Microvm.nix
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MicroVM.nix
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A Nix Flake to build NixOS and run it on one of several Type-2
Hypervisors on NixOS/Linux. The project is intended to provide a more
isolated alternative to nixos-container
. You can either build and
run MicroVMs like Nix packages, or alternatively install them as
systemd services declaratively in your host's Nix Flake or
imperatively with the provided microvm
command.
At a glance
- MicroVMs are Virtual Machines but use special device interfaces (virtio) for high performance.
- This project runs them on NixOS hosts.
- You can choose one of five hypervisors for each MicroVM.
- MicroVMs have a fixed RAM allocation (default: 512 MB) but can be
shrunk using
microvm-balloon
- MicroVMs have a read-only root disk with either a prepopulated
/nix/store
or by mounting the host's along with an optional writable overlay. This filesystem can be built as either squashfs (smaller) or erofs (faster). - You define your MicroVMs in a Nix Flake's
nixosConfigurations
section, reusing thenixosModules
that are exported by this Flake. - MicroVMs can access stateful filesystems either on a image volume as a block device, or alternatively as a shared directory hierarchy through 9p or virtiofs.
- Zero, one, or more virtual tap ethernet network interfaces can be
attached to a MicroVM.
qemu
andkvmtool
also support user networking which requires no additional setup on the host.
Hypervisors
Hypervisor | Language | Restrictions |
---|---|---|
qemu | C | |
cloud-hypervisor | Rust | no 9p shares |
firecracker | Rust | no 9p/virtiofs shares |
crosvm | Rust | 9p shares broken |
kvmtool | C | no virtiofs shares, no control socket |
stratovirt | Rust | no 9p/virtiofs shares, no control socket |
alioth | Rust | no virtiofs shares, no control socket |
Installation
nix registry add microvm github:astro/microvm.nix
(If you do not want to inflict this change on your system, just
replace microvm
with github:astro/microvm.nix
in the following
examples.)
Start writing your own NixOS MicroVM definitions
nix flake init -t microvm
$EDITOR flake.nix
nix run .#my-microvm
Examples
Run MicroVMs on your local machine
nix run microvm#qemu-example
nix run microvm#firecracker-example
nix run microvm#cloud-hypervisor-example
nix run microvm#crosvm-example
nix run microvm#kvmtool-example
nix run microvm#stratovirt-example
Run a MicroVM example with nested MicroVMs on 5 different Hypervisors
nix run microvm#vm
Check networkctl status virbr0
for the DHCP leases of the nested
MicroVMs. They listen for ssh with an empty root password.
Experimental: run graphical applications in cloud-hypervisor with Wayland forwarding
nix run microvm#graphics neverball
Commercial support
Accelerate your operations and secure your infrastructure with support from the maker of microvm.nix and a team of virtualization experts. Contact Cyberus Technology: https://www.cyberus-technology.de/contact
Looking for help or customization?
Get in touch with Numtide to get a quote. We make it easy for companies to work with Open Source projects: https://numtide.com/contact