Co-operative Virtual Machines

Basil Kurian
Roll Number 48
S7R , M.A.C.E.
Contents

 Introduction to Virtualization
 Co-operative Virtual Machines
 Co-operative Linux Kernel
History
Design overview
Uses
Disadvantages
 Conclusion
 References
Virtualization

 Method by which one can run one or more

Operating systems inside another Operating system.

 Operating Systems Running inside are often refered

to as “Guest OS es” and the OS in which
Virtualisation implemented ,is known as “Host OS”

 Multiple Guest operating systems can run within

Host operating system, with little or no modification
on the guest OS.
Virtualization (continues...)

Running Windows XP on Linux

 Virtualization - Features

 'Guest OS' will be under the full control of 'Host OS'

 User need to specify

1) How much RAM should be alloted to Guest.

2) How Much Secondary storage space.

3) Which all cores of processor need to be shared with Guest.

4) Which all real hardwares should appear in virtual machine

as virtual hardwares.
 If any problem occurs in Guest OS, Host will not be affected.
Co-operative Virtual Machines (CVM s)

●
Virtualization programs which gives both OS s
complete control of the host machine.
●
The two kernels will run in parallel on the machine,
with one Co-operating with other .
●
Turns two operating system kernels into two big
coroutines.
CVM - Features

 Shares resources that already exist in the host OS.

 Gives both OS s complete control of the host machine

 Each kernel has its own complete CPU context and

address space.
 Each kernel decides when to give control back to its
partner.
Cooperative Linux (co-Linux)

 Software which allows Microsoft Windows and the Linux

kernel to run simultaneously in parallel on the same
machine.
 Runs a specially modified Linux kernel that is Cooperative
in nature.
 Takes responsibility for not instigating race conditions,
and sharing resources with the Windows NT kernel
History

 Dan Aloni originally started the development based

on similar work ' User-mode Linux '

 Open sourced the software under the GNU General

Public License.

 Other developers have since contributed various

patches and additions to the software.
Current Status

 Version: 0.6.4 (Released on July 02, 2006)

 Supported architectures: Intel 386 and above
 Supported guest Linux kernel versions: 2.6.11
 Supported operating systems:

• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
Screenshot of Portable Ubuntu , A newer implementation of
CoLinux Project
Co-Linux : How it works

 A kernel patch, kernel code and user space tools that

provide the means to load and run Linux under the driver
context of another running kernel
 The loaded Linux kernel runs in the same protection level
as the standalone kernel, alongside it.
 The loaded guest kernel is given a fixed amount of
physical memory by the driver to use for itself.
 It has its own page tables and full control of the MMU
and 4GB address space.
Design Overview

 Device Driver Port

 Pseudo Physical RAM
 Context Switching
 Interrupt Handling and Forwarding
 Device Driver Port of Co-Linux

 Used for accessing kernel mode and using the

kernel primitives that are exported by the host OS
kernel
 Interfaces with OS dependent primitives Like page
allocations, and interfacing with user space.
 Driver loads a kernel image from a vmlinux file.
Pseudo Physical RAM

●
All the memory which CoLinux considers as physical
in the allocated set
●
Allocated pages are always resident and not freed
until the VM is downed
●
Page tables are created for mapping pages in the
VM’s kernel virtual address space
●
The VM’s address space resembles the address
space of a regular kernel
Context Switching

 Use only one host OS process (colinux-daemon)in order

to provide a context for itself and its processes
 It is called a Super Process since it frequently calls the
kernel driver to perform a context switch from the host
kernel to the guest Linux kernel and back
 With the frequent (HZ times a second) host kernel
entries, it is able able to completely control the CPU and
MMU without affecting anything else in the host OS
kernel
Interrupt Handling and Forwarding

 Set an interrupt vector table in order to handle the

hardware interrupts that occur in the system during
its running state
 External hardware interrupts are meaningless to the
Cooperative Linux virtual machine
Uses

 Relatively effortless migration path from Windows.

 Adding Windows machines to Linux clusters.
 Running an otherwise-dual-booted Linux system
from the other OS
 Using Linux as a Windows firewall on the same
machine.
 Development environment for porting to and from
Linux.
Disadvantages

 Stability : If Co-Linux unstable, it has the potential

to crash the system
 Security :If a malice user gains root access inside
coLinux he can screwup the Windows System.
 To load and use coLinux the user has to have
administrator rights.
 Uses two different IP address for windows and
Colinux.
Conclusion

We have discussed how Cooperative Linux works

and its benefits. Apart from being a big scary kernel
hack, Cooperative Linux has the potential to become
an alternative to User Mode Linux that enhances on
portability and performance,rather than on security.
References

 http://www.colinux.org/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colinux
 http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/
 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-
virtualization-colinux/
 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-
colinux/

Thanks !!