Introduction
Last updated
Last updated
This website contains documentation for OPS, a compilation and orchestration tool for the Nanos unikernel.
Most Unikernels out there are specialized for a high-level language, but Nanos is capable of executing any valid ELF-binary. We provide pre-tested packages for common linux software, including support for interpreted languages to provide a similar Linux like experience.
OPS has packages for PHP, Node, Ruby, Lua, Perl and much more. Note that you are not required to use a package. OPS is explicitly built to be able to run standalone static binaries such as Go and C.
This is a project that is being actively developed and sponsored by NanoVMs.
Unikernels are specialised single process operating systems.
Unikernels dramatically shrink the attack surface and resource footprint of cloud services while providing a much better isolation model. They are machine images that can be run on a hypervisor such as Xen or KVM. Since hypervisors power all public cloud computing infrastructure such as Amazon EC2 and Google Cloud, this lets your services run cheaper, more securely and with finer control than with a full general purpose operating system such as Linux.
Unlike containers that add layers to the stack unikernels go the other way and remove/compress layers of the stack:
Improved Security
Unikernels reduce the amount of code deployed, which reduces the attack surface, and results in improved security. They also do not allow you to SSH into them and most importantly they embrace the single process model.
Note: This does have implications for some software. See the FAQ for more details.
Small Footprints
Unikernel images are often orders of magnitude smaller than traditional OS deployments. You can create and deploy sub-megabyte unikernels depending on what you want/need.
Highly Optimised
Unikernels can achieve greater performance from their single process nature and greater pairing with the kernel.
Fast Boot
Unikernels can boot extremely quickly, with boot times measured in milliseconds if you are running on servers you control.
Unikernels are typically deployed diretly to the cloud as native disk images. For example on AWS when you do an 'ops image create' we create a new AWS AMI every single time. That AMI when you spin it up with 'ops instnace create' spins up a new ec2 instance. This removes the need for a complex orchestration system that you might be used to using with something like kubernetes.
To get started, go to the Getting Started section.
