First Look at Firecracker

Table of Contents

• Video 1: What is Firecracker
• Video 2: Firecracker Design
• Video 3: Firecracker and Lambda
• Video 4: Firecracker and Fargate
• Video 5: Getting Started with Firecracker
• Video 6: Access the microVM using REST API
• Video 7: Firecracker and Container Integration
• Video 8: Next Steps with Firecracker

Video 1: What is Firecracker

Slides

1. What is Firecracker?

2. Benefits of Firecracker

3. Firecracker Design Principles

Video 2: Firecracker Design

Slides

1. Firecracker Design

2. REST API

Video 3: Firecracker and Lambda

Slides

Video 4: Firecracker and Fargate

Slides

Video 5: Getting Started with Firecracker

Prep Work

1. Create an m5.metal instance using Amazon Linux 2 on EC2 and login:

   ssh -i ~/.ssh/arun-us-east1.pem ec2-user@<ip-address>

Code

1. Clone and build firectl:

   sudo yum install -y git
   git clone https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firectl
   sudo amazon-linux-extras install -y golang1.11
   cd firectl
   make

2. Firecracker uses KVM and needs read/write access that can be granted as shown below:

   sudo setfacl -m u:${USER}:rw /dev/kvm

3. Download the Firecracker binary:

   curl -LOJ https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/releases/download/v0.15.2/firecracker-v0.15.2
   chmod +x firecracker-v0.15.2
   sudo mv firecracker-v0.15.2 /usr/local/bin/firecracker

4. Download an Alpine Linux-based test kernel and a root filesystem:

   curl -fsSL -o hello-vmlinux.bin https://s3.amazonaws.com/spec.ccfc.min/img/hello/kernel/hello-vmlinux.bin
   curl -fsSL -o hello-rootfs.ext4 https://s3.amazonaws.com/spec.ccfc.min/img/hello/fsfiles/hello-rootfs.ext4

5. Create microVM:

   ./firectl \
     --kernel=hello-vmlinux.bin \
     --root-drive=hello-rootfs.ext4

6. Terminal 1 shows a login prompt:

   Welcome to Alpine Linux 3.8
   Kernel 4.14.55-84.37.amzn2.x86_64 on an x86_64 (ttyS0)
   localhost login:

7. Log in as root with password root

8. Show the filesystem:

   ls /

9. Shutdown the machine:

   reboot

Video 6: Access the microVM using REST API

1. Start the machine again:

   sudo setfacl -m u:${USER}:rw /dev/kvm
   ./firectl \
     --kernel=hello-vmlinux.bin \
     --root-drive=hello-rootfs.ext4

2. In another terminal, login to the same EC2 instance:

   ssh -i ~/.ssh/arun-us-east1.pem ec2-user@<ip-address>

3. Query the microVM:

   $ curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* http://localhost/
   {"id":"anonymous-instance","state":"Running","vmm_version":"0.15.2"}

4. Get more details about the microVM:

   $ curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* http://localhost/machine-config
   { "vcpu_count": 1, "mem_size_mib": 512,  "ht_enabled": true,  "cpu_template": "Uninitialized" }

   Show the vCPU and memory size.

5. Try to update the vCPU:

   $ curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* -X PUT http://localhost/machine-config -d '{ "vcpu_count": 2}'
   {
   "fault_message": "The update operation is not allowed after boot."
   }

6. Try to shutdown the VM using by sending SendCtrlAltDel action:

   curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* -X PUT http://localhost/actions -d '{ "action_type": "SendCtrlAltDel" }'

   Explain that this will not work. Firecracker emulates a standard AT keyboard, connected via an i8042 controller. The required device drivers are not enabled in this kernel.

7. Download a Ubuntu-based test kernel and Xenial root filesystem, that has the device drivers enabled:

   curl -fsSL -o vmlinux.bin https://s3.amazonaws.com/spec.ccfc.min/img/ubuntu_with_ssh/kernel/vmlinux.bin
   curl -fsSL -o xenial.rootfs.ext4 https://s3.amazonaws.com/spec.ccfc.min/img/ubuntu_with_ssh/fsfiles/xenial.rootfs.ext4

8. Start a new microVM using new kernel and filesystem:

   sudo setfacl -m u:${USER}:rw /dev/kvm
   ./firectl \
     --kernel=vmlinux.bin \
     --root-drive=xenial.rootfs.ext4

9. Query the microVM again:

   curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* http://localhost/machine-config

10. Shutdown the microVM using an action:

    curl --unix-socket ~/.firecracker.sock-* -X PUT http://localhost/actions -d '{ "action_type": "SendCtrlAltDel" }'

Video 7: Firecracker and Container Integration

Slides

1. Firecracker and Containerd

2. Firecracker and Kata Containers

Code

Waiting for aws/containers-roadmap#24.

https://github.com/kata-containers/packaging/tree/master/kata-deploy#kubernetes-quick-start

1. Install eksctl CLI:

   brew tap weaveworks/tap
   brew install weaveworks/tap/eksctl

2. Create EKS cluster:

   eksctl create cluster --name kata --nodes 4

3. Install Kata:

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kata-containers/packaging/master/kata-deploy/kata-rbac.yaml
   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kata-containers/packaging/master/kata-deploy/kata-deploy.yaml

4. Deploy a pod using kata-fc runtime:

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kata-containers/packaging/master/kata-deploy/examples/test-deploy-kata-fc.yaml

5. Get pod details:

   kubectl describe pod <>

Video 8: Next Steps with Firecracker

1. https://firecracker-microvm.github.io/

2. https://github.com/rust-vmm

3. Slack channel: https://tinyurl.com/firecracker-microvm

4. Good First Issue: https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22Contribute%3A+Good+First+Issue%22