20–24 Sept 2021
US/Pacific timezone

Secrets in cloned snapshots

20 Sept 2021, 08:35
25m
Microconference2/Virtual-Room (LPC Virtual)

Microconference2/Virtual-Room

LPC Virtual

150
Containers and Checkpoint/Restore MC Containers and Checkpoint/Restore MC

Speakers

Alexander GrafMr Adrian Catangiu

Description

Starting things is slow. Even if only 1 second slow, saving 1s on a million container restores means we can save 11 days of useless work that every container will perform identically.

That's where snapshots come in. Snapshots in theory allow us to save an initialized container once, but then restore it a million times at less overhead than cold starting it takes.

Unfortunately, Linux applications (and the kernel in VM based container setups) expect that during their lifetime they don't get cloned from the outside. Applications create user space PRNGs (Pseudo Random Number Generators) which would generate identical random numbers after a clone. They create UUIDs that would no longer be unique. They generate unique temporary key material that is no longer unique.

Eventually, if we want to enable cloning properly, user space applications will need to learn that they have to adapt to clone events. For that they need notifications.

This session will discuss the requirements such a notification mechanism has as well as possible paths forward to implement it and drive adoption.

References:

  • https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/19269
  • https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/3/8/677
I agree to abide by the anti-harassment policy I agree

Primary authors

Alexander Graf Mr Adrian Catangiu

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.

Diamond Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Speaker Gift Sponsor

T-Shirt Sponsor

Conference Services provided by