Bhojpur Kernel - Library Operating System

The Bhojpur Kernel is an operating system as a library (i.e., Unikernel framework) used by the Bhojpur.NET Platform ecosystem for delivery of fast and secure applications or services. It has the ability to convert normal Go program into an ELF unikernel, which could be run on a bare metal. It is a tool for compiling application sources into Unikernel (i.e., lightweight bootable disk images) and MicroVM rather than binaries.

Unikernel Framework

The Bhojpur Kernel runs and manages instances of compiled images across a variety of cloud providers as well as locally. It utilizes a simple Docker-like command line interface (i.e., kernctl), making building Unikernel and MicroVM as easy as building containers.

Supported Providers

• Firecracker
• Virtualbox
• AWS
• Google Cloud
• vSphere
• QEMU
• UKVM
• Xen
• OpenStack
• Photon Controller

The Instance Listener is a special component of th eBhojpur Kernel that bootstraps unikernel instances running on certain providers (currently vSphere and VirtualBox).

Build Unikernel Image

To start with, you need QEMU to run it locally on a macOS.

$ brew install x86_64-elf-binutils x86_64-elf-gcc x86_64-elf-gdb
$ brew install qemu

You can start using the following command

$ builder qemu

Firstly, get the kernel command line tool.

$ go install github.com/bhojpur/kernel

Run the following command to build your Unikernel application.

$ kernel build -o kernel.elf

The following command can package your custom application into a Unikernel ISO file.

$ kernel pack -o bhojpur-kernel.iso -k kernel.elf

Then, you can use https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy to run the ISO file on a bare metal compute server.

Unikernel Types Supported

• Firecracker: the kernctl supports compiling Go source code into Firecracker MicroVMs
• rump: the kernctl supports compiling Python, Node.js, and Go source code into rumprun unikernels
• OSv: the kernctl supports compiling Java, Node.js, C and C++ source code into OSv unikernels
• IncludeOS: the kernctl supports compiling C++ source code into IncludeOS unikernels
• MirageOS: the kernctl supports compiling OCaml source code into MirageOS unikernels

Source Code Build

The Bhojpur Kernel is compiled into binary image by the builder tool using the configuration settings defined in the builderfile.go file.

$ go mod tidy
$ go get
$ builder iso