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Kairos is a meta-Linux distribution to build immutable edge Kubernetes.
Project Description
Kairos is an open-source project that simplifies edge, cloud, and bare-metal OS lifecycle management. It is a framework to build immutable Linux meta-distribution for edge Kubernetes, enabling users to customize or run bootable Kubernetes and OS images for edge devices with ease. Kairos offers features like immutability, security, container-based management, P2P mesh for self-coordinated deployments, and distro agnosticism. It allows users to create their own cloud on-premises, provision nodes using custom or Kairos images, and manage the entire cluster lifecycle with Kubernetes. Kairos aims to provide a unified, cloud-native approach to OS management.
With Kairos, users can effortlessly create Kubernetes clusters with Kubernetes distributions such as k3s and any Linux distribution of their choice. Kairos images are full OS images that are used in atomic upgrades.
Instead of the traditional upgrade process involving package managers, Kairos uses a common, generic process across all the distributions: A/B image swap using standard container images. Users can choose to use Kairos container images or build custom ones that can be based from upstream Linux distribution images.
Kairos also supports the creation of highly flexible and scalable multi-node, single clusters that can span multiple regions with k3s, providing enhanced adaptability to meet varying requirements. In order to orchestrate deployments Kairos doesn’t need an external service, k3s HA deployments are fully autonomous, removing friction of deploying Kubernetes at the edge.
Org repo URL (provide if all repos under the org are in scope of the application)
github.com/kairos-io
Project repo URL in scope of application
github.com/kairos-io/kairos
Additional repos in scope of the application
The organization with all the repositories is in scope of application
In our office hours and community channels, we openly discuss the Roadmap, gathering input and prioritizing items through collaborative discussions. Our approach is strongly oriented towards fostering a thriving ecosystem, and we actively seek opportunities for interoperability with CNCF projects and other open-source initiatives. This commitment helps us better address the interests and needs of our community.
If the project is accepted, I agree the project will follow the CNCF IP Policy
Trademark and accounts
If the project is accepted, I agree to donate all project trademarks and accounts to the CNCF
Why CNCF?
Kairos seeks to apply for CNCF to find a vendor-neutral home for its open-source project.
Kairos wants to establish itself as a cloud-native meta-Linux distribution tailored for Kubernetes. From its inception, Kairos was designed with cloud-native and container-first principles in mind.
By becoming a part of CNCF, Kairos aims to demonstrate its commitment to managing expansion in an open-source manner and ensure neutral governance for its growing community of users and contributors. The CNCF platform will serve as a catalyst for community adoption and encourage contributions from developers. Additionally, being a part of CNCF allows Kairos to learn from other projects and actively contribute back to the cloud-native community, aligning with the maintainer's ethos.
Benefit to the Landscape
The CNCF ecosystem would benefit from having a vendor-neutral project that applies cloud-native approaches to OS management.
It seems a natural solution that does not prefer any distribution or seek any sort of promotion or solution vendor-lock in.
The user is free to pick the OS of their choice, and just benefit from Immutability, A/B upgrades, where OS images are delivered as standard container images.
There are no similar projects to my knowledge already in the CNCF ecosystem targeting directly the OS management layer with a cloud-native, distro-agnostic first approach.
Cloud Native 'Fit'
The project is a natural fit for the CNCF TAG Runtime. There has been demand in creating a special interest group for operative systems (see: kairos-io/kairos#1660), and we are happy to collaborate with.
Cloud Native 'Integration'
When it comes to Kubernetes deployment, Kairos defaults to several components in the CNCF landscape:
K3s https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s
Kube-vip https://kube-vip.io/ (I think at the time of writing this it’s in the process, right?)
Cloud Native Overlap
As far as I know, there are no similar projects in the CNCF landscape
Similar projects
Outside of the CNCF landscape there are projects similar or that are tangentially related to Kairos.
To some extent, Kairos shares a similar philosophy to k3os (https://github.com/rancher/k3os) and linuxkit (https://github.com/linuxkit/linuxkit). It can be actually seen as a “mix” of the two with a truly distro-agnostic approach, with a strong focus on Kubernetes and maintenance. Kairos has roots on the Elemental toolkit project (https://github.com/rancher/elemental-toolkit), indeed it shares some of the feature sets, while it expands on security and advanced customization features.
Landscape
No, we are not listed in the Landscape
Business Product or Service to Project separation
Spectro Cloud does provide Edge solutions to run Kubernetes and uses Kairos as base to build custom OS images for Enterprise customers.
We have an open issue to formally collect all the adopters and external stakeholders, however, there are companies like Spectro Cloud which is funding the project entirely and using it in production environments.
There are individuals from companies involved in the community and/or contributing directly to the project, such as Intel [1], Deutsche Bahn or Facebook.
Application contact emails
mudler@kairos.io, itxaka@kairos.io, dimitris@kairos.io, mauro@kairos.io
Project Summary
Kairos is a meta-Linux distribution to build immutable edge Kubernetes.
Project Description
Kairos is an open-source project that simplifies edge, cloud, and bare-metal OS lifecycle management. It is a framework to build immutable Linux meta-distribution for edge Kubernetes, enabling users to customize or run bootable Kubernetes and OS images for edge devices with ease. Kairos offers features like immutability, security, container-based management, P2P mesh for self-coordinated deployments, and distro agnosticism. It allows users to create their own cloud on-premises, provision nodes using custom or Kairos images, and manage the entire cluster lifecycle with Kubernetes. Kairos aims to provide a unified, cloud-native approach to OS management.
With Kairos, users can effortlessly create Kubernetes clusters with Kubernetes distributions such as k3s and any Linux distribution of their choice. Kairos images are full OS images that are used in atomic upgrades.
Instead of the traditional upgrade process involving package managers, Kairos uses a common, generic process across all the distributions: A/B image swap using standard container images. Users can choose to use Kairos container images or build custom ones that can be based from upstream Linux distribution images.
Kairos also supports the creation of highly flexible and scalable multi-node, single clusters that can span multiple regions with k3s, providing enhanced adaptability to meet varying requirements. In order to orchestrate deployments Kairos doesn’t need an external service, k3s HA deployments are fully autonomous, removing friction of deploying Kubernetes at the edge.
Org repo URL (provide if all repos under the org are in scope of the application)
github.com/kairos-io
Project repo URL in scope of application
github.com/kairos-io/kairos
Additional repos in scope of the application
The organization with all the repositories is in scope of application
Website URL
https://kairos.io
Roadmap
🥇 Roadmap
Roadmap context
In our office hours and community channels, we openly discuss the Roadmap, gathering input and prioritizing items through collaborative discussions. Our approach is strongly oriented towards fostering a thriving ecosystem, and we actively seek opportunities for interoperability with CNCF projects and other open-source initiatives. This commitment helps us better address the interests and needs of our community.
Contributing Guide
https://github.com/kairos-io/community/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
Code of Conduct (CoC)
https://github.com/kairos-io/community/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
Adopters
https://github.com/kairos-io/community/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md
Contributing or Sponsoring Org
https://spectrocloud.com
Maintainers file
https://github.com/kairos-io/community/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md
IP Policy
Trademark and accounts
Why CNCF?
Kairos seeks to apply for CNCF to find a vendor-neutral home for its open-source project.
Kairos wants to establish itself as a cloud-native meta-Linux distribution tailored for Kubernetes. From its inception, Kairos was designed with cloud-native and container-first principles in mind.
By becoming a part of CNCF, Kairos aims to demonstrate its commitment to managing expansion in an open-source manner and ensure neutral governance for its growing community of users and contributors. The CNCF platform will serve as a catalyst for community adoption and encourage contributions from developers. Additionally, being a part of CNCF allows Kairos to learn from other projects and actively contribute back to the cloud-native community, aligning with the maintainer's ethos.
Benefit to the Landscape
The CNCF ecosystem would benefit from having a vendor-neutral project that applies cloud-native approaches to OS management.
It seems a natural solution that does not prefer any distribution or seek any sort of promotion or solution vendor-lock in.
The user is free to pick the OS of their choice, and just benefit from Immutability, A/B upgrades, where OS images are delivered as standard container images.
There are no similar projects to my knowledge already in the CNCF ecosystem targeting directly the OS management layer with a cloud-native, distro-agnostic first approach.
Cloud Native 'Fit'
The project is a natural fit for the CNCF TAG Runtime. There has been demand in creating a special interest group for operative systems (see: kairos-io/kairos#1660), and we are happy to collaborate with.
Cloud Native 'Integration'
When it comes to Kubernetes deployment, Kairos defaults to several components in the CNCF landscape:
K3s https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s
Kube-vip https://kube-vip.io/ (I think at the time of writing this it’s in the process, right?)
Cloud Native Overlap
As far as I know, there are no similar projects in the CNCF landscape
Similar projects
Outside of the CNCF landscape there are projects similar or that are tangentially related to Kairos.
To some extent, Kairos shares a similar philosophy to k3os (https://github.com/rancher/k3os) and linuxkit (https://github.com/linuxkit/linuxkit). It can be actually seen as a “mix” of the two with a truly distro-agnostic approach, with a strong focus on Kubernetes and maintenance. Kairos has roots on the Elemental toolkit project (https://github.com/rancher/elemental-toolkit), indeed it shares some of the feature sets, while it expands on security and advanced customization features.
Landscape
No, we are not listed in the Landscape
Business Product or Service to Project separation
Spectro Cloud does provide Edge solutions to run Kubernetes and uses Kairos as base to build custom OS images for Enterprise customers.
Project presentations
There is a media section on the Kairos website: https://kairos.io/docs/media/
The project was presented in various conferences:
Project champions
No response
Additional information
We have an open issue to formally collect all the adopters and external stakeholders, however, there are companies like Spectro Cloud which is funding the project entirely and using it in production environments.
There are individuals from companies involved in the community and/or contributing directly to the project, such as Intel [1], Deutsche Bahn or Facebook.
1: We have published for instance a whitepaper with the Intel team addressing Security at the Edge in Kubernetes: https://kairos.io/blog/2023/04/18/kairos-is-now-part-of-the-secure-edge-native-architecture-by-spectro-cloud-and-intel/