VM Host Machine

Setting up a VM host machine

The unikernels are deployed to m1-a, a machine provided by https://packet.net. To set the machine up:

Configure a bridge by following the instructions in https://support.packet.com/kb/articles/kvm-qemu-bridging-on-a-bonded-network (the page title is confusing; you want the “How to configure a bridge on a non-bonded network?” section within it). e.g.
```
auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet static
    address 147.75.34.225
    netmask 255.255.255.224
    network 147.75.34.224
    broadcast 147.75.34.255
    bridge_ports none
    bridge_stp off
    bridge_fd 0
    bridge_maxwait 0
```
Note that stp must be off to avoid set forward delay failed: Numerical result out of range error.

You must also delete the lo:1 configuration section, which causes Linux to think it owns all the elastic IPs, instead of forwarding traffic to the guests.
Set net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 (also set this in sysctl.conf).
Install Docker: https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/. Note that if you start Docker before turning on IP forwarding then Docker will turn it on BUT it will also add an iptables rule blocking forwarded traffic from outside.

Add a systemd service /etc/systemd/system/tap@.service to manage tap files:

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/sbin/ip tuntap add tap-%i mode tap
ExecStart=/sbin/brctl addif vmbr1 tap-%i
ExecStart=/sbin/ip link set dev tap-%i up
RemainAfterExit=true
ExecStop=/sbin/ip tuntap del tap-%i mode tap

Add a script to deploy unikernels /usr/local/bin/deploy-mirage:

#!/bin/bash
set -eu
NAME=$1
IMAGE=$2
ID=$(docker container create $IMAGE)
UNIKERNEL_PATH=/srv/unikernels/$NAME.hvt
mkdir -p /srv/unikernels
docker cp $ID:/unikernel.hvt $UNIKERNEL_PATH
docker container rm $ID
echo "Exported unikernel to $UNIKERNEL_PATH"
echo "Restarting $NAME..."
START=$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
systemctl restart $NAME
timeout 3s journalctl --since "$START" -u $NAME.service -f || echo
systemctl status -n 0 $NAME

Install the solo5 tools. I use this Dockerfile (adjust to match the host platform):

FROM ocurrent/opam:ubuntu-18.04-ocaml-4.09
RUN opam depext -i solo5-bindings-hvt

Then build and install with:

docker build -t solo5 .
docker run --rm -i -w /home/opam/.opam/4.09/bin solo5 sh -c 'tar cf - solo5*' | tar xvf - -C /usr/local/bin

Adding a unikernel guest

Create a systemd unit file for the unikernel. e.g. /etc/systemd/system/mirage-www.service:

[Unit]
Description=%N unikernel
Requires=tap@%N.service
After=tap@%N.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/solo5-hvt --mem=100 --net:service=tap-%N -- /srv/unikernels/%N.hvt \
	  --ipv4 147.75.34.226/27 --ipv4-gateway 147.75.34.225 --host 147.75.34.226

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Change the --ipv4 option to an unused IP address in the public address block (check the other unikernels to find one that is free).
Replace --host in this example with whatever options the unikernel requires.
Change the --mem= option to however much RAM the unikernel should have.

Then: systemctl daemon-reload and systemctl enable mirage-www

Finally, edit src/pipeline.ml so that the deployer will deploy the unikernel automatically.

OCurrent

VM Host Machine

Setting up a VM host machine

Adding a unikernel guest