Presentation about unikernels and java held at JavaCRO 2016 conference. Talk abstract: Unikernels are specialized virtual machine images containing application code and only those part of operating system the application actually needs to operate. They provide many benefits compared to a traditional OS, including improved security, smaller footprints, more optimization and faster boot times. This talk will introduce the concept of unikernels and immutable infrastructure explaining how unikernels work and how to use them to optimize the resources application uses while running. A demo will be presented to show how to build and deploy java application as a unikernel application - bundled with its own specialized operating system.

1. Unikernelize
your
Java Application
Mario Zagar
mario.zagar@infobip.com

2. Agenda
what are unikernels
why should you care
how does java fit in
build java unikernel app

3. www.infobip.com
Java, .NET, nodejs, reactjs
microservices
continuous delivery practitioners
100+ deploys daily / 6 datacenters
300M+ messages per day
200+ hypervisors
up to 20 VMs per hypervisor

4. What are unikernels?

5. “specialized, single-address-space machine
images constructed by using library operating
systems.”

6. App code
+
OS parts actually needed
=
unikernel

7. Typical cloud deployment

8. Hardware
Hypervisor
OS + Kernel
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
VM
Typical cloud deployment

9. Hardware
Hypervisor
OS + Kernel
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
VM
Typical cloud deployment
OS + Kernel
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
VM

10. Containerized deployment

11. Hardware
Hypervisor
Kernel on host OS
OS
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
Container
Containerized deployment

12. Hardware
Hypervisor
Kernel on host OS
OS
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
Container
OS
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
Container
Containerized deployment

13. What if…

14. Hardware
Hypervisor
Unikernel
Unikernel deployment
App code & config
App runtime & libs
Specialized kernel

15. Hardware
Hypervisor
Unikernel
Unikernel deployment
App code & config
App runtime & libs
Specialized kernel
Unikernel
App code & config
App runtime & libs
Specialized kernel

16. immutable server

17. Hardware
Hypervisor
OS + Kernel
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
VM
Hardware
Hypervisor
Kernel on host OS
OS
App code & config
App runtime &
libraries
Container
Hardware
Hypervisor
Unikernel
App code & config
App runtime & libs
Specialized kernel
Isolation Resource sharing Specialization

18. "just enough" of the OS to run your code,
nothing more.

19. Why should I use this?

20. Why should I use this?
Small footprint

21. Why should I use this?
Small footprint
Fast boot

22. Why should I use this?
Small footprint
Fast boot
Highly optimized

23. Why should I use this?
Small footprint
Fast boot
Highly optimized
Reduced attack surface

24. No, really… why should I use this?

25. same amount of work
on less powerful VMs…
…saves $$$

26. Cons ?

27. Cons ?
no fork() or exec()

28. Cons ?
no fork() or exec()
hard to debug

29. Cons ?
no fork() or exec()
hard to debug
“secure” is just a matter of time

30. Cons ?
no fork() or exec()
hard to debug
“secure” is just a matter of time
troubleshooting tools

31. What’s out there ?

33. How does java fit in ?

36. new OS designed for the cloud
C++
native Linux apps, JVM
single address space
boots < 1 sec
Lower administration & OS support costs

37. Hypervisor support
KVM, XEN - fully
VMW, VBox – exp

38. Cloud support
EC2 - fully
GCE – exp

39. a little “fatter”
min image size ~20MB
Java image ~120MB

40. REST API
JMX/Jolokia API
cloud-init

41. Benchmarks
redis
50% more TPS
memcached
20% more req/sec
TCP
20% better latency

42. How to build a java unikernel app?

43. Capstan build tool
(feels dockerish)

44. Capstanfile

45. Capstanfile
base: cloudius/osv-openjdk8
build: mvn package
files: /app.jar: target/app.jar
cmdline: /java.so -jar /app.jar

46. $ capstan build -p vbox

47. $ mvn package
$ capstan run target/app.jar

60. So where is this all going ?
few users
hard to ship
hard to build
hard to run

61. Community

63. unikernels + docker

66. ”next big thing in the cloud”

67. Thank you!