Tart

Tart is an Apple Silicon virtualization manager used to build and run macOS and Linux virtual machines using native hardware virtualization frameworks. It functions as a virtual machine cluster orchestrator and an ephemeral runner for executing continuous integration pipeline steps within isolated, short-lived environments.

The system utilizes an OCI-compatible virtual machine registry to push and pull images via standardized container registries. It features a controller-worker architecture that schedules virtual machine lifecycles across remote worker nodes, incorporating a secure SSH jump host gateway to route network traffic to guests in private networks.

The project covers cluster administration through label-based placement constraints and hardware slot allocation, alongside guest management capabilities such as out-of-band command execution, virtual disk resizing, and host directory mounting. It also includes observability via OpenTelemetry metric exporting and support for various deployment targets, including containerized environments and AWS-optimized infrastructure.

Features

Apple Silicon Virtualization - Leverages native Apple Silicon hardware acceleration to run macOS and Linux virtual machines.

Virtual Machines - Builds and runs macOS and Linux virtual machines on Apple Silicon using native hardware virtualization frameworks.

Apple Silicon Deployment - Manages the build and execution of macOS and Linux virtual machines on Apple Silicon.

OCI Virtual Machine Registries - Implements an OCI-compatible registry for the standardized distribution of virtual machine images.

Ephemeral CI Environments - Executes continuous integration pipeline steps within isolated, short-lived virtual machines.

Resource Coordinators - Coordinates the mapping of virtual machine execution to available resources across a cluster of worker nodes.

Container Image Registries - Stores and distributes virtual machine images using OCI-compatible container registries.

OCI Virtual Machine Image Management - Uses OCI-compatible registries to distribute and manage virtual machine images.

Virtual Machine Managers - Manages the distribution and lifecycle of virtual machines across multiple remote worker nodes at scale.

Virtualization Cluster Orchestration - Schedules and manages virtual machine lifecycles across a cluster of remote worker nodes.

Orchestrator-Worker Models - Implements an architecture that separates central coordination logic from remote execution nodes via a controller-worker model.

Virtual Machine Connectivity - Routes SSH and network traffic through a central controller to access guests in private networks.

SSH Gateway Proxies - Routes secure shell traffic through a central controller to enable connectivity to guests in private networks.

Virtual Disk Resizing - Includes a utility to adjust guest disk capacity to match allocated storage without manual partitioning.

Image Build Automation - Integrates with image builders to automate the creation and configuration of virtual machine images.

Guest Command Wrappers - Provides a unified mechanism to run configuration scripts inside virtual machines for consistent cross-environment execution.

macOS Cloud Deployments - Provides optimized deployment configurations for running macOS virtual machines on cloud providers.

Containerized Application Deployments - Supports running the controller via container images and persistent volume mounts for cloud compute instances.

Node Metadata Management - Maps virtual machines to worker nodes by matching hardware constraints against node-level metadata labels.

System Service Installers - Enables deploying the controller as a background system service on Linux via standard package managers.

Virtualization Worker Provisioning - Provides tools and automation playbooks to configure host machines as worker nodes in the cluster.

Virtual Hardware Interfaces - Provides tools to configure virtual hardware resources, including CPU count, memory allocation, and display resolution.

Token-Based Bootstrapping - Provides automated deployment of worker nodes using secure tokens to establish connections to a central controller.

Remote Procedure Call Frameworks - Uses a high-performance gRPC remote procedure call framework for communication between clients, controllers, and workers.

Network Traffic Routing - Provides port-forwarding and jump-host capabilities to connect to virtual machines on remote workers.

Traffic Proxying - Proxies ports through a central controller to establish secure SSH or VNC connections to remote workers.

Placement Constraints - Restricts virtual machine placement to worker nodes possessing specific metadata labels.

Virtual Machine SSH Jump Hosts - Provides a secure SSH jump host gateway to route network traffic to guests in private networks.

Guest Host Filesystem Sharing - Supports sharing local host directories with guest virtual machines in read-write or read-only modes.

Image Provisioning - Automates VM image creation from base templates using configuration settings and provisioning scripts.

Host-Guest Integration Tools - Ships integration tools for virtual disk resizing and host-guest clipboard synchronization.

REST APIs - Provides a RESTful API for remote lifecycle control and automated resource orchestration of virtual machine environments.

Cryptographic Identity Verification - Implements security mechanisms to verify client-to-controller connections using PKI or manual fingerprinting.

Hardware Slot Mapping - Maps requested hardware slots to specific virtual machines and workers to manage cluster capacity.

Out-of-Band Management - Provides out-of-band guest management for disk resizing and clipboard synchronization without requiring guest network connectivity.

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Features

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