Deploy a Dropwizard Unikernel to AWS | Hacker News Reader

Deploy a Dropwizard Unikernel to AWS

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33 pointsaxelfontaine10 comments

Small request : Deployment and disk space is cool, but could people benchmark speed and RAM too ( vs regular VM and vs no VM at all as well) ?

I'm asking because IIUC, unikernel remove the need to switch from kernel mode to user mode, and thus should provide a tremendous speed in everything memory-related. Yet, the only thing i see mentionned so far are security, disk space and boot time.

This is it seems not a unikernel, it is a single app Linux deployment, so should perform just like Linux.

This looks cool.

Have always hated that even with the container game, so much changed between environments.

That is indeed what we do here. We took the principles we love and strongly believe in for application releases (one immutable unit, regenerated after every change & promoted unchanged from environment to environment) and applied them to the whole stack.

No more reconfiguring each node individually. No more subtle differences between machines or environments.

What are these unikernels based on? OSv, NetBSD rump kernels, or something proprietary?

It is based on the Linux kernel + your application. So an ultra lightweight image indeed. The advantage is that all components are rock solid and standard.

Thats not technically a unikernel, unless you link them into a single executable (which has licensing issues with Linux). Single application OS would be a better term, as it is confusing otherwise.

Linux... Buried in there:

> Congratulations! You now a have a brand new 54 MB secure unikernel image including only our application, Java 8 and the Linux kernel!

If you have a separate runtime & kernel, is it still a unikernel?

Yeah, this appears to be a bit misleading. It sounds as if they're just running the compiled jar as the /sbin/init process. IMO, thats a very lightweight distro but not a unikernel. #NotAnExpert.

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