The Decentralized Hypervisor
Last updated
Last updated
Virtualization is the process of creating a software-based representation of something, which can be hardware, operating systems, storage devices, or network resources. It allows for multiple applications and operating systems to run on the same physical hardware, effectively maximizing resources, reducing costs, and increasing scalability.
Vistara's decentralized hypervisor is a distributed hypervisor monitor that can create isolated virtualized environments that can virtualize resources like hardware, I/O, and bandwidth. It's designed with simplicity in mind, depending on the request type, it chooses the appropriate hypervisor implementation, either firecracker or nanovms. Vimana nodes run hypervisors to create microvms and execute tasks on the hardware distributed across the world.
Hardware Virtualization: This type of virtualization simulates physical components, allowing multiple OS environments on a single physical server, computer, or host.
Memory Virtualization: This pools the physical memory from multiple servers to created a shared memory pool that can be used by a single server instance.
Storage Virtualization: It combines physical storage from multiple network storage devices into a single virtual storage pool that can be managed by a console.
Network Virtualization: It divides the available bandwidth of a network into independent channels, for wireless networks it can be dividing radio frequencies into channels that can be assigned to specific servers.
Software Virtualization: It abstracts applications from the underlying operating system. The application behaves as though it is directly interfacing with the original OS, but it's running on a virtualization layer.
A hypervisor is the software, firmware, or hardware layer that drives virtualization by creating and running virtual machines (VMs). Hypervisors are essential for:
Resource Optimization: Hypervisors allow multiple OSs or applications to share a single hardware host. This maximizes hardware utilization while reducing costs.
Isolation & Security: Each VM operates entirely independently and is isolated from others. If one VM crashes or is compromised, it doesn’t affect others.
In the context of decentralized systems, hypervisors are even more crucial:
Security & Trustworthiness: Decentralized networks thrive on trust and reliability. Hypervisors can ensure that each node or VM in the network operates in its sandboxed environment, ensuring no cross-contamination or malicious interference.
Scalability: In decentralized systems, as the network grows, the requirement for more nodes or instances arises. Hypervisors allow these nodes to be swiftly and efficiently deployed on shared hardware resources.
Firecracker is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that specializes in running workloads in lightweight virtual machines called microVMs. It's optimized for performance, security, and density, making it suitable for serverless computing environments.
For a serverless decentralized compute network:
Rapid Deployment: Firecracker can launch thousands of microVMs in a fraction of a second, making it perfect for on-demand, serverless compute workloads.
Resource Efficiency: By using microVMs, you ensure that the right amount of resources is allocated for each task, ensuring efficient use of underlying hardware.
Security: Firecracker provides a minimal device model, reducing the potential surface area for attacks.
