Virtualization 101

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# .right[Virtualisation 101]
## .right[Logistics]

<br>
.right[Pierre Olivier]
.right[[pierre.olivier@manchester.ac.uk](mailto:pierre.olivier@manchester.ac.uk)]

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# The Instructor

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<div style="text-align:center"><img src="include/pierre.jpeg" width=200 /></div>
**Pierre Olivier**

Senior lecturer at the University of Manchester
]

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Mail: [pierre.olivier@manchester.ac.uk](mailto:pierre.olivier@manchester.ac.uk)  
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/pierreolivier/  
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rBr5a7UAAAAJ
]
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# Website

<br/>

.center[**All slides + lab exercise are available online in HTML/PDF format**:
<br/>
**https://olivierpierre.github.io/virt-101**

]

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# Course Unit Outline

1. **Introduction to Virtualisation** (~1h)
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2. **Operating Systems Basics** (~1h)
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3. **The Theory of Virtualisation** (~1h)
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4. **Hardware Support for Virtualisation: CPU and Memory** (~1h)
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5. **I/O Virtualisation** (~1h)
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6. **Lightweight Virtualisation: Containers & Unikernels** (~1h)
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7. Lab Exercise: **Virtualising a Simple I/O Device** (~2h)

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# Lab Exercise

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- **Virtualising a simple I/O device: a random number generator** 
  - Given the device specs, implements its behaviour in software in the Qemu virtual machine monitor
  - Build a driver in the guest (Linux) kernel
  - Run a VM with an application accessing the device through the driver
- 2 weeks to complete, **deadline 21/01/2025**
- Will be marked out of 20
]

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<br>
<div style="text-align:center"><img src="include/lab.svg" width=350 /></div>
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# Required Software/Hardware for the Lab Exercise

- **Debian or a Debian derivative (e.g. Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) with KVM support**
  - Either natively installed
  - Or in a VM (e.g. VirtualBox, an image will be provided)
- **You'll also get remote SSH access to a container with KVM support**

To check for KVM support, verify the presence of the file `/dev/kvm`:

```sh
$ ls -l /dev/kvm
crw-rw----+ 1 root kvm 10, 232 Jan  4 11:33 /dev/kvm
```

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# Reading List

- Highly Recommended: **Hardware and Software Support for Virtualization**,
  *Edouard Bugnion, Jason Nieh and Dan Tsafrir*, Morgan & Claypool, 2017
  (this course is partially based on this book, referred to as **the textbook** in
  these slides)
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- Recommended books:
  - **The Definitive Guide to the Xen Hypervisor**. *David Chisnall*, Pearson
    Education, 2008
  - **Modern Operating Systems**, *Andrew Tannenbaum and Herbert Bos*, Prentice
    Hall Press, 2014
  - **Principles of Computer System Design: an Introduction**, *Jerome Saltzer
    and Frans Kaashoek*, Morgan Kaufmann, 2009
  - **Linux Kernel Development**, *Robert Love*, Addison-Wesley Professional,
    2010