Re: Introduction to Linux based stubdom (GSoC 2011)

[Jiageng Yu <yujiageng734@gmail.com>]

On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 12:51 AM, Steven Harp
<steven.harp@adventiumlabs.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 05/05/2011 11:31 AM, Jiageng Yu wrote:
>>
>>
>>     Stubdoms are very small Xen PV guests used to run some software
>> components that otherwise live in dom0. We plan to implement a linux
>> based stubdom, which provides devices emulation to a particular HVM
>> guest. The major tasks of this project are described below.
>>
>>      1. We have to establish the environment of linux based stubdom
>> with minimal linux kernel and shared libraries, which could contain
>> the upstream qemu exactly. We also maintain a minimal upstream qemu by
>> cutting unnecessary objs in its configuration phase. The minimal linux
>> kernel, shared libraries and the upstream qemu are packed into the
>> ramdisk, which is the real body of stubdom we need.
>>
> ...
>>     This is a brief introduction to the project. Any suggestion or
>> question will be Thankful!
>>
>
> This is an excellent project.
>
> One suggestion regarding the minimal Linux is to make allowances
> in the build process for different kernel compilation options and
> supplemental files in the stubdom image.   Possibly worth thinking
> about different options for ramdisk, e.g. ramfs versus a compressed
> ext* filesystem. The former is lighter weight, but the latter
> offers more control, e.g. extended attributes.
>
> Best of luck,
>  Steve Harp
>
>
>
>

Hi Steven,

    Thanks very much for the advice. Honestly, until now, I have no
idea about the performance of Linux based stubdoms. So I try to make
it minimal first. Additionally, though a compressed ext* filesystem
could offer more control, stubdoms have little chance of accessing the
local filesystem in our current implementment plan.

    I will confirm with my mentor whether stubdoms need more
functional requirements. Thank you a lot.

    Regards!

Jiageng Yu.