Robur Reproducible Builds
Published: 2021-11-16 (last updated: 2023-09-21)In 2021 we in Robur have been working towards easing deployment of reproducible mirage applications. The work has been funded by the European Union under the Next Generation Internet (NGI Pointer) initiative. The result is online.
+Robur Reproducible Builds
Published: 2021-11-16 (last updated: 2024-07-01)In 2021 we in Robur have been working towards easing deployment of reproducible mirage applications. The work has been funded by the European Union under the Next Generation Internet (NGI Pointer) initiative. The result is online.
The overall goal is to push MirageOS into production in a trustworthy way. We worked on reproducible builds for Opam packages and MirageOS - with the infrastructure being reproducible itself. Reproducible builds are crucial for supply chain security - everyone can reproduce the exact same binary (by using the same sources and environment), without reproducible builds we would not publish binaries.
Reproducible builds are also great for fleet management: by inspecting the hash of the binary that is executed, we can figure out which versions of which libraries are in the unikernel - and suggest updates if newer builds are available or if a used library has a security flaw -- albatross-client update my-unikernel is everything needed for an update.
Several ready-to-use MirageOS unikernels are built on a daily basis - ranging from authoritative DNS servers (secondary, let's encrypt DNS solver), DNS-and-DHCP service (similar to dnsmasq), TLS reverse proxy, Unipi - a web server that delivers content from a git repository, DNS resolver, CalDAV server, and of course your own MirageOS unikernel.
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ $ pkg install solo5 albatrossFor other distributions and systems we do not (yet?) provide binary packages. You can compile and install them using opam (opam install solo5 albatross). Get in touch if you're keen on adding some other distribution to our reproducible build infrastructure.
There is no configuration needed. Start the albatross_console and the albatross_daemon service (via systemctl daemon-reload ; systemctl start albatross_daemon on Linux or service albatross_daemon start on FreeBSD). Executing albatross-client info should return success (exit code 0) and no running unikernel. You may need to be in the albatross group, or change the permissions of the Unix domain socket (/run/albatross/util/vmmd.sock on Linux, /var/run/albatross/util/vmmd.sock on FreeBSD).
To check that albatross works, get the latest hello world unikernel and run it:
-$ wget https://builds.robur.coop/job/hello/build/latest/bin/hello.hvt
+$ wget https://builds.robur.coop/job/hello/build/latest/bin/hello-key.hvt
$ albatross-client console my-hello-unikernel & # this is sent to the background since it waits and displays the console of the unikernel named "my-hello-unikernel"
-$ albatross-client create my-hello-unikernel hello.hvt # this returns once the unikernel image has been transmitted to the albatross daemon
-$ albatross-client create --arg='--hello="Hello,\ my\ unikernel" my-hello-unikernel hello.hvt # executes the same unikernel, but passes the boot parameter "--hello"
+$ albatross-client create my-hello-unikernel hello-key.hvt # this returns once the unikernel image has been transmitted to the albatross daemon
+$ albatross-client create --arg='--hello="Hello,\ my\ unikernel" my-hello-unikernel hello-key.hvt # executes the same unikernel, but passes the boot parameter "--hello"
$ fg # back to albatross-client console
$ Ctrl-C # kill that process
diff --git a/atom b/atom
index 260abf8..11d6ff8 100644
--- a/atom
+++ b/atom
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-urn:uuid:8167ecfe-9676-11e7-8dc1-68f728e7bbbc robur 2024-06-30T19:42:13-00:00 2021-11-16T15:06:35-00:00 <p>In 2021 we in <a href="https://robur.coop/">Robur</a> have been working towards easing deployment of reproducible mirage applications. The work has been funded by the European Union under the <a href="https://pointer.ngi.eu/">Next Generation Internet (NGI Pointer) initiative</a>. The result is <a href="https://builds.robur.coop">online</a>.</p>
+urn:uuid:8167ecfe-9676-11e7-8dc1-68f728e7bbbc robur 2024-07-01T07:38:01-00:00 2021-11-16T15:06:35-00:00 <p>In 2021 we in <a href="https://robur.coop/">Robur</a> have been working towards easing deployment of reproducible mirage applications. The work has been funded by the European Union under the <a href="https://pointer.ngi.eu/">Next Generation Internet (NGI Pointer) initiative</a>. The result is <a href="https://builds.robur.coop">online</a>.</p>
<p>The overall goal is to push MirageOS into production in a trustworthy way. We worked on reproducible builds for <a href="https://opam.ocaml.org">Opam</a> packages and <a href="https://mirageos.org">MirageOS</a> - with the infrastructure being reproducible itself. Reproducible builds are crucial for supply chain security - everyone can reproduce the exact same binary (by using the same sources and environment), without reproducible builds we would not publish binaries.</p>
<p>Reproducible builds are also great for fleet management: by inspecting the hash of the binary that is executed, we can figure out which versions of which libraries are in the unikernel - and suggest updates if newer builds are available or if a used library has a security flaw -- <code>albatross-client update my-unikernel</code> is everything needed for an update.</p>
<p>Several ready-to-use MirageOS unikernels are built on a daily basis - ranging from <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/dns-primary-git/">authoritative DNS servers</a> (<a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/dns-secondary/">secondary</a>, <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/dns-letsencrypt-secondary/">let's encrypt DNS solver</a>), <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/dnsvizor/">DNS-and-DHCP service (similar to dnsmasq)</a>, <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/tlstunnel/">TLS reverse proxy</a>, <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/unipi/">Unipi - a web server that delivers content from a git repository</a>, <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/dns-resolver/">DNS resolver</a>, <a href="https://builds.robur.coop/job/caldav/">CalDAV server</a>, and of course your own MirageOS unikernel.</p>
@@ -29,10 +29,10 @@ $ pkg install solo5 albatross
<p>For other distributions and systems we do not (yet?) provide binary packages. You can compile and install them using <a href="https://opam.ocaml.org">opam</a> (<code>opam install solo5 albatross</code>). Get in touch if you're keen on adding some other distribution to our reproducible build infrastructure.</p>
<p>There is no configuration needed. Start the <code>albatross_console</code> and the <code>albatross_daemon</code> service (via <code>systemctl daemon-reload ; systemctl start albatross_daemon</code> on Linux or <code>service albatross_daemon start</code> on FreeBSD). Executing <code>albatross-client info </code> should return success (exit code 0) and no running unikernel. You may need to be in the albatross group, or change the permissions of the Unix domain socket (<code>/run/albatross/util/vmmd.sock</code> on Linux, <code>/var/run/albatross/util/vmmd.sock</code> on FreeBSD).</p>
<p>To check that albatross works, get the latest hello world unikernel and run it:</p>
-<pre><code>$ wget https://builds.robur.coop/job/hello/build/latest/bin/hello.hvt
+<pre><code>$ wget https://builds.robur.coop/job/hello/build/latest/bin/hello-key.hvt
$ albatross-client console my-hello-unikernel & # this is sent to the background since it waits and displays the console of the unikernel named "my-hello-unikernel"
-$ albatross-client create my-hello-unikernel hello.hvt # this returns once the unikernel image has been transmitted to the albatross daemon
-$ albatross-client create --arg='--hello="Hello,\ my\ unikernel" my-hello-unikernel hello.hvt # executes the same unikernel, but passes the boot parameter "--hello"
+$ albatross-client create my-hello-unikernel hello-key.hvt # this returns once the unikernel image has been transmitted to the albatross daemon
+$ albatross-client create --arg='--hello="Hello,\ my\ unikernel" my-hello-unikernel hello-key.hvt # executes the same unikernel, but passes the boot parameter "--hello"
$ fg # back to albatross-client console
$ Ctrl-C # kill that process
</code></pre>
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ $ fg # back to albatross-client console
$ Ctrl-C # kill that process
</code></pre>
<p>That's it. Albatross has more features, such as block devices, multiple bridges (for management, private networks, ...), restart if the unikernel exited with specific exit code, assignment of a unikernel to a specific CPU. It also has remote command execution and resource limits (you can allow your friends to execute a number of unikernels with limited memory and block storage accessing only some of your bridges). There is a daemon to collect metrics and report them to Grafana (via Telegraf and Influx). MirageOS unikernels also support IPv6, you're not limited to legacy IP.</p>
- urn:uuid:a225bf44-9230-569f-8852-1b5d2132a749 Robur Reproducible Builds 2023-09-21T14:46:48-00:00 canopy 2019-09-10T19:40:14-00:00 <h1 id="mirageos">MirageOS</h1>
+ urn:uuid:a225bf44-9230-569f-8852-1b5d2132a749 Robur Reproducible Builds 2024-07-01T07:38:01-00:00 canopy 2019-09-10T19:40:14-00:00 <h1 id="mirageos">MirageOS</h1>
<p>MirageOS is a software suite to build custom-tailored operating systems from (mostly open source) small individual libraries. It has been developed since 2009 at the University of Cambridge, UK and is written in the programming language <a href="/Our%20Work/Technology-Employed#OCaml">OCaml</a>.</p>
<p>It compiles the necessary OCaml libraries into a unikernel - a small operating system, each built for a certain purpose. For each unikernel we can pick from hundreds of permissively licensed open source libraries which implement network protocols, storage on block devices, or interfaces to network devices via the hypervisor or host operating system. As we only put into each one exactly what is needed, each unikernel is fast; instantly booting and, as there is less code base, it is easier to maintain and keep secure.</p>
<p>As an example to see how lines of code compare, here are the number of lines of code needed for different elements of our <a href="/Our%20Work/Projects#Bitcoin%20Pinata">Bitcoin Pinata</a>, measured in thousands of lines of code:</p>