Qwik Virt
Qwik Virt is a key component of Qwik Box that enables the deployment of multiple network services on a single hardware platform. KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a popular open-source Qwik Virt technology that turns the SVB into a hypervisor, allowing it to run multiple virtual machines (VMs).
Qwik Virt Components and Concepts
Hypervisor
Virtual Machines (VMs)
Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)
- SVB’s VOS is a software layer that sits between the hardware and the virtual machines (VMs). It abstracts and manages the hardware resources, allowing multiple VMs to share the same physical hardware.
- KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine): KVM is integrated in to SVB’s VOS, making it highly efficient and capable of leveraging the full power of modern hardware. It supports hardware acceleration through technologies like Intel VT-x and AMD-V.
- VMs are isolated instances that run on top of VOS. Each VM can has its own operating system and applications, behaving like an independent physical server.
- In the SVB environment, different network functions (such as firewalls, routers, sdwan) are implemented as VNFs (Virtual Network Functions) running inside these VMs.
- VNFs are software implementations of network functions that run on VMs. This allows network services to be decoupled from dedicated hardware, leading to more flexibility and reduced costs.
- Examples include virtual firewalls, virtual routers, and virtual load balancers.
Key Qwik Virt Functionalities
- Resource Allocation and Management
- VOS manages the allocation of resources like CPU, memory, storage, and network bandwidth to VMs. It ensures that each VNF gets the resources it needs while maintaining isolation between VMs.
- Resource allocation can be dynamic, allowing for adjustments based on demand (e.g., scaling resources up or down).
- Isolation and Security
- VOS provide strong isolation, ensuring that the operations of one VNF do not affect others. This is crucial for security and stability, especially in multi-tenant environments.
- Supporing SELinux and sVirt, enhances security by isolating VMs from each other and from the host system.
- Snapshots and Cloning-Roadmap
- Snapshots allow capturing the state of a VM at a specific point in time, which is useful for backup and recovery.
- Cloning VMs enables the quick deployment of new VNFs by duplicating existing ones.
- Networking
- VOS supports complex networking configurations, including virtual switches and network bridges, to connect VMs to each other and to external networks.
- Features like SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Qwik Virt) provide high-performance network I/O by allowing VMs to bypass the hypervisor for certain network operations.
- Storage
- VOS supports storage backends, such as local disks, network-attached storage (NAS), and storage area networks (SAN). It supports advanced storage features like thin provisioning, which allocates storage space only as needed.
- Performance and Scalability
- VOS is designed to take advantage of modern multi-core processors and large memory configurations, offering high performance and scalability for VNFs.
- It also supports NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) for optimizing memory access in multi-socket systems
Management and Orchestration
Effective management and orchestration are critical for running and maintaining a virtualized environment. This includes:
- Orchestrator for providing features like VM provisioning, resource management, and monitoring.
- Service Orchestration: Atomate the deployment and management of VNFs, handling tasks like service chaining and scaling.