coco-dev-runtime-rs.toml.in	QEMU + CoCo	CoCo development

See runtime configuration for configuration options.

Logging

See Developer Guide - Troubleshooting.

Debugging

For development, use shim-ctl to test shim without containerd dependencies.

Limitations

See Limitations for details.