Why Choose Xen For Your Cloud?

Todd DeshaneBuild an Open Source Cloud Day - Boston

December 9, 2011

Why Choose Xen For Your Cloud?

Who am I?

● Xen.org Technology Evangelist

● Involvement with Xen started in 2003 as graduate student

● Co-author of research paper:○ "Xen and the Art of Repeated Research" ○ USENIX 2004

● Co-author of the "Running Xen" book

● XCP/cloud integrator and tester

Outline

● Xen in the cloud history

● Xen architecture and security benefits

● XCP

● Project Kronos

Xen (in the Cloud) History

Global Public Computing

"This dissertation proposes a new distributed computing paradigm, termed global public computing, which allows any user to run any code anywhere. Such platforms price computing resources, and ultimately charge users for resources consumed." - Evangelos Kotsovinos, PhD dissertation, 2004

Xen (in the Cloud) History

Xen Architecture

Xen Architectural Security Advantages

● Small, clean, disaggregatable trusted computing base○ Xen hypervisor (guest scheduling, virtual hardware

abstraction)○ Management/control domain can be broken up into

multiple domains○ Driver domains can isolate hardware functions (e.g.

network or storage driver domains)● Well-defined trusted computing base

○ Need only trust hypervisor and compartmentalized management, control, and driver domains

○ No extra services in hypervisor layer○ Full OS not needed (as is with type-2 hypervisor)

Xen Cloud Platform (XCP)

● Open source version of Citrix XenServer○ http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/XCP/XenServer_Feature_Matrix

● Enterprise-ready server virtualization and cloud platform

● Built-in support and templates for Windows and Linux guests

● Datacenter and cloud-ready management API○ XenAPI (XAPI) is fully open source○ CloudStack and OpenStack integration

● Open vSwitch support built-in

XCP Architecture

Xen API (XAPI)

● VM lifecycle: live snapshots, checkpoint, migration

● Resource pools: live relocation, auto configuration, disaster recovery

● Flexible storage, networking, and power management

● Event tracking: progress, notification

● Upgrade and patching capabilities

● Real-time performance monitoring and alerting

XAPI Class Diagram

Open vSwitch

● Software switch, similar to:○ VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch○ Cisco Nexus 1000V.

● Distribution agnostic. Plugs right into Linux kernel.

● Reuses existing Linux kernel networking subsystems.

● Backwards-compatible with traditional userspace tools.

● Free and Open Source http://openvswitch.org/

Why use Open vSwitch with Cloud?

● Multi-tenancy

● Automated control

● Monitoring and QoS

XCP Management Options

● xe is tab-completable, XAPI frontend command line tool● Desktop GUIs

○ Citrix XenCenter (Windows-only)○ OpenXenManager (open source cross-platform

XenCenter clone)● Web interfaces

○ Xen VNC Proxy (XVP) ■ lightweight VM console only■ user access control to VMs (multi-tenancy)

○ XenWebManager (web-based clone of OpenXenManager

● XCP Ecosystem: http://wiki.xen.org/xenwiki/XCP_Projects

OpenXenManager

Xen VNC Proxy (XVP)

Xen VNC Proxy (XVP)

XCP and Cloud Orchestration Tools

● XCP and OpenStack

● XCP and CloudStack

● XCP and OpenNebula

XCP and OpenStackFirst commercial OpenStack cloud (Internap): XCP-based

XCP and CloudStack

XCP and OpenNebula

Project Kronos

● Port of XCP's XAPI toolstack to Debian and Ubuntu dom0

● Gives users the ability to install Debian or Ubuntu, then apt-get install xcp-xapi

● Provides Xen users with the option of using the same API and toolstack that XCP and XenServer provide

● Early adopters can try new changes to the XAPI before they get released in mainstream XCP and XenServer versions

● Now much easier to build tools outside of an SDK VM

Project Kronos Overview

Project Kronos Overview

Hypervisor

Xen API (XAPI)

XCP vs. Project Kronos

XCP

Pros

● Isolation of cloud VM● Security properties● Pre-package + appliance

Cons

● Slightly more complex● Less flexible

Project Kronos

Pros

● Simple install● Flexibility● Simpler overall

Cons

● Less isolation● Cloud node is a potential

entry point to Dom0

Summary

● Xen has many great advantages for cloud use

● Xen is widely used in the cloud

● XAPI cloud-ready for use with cloud orchestration○ fully open source

● XCP and Project Kronos provide flexibility and choice

Thank You!