microvm-nix/microvm.nix

Features

• Virtual Machine Provisioning - Allows for the reproducible and automated provisioning of virtual machines using declarative Nix configurations.
• Virtual Machine Managers - Provides a declarative framework for creating, configuring, and managing the lifecycle of virtual machine instances via Nix.
• VM Construction - Creates isolated guest environments using a declarative configuration system and high-performance hypervisors.
• Machine Specifications - Enables defining guest hardware and system configurations as code for automated deployment.
• Virtual Storage Managers - Manages the allocation of virtual disk volumes, shared directories, and storage pools for guest machines.
• Guest Disk Configuration - Provides declarative configuration for guest root disks and stateful block storage devices.
• VM Lifecycle Orchestration - Provides a system for managing the lifecycle, networking, and storage of virtual machines via reproducible configuration files.
• Virtual Machine Builders - Transforms declarative system specifications into bootable disk images and runner scripts.
• Virtual Machine Deployment - Configures virtual machines to launch automatically during the host system boot process.
• Virtual Machine Lifecycle Management - Integrates with systemd to automate the creation and execution of virtual machines as system services.
• Host-Guest Mounts - Maps host directories into virtual machine filesystems for seamless and persistent file access.
• Bootable Image Building - Creates bootable disk images and runner scripts from declarative configurations for use on various hypervisors.
• Guest Host Filesystem Sharing - Implements mechanisms for sharing directory trees between the host operating system and guest virtual machines.
• Store Sharing - Mounts a host directory into the environment to decrease image size and eliminate redundant build steps.
• Operating System Virtualization - Executes isolated guest operating systems by defining runner packages and hypervisor configurations.
• Virtualization Networking - Manages communication between hosts and isolated virtual machines using bridges, port forwarding, and routed networking.
• Hypervisor Backend Integrations - Allows users to select the underlying virtualization engine used to run the guest machine.
• Virtual Machine Image Construction - Builds lightweight virtual machines from specified sources and stores references for automated updates.
• VM Host Environment Configuration - Configures the necessary host-side state directories, network interfaces, and filesystems to support virtual machine execution.
• Instance Rebuild from Image - Rebuilds virtual machine instances from updated source references and restarts them to apply configuration changes.
• Hypervisor Abstractions - Provides a hypervisor abstraction layer to execute machine images across different virtualization backends.
• Application Configuration Activation - Updates running virtual machines by verifying hostnames and executing configuration switches over SSH.
• Automated Update Management - Automates the fetching and application of latest system builds from remote caches to update running VMs.
• Configuration Activation - Updates running virtual machines by transferring system derivations and executing configuration switches over SSH.
• Remote VM Rebuilding - Provides a unified workflow to build and activate updated system configurations on remote virtual machine hosts via SSH.
• SSH Deployment Tools - Transfers system derivations to a remote host for building and activates configurations via SSH.
• Network Port Forwarding - Forwards traffic from the host to the guest using user-networking or host-level address translation.
• Public Interface Forwarding - Redirects traffic from the host public interface to private IP addresses of internal virtual machines.
• Service Port Forwarding - Sets up port forwarding to expose services running inside the virtual machine to the host.
• Virtual Network Bridging - Links multiple virtual Ethernet interfaces to a central host bridge to enable communication between isolated network environments.
• Binary Translation Layers - Executes foreign binaries within a virtual machine by utilizing binary translation layers and emulation shares.
• Writable Store Overlays - Implements read-only system images with writable overlays and shared host directories for persistent guest storage.
• USB and PCI Passthroughs - Connects both PCI and USB devices from the host system directly to the virtual machine for hardware access.
• Hardware Resource Allocation - Allocates CPU cores, RAM, and network interfaces to define the hardware specifications of a virtual machine.
• Layered Package Overlays - Supports mounting writable overlays on read-only system stores to allow package modifications in guests.
• Multi-Architecture Emulators - Runs guest operating systems on CPU architectures different from the host using compatible hypervisor emulation.
• VirtioFS Shared Directories - Utilizes VirtioFS to map host directories to the guest for efficient and high-performance data exchange.
• Disk Layout Specifications - Defines the boot disk filesystem type and attaches additional virtual disk images to the machine.
• Network Bridges - Provides virtual network bridges to connect guest interfaces to physical host networks.
• Hardware Passthrough - Maps physical PCI and USB devices directly into guest environments for high-performance hardware access.
• Adapter Configurations - Defines virtual network adapters to control how a virtual machine connects to the host or external networks.
• Cross-Architecture Virtualization - Enables running guest systems and binaries on different CPU architectures than the host through hypervisor emulation.
• PCI Device Passthroughs - Binds physical PCI devices to host drivers to grant direct hardware access from within a virtual machine.
• Writable Store Overlays - Mounts a writable overlay on the read-only Nix store to allow building derivations inside the guest.
• Network Address Translation - Maps internal virtual machine subnets to an external interface to provide internet access through a gateway.
• Writable Directory Centralizations - Provides a writable layer over the system store to enable package modifications within a guest session.
• Virtual Machine Management Tools - Provides a command-line tool for the imperative creation, update, and listing of virtual machines.
• Virtualization Tools - Framework for NixOS-based MicroVMs.

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