LinuxCon ContainerCon CloudOpen China

Unikernel is a novel software technology that links an application with OS in the form of a library and packages them into a specialized image that facilitates direct deployment on a hypervisor. Comparing to the traditional VM or the recent containers, Unikernels are smaller, more secure and efficient, making them ideal for cloud environments. There are already lots of open source projects like OSv, Rumprun and so on. But why these existing unikernels have yet to gain large popularity broadly? We think Unikernels are facing three major challenges: 1. Compatibility with existing applications; 2. Lack of production support (e.g. monitoring, debugging, logging); 3. Lack of compelling use case. In this presentation, we will review our investigations and exploration of if-how we can convert Linux as Unikernel to eliminate these significant shortcomings, plus some explorations of coordinating and cooperating with hypervisor.