Show HN: Jetpack, a FreeBSD Jail/ZFS-based container runtime

https://github.com/3ofcoins/jetpack

by mpasternacki • 12 years ago

96 23 12 years ago

github.com

gaalze2• 12 years ago

The best alternative: http://www.7he.at/freebsd/vps/

Jails aren't that great: https://aboutthebsds.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/freebsd-jails-...

But there is Capsicum too: http://lwn.net/Articles/482858/

mpasternacki4• 12 years ago

VPS seems to require VIMAGE, which currently is a no-go for me (I experience kernel panic on boot if I compile it in), and the second link… well… the tinfoil hat of the author's blog has to be impressive. I've tried to read this and some other rants (they pop up quite high in search results), and couldn't find any actual content or any sources for the statements.

Capsicum and rctl are definitely on my list of things to look into (especially capsicum, it seems to be enabled in the GENERIC kernel configuration).

Freaky• 12 years ago

aboutthebsds.wordpress.com is a well known troll site, don't link to it like it contains anything meaningful.

derpderp14• 12 years ago

FTR - aboutthebsds.wordpress.com is a well known troll site and nothing on there should be taken seriously..

elektronjunge• 12 years ago

There's nothing wrong with jails. Its a robust technology that's been battle tested for a decade. They provide lots of awesome features that are useful for reasons other than security. In fact, the primary reason I use jails is not for security at all. And, AFAIK there are no exploits in the wild for jails. Like any containerization or virtualization technology there are theoretical holes. I'd stake a large sum of money that we see major vulnerabilities in LXC/Docker in the next 5 years, we just haven't because they haven't been around as long.

I'd love to see a source for just about anything that blog claims because it reads like FUD and contains some factual inaccuracies like chroot not being in FreeBSD by the time jails were added. It also doesn't seem to understand what the difference between the base and the kernel is in FreeBSD. Jails are implemented similarly to LXC/Docker by having a few syscalls in the kernal for namespace isolation and the bulk of the execution happening in userspace.

anom9999• 12 years ago

Just out of interest, what other reasons do you use Jails for?

duaneb• 12 years ago

I would be far more willing to entrust a production DB to a jail than a docker container because it's been audited over the course of >a decade. Furthermore, aboutthebsds is a well-known linux polemicist blog.

derpderp14• 12 years ago

My main use of Docker is for making application deployment less painful. I've heard of a few people who say they're running their prod DBs under docker but I cannot begin to imagine how fucktarded you'd need to be to do this (unless they have some requirement to spin up lots and lots of short-lived dbs, and those dbs have very, very low storage performance requirements...)

Would you do that? Why?

gaalze2• 12 years ago

Yeah I should have actually read that poorly written jails fud. My b.

contingencies• 12 years ago

I'm still working on a generalized system (not OS specific), with ZFS support in there and working. Have begun discussions about open sourcing this with management. In theory it will let people go 'show me this thing on <x> platform and <y> platform, benchmarked'. Platform strengths will then speak for themselves, and platform maintainers will have the same version/build/evaluate loop that regular service developers use. http://stani.sh/walter/pfcts/

derpderp14• 12 years ago

This looks interesting, I'm still holding my breath to see if Joyent are going to bring zfs support to docker though. It looks like they're working on reviving lx branded zones instead which is a bit of a bummer as they are (or were) pretty terrible.

bcantrill2• 12 years ago

We have put (and are putting) a bunch of work into LX branded zones[1], and are at the point that they are working on an incredibly broad class of apps (64-bit and with on-the-metal performance). A concrete case in point: we recently ran the (amazing!) hundred language quine relay[2] in an LX branded 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04 zone on SmartOS.[3]

As for ZFS support and Docker, it will be via sdc-docker[4], our (emerging) end-point for the Docker Remote API. The progress there has been swift and everything is being done in the open; expect to see something in production from us in this first calendar quarter.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrfD3pC0VSs

[2] https://github.com/mame/quine-relay

[3] https://twitter.com/bcantrill/status/554076708173643776

[4] https://github.com/joyent/sdc-docker

derpderp14• 12 years ago

All looks very interesting.

Am I right to assume then that there isn't going to be a SmartOS/SunOS 'docker' client which can understand zfs+zones / replace vmadm/zoneadm? I had planned on looking into writing this when they announced the 'new' pluggable architecture some while ago..

Because, that would freakin' rock...

Animats• 12 years ago

Please call it something else. Mozilla's plug-in API is called "Jetpack". Thanks.

morganvachon• 12 years ago

This project is not a plugin API though, it's in a completely different universe.

If you must complain about a project called "Jetpack", point your arrows towards Wordpress[1].

[1] http://jetpack.me/

mpasternacki4• 12 years ago

There's also a WordPress plugin called "Jetpack". Both are so different areas, that I don't think it matters much. If it happens that either project is actually bothered by mine and reaches out to me, I'll be happy to talk.

I've checked for name conflicts in related areas, in package repositories (FreeBSD ports, Debian's and Ubuntu's archives), major open source hosting services, and haven't found anything related. Let me know if I missed anything relevant.

georgestephanis• 12 years ago

Howdy!

I'm the team lead of the Jetpack plugin for WordPress. I've passed it upstream to our in-house counsel just for a cursory review should it conflict with trademark scope or something.

(What do I know, I'm a dev, not one of those lawyer-types)

(But as the Mozilla Jetpack thing existed before we did, and we both coexist, I'm not expecting a kerfluffle, but who knows -- I am not a Lawyer!)

andoriyu• 12 years ago

Maybe it's better to help that one guy work on cbsd? http://www.bsdstore.ru/en/about.html

synchronise• 12 years ago

I would use this, I really would, but the problem I have with ZFS RAID-Z1 and 2 shares, once you setup the storage pool, you can't dynamically add hard drives to the pool, you have to set it up weirdly like RAIDZ-1+1. All I want to do is add more storage to my 5TB pool without having to wipe it all or change the configuration to something else because I want to add a hard drive.

Show HN: Jetpack, a FreeBSD Jail/ZFS-based container runtime

Related Stories