cloud-hypervisor/release-notes.md
Rob Bradford e9b2639757 build: Release v40.0
Signed-off-by: Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
2024-06-21 08:40:44 +00:00

3093 lines
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Markdown

- [v40.0](#v400)
- [Support for Restoring File Descriptor Backed Network Devices](#support-for-restoring-file-descriptor-backed-network-devices)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes)
- [Contributors](#contributors)
- [v39.0](#v390)
- [Variable Sizing of PCI Apertures for Segments](#variable-sizing-of-pci-apertures-for-segments)
- [Direct Booting with bzImages](#direct-booting-with-bzimages)
- [Support for NVIDIA GPUDirect P2P Support](#support-for-nvidia-gpudirect-p2p-support)
- [Guest NMI Injection Support](#guest-nmi-injection-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-1)
- [Contributors](#contributors-1)
- [v38.0](#v380)
- [Group Rate Limiter on Block Devices](#group-rate-limiter-on-block-devices)
- [CPU Pinning Support for Block Device Worker Thread](#cpu-pinning-support-for-block-device-worker-thread)
- [Optimized Boot Time with Parallel Memory Prefault](#optimized-boot-time-with-parallel-memory-prefault)
- [New 'debug-console' Device](#new-debug-console-device)
- [Improved VFIO Device Support](#improved-vfio-device-support)
- [Extended CPU Affinity Support](#extended-cpu-affinity-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-2)
- [Contributors](#contributors-2)
- [v37.0](#v370)
- [Long Term Support (LTS) Release](#long-term-support-lts-release)
- [Multiple PCI segments Support for 32-bit VFIO devices](#multiple-pci-segments-support-for-32-bit-vfio-devices)
- [Configurable Named TAP Devices](#configurable-named-tap-devices)
- [TTY Output from Both Serial Device and Virtio Console](#tty-output-from-both-serial-device-and-virtio-console)
- [Faster VM Restoration from Snapshots](#faster-vm-restoration-from-snapshots)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-3)
- [Contributors](#contributors-3)
- [v36.0](#v360)
- [Command Line Changes](#command-line-changes)
- [Enabled Features Reported via API Endpoint and CLI](#enabled-features-reported-via-api-endpoint-and-cli)
- [NUMA Support for PCI segments](#numa-support-for-pci-segments)
- [CPU Topology Support on AMD Platforms](#cpu-topology-support-on-amd-platforms)
- [Unix Socket Backend for Serial Port](#unix-socket-backend-for-serial-port)
- [AIO Backend for Block Devices](#aio-backend-for-block-devices)
- [Documentation Improvements](#documentation-improvements)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-4)
- [Contributors](#contributors-4)
- [v35.0](#v350)
- [`virtio-vsock` Support for Linux Guest Kernel v6.3+](#virtio-vsock-support-for-linux-guest-kernel-v63)
- [User Specified Serial Number for `virtio-block`](#user-specified-serial-number-for-virtio-block)
- [vCPU TSC Frequency Included in Migration State](#vcpu-tsc-frequency-included-in-migration-state)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-5)
- [Contributors](#contributors-5)
- [v34.0](#v340)
- [Paravirtualised Panic Device Support](#paravirtualised-panic-device-support)
- [Improvements to VM Core Dump](#improvements-to-vm-core-dump)
- [QCOW2 Support for Backing Files](#qcow2-support-for-backing-files)
- [Minimum Host Kernel Bump](#minimum-host-kernel-bump)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-6)
- [Contributors](#contributors-6)
- [v33.0](#v330)
- [D-Bus based API](#d-bus-based-api)
- [Expose Host CPU Cache Details for AArch64](#expose-host-cpu-cache-details-for-aarch64)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-7)
- [Contributors](#contributors-7)
- [v32.0](#v320)
- [Increased PCI Segment Limit](#increased-pci-segment-limit)
- [API Changes](#api-changes)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-8)
- [Contributors](#contributors-8)
- [v31.1](#v311)
- [v31.0](#v310)
- [Update to Latest `acpi_tables`](#update-to-latest-acpi_tables)
- [Update Reference Kernel to 6.2](#update-reference-kernel-to-62)
- [Improvements on Console `SIGWINCH` Handler](#improvements-on-console-sigwinch-handler)
- [Remove Directory Support from `MemoryZoneConfig::file`](#remove-directory-support-from-memoryzoneconfigfile)
- [Documentation Improvements](#documentation-improvements-1)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-9)
- [Contributors](#contributors-9)
- [v30.0](#v300)
- [Command Line Changes for Reduced Binary Size](#command-line-changes-for-reduced-binary-size)
- [Basic vfio-user Server Support](#basic-vfio-user-server-support)
- [Heap Profiling Support](#heap-profiling-support)
- [Documentation Improvements](#documentation-improvements-2)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-10)
- [Contributors](#contributors-10)
- [v28.2](#v282)
- [v29.0](#v290)
- [Release Binary Supports Both MSHV and KVM](#release-binary-supports-both-mshv-and-kvm)
- [Snapshot/Restore and Live Migration Improvements](#snapshotrestore-and-live-migration-improvements)
- [Heap Allocation Improvements](#heap-allocation-improvements)
- [`ch-remote` Improvements](#ch-remote-improvements)
- [`AArch64` Documentation Integration](#aarch64-documentation-integration)
- [`virtio-block` Counters Enhancement](#virtio-block-counters-enhancement)
- [TCP Offload Control](#tcp-offload-control)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-11)
- [Removals](#removals)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations)
- [Contributors](#contributors-11)
- [v28.1](#v281)
- [v28.0](#v280)
- [Community Engagement (Reminder)](#community-engagement-reminder)
- [Long Term Support (LTS) Release](#long-term-support-lts-release-1)
- [Virtualised TPM Support](#virtualised-tpm-support)
- [Transparent Huge Page Support](#transparent-huge-page-support)
- [README Quick Start Improved](#readme-quick-start-improved)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-12)
- [Removals](#removals-1)
- [Contributors](#contributors-12)
- [v27.0](#v270)
- [Community Engagement](#community-engagement)
- [Prebuilt Packages](#prebuilt-packages)
- [Network Device MTU Exposed to Guest](#network-device-mtu-exposed-to-guest)
- [Boot Tracing](#boot-tracing)
- [Simplified Build Feature Flags](#simplified-build-feature-flags)
- [Asynchronous Kernel Loading](#asynchronous-kernel-loading)
- [GDB Support for AArch64](#gdb-support-for-aarch64)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-13)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-1)
- [Contributors](#contributors-13)
- [v26.0](#v260)
- [SMBIOS Improvements via `--platform`](#smbios-improvements-via---platform)
- [Unified Binary MSHV and KVM Support](#unified-binary-mshv-and-kvm-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-14)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-2)
- [Removals](#removals-2)
- [Contributors](#contributors-14)
- [v25.0](#v250)
- [`ch-remote` Improvements](#ch-remote-improvements-1)
- [VM "Coredump" Support](#vm-coredump-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-15)
- [Removals](#removals-3)
- [Contributors](#contributors-15)
- [v24.0](#v240)
- [Bypass Mode for `virtio-iommu`](#bypass-mode-for-virtio-iommu)
- [Ensure Identifiers Uniqueness](#ensure-identifiers-uniqueness)
- [Sparse Mmap support](#sparse-mmap-support)
- [Expose Platform Serial Number](#expose-platform-serial-number)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-16)
- [Notable Improvements](#notable-improvements)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-3)
- [New on the Website](#new-on-the-website)
- [Contributors](#contributors-16)
- [v23.1](#v231)
- [v23.0](#v230)
- [vDPA Support](#vdpa-support)
- [Updated OS Support list](#updated-os-support-list)
- [`AArch64` Memory Map Improvements](#aarch64-memory-map-improvements)
- [`AMX` Support](#amx-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-17)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-4)
- [Contributors](#contributors-17)
- [v22.1](#v221)
- [v22.0](#v220)
- [GDB Debug Stub Support](#gdb-debug-stub-support)
- [`virtio-iommu` Backed Segments](#virtio-iommu-backed-segments)
- [Before Boot Configuration Changes](#before-boot-configuration-changes)
- [`virtio-balloon` Free Page Reporting](#virtio-balloon-free-page-reporting)
- [Support for Direct Kernel Booting with TDX](#support-for-direct-kernel-booting-with-tdx)
- [PMU Support for AArch64](#pmu-support-for-aarch64)
- [Documentation Under CC-BY-4.0 License](#documentation-under-cc-by-40-license)
- [Deprecation of "Classic" `virtiofsd`](#deprecation-of-classic-virtiofsd)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-18)
- [Contributors](#contributors-18)
- [v21.0](#v210)
- [Efficient Local Live Migration (for Live Upgrade)](#efficient-local-live-migration-for-live-upgrade)
- [Recommended Kernel is Now 5.15](#recommended-kernel-is-now-515)
- [Notable Bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-19)
- [Contributors](#contributors-19)
- [v20.2](#v202)
- [v20.1](#v201)
- [v20.0](#v200)
- [Multiple PCI segments support](#multiple-pci-segments-support)
- [CPU pinning](#cpu-pinning)
- [Improved VFIO support](#improved-vfio-support)
- [Safer code](#safer-code)
- [Extended documentation](#extended-documentation)
- [Notable bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-20)
- [Contributors](#contributors-20)
- [v19.0](#v190)
- [Improved PTY handling for serial and `virtio-console`](#improved-pty-handling-for-serial-and-virtio-console)
- [PCI boot time optimisations](#pci-boot-time-optimisations)
- [Improved TDX support](#improved-tdx-support)
- [Live migration enhancements](#live-migration-enhancements)
- [`virtio-mem` support with `vfio-user`](#virtio-mem-support-with-vfio-user)
- [AArch64 for `virtio-iommu`](#aarch64-for-virtio-iommu)
- [Notable bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-21)
- [Contributors](#contributors-21)
- [v18.0](#v180)
- [Experimental User Device (`vfio-user`) support](#experimental-user-device-vfio-user-support)
- [Migration support for `vhost-user` devices](#migration-support-for-vhost-user-devices)
- [VHDX disk image support](#vhdx-disk-image-support)
- [Device pass through on MSHV hypervisor](#device-pass-through-on-mshv-hypervisor)
- [AArch64 for support `virtio-mem`](#aarch64-for-support-virtio-mem)
- [Live migration on MSHV hypervisor](#live-migration-on-mshv-hypervisor)
- [AArch64 CPU topology support](#aarch64-cpu-topology-support)
- [Power button support on AArch64](#power-button-support-on-aarch64)
- [Notable bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-22)
- [Contributors](#contributors-22)
- [v17.0](#v170)
- [ARM64 NUMA support using ACPI](#arm64-numa-support-using-acpi)
- [`Seccomp` support for MSHV backend](#seccomp-support-for-mshv-backend)
- [Hotplug of `macvtap` devices](#hotplug-of-macvtap-devices)
- [Improved SGX support](#improved-sgx-support)
- [Inflight tracking for `vhost-user` devices](#inflight-tracking-for-vhost-user-devices)
- [Notable bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-23)
- [Contributors](#contributors-23)
- [v16.0](#v160)
- [Improved live migration support](#improved-live-migration-support)
- [Improved `vhost-user` support](#improved-vhost-user-support)
- [ARM64 ACPI and UEFI support](#arm64-acpi-and-uefi-support)
- [Notable bug fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-24)
- [Removed functionality](#removed-functionality)
- [Contributors](#contributors-24)
- [v15.0](#v150)
- [Version numbering and stability guarantees](#version-numbering-and-stability-guarantees)
- [Network device rate limiting](#network-device-rate-limiting)
- [Support for runtime control of `virtio-net` guest offload](#support-for-runtime-control-of-virtio-net-guest-offload)
- [`--api-socket` supports file descriptor parameter](#--api-socket-supports-file-descriptor-parameter)
- [Bug fixes](#bug-fixes)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-5)
- [Contributors](#contributors-25)
- [v0.14.1](#v0141)
- [v0.14.0](#v0140)
- [Structured event monitoring](#structured-event-monitoring)
- [MSHV improvements](#mshv-improvements)
- [Improved aarch64 platform](#improved-aarch64-platform)
- [Updated hotplug documentation](#updated-hotplug-documentation)
- [PTY control for serial and `virtio-console`](#pty-control-for-serial-and-virtio-console)
- [Block device rate limiting](#block-device-rate-limiting)
- [Deprecations](#deprecations-6)
- [Contributors](#contributors-26)
- [v0.13.0](#v0130)
- [Wider VFIO device support](#wider-vfio-device-support)
- [Improved huge page support](#improved-huge-page-support)
- [MACvTAP support](#macvtap-support)
- [VHD disk image support](#vhd-disk-image-support)
- [Improved Virtio device threading](#improved-virtio-device-threading)
- [Clean shutdown support via synthetic power button](#clean-shutdown-support-via-synthetic-power-button)
- [Contributors](#contributors-27)
- [v0.12.0](#v0120)
- [ARM64 enhancements](#arm64-enhancements)
- [Removal of `vhost-user-net` and `vhost-user-block` self spawning](#removal-of-vhost-user-net-and-vhost-user-block-self-spawning)
- [Migration of `vhost-user-fs` backend](#migration-of-vhost-user-fs-backend)
- [Enhanced "info" API](#enhanced-info-api)
- [Contributors](#contributors-28)
- [v0.11.0](#v0110)
- [`io_uring` support by default for `virtio-block`](#io_uring-support-by-default-for-virtio-block)
- [Windows Guest Support](#windows-guest-support)
- [`vhost-user` "Self Spawning" Deprecation](#vhost-user-self-spawning-deprecation)
- [`virtio-mmio` Removal](#virtio-mmio-removal)
- [Snapshot/Restore support for ARM64](#snapshotrestore-support-for-arm64)
- [Improved Linux Boot Time](#improved-linux-boot-time)
- [`SIGTERM/SIGINT` Interrupt Signal Handling](#sigtermsigint-interrupt-signal-handling)
- [Default Log Level Changed](#default-log-level-changed)
- [New `--balloon` Parameter Added](#new---balloon-parameter-added)
- [Experimental `virtio-watchdog` Support](#experimental-virtio-watchdog-support)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-25)
- [Contributors](#contributors-29)
- [v0.10.0](#v0100)
- [`virtio-block` Support for Multiple Descriptors](#virtio-block-support-for-multiple-descriptors)
- [Memory Zones](#memory-zones)
- [`Seccomp` Sandbox Improvements](#seccomp-sandbox-improvements)
- [Preliminary KVM HyperV Emulation Control](#preliminary-kvm-hyperv-emulation-control)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-26)
- [Contributors](#contributors-30)
- [v0.9.0](#v090)
- [`io_uring` Based Block Device Support](#io_uring-based-block-device-support)
- [Block and Network Device Statistics](#block-and-network-device-statistics)
- [HTTP API Responses](#http-api-responses)
- [CPU Topology](#cpu-topology)
- [Release Build Optimization](#release-build-optimization)
- [Hypervisor Abstraction](#hypervisor-abstraction)
- [Snapshot/Restore Improvements](#snapshotrestore-improvements)
- [Virtio Memory Ballooning Support](#virtio-memory-ballooning-support)
- [Enhancements to ARM64 Support](#enhancements-to-arm64-support)
- [Intel SGX Support](#intel-sgx-support)
- [`Seccomp` Sandbox Improvements](#seccomp-sandbox-improvements-1)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-27)
- [Contributors](#contributors-31)
- [v0.8.0](#v080)
- [Experimental Snapshot and Restore Support](#experimental-snapshot-and-restore-support)
- [Experimental ARM64 Support](#experimental-arm64-support)
- [Support for Using 5-level Paging in Guests](#support-for-using-5-level-paging-in-guests)
- [Virtio Device Interrupt Suppression for Network Devices](#virtio-device-interrupt-suppression-for-network-devices)
- [`vhost_user_fs` Improvements](#vhost_user_fs-improvements)
- [Notable Bug Fixes](#notable-bug-fixes-28)
- [Command Line and API Changes](#command-line-and-api-changes)
- [Contributors](#contributors-32)
- [v0.7.0](#v070)
- [Block, Network, Persistent Memory (PMEM), VirtioFS and Vsock hotplug](#block-network-persistent-memory-pmem-virtiofs-and-vsock-hotplug)
- [Alternative `libc` Support](#alternative-libc-support)
- [Multithreaded Multi Queued `vhost-user` Backends](#multithreaded-multi-queued-vhost-user-backends)
- [Initial RamFS Support](#initial-ramfs-support)
- [Alternative Memory Hotplug: `virtio-mem`](#alternative-memory-hotplug-virtio-mem)
- [`Seccomp` Sandboxing](#seccomp-sandboxing)
- [Updated Distribution Support](#updated-distribution-support)
- [Command Line and API Changes](#command-line-and-api-changes-1)
- [Contributors](#contributors-33)
- [v0.6.0](#v060)
- [Directly Assigned Devices Hotplug](#directly-assigned-devices-hotplug)
- [Shared Filesystem Improvements](#shared-filesystem-improvements)
- [Block and Networking IO Self Offloading](#block-and-networking-io-self-offloading)
- [Command Line Interface](#command-line-interface)
- [PVH Boot](#pvh-boot)
- [Contributors](#contributors-34)
- [v0.5.1](#v051)
- [v0.5.0](#v050)
- [Virtual Machine Dynamic Resizing](#virtual-machine-dynamic-resizing)
- [Multi-Queue, Multi-Threaded Paravirtualization](#multi-queue-multi-threaded-paravirtualization)
- [New Interrupt Management Framework](#new-interrupt-management-framework)
- [Development Tools](#development-tools)
- [Kata Containers Integration](#kata-containers-integration)
- [Contributors](#contributors-35)
- [v0.4.0](#v040)
- [Dynamic virtual CPUs addition](#dynamic-virtual-cpus-addition)
- [Programmatic firmware tables generation](#programmatic-firmware-tables-generation)
- [Filesystem and block devices vhost-user backends](#filesystem-and-block-devices-vhost-user-backends)
- [Guest pause and resume](#guest-pause-and-resume)
- [Userspace IOAPIC by default](#userspace-ioapic-by-default)
- [PCI BAR reprogramming](#pci-bar-reprogramming)
- [New `cloud-hypervisor` organization](#new-cloud-hypervisor-organization)
- [Contributors](#contributors-36)
- [v0.3.0](#v030)
- [Block device offloading](#block-device-offloading)
- [Network device backend](#network-device-backend)
- [Virtual sockets](#virtual-sockets)
- [HTTP based API](#http-based-api)
- [Memory mapped virtio transport](#memory-mapped-virtio-transport)
- [Paravirtualized IOMMU](#paravirtualized-iommu)
- [Ubuntu 19.10](#ubuntu-1910)
- [Large memory guests](#large-memory-guests)
- [v0.2.0](#v020)
- [Network device offloading](#network-device-offloading)
- [Minimal hardware-reduced ACPI](#minimal-hardware-reduced-acpi)
- [Debug I/O port](#debug-io-port)
- [Improved direct device assignment](#improved-direct-device-assignment)
- [Improved shared filesystem](#improved-shared-filesystem)
- [Ubuntu bionic based CI](#ubuntu-bionic-based-ci)
- [v0.1.0](#v010)
- [Shared filesystem](#shared-filesystem)
- [Initial direct device assignment support](#initial-direct-device-assignment-support)
- [Userspace IOAPIC](#userspace-ioapic)
- [Virtual persistent memory](#virtual-persistent-memory)
- [Linux kernel bzImage](#linux-kernel-bzimage)
- [Console over virtio](#console-over-virtio)
- [Unit testing](#unit-testing)
- [Integration tests parallelization](#integration-tests-parallelization)
# v40.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v40.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Support for Restoring File Descriptor Backed Network Devices
It is now possible to pass file descriptors over the HTTP API (and using
`ch-remote`) when restoring to update the file descriptors for network devices.
This enables snapshot & restore functionality for guests using `macvtap` or
other file descriptor backed network devices. (#6286)
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Default values have been removed from required fields in the OpenAPI metadata
(#6495)
* The help syntax of `ch-remote remove-device` has been improved (#6456)
* A double close of file descriptors has been fixed when using `--serial`
(#6486)
* To prevent loops a limit on the nesting level for QCOW2 backing files has
been introduced (#6482)
* Boot time performance has been improved with multiple cores by avoiding
`cpuid` instructions and by seeding the in kernel file descriptor table
(#6498, #6478)
* L1 cache details are more likely to be propagated into the guest (#6523)
* The default topology for guests now uses multiple cores rather than sockets
(#6504)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alexandru Matei <alexandru.matei@uipath.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Josh Soref <2119212+jsoref@users.noreply.github.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Nuno Das Neves <nudasnev@microsoft.com>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Praveen K Paladugu <prapal@linux.microsoft.com>
* Purna Pavan Chandra <paekkaladevi@linux.microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* SamrutGadde <samrut.gadde@gmail.com>
* Sean Banko <sbanko@crusoe.ai>
* Songqian Li <sionli@tencent.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
*
# v39.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v39.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Variable Sizing of PCI Apertures for Segments
It is now possible to use `--pci-segment` to adjust the aperture size that
devices 32-bit and 64-bit PCI device BARs will be allocated from. Previously
the address space was equally distributed across all the segments which may
leave insufficient space for devices that require a large 32-bit space. With
this change the weighting per segment can be adjusted. (#6387)
### Direct Booting with bzImages
Support for directly booting Linux from bzImages has been added.(#6200)
### Support for NVIDIA GPUDirect P2P Support
The `x_nv_gpudirect_clique` option was added to `--device` to allow the
configuration of device P2P support with NVIDIA GPUs. (#6235)
### Guest NMI Injection Support
A new API endpoint and `ch-remote` option added for injecting an NMI into the
guest. (#6047)
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Workaround for kernel bug affecting guest IRQ masking on AMD (#6353)
* Correctly cleanup `sigwinch_listener` process (#6208)
* Graceful shutdown of HTTP API thread (#6248, #6247)
* Fix `queue_affinity` option in OpenAPI metadata (#6268)
* Fix documentation to indicate only stream mode is supported by `virtio-vsock`
(#6306)
* Fix `virtio-fs` tag validation (#6358, #6359)
* Add missing `pvpanic` device to OpenAPI metadata (#6372)
* Fixes for nested virtualization with VFIO devices (#6110, #6298, #6297,
#6319)
* Fix for backing file for `virtio-mem` regions with snapshot/restore (#6337,
#6338)
* Explicitly mark FDs used for network devices as invalid across
snapshot/restore (#6332, #6286)
* Improve `event-monitor` events around reboot (#6277, #6274)
* Fix potential deadlock around paused devices during live migration (#6293)
* Fix panic when running `ch-remote` with no subcommand (#6230)
* Fix hotplug of `virtio` devices after snapshot/restore and live migration
(#6326, #6265)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alexandru Matei <alexandru.matei@uipath.com>
* Andrew Carp <acarp@crusoeenergy.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Bouke van der Bijl <i@bou.ke>
* Chris Webb <chris@arachsys.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Lucas Jacques <contact@lucasjacques.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Nuno Das Neves <nudasnev@microsoft.com>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Stefan Nuernberger <stefan.nuernberger@cyberus-technology.de>
* Thomas Barrett <tbarrett@crusoeenergy.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
# v38.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v38.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Group Rate Limiter on Block Devices
Users now can throttle a group of block devices with the new
`--rate-limiter-group` option. Details can be found from the [I/O
Throttling documentation](docs/io_throttling.md)
### CPU Pinning Support for Block Device Worker Thread
Users now have the option to pin virt-queue threads for block devices
to specific host cpus.
### Optimized Boot Time with Parallel Memory Prefault
The boot time with `prefault` option enabled is optimized via parallel
memory prefault.
### New 'debug-console' Device
A 'debug-console' device is added to provide a user-configurable debug
port for logging guest information. Details can be found from the [Debug
IO Ports documentation](docs/debug-port.md).
### Improved VFIO Device Support
All non-emulated MMIO regions of VFIO devices are now mapped to the VFIO
container, allowing PCIe P2P between all VFIO devices on the same
VM. This is required for a wide variety of multi-GPU workloads involving
GPUDirect P2P (DMA between two GPUs), GPUDirect RDMA (DMA between a GPU
and an IB device).
### Extended CPU Affinity Support
Users now can set the vcpu affinity to a host CPU with index larger
than 255.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Enable HTT flag to avoid crashing cpu topology enumeration software
such as hwloc in the guest (#6146)
* Fix several security advisories from dependencies (#6134, #6141)
* Handle non-power-of-two CPU topology properly (#6062)
* Various bug fixes around `virtio-vsock`(#6080, #6091, #6095)
* Enable nested virtualization on AMD if supported (#6106)
* Align VFIO devices PCI BARs naturally (#6196)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Daniel Farina <daniel@ubicloud.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Peteris Rudzusiks <rye@stripe.com>
* Philipp Schuster <philipp.schuster@cyberus-technology.de>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Sean Banko <sbanko@crusoeenergy.com>
* Thomas Barrett <tbarrett@crusoeenergy.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* acarp <acarp@crusoeenergy.com>
# v37.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v37.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Long Term Support (LTS) Release
This release is a LTS release. Point releases for bug fixes will be made
for the next 18 months; live migration and live upgrade will be
supported between the point releases of the LTS.
### Multiple PCI segments Support for 32-bit VFIO devices
Now VFIO devices with 32-bit memory BARs can be attached to non-zero PCI
segments on the guest, allowing users to have more 32-bit devices and
assign such devices to appropriate NUMA nodes for better performance.
### Configurable Named TAP Devices
Named TAP devices now accepts IP configuration from users, such as IP
and MAC address, as long as the named TAP device is created by Cloud
Hypervisor (e.g. not existing TAP devices).
### TTY Output from Both Serial Device and Virtio Console
Now legacy serial device and virtio console can be set as TTY mode as
the same time. This allows users to capture early boot logs with the
legacy serial device without losing performance benefits of using
virtio-console, when appropriate kernel configuration is used (such as
using kernel command-line `console=hvc0 earlyprintk=ttyS0` on x86).
### Faster VM Restoration from Snapshots
The speed of VM restoration from snapshots is improved with a better
implementation of deserializing JSON files.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Fix aio backend behavior for block devices when writeback cache
disabled (#5930)
* Fix PvPanic device PCI BAR alignment (#5956)
* Bug fix to OpenAPI specification file (#5967)
* Error out early for live migration when TDX is enabled (#6025)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Markus Sütter <markus.suetter@secunet.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Rui Chang <rui.chang@arm.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Thomas Barrett <tbarrett@crusoeenergy.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* Yong He <alexyonghe@tencent.com>
# v36.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v36.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Command Line Changes
We switched back to use the `clap` crate to create our command line,
since the `argh` crate is barely maintained. There were several syntax
changes:
* All `--option value` commands now are `--option=value`.
* The `--disk DISK1 --disk DISK2` command now is `--disk DISK1 DISK2`.
* The `-v -v -v`command now is `-vvv`.
Note: the released binary size increased around 0.3M due to this change.
### Enabled Features Reported via API Endpoint and CLI
Now the enabled (Cargo) features of the running Cloud Hypervisor
instance can be queried via API endpoint (`/vmm.ping`) and CLI
(`--version -v`).
### NUMA Support for PCI segments
The `--numa` command is augmented with a new option `pci_segment=`, so
that users can define the relationship between PCI segments and NUMA
nodes. Examples can be found from the [memory documentation](docs/memory.md)
### CPU Topology Support on AMD Platforms
Now the CPU topology on x86_64 platforms supports multiple vendors.
### Unix Socket Backend for Serial Port
The `--serial` command is augmented with a new option `socket=`, allowing
users to access the serial port using a Unix socket.
### AIO Backend for Block Devices
An AIO backend is added for `virtio-block` devices to improve block
device performance when the `io_uring` feature is not supported by the
host Operating System.
### Documentation Improvements
* New [documentation](docs/coverage.md) for collecting coverage data
* Various typo fixes
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Fix a deadlock when TDX is enabled (#5845)
* Only advertise AMX feature bits to guest when the AMX cpu feature is
enabled (#5834)
* Correct default value for vCPU topology on AArch64 (#5893)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Dario Nieuwenhuis <dirbaio@dirbaio.net>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Praveen K Paladugu <prapal@linux.microsoft.com>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Thomas Barrett <tbarrett@crusoeenergy.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* dom.song <dom.song@amperecomputing.com>
# v35.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v35.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### `virtio-vsock` Support for Linux Guest Kernel v6.3+
Since kernel v6.3, a vsock packet can be included in a single descriptor,
instead of being split over two descriptors. Our `virtio-vsock` implementation
now support both situations.
### User Specified Serial Number for `virtio-block`
A new option `serial` is added to the `--block` command that allows users to
specify a serial number for block devices which will be guest visible.
### vCPU TSC Frequency Included in Migration State
This ensures migration works correctly between hosts that have different TSC
frequencies if the guest is running with TSC as the source of timekeeping.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Disallow concurrent CPU resizing (#5668)
* Handle APIC EOI message for MSHV (#5681)
* Use wrapping add for memory offset from instruction emulator (#5719)
* Add global spell check via the 'typos' GitHub action (#5720)
* Ensure probing reads are block size aligned (#5727)
* Multiple bug fixes around the latency counter for block devices
(#5712, #5750, #5762, #5763)
* Replace unsound `static mut` with `once_cell` (#5772)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Christian Blichmann <cblichmann@google.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Julian Stecklina <julian.stecklina@cyberus-technology.de>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Philipp Schuster <philipp.schuster@cyberus-technology.de>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Thomas Barrett <tbarrett@crusoeenergy.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* zhongbingnan <zhongbingnan@bytedance.com>
# v34.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v34.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Paravirtualised Panic Device Support
A new device has been added that can communicate when the guest kernel has
panicked and share those details with the VMM. This is controlled with a new
`--pvpanic` command line option and JSON API change equivalent. (#5526)
### Improvements to VM Core Dump
Requesting to dump the guest memory as core dump will now transparently pause
the VM if required; returning to the original state after. (#5604)
### QCOW2 Support for Backing Files
The support for QCOW2 files has been enhanced to include support for using
backing files. (#5573)
### Minimum Host Kernel Bump
The minimum supported host kernel is now 5.13 in order to incorporate a bug fix
for `KVM_FEATURE_ASYNC_PF_INT` functionality. (#5626)
### Notable Bug Fixes
* The x86 emulator is only compiled in if MSHV is compiled in (the kernel
carries out this job with KVM) (#5561).
* A regression has been fixed in VFIO support for devices that use MSI rather
than MSI-X (#5658).
* When triggering a VM shutdown or reset via I/O the vCPU thread will be
blocked until that asynchronous event has been received (#5645).
* Pausing a VM is now a synchronous action with the request only completing
when all vCPUs are paused (#5611).
* Event monitor support now correctly supports concurrent access (#5633).
* Bug fixes for the QCOW2 file support (#5573).
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Changyuan Lyu <changyuanl@google.com>
* Christian Blichmann <cblichmann@google.com>
* Manish Goregaokar <manishsmail@gmail.com>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Philipp Schuster <philipp.schuster@cyberus-technology.de>
* Praveen K Paladugu <prapal@linux.microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Yi Wang <foxywang@tencent.com>
* Yong He <alexyonghe@tencent.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
* dom.song <dom.song@amperecomputing.com>
# v33.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v33.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### D-Bus based API
A D-Bus based API has been added as an alternative to the existing REST
API. This feature is gated by the `dbus_api` feature. Details can be
found in the [API documentation](docs/api.md).
### Expose Host CPU Cache Details for AArch64
Now the CPU cache information on the host is properly exposed to the
guest on AArch64.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Report errors explicitly to users when VM failed to boot (#5453)
* Fix VFIO on platforms with non-4k page size (#5450, #5469)
* Fix TDX initialization (#5454)
* Ensure all guest memory regions are page-size aligned (#5496)
* Fix seccomp filter lists related to virtio-console, serial and pty
(#5506, #5524)
* Populate APIC ID properly (#5512)
* Ignore and warn TAP FDs in more situations (#5522)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Rafael Mendonca <rafaelmendsr@gmail.com>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
* zhongbingnan <zhongbingnan@bytedance.com>
# v32.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v32.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Increased PCI Segment Limit
The maximum number of PCI segments that can be used is now 96 (up from 16).
### API Changes
* The VmmPingResponse now includes the PID as well as the build details.
(#5348)
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Ignore and warn TAP FDs sent via the HTTP request body (#5350)
* Properly preserve and close valid FDs for TAP devices (#5373)
* Only use `KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3` if available (#5360)
* Only touch the tty flags if it's being used (#5343)
* Fix seccomp filter lists for vhost-user devices (#5361)
* The number of vCPUs is capped at the hypervisor maximum (#5357)
* Fixes for TTY reset (#5414)
* CPU topology fixes on MSHV (#5325)
* Seccomp fixes for older distributions (#5397)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Hao Xu <howeyxu@tencent.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Rafael Mendonca <rafaelmendsr@gmail.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Smit Gardhariya <gardhariya.smit@gmail.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v31.1
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Ignore and warn TAP FDs sent via the HTTP request body (#5350)
* Properly preserve and close valid FDs for TAP devices (#5373)
* Only use `KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3` if available (#5360)
* Only touch the tty flags if it's being used (#5343)
* Fix seccomp filter lists for vhost-user devices (#5361)
# v31.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v31.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Update to Latest `acpi_tables`
Adapted to the latest [acpi_tables](https://github.com/rust-vmm/acpi_tables).
There has been significant API changes in the crate.
### Update Reference Kernel to 6.2
Updated the recommended guest kernel version from 6.1.6 to 6.2.
### Improvements on Console `SIGWINCH` Handler
A separate thread had been created to capture the `SIGWINCH` signal and resize
the guest console. Now the thread is skipped if the console is not resizable.
Two completely different code paths existed for handling console resizing, one
for `tty` and the other for `pty`. That makes the understanding of the console
handling code unnecessarily complicated. Now the code paths are unified. Both
`tty` and `pty` are supported in single `SIGWINCH` handler. And the new handler
can works with kernel versions earlier than v5.5.
### Remove Directory Support from `MemoryZoneConfig::file`
Setting a directory to `MemoryZoneConfig::file` is no longer supported.
Before this change, user can set a directory to `file` of the `--memory-zone`
option. In that case, a temporary file will be created as the backing file for
the `mmap(2)` operation. This functionality has been unnecessary since we had
the native support for hugepages and allocating anonymous shared memory.
### Documentation Improvements
* Various improvements in API document
* Improvements in Doc comments
* Updated Slack channel information in README
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Fixed the offset setting while removing the entire mapping of `vhost-user` FS
client.
* Fixed the `ShutdownVmm` and `Shutdown` commands to call the correct API
endpoint.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Daniel Farina <daniel@fdr.io>
* Dom <peng6662001@163.com>
* Hao Xu <howeyxu@tencent.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Omer Faruk Bayram <omer.faruk@sartura.hr>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <rbradford@rivosinc.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Smit Gardhariya <gardhariya.smit@gmail.com>
* Yang <ailin.yang@intel.com>
* Yong He <alexyonghe@tencent.com>
# v30.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v30.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Command Line Changes for Reduced Binary Size
The `clap` crate was replaced by the `argh` crate to create our command
line, which reduced our release binary size from 3.6MB to 3.3MB. There
were several syntax changes:
* All `--option=value` commands now are `--option value`.
* The `--disk DISK1 DISK2` command now is `--disk DISK1 --disk DISK2`.
* The `-vvv` command now is `-v -v -v`
### Basic vfio-user Server Support
Our `vfio-user` crate is extended to provide basic server side support
with an example of gpio vfio-user device. This crate now is moved to [its
own repository](https://github.com/rust-vmm/vfio-user) under the
`rust-vmm` organization.
### Heap Profiling Support
A new building target is added for profiling purposes with examples of
heap profiling using `dhat` gated by the `dhat-heap` feature.
### Documentation Improvements
The documentation on Intel TDX is expanded with details of the building
and using [TD-Shim](https://github.com/confidential-containers/td-shim),
references to [TDX Tools](https://github.com/intel/tdx-tools), and
version information of guest/host kernel/TDVF/TDShim being tested. Also,
a new 'heap profiling' documentation is added with improvements on the
existing 'profiling' documentation.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Close FDs for TAP devices that are provided to VM (#5199, #5206)
* Set vcpu thread status properly and signal `exit_evt` upon thread exit (#5211)
* Populate CPUID leaf 0x4000_0010 (TSC frequency) (#5178, #5179)
* Inform the TPM guest driver upon failed TPM requests on the host (#5151)
* Bug fix to OpenAPI specification file (#5186)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Anirudh Rayabharam <anrayabh@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Kaihang Zhang <kaihang.zhang@smartx.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Philipp Schuster <philipp.schuster@cyberus-technology.de>
* Praveen K Paladugu <prapal@linux.microsoft.com>
* Ravi kumar Veeramally <ravikumar.veeramally@intel.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Ruslan Mstoi <ruslan.mstoi@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yong He <alexyonghe@tencent.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
# v28.2
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Fix QCOW2 refcount table size (#5034)
* Fix unpause support on MSHV in dual binary (#5037)
* Threads inside `virtio` devices are now shutdown on reboot (#5095)
# v29.0
This release has been tracked in our [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v29.0. The following user visible changes have been made:
### Release Binary Supports Both MSHV and KVM
On `x86-64` the binary included in releases supports both the KVM and MSHV
hypervisor with runtime detection to identify the correct hypervisor to use.
### Snapshot/Restore and Live Migration Improvements
Improvements have been made to the data structures used for both live migration
and snapshot/restore. Unfortunately this has broken compatibility with older
versions (support for migrating between major versions is not yet officially
supported but has worked for some versions.)
### Heap Allocation Improvements
Improvements have been made to the volume of heap allocations when running with
`virtio-block` devices along with a reduction in the peak heap size.
### `ch-remote` Improvements
Support for "pinging" the VMM and shutting the VMM down have been added to
`ch-remote`.
### `AArch64` Documentation Integration
The documentation for `AArch64` support has been integrated into the main
README.
### `virtio-block` Counters Enhancement
The counters for the `virtio-block` device has extended to include min/mean/max
latency counters.
### TCP Offload Control
The `virtio-net` device has gained support for controlling the enabling of
checksum and offloading. This allows the device to be used in environments
where the hardware lacks support for the offloading.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Update dependencies including a version of `linux-loader` that addresses an
infinite loop issue ([details](https://github.com/rust-vmm/linux-loader/security/advisories/GHSA-52h2-m2cf-9jh6))
* Fix bugs related to `virtio-net` including an integer overflow issue
(#4924, #4949)
* Use host `cpuid` information for L2 cache for older KVM on x86 (#4920)
* Memory mapped into the guest is now marked as non-dumpable which prevents large core files (#5016)
* Fix QCOW2 refcount table size (#5034)
* Fix unpause support on MSHV in dual binary (#5037)
* Threads inside `virtio` devices are now shutdown on reboot (#5095)
### Removals
No functionality has been removed in this release.
### Deprecations
* Support for specifying a directory with `MemoryZoneConfig::file` or
`MemoryConfig::file` has been deprecated. This was originally used for
supporting huge pages or shared memory backing which is now natively supported
(#5085)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Claudio Fontana <claudio.fontana@gmail.com>
* Hao Xu <howeyxu@tencent.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Philipp Schuster <philipp.schuster@cyberus-technology.de>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Shuaiyi Zhang <zhangsy28@lenovo.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yong He <alexyonghe@tencent.com>
* Yuji Hagiwara <yuuzi41@gmail.com>
# v28.1
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Update dependencies including a version of `linux-loader` that
addresses an infinite loop issue ([details](https://github.com/rust-vmm/linux-loader/security/advisories/GHSA-52h2-m2cf-9jh6))
* Fix bugs related to `virtio-net` including an integer overflow issue
(#4924, #4949)
* Use host `cpuid` information for L2 cache for older KVM on x86 (#4920)
* Improve README and documentation
# v28.0
This release has been tracked in our new [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v28.0.
### Community Engagement (Reminder)
Just a reminder that we have a new mailing list to support broader community
discussions. Please consider
[subscribing](https://lists.cloudhypervisor.org/g/dev/). We plan to use
this to announce a regular meeting for those interested in talking about Cloud
Hypervisor development.
### Long Term Support (LTS) Release
This is the first version of Cloud Hypervisor to be released under the LTS
release process. Point releases for bug fixes will be made for the next 18
months; live migration and live upgrade will be supported between the point
releases of the LTS.
### Virtualised TPM Support
Support for adding an emulated CRB TPM has been added. This has its own [TPM
documentation](docs/tpm.md).
### Transparent Huge Page Support
By default, but controllable through `--memory thp=off` if it possible to back
the guest memory with Transparent Huge Pages (no file backing/`shared=off`)
then this will be used resulting in improved boot performance.
### README Quick Start Improved
The README has been refreshed with the quick start guide updated to reflect the
different firmware options and to recommend the use of pre-built binaries.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Inappropriate Copy-on-Write of pinned pages (e.g. VFIO) leading to higher
memory consumption (#4835)
* Multiple `virtio` device bug fixes found through fuzzing (#4859, #4799)
* Large QCOW files (> 4TiB) are now supported (#4767)
* Support for > 31 vCPUS on aarch64 (#4863)
* Multiple fixes to OpenAPI specification file (#4720, #4811)
* Programming of the MSI-X table has been optimised leading to faster boot on
newer Linux kernels (#4744)
* Error on reboot from race to close TAP devices (#4871)
* Non-spec compliant virtio-block read-only support (#4888)
### Removals
The following functionality has been removed:
* Support for non-PVH firmware booting has been removed (#4511)
* I/O ports used for older versions of firmware have been removed (#3926)
* Deprecated API options for kernel/cmdline/initramfs have been removed (#4737)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Jinrong Liang <cloudliang@tencent.com>
* lv.mengzhao <lv.mengzhao@zte.com.cn>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Praveen K Paladugu <prapal@linux.microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v27.0
This release has been tracked in our new [roadmap
project](https://github.com/orgs/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6) as iteration
v27.0.
### Community Engagement
A new mailing list has been created to support broader community discussions.
Please consider [subscribing](https://lists.cloudhypervisor.org/g/dev/); an
announcement of a regular meeting will be announced via this list shortly.
### Prebuilt Packages
Prebuilt packages are now available. Please see [this
document](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/obs-packaging/blob/main/README.md)
on how to install. These packages also include packages for the different
firmware options available.
### Network Device MTU Exposed to Guest
The MTU for the TAP device associated with a `virtio-net` device is now exposed
to the guest. If the user provides a MTU with `--net mtu=..` then that MTU is
applied to created TAP interfaces. This functionality is also exposed for
`vhost-user-net` devices including those created with the reference backend
(#4658, #4676.)
### Boot Tracing
Support for generating a trace report for the boot time has been added
including a script for generating an SVG from that trace (#4659.)
### Simplified Build Feature Flags
The set of feature flags, for e.g. experimental features, have been simplified:
* `msvh` and `kvm` features provide support for those specific hypervisors
(with `kvm` enabled by default),
* `tdx` provides support for Intel TDX; and although there is no MSHV support
now it is now possible to compile with the `mshv` feature (#4696,)
* `tracing` adds support for boot tracing,
* `guest_debug` now covers both support for gdbing a guest (formerly `gdb`
feature) and dumping guest memory.
The following feature flags were removed as the functionality was enabled by
default: `amx`, `fwdebug`, `cmos` and `common` (#4679, #4632.)
### Asynchronous Kernel Loading
AArch64 has gained support for loading the guest kernel asynchronously like
x86-64. (#4538)
### GDB Support for AArch64
GDB stub support (accessed through `--gdb` under `guest_debug` feature) is now
available on AArch64 as well as as x86-64.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* This version incorporates a version of `virtio-queue` that addresses an issue
where a rogue guest can potentially DoS the VMM (rust-vmm/vm-virtio#196.)
* Improvements around PTY handling for `virtio-console` and serial devices
(#4520, #4533, #4535.)
* Improved error handling in virtio devices (#4626, #4605, #4509, #4631, #4697)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should
plan to use alternatives.
* Booting legacy firmware (compiled without a PVH header) has been deprecated.
All the firmware options (Cloud Hypervisor OVMF and Rust Hypervisor Firmware)
support booting with PVH so support for loading firmware in a legacy mode is no
longer needed. This functionality will be removed in the next release.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* James O. D. Hunt <james.o.hunt@intel.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Markus Napierkowski <markus.napierkowski@cyberus-technology.de>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Nuno Das Neves <nudasnev@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Smit Gardhariya <sgardhariya@microsoft.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v26.0
This release has been tracked through the [v26.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/30).
### SMBIOS Improvements via `--platform`
`--platform` and the appropriate API structure has gained support for supplying
OEM strings (primarily used to communicate metadata to systemd in the guest)
(#4319, #4446) and support for specifying the UUID (#4389.)
### Unified Binary MSHV and KVM Support
Support for both the MSHV and KVM hypervisors can be compiled into the same
binary with the detection of the hypervisor to use made at runtime.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* The prefetchable flag is preserved on BARs for VFIO devices (#4353, #4454)
* PCI Express capabilities for functionality we do not support are now filtered
out (#4456)
* GDB breakpoint support is more reliable (#4354, #4363)
* `SIGINT` and `SIGTERM` signals are now handled before the VM has booted
(#4269, #4293)
* Multiple API event loop handling bug fixes (#4309, #4362)
* Incorrect assumptions in virtio queue numbering were addressed, allowing
the`virtio-fs` driver in OVMF to be used (#4341, #4314)
* VHDX file format header fix (#4291)
* The same VFIO device cannot be added twice (#4453, #4463)
* SMBIOS tables were being incorrectly generated (#4442)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should
plan to use alternatives.
* The top-level `kernel` and `initramfs` members on the `VmConfig` have been
moved inside a `PayloadConfig` as the `payload` member. The OpenAPI document
has been updated to reflect the change and the old API members continue to
function and are mapped to the new version. The expectation is that these old
versions will be removed in the v28.0 release.
### Removals
The following functionality has been removed:
* The unused `poll_queue` parameter has been removed from `--disk` and
equivalent. This was residual from the removal of the `vhost-user-block`
spawning feature (#4402.)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <ab@php.net>
* Archana Shinde <archana.m.shinde@intel.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* lizhaoxin1 <Lxiaoyouling@163.com>
* Maximilian Nitsch <maximilian.nitsch@d3tn.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Steven Dake <sdake@lambdal.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v25.0
This release has been tracked through the [v25.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/29).
### `ch-remote` Improvements
The `ch-remote` command has gained support for creating the VM from a JSON
config and support for booting and deleting the VM from the VMM.
### VM "Coredump" Support
Under the `guest_debug` feature flag it is now possible to extract the memory
of the guest for use in debugging with e.g. the `crash` utility. (#4012)
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Always restore console mode on exit (#4249, #4248)
* Restore vCPUs in numerical order which fixes aarch64 snapshot/restore (#4244)
* Don't try and configure `IFF_RUNNING` on TAP devices (#4279)
* Propagate configured queue size through to vhost-user backend (#4286)
* Always Program vCPU CPUID before running the vCPU to fix running on Linux
5.16 (#4156)
* Enable ACPI MADT "Online Capable" flag for hotpluggable vCPUs to fix newer
Linux guest
### Removals
The following functionality has been removed:
* The `mergeable` option from the `virtio-pmem` support has been removed
(#3968)
* The `dax` option from the `virtio-fs` support has been removed (#3889)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Dylan Bargatze <dbargatz@users.noreply.github.com>
* Jinank Jain <jinankjain@microsoft.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <wang.yi59@zte.com.cn>
# v24.0
This release has been tracked through the [v24.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/28).
### Bypass Mode for `virtio-iommu`
`virtio-iommu` specification describes how a device can be attached by default
to a bypass domain. This feature is particularly helpful for booting a VM with
guest software which doesn't support `virtio-iommu` but still need to access
the device. Now that Cloud Hypervisor supports this feature, it can boot a VM
with Rust Hypervisor Firmware or OVMF even if the `virtio-block` device exposing
the disk image is placed behind a virtual IOMMU.
### Ensure Identifiers Uniqueness
Multiple checks have been added to the code to prevent devices with identical
identifiers from being created, and therefore avoid unexpected behaviors at boot
or whenever a device was hot plugged into the VM.
### Sparse Mmap support
Sparse mmap support has been added to both VFIO and vfio-user devices. This
allows the device regions that are not fully mappable to be partially mapped.
And the more a device region can be mapped into the guest address space, the
fewer VM exits will be generated when this device is accessed. This directly
impacts the performance related to this device.
### Expose Platform Serial Number
A new `serial_number` option has been added to `--platform`, allowing a user to
set a specific serial number for the platform. This number is exposed to the
guest through the SMBIOS.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Fix loading RAW firmware (#4072)
* Reject compressed QCOW images (#4055)
* Reject virtio-mem resize if device is not activated (#4003)
* Fix potential mmap leaks from VFIO/vfio-user MMIO regions (#4069)
* Fix algorithm finding HOB memory resources (#3983)
### Notable Improvements
* Refactor interrupt handling (#4083)
* Load kernel asynchronously (#4022)
* Only create ACPI memory manager DSDT when resizable (#4013)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should
plan to use alternatives
* The `mergeable` option from the `virtio-pmem` support has been deprecated
(#3968)
* The `dax` option from the `virtio-fs` support has been deprecated (#3889)
### New on the Website
A new blog post [Achieving Bare Metal Performance Within a Virtual
Machine](https://www.cloudhypervisor.org/blog/achieving-bare-metal-performance-within-a-virtual-machine)
has been added to the Cloud Hypervisor website.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* LiHui <andrewli@kubesphere.io>
* Maksym Pavlenko <pavlenko.maksym@gmail.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Steven Dake <steven.dake@gmail.com>
* Vincent Batts <vbatts@hashbangbash.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v23.1
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Add some missing seccomp rules
* Remove `virtio-fs` filesystem entries from config on removal
* Do not delete API socket on API server start (#4026)
* Reject `virtio-mem` resize if the guest doesn't activate the device
* Fix OpenAPI naming of I/O throttling knobs
# v23.0
This release has been tracked through the [v23.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/27).
### vDPA Support
A vDPA device has a datapath that complies with the virtio specification but
with a vendor specific control path. The addition of `--vdpa` and the REST API
equivalent allows the use of these devices with Cloud Hypervisor.
### Updated OS Support list
The list of officially supported and tested OS versions has been updated to
include Ubuntu "jammy" 22.04 and EOLed versions removed.
### `AArch64` Memory Map Improvements
The memory map when running on `AArch64` has been improved for the handling of
the UEFI region which means that the booted guest OS now has full access to its
allocated RAM. (#3938)
### `AMX` Support
Under a compile time gate of `amx` it is possible compile in support for the
`AMX` instruction set extension for guest use. This also requires runtime
enabling with `--cpu features=amx`.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Generate error when incorrect HTTP method used for some API endpoints (#3887)
* CMOS based reset is now available to support rebooting on "jammy" (#3914)
* ACPI tables are not produced for memory hotplug when running with
`virtio-mem` (#3883)
* `virtio-iommu` backed PCI segments are now comprehensively placed behind the
vIOMMU (#3870)
* Seccomp rules have been extended for `virtio-fs` to support direct access
(#3848)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should
plan to use alternatives
* The `mergeable` option from the `virtio-pmem` support has been deprecated
(#3968)
* The `dax` option from the `virtio-fs` support has been deprecated (#3889)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* LiHui <andrewli@kubesphere.io>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* William Douglas <william.douglas@intel.com>
* Yi Wang <wang.yi59@zte.com.cn>
# v22.1
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* VFIO ioctl reordering to fix MSI on AMD platforms (#3827)
* Fix `virtio-net` control queue (#3829)
# v22.0
This release has been tracked through the [v22.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/25).
### GDB Debug Stub Support
Cloud Hypervisor can now be used as debug target with GDB. This is controlled
by the `gdb` compile time feature and details of how to use it can be found in
the [gdb
documentation](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/main/docs/gdb.md).
### `virtio-iommu` Backed Segments
In order to facilitate hotplug devices that require being behind an IOMMU (e.g.
QAT) there is a new option `--platform iommu_segments=<list_of_segments>` that
will place all the specified segments behind the IOMMU.
### Before Boot Configuration Changes
It is now possible to change the VM configuration (e.g. add or remove devices,
resize) before the VM is booted.
### `virtio-balloon` Free Page Reporting
If `--balloon free_page_reporting=on` is used then the guest can report pages
that is it not using to the VMM. The VMM will then notify the host OS that
those pages are no longer in use and can be freed. This can result in improved
memory density.
### Support for Direct Kernel Booting with TDX
Through the use of `TD-Shim` lightweight firmware it is now possible to
directly boot into the kernel with TDX. The [TDX
documentation](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/main/docs/intel_tdx.md#tdshim)
has been updated for this usage.
### PMU Support for AArch64
A PMU is now available on AArch64 for guest performance profiling. This will be
exposed automatically if available from the host.
### Documentation Under CC-BY-4.0 License
The documentation is now licensed under the "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International" license which is aligned with the project charter under the
Linux Foundation.
### Deprecation of "Classic" `virtiofsd`
The use of the Rust based [virtiofsd](https://gitlab.com/virtio-fs/virtiofsd)
is now recommended and we are no longer testing against the C based "classic"
version.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Can now be used on kernels without `AF_INET` support (#3785)
* `virtio-balloon` size is now validated against guest RAM size (#3689)
* Ensure that I/O related KVM VM Exits are correctly handled (#3677)
* Multiple TAP file descriptors can be used for `virtio-net` device hotplug (#3607)
* Minor API improvements and fixes (#3756, #3766, #3647, #3578)
* Fix sporadic seccomp violation from glibc memory freeing (#3610, #3609)
* Fix Windows 11 on AArch64 due to wider MSI-X register accesses (#3714, #3720)
* Ensure `vhost-user` features are correct across migration (#3737)
* Improved vCPU topology on AArch64 (#3735, #3733)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Akira Moroo <retrage01@gmail.com>
* Barret Rhoden <brho@google.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* Feng Ye <yefeng@smartx.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* lizhaoxin1 <Lxiaoyouling@163.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v21.0
This release has been tracked through the [v21.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/24).
### Efficient Local Live Migration (for Live Upgrade)
In order to support fast live upgrade of the VMM an optimised path has been
added in which the memory for the VM is not compared from source to
destination. This is activated by passing `--local` to the `ch-remote
send-migration` command. This means that the live upgrade can complete in the
order of 50ms vs 3s. (#3566)
### Recommended Kernel is Now 5.15
Due to an issue in the `virtio-net` code in 5.14 the recommended Linux kernel
is now 5.15. (#3530)
### Notable Bug fixes
* Multiple fixes were made to the OpenAPI YAML file to match the implementation (#3555,#3562)
* Avoid live migration deadlock when triggered during the kernel boot (#3585)
* Support live migration within firmware (#3586)
* Validate the `virtio-net` descriptor chain (#3548)
* `direct=on` (`O_DIRECT`) can now be used with a guest that makes unaligned accesses (e.g. firmware) (#3587)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Barret Rhoden <brho@google.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Liang Zhou <zhoul110@chinatelecom.cn>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muhammad Falak R Wani <falakreyaz@gmail.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Ziye Yang <ziye.yang@intel.com>
# v20.2
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Don't error out when setting up the SIGWINCH handler (for console resize)
when this fails due to older kernel (#3456)
* Seccomp rules were refined to remove syscalls that are now unused
* Fix reboot on older host kernels when SIGWINCH handler was not initialised
(#3496)
* Fix virtio-vsock blocking issue (#3497)
# v20.1
This is a bug fix release. The following issues have been addressed:
* Networking performance regression with `virtio-net` (#3450)
* Limit file descriptors sent in `vfio-user` support (#3401)
* Fully advertise PCI MMIO config regions in ACPI tables (#3432)
* Set the TSS and KVM identity maps so they don't overlap with firmware RAM
* Correctly update the `DeviceTree` on restore
# v20.0
This release has been tracked through the [v20.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/23).
### Multiple PCI segments support
Cloud Hypervisor is no longer limited to 31 PCI devices. For both `x86_64` and
`aarch64` architectures, it is now possible to create up to 16 PCI segments,
increasing the total amount of supported PCI devices to 496.
### CPU pinning
For each vCPU, the user can define a limited set of host CPUs on which it is
allowed to run. This can be useful when assigning a 1:1 mapping between host and
guest resources, or when running a VM on a specific NUMA node.
### Improved VFIO support
Based on VFIO region capabilities, all regions can be memory mapped, limiting
the amount of triggered VM exits, and therefore increasing the performance of
the passthrough device.
### Safer code
Several sections containing unsafe Rust code have been replaced with safe
alternatives, and multiple comments have been added to clarify why the remaining
unsafe sections are safe to use.
### Extended documentation
The documentation related to VFIO has been updated while some new documents have
been introduced to cover the usage of `--cpus` parameter as well as how to run
Cloud Hypervisor on Intel TDX.
### Notable bug fixes
* Naturally align PCI BARs on relocation (#3244)
* Fix panic in SIGWINCH listener thread when no seccomp filter set (#3338)
* Use the tty raw mode implementation from libc (#3344)
* Fix the emulation of register D for CMOS/RTC device (#3393)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fabiano Fidêncio <fabiano.fidencio@intel.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Willen Yang <willenyang@gmail.com>
* William Douglas <william.douglas@intel.com>
* Ziye Yang <ziye.yang@intel.com>
# v19.0
This release has been tracked through the [v19.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/22).
### Improved PTY handling for serial and `virtio-console`
The PTY support for serial has been enhanced with improved buffering when the
the PTY is not yet connected to. Using `virtio-console` with PTY now results in
the console being resized if the PTY window is also resized.
### PCI boot time optimisations
Multiple optimisations have been made to the PCI handling resulting in
significant improvements in the boot time of the guest.
### Improved TDX support
When using the latest TDVF firmware the ACPI tables created by the VMM are now
exposed via the firmware to the guest.
### Live migration enhancements
Live migration support has been enhanced to support migration with `virtio-mem`
based memory hotplug and the `virtio-balloon` device now supports live
migration.
### `virtio-mem` support with `vfio-user`
The use of `vfio-user` userspaces devices can now be used in conjunction with
`virtio-mem` based memory hotplug and unplug.
### AArch64 for `virtio-iommu`
A paravirtualised IOMMU can now be used on the AArch64 platform.
### Notable bug fixes
* ACPI hotplugged memory is correctly restored after a live migration or
snapshot/restore (#3165)
* Multiple devices from the same IOMMU group can be passed through via VFIO
(#3078 #3113)
* Live migration with large blocks of memory was buggy due to an in issue in
the underlying crate (#3157)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Li Yu <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* William Douglas <william.douglas@intel.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
# v18.0
This release has been tracked through the [v18.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/21).
### Experimental User Device (`vfio-user`) support
Experimental support for running PCI devices in userspace via `vfio-user`
has been included. This allows the use of the SPDK NVMe `vfio-user` controller
with Cloud Hypervisor. This is enabled by `--user-device` on the command line.
### Migration support for `vhost-user` devices
Devices exposed into the VM via `vhost-user` can now be migrated using the live
migration support. This requires support from the backend however the commonly
used DPDK `vhost-user` backend does support this.
### VHDX disk image support
Images using the VHDX disk image format can now be used with Cloud Hypervisor.
### Device pass through on MSHV hypervisor
When running on the MSHV hypervisor it is possible to pass through devices from
the host through to the guest (e.g with `--device`)
### AArch64 for support `virtio-mem`
The reference Linux kernel we recommend for using with Cloud Hypervisor now supports `virtio-mem` on AArch64.
### Live migration on MSHV hypervisor
Live migration is now supported when running on the MSHV hypervisor including
efficient tracking of dirty pages.
### AArch64 CPU topology support
The CPU topology (as configured through `--cpu topology=`) can now be
configured on AArch64 platforms and is conveyed through either ACPI or device
tree.
### Power button support on AArch64
Use of the ACPI power button (e.g `ch-remote --api-socket=<API socket> power-button`)
is now supported when running on AArch64.
### Notable bug fixes
* Using two PTY outputs e.g. `--serial pty --console pty` now works correctly (#3012)
* TTY input is now always sent to the correct destination (#3005)
* The boot is no longer blocked when using a unattached PTY on the serial console (#3004)
* Live migration is now supported on AArch64 (#3049)
* Ensure signal handlers are run on the correct thread (#3069)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Arafatms <arafatms@outlook.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fazla Mehrab <akm.fazla.mehrab@vt.edu>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Jiaqi Gao <jiaqi.gao@intel.com>
* Markus Theil <markus.theil@tu-ilmenau.de>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yu Li <liyu.yukiteru@bytedance.com>
# v17.0
This release has been tracked through the [v17.0
project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/20).
### ARM64 NUMA support using ACPI
The support for ACPI on ARM64 has been enhanced to include support for
specifying a NUMA configuration using the existing control options.
### `Seccomp` support for MSHV backend
The `seccomp` rules have now been extended to support running against the MSHV
hypervisor backend.
### Hotplug of `macvtap` devices
Hotplug of `macvtap` devices is now supported with the file descriptor for the
network device if opened by the user and passed to the VMM. The `ch-remote`
tool supports this functionality when adding a network device.
### Improved SGX support
The SGX support has been updated to match the latest Linux kernel support and
now supports SGX provisioning and associating EPC sections to NUMA nodes.
### Inflight tracking for `vhost-user` devices
Support for handling inflight tracking of I/O requests has been added to the
`vhost-user` devices allowing recovery after device reconnection.
### Notable bug fixes
* VFIO PCI BAR calculation code now correctly handles I/O BARs (#2821).
* The VMM side of `vhost-user` devices no longer advertise the
`VIRTIO_F_RING_PACKED` feature as they are not yet supported in the VMM
(#2833).
* On ARM64 VMs can be created with more than 16 vCPUs (#2763).
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Arafatms <arafatms@outlook.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Fei Li <lifei.shirley@bytedance.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jiachen Zhang <zhangjiachen.jaycee@bytedance.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Li Hangjing <lihangjing@bytedance.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yukiteru <wfly1998@sina.com>
# v16.0
This release has been tracked through the [v16.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/19).
### Improved live migration support
The live migration support inside Cloud Hypervisor has been improved with the addition of the tracking of dirty pages written by the VMM to complement the tracking of dirty pages made by the guest itself. Further the internal state of the VMM now is versioned which allows the safe migration of VMs from one version of the VMM to a newer one. However further testing is required so this should be done with care. See the [live migration documentation](docs/live_migration.md) for more details.
### Improved `vhost-user` support
When using `vhost-user` to access devices implemented in different processes there is now support for reconnection of those devices in the case of a restart of the backend. In addition it is now possible to operate with the direction of the `vhost-user-net` connection reversed with the server in the VMM and the client in the backend. This is aligns with the default approach recommended by Open vSwitch.
### ARM64 ACPI and UEFI support
Cloud Hypervisor now supports using ACPI and booting from a UEFI image on ARM64. This allows the use of stock OS images without direct kernel boot.
### Notable bug fixes
* Activating fewer `virtio-net` queues than advertised is now supported. This appeared when using OVMF with an MQ enabled device (#2578).
* When using MQ with `virtio` devices Cloud Hypervisor now enforces a minimum vCPU count which ensures that the user will not see adverse guest performance (#2563).
* The KVM clock is now correctly handled during live migration / snapshot & restore.
### Removed functionality
The following formerly deprecated features have been removed:
* Support for booting with the "LinuxBoot" protocol for ELF and `bzImage`
binaries has been deprecated. When using direct boot users should configure
their kernel with `CONFIG_PVH=y`.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release including some new faces.
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Dayu Liu <liu.dayu@zte.com.cn>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Jiachen Zhang <zhangjiachen.jaycee@bytedance.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Mikko Ylinen <mikko.ylinen@intel.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Ren Lei <ren.lei4@zte.com.cn>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* Yi Wang <wang.yi59@zte.com.cn>
# v15.0
This release has been tracked through the [v15.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/18).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version v15.0 include:
### Version numbering and stability guarantees
This release is the first in a new version numbering scheme to represent that
we believe Cloud Hypervisor is maturing and entering a period of stability.
With this new release we are beginning our new stability guarantees:
* The API (including command line options) will not be removed or changed in a
breaking way without a minimum of 2 releases notice. Where possible warnings
will be given about the use of deprecated functionality and the deprecations
will be documented in the release notes.
* Point releases will be made between individual releases where there are
substantial bug fixes or security issues that need to be fixed.
Currently the following items are **not** guaranteed across updates:
* Snapshot/restore is not supported across different versions
* Live migration is not supported across different versions
* The following features are considered experimental and may change
substantially between releases: TDX, SGX.
### Network device rate limiting
Building on our existing support for rate limiting block activity the network
device also now supports rate limiting. Full details of the controls are in the
[IO throttling documentation.](docs/io_throttling.md)
### Support for runtime control of `virtio-net` guest offload
The guest is now able to change the offload settings for the `virtio-net`
device. As well as providing a useful control this mitigates an issue in the
Linux kernel where the guest will attempt to reprogram the offload settings
even if they are not advertised as configurable (#2528).
### `--api-socket` supports file descriptor parameter
The `--api-socket` can now take an `fd=` parameter to specify an existing file
descriptor to use. This is particularly beneficial for frameworks that need to
programmatically control Cloud Hypervisor.
### Bug fixes
* A workaround has been put in place to mitigate a Linux kernel issues that
results in the CPU thread spinning at 100% when using `virtio-pmem` (#2277).
* PCI BARs are now correctly aligned removing the need for the guest to
reprogram them (#1797,#1798)
* Handle TAP interface not being writable within virtio-net (due to the buffer
exhaustion on the host) (#2517)
* The recommended Linux kernel is now v5.12.0 as it contains a fix that
prevents snapshot & restore working (#2535)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should plan to use alternatives
* Support for booting with the "LinuxBoot" protocol for ELF and `bzImage`
binaries has been deprecated. When using direct boot users should configure
their kernel with `CONFIG_PVH=y`. Will be removed in v16.0.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our release including some new faces.
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Gaelan Steele <gbs@canishe.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* William Douglas <william.douglas@intel.com>
# v0.14.1
Bug fix release branched off the v0.14.0 release. The following bugs were fixed
in this release:
* CPU hotplug on Windows failed due to misreported CPU state information and
the lack of HyperV CPUID bit enabled (#2437, #2449, #2436)
* A seccomp rule was missing that was triggered on CPU unplug (#2455)
* A bounds check in VIRTIO queue validation was erroneously generating
DescriptorChainTooShort errors in certain circumstances (#2450, #2424)
# v0.14.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.14.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/17).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.14.0 include:
### Structured event monitoring
A new option was added to the VMM `--event-monitor` which reports structured
events (JSON) over a file or file descriptor at key events in the lifecycle of
the VM. The list of events is limited at the moment but will be further
extended over subsequent releases. The events exposed form part of the Cloud
Hypervisor API surface.
### MSHV improvements
Basic support has been added for running Windows guests atop the MSHV
hypervisor as an alternative to KVM and further improvements have been made to
the MSHV support.
### Improved aarch64 platform
The aarch64 platform has been enhanced with more devices exposed to the running
VM including an enhanced serial UART.
### Updated hotplug documentation
The documentation for the hotplug support has been updated to reflect the use
of the `ch-remote` tool and to include details of `virtio-mem` based hotplug as
well as documenting hotplug of paravirtualised and VFIO devices.
### PTY control for serial and `virtio-console`
The `--serial` and `--console` parameters can now direct the console to a PTY
allowing programmatic control of the console from another process through the
PTY subsystem.
### Block device rate limiting
The block device performance can now be constrained as part of the VM
configuration allowing rate limiting. Full details of the controls are in the
[IO throttling documentation.](docs/io_throttling.md)
### Deprecations
Deprecated features will be removed in a subsequent release and users should plan to use alternatives
* Support for booting with the "LinuxBoot" protocol for ELF and `bzImage`
binaries has been deprecated. When using direct boot users should configure
their kernel with `CONFIG_PVH=y`.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.14.0 release including
some new faces.
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Iggy Jackson <iggy@theiggy.com>
* Jiachen Zhang <zhangjiachen.jaycee@bytedance.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Penny Zheng <Penny.Zheng@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Vineeth Pillai <viremana@linux.microsoft.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* William Douglas <william.r.douglas@gmail.com>
* Zide Chen <zide.chen@intel.com>
# v0.13.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.13.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/16).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.13.0 include:
### Wider VFIO device support
It is now possible to use Cloud Hypervisor's VFIO support to passthrough PCI
devices that do not support MSI or MSI-X and instead rely on INTx interrupts.
Most notably this widens the support to most NVIDIA cards with the proprietary
drivers.
### Improved huge page support
Through the addition of `hugepage_size` on `--memory` it is now possible to
specify the desired size of the huge pages used when allocating the guest
memory. The user is required to ensure they have sufficient pages of the
desired size in their pool.
### MACvTAP support
It is now possible to provide file descriptors using the `fd` parameter to
`--net` which point at TAP devices that have already been opened by the user.
This aids integration with `libvirt` but also permits the use of MACvTAP
support. This is documented in dedicated [macvtap documentation](docs/macvtap-bridge.md).
### VHD disk image support
It is now possible to use VHD (fixed) disk images as well as QCOWv2 and raw
disk image with Cloud Hypervisor.
### Improved Virtio device threading
Device threads are now derived from the main VMM thread which allows more
restrictive seccomp filters to be applied to them. The threads also have a
predictable name derived from the device id.
### Clean shutdown support via synthetic power button
It is now possible to request that the guest VM shut itself down by triggering
a synthetic ACPI power button press from the VMM. If the guest is listening for
such an event (e.g. using systemd) then it will process the event and cleanly
shut down. This functionality is exposed through the HTTP API and can be
triggered via `ch-remote --api-socket=<API socket> power-button`.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.13.0 release including
some new faces.
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Mikko Ylinen <mikko.ylinen@intel.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Vineeth Pillai <viremana@linux.microsoft.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
* William Douglas <william.r.douglas@gmail.com>
* Xie Yongji <xieyongji@bytedance.com>
# v0.12.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.12.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/15).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.12.0 include:
### ARM64 enhancements
The use of `--watchdog` is now fully supported as is the ability to reboot the
VM from within the guest when running Cloud Hypervisor on an ARM64 system.
### Removal of `vhost-user-net` and `vhost-user-block` self spawning
In order to use `vhost-user-net` or `vhost-user-block` backends the user is now
responsible for starting the backend and providing the socket for the VMM to
use. This functionality was deprecated in the last release and how now been
removed.
### Migration of `vhost-user-fs` backend
The `vhost-user-fs` backend is no longer included in Cloud Hypervisor and it is
instead hosted in [its own
repository](https://gitlab.com/virtio-fs/virtiofsd-rs)
### Enhanced "info" API
The `vm.info` HTTP API endpoint has been extended to include the details of the
devices used by the VM including any VFIO devices used.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.12.0 release:
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Julio Montes <julio.montes@intel.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v0.11.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.11.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/14).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.11.0 include:
### `io_uring` support by default for `virtio-block`
Provided that the host OS supports it (Linux kernel 5.8+) then `io_uring` will
be used for a significantly higher performance block device.
### Windows Guest Support
This is the first release where we officially support Windows running as a
guest. Full details of how to setup the image and run Cloud Hypervisor with a
Windows guest can be found in the dedicated [Windows
documentation](docs/windows.md).
### `vhost-user` "Self Spawning" Deprecation
Automatically spawning a `vhost-user-net` or `vhost-user-block` backend is now
deprecated. Users of this functionality will receive a warning and should make
adjustments. The functionality will be removed in the next release.
### `virtio-mmio` Removal
Support for using the `virtio-mmio` transport, rather than using PCI, has been
removed. This has been to simplify the code and significantly
reduce the testing burden of the project.
### Snapshot/Restore support for ARM64
When running on the ARM64 architecture snapshot and restore has now been
implemented.
### Improved Linux Boot Time
The time to boot the Linux kernel has been significantly improved by the
identifying some areas of delays around PCI bus probing, IOAPIC programming and
MPTABLE issues. Full details can be seen in #1728.
### `SIGTERM/SIGINT` Interrupt Signal Handling
When the VMM process receives the `SIGTERM` or `SIGINT` signals then it will
trigger the VMM process to cleanly deallocate resources before exiting. The
guest VM will not be cleanly shutdown but the VMM process will clean up its
resources.
### Default Log Level Changed
The default logging level was changed to include warnings which should make it
easier to see potential issues. New [logging
documentation](docs/logging) was also added.
### New `--balloon` Parameter Added
Control of the setup of `virtio-balloon` has been moved from `--memory` to its
own dedicated parameter. This makes it easier to add more balloon specific
controls without overloading `--memory`.
### Experimental `virtio-watchdog` Support
Support for using a new `virtio-watchdog` has been added which can be used to
have the VMM reboot the guest if the guest userspace fails to ping the
watchdog. This is enabled with `--watchdog` and requires kernel support.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* MTRR bit was missing from CPUID advertised to guest
* "Return" key could not be used under `CMD.EXE` under Windows SAC (#1170)
* CPU identification string is now exposed to the guest
* `virtio-pmem` with`discard_writes=on` no longer marks the guest memory as
read only so avoids excessive VM exits (#1795)
* PCI device hotplug after an unplug was fixed (#1802)
* When using the ACPI method to resize the guest memory the full reserved size
can be used (#1803)
* Snapshot and restore followed by a second snapshot and restore now works
correctly
* Snapshot and restore of VMs with more than 2GiB in one region now work
correctly
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.11.0 release including some new faces.
* Anatol Belski <anbelski@linux.microsoft.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Daniel Verkamp <dverkamp@chromium.org>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* Jiangbo Wu <jiangbo.wu@intel.com>
* Josh Soref <jsoref@users.noreply.github.com>
* Julio Montes <julio.montes@intel.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* pierwill <19642016+pierwill@users.noreply.github.com>
* Praveen Paladugu <prapal@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v0.10.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.10.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/13).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.10.0 include:
### `virtio-block` Support for Multiple Descriptors
Some `virtio-block` device drivers may generate requests with multiple descriptors and support has been added for those drivers.
### Memory Zones
Support has been added for fine-grained control of memory allocation for the guest. This includes controlling the backing of sections of guest memory, assigning to specific host NUMA nodes and assigning memory and vCPUs to specific memory nodes inside the guest. Full details of this can be found in the [memory documentation](docs/memory.md).
### `Seccomp` Sandbox Improvements
All the remaining threads and devices are now isolated within their own `seccomp` filters. This provides a layer of sandboxing and enhances the security model of `cloud-hypervisor`.
### Preliminary KVM HyperV Emulation Control
A new option (`kvm_hyperv`) has been added to `--cpus` to provide an option to toggle on KVM's HyperV emulation support. This enables progress towards booting Windows without adding extra emulated devices.
### Notable Bug Fixes
- When using `ch-remote` to resize the VM parameter now accepts the standard sizes suffices (#1596)
- `cloud-hypervisor` no longer panics when started with `--memory hotplug_method=virtio-mem` and no `hotplug_size` (#1564)
- After a reboot memory can remove when using `--memory hotplug_method=virtio-mem` (#1593)
- `--version` shows the version for released binaries (#1669)
- Errors generated by worker threads for `virtio` devices are now printed out (#1551)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.10.0 release including some new faces.
* Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
* Amey Narkhede <ameynarkhede02@gmail.com>
* Anatol Belski <ab@php.net>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v0.9.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.9.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/12).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.9.0 include:
### `io_uring` Based Block Device Support
If the `io_uring` feature is enabled and the host kernel supports it then `io_uring` will be used for block devices. This results a very significant performance improvement.
### Block and Network Device Statistics
Statistics for activity of the `virtio` network and block devices is now exposed through a new `vm.counters` HTTP API entry point. These take the form of simple counters which can be used to observe the activity of the VM.
### HTTP API Responses
The HTTP API for adding devices now responds with the name that was assigned to the device as well the PCI BDF.
### CPU Topology
A `topology` parameter has been added to `--cpus` which allows the configuration of the guest CPU topology allowing the user to specify the numbers of sockets, packages per socket, cores per package and threads per core.
### Release Build Optimization
Our release build is now built with LTO (*Link Time Optimization*) which results in a ~20% reduction in the binary size.
### Hypervisor Abstraction
A new abstraction has been introduced, in the form of a `hypervisor` crate so as to enable the support of additional hypervisors beyond `KVM`.
### Snapshot/Restore Improvements
Multiple improvements have been made to the VM snapshot/restore support that was added in the last release. This includes persisting more vCPU state and in particular preserving the guest paravirtualized clock in order to avoid vCPU hangs inside the guest when running with multiple vCPUs.
### Virtio Memory Ballooning Support
A `virtio-balloon` device has been added, controlled through the `resize` control, which allows the reclamation of host memory by resizing a memory balloon inside the guest.
### Enhancements to ARM64 Support
The ARM64 support introduced in the last release has been further enhanced with support for using PCI for exposing devices into the guest as well as multiple bug fixes. It also now supports using an initramfs when booting.
### Intel SGX Support
The guest can now use Intel SGX if the host supports it. Details can be found in the dedicated [SGX documentation](docs/intel_sgx.md).
### `Seccomp` Sandbox Improvements
The most frequently used virtio devices are now isolated with their own `seccomp` filters. It is also now possible to pass `--seccomp=log` which result in the logging of requests that would have otherwise been denied to further aid development.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* Our `virtio-vsock` implementation has been resynced with the implementation from Firecracker and includes multiple bug fixes.
* CPU hotplug has been fixed so that it is now possible to add, remove, and re-add vCPUs (#1338)
* A workaround is now in place for when KVM reports MSRs available MSRs that are in fact unreadable preventing snapshot/restore from working correctly (#1543).
* `virtio-mmio` based devices are now more widely tested (#275).
* Multiple issues have been fixed with virtio device configuration (#1217)
* Console input was wrongly consumed by both `virtio-console` and the serial. (#1521)
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.9.0 release including some new faces.
* Anatol Belski <ab@php.net>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Dr. David Alan Gilbert <dgilbert@redhat.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Howard Zhang <howard.zhang@arm.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* Jianyong Wu <jianyong.wu@arm.com>
* Jose Carlos Venegas Munoz <jose.carlos.venegas.munoz@intel.com>
* LiYa'nan <oliverliyn@gmail.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Praveen Paladugu <prapal@microsoft.com>
* Ricardo Koller <ricarkol@gmail.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>
* Wei Liu <liuwe@microsoft.com>
# v0.8.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.8.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/10).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.8.0 include:
### Experimental Snapshot and Restore Support
This release includes the first version of the snapshot and restore feature.
This allows a VM to be paused and then subsequently snapshotted. At a later
point that snapshot may be restored into a new running VM identical to the
original VM at the point it was paused.
This feature can be used for offline migration from one VM host to another, to
allow the upgrading or rebooting of the host machine transparently to the guest
or for templating the VM. This is an experimental feature and cannot be used on
a VM using passthrough (VFIO) devices. Issues with SMP have also been observed
(#1176).
### Experimental ARM64 Support
Included in this release is experimental support for running on ARM64.
Currently only `virtio-mmio` devices and a serial port are supported. Full
details can be found in the [ARM64 documentation](docs/arm64.md).
### Support for Using 5-level Paging in Guests
If the host supports it the guest is now enabled for 5-level paging (aka LA57).
This works when booting the Linux kernel with a vmlinux, bzImage or firmware
based boot. However booting an ELF kernel built with `CONFIG_PVH=y` does not
work due to current limitations in the PVH boot process.
### Virtio Device Interrupt Suppression for Network Devices
With `virtio-net` and `vhost-user-net` devices the guest can suppress
interrupts from the VMM by using the `VIRTIO_RING_F_EVENT_IDX` feature. This
can lead to an improvement in performance by reducing the number of interrupts
the guest must service.
### `vhost_user_fs` Improvements
The implementation in Cloud Hypervisor of the VirtioFS server now supports sandboxing itself with `seccomp`.
### Notable Bug Fixes
* VMs that have not yet been booted can now be deleted (#1110).
* By creating the `tap` device ahead of creating the VM it is not required to
run the `cloud-hypervisor` binary with `CAP_NET_ADMIN` (#1273).
* Block I/O via `virtio-block` or `vhost-user-block` now correctly adheres to
the specification and synchronizes to the underlying filesystem as required
based on guest feature negotiation. This avoids potential data loss (#399,
#1216).
* When booting with a large number of vCPUs then the ACPI table would be
overwritten by the SMP `MPTABLE`. When compiled with the `acpi` feature the
`MPTABLE` will no longer be generated (#1132).
* Shutting down VMs that have been paused is now supported (#816).
* Created socket files are deleted on shutdown (#1083).
* Trying to use passthrough devices (VFIO) will be rejected on `mmio` builds
(#751).
### Command Line and API Changes
This is non exhaustive list of HTTP API and command line changes:
* All user visible socket parameters are now consistently called `socket`
rather than `sock` in some cases.
* The `ch-remote` tool now shows any error message generated by the VMM
* The `wce` parameter has been removed from `--disk` as the feature is always
offered for negotiation.
* `--net` has gained a `host_mac` option that allows the setting of the MAC
address for the `tap` device on the host.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.8.0 release including some new faces.
* Anatol Belski <ab@php.net>
* Arron Wang <arron.wang@intel.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Dr. David Alan Gilbert <dgilbert@redhat.com>
* Henry Wang <Henry.Wang@arm.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* LiYa'nan <oliverliyn@gmail.com>
* Michael Zhao <michael.zhao@arm.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Sergio Lopez <slp@redhat.com>
# v0.7.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.7.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/7).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.7.0 include:
### Block, Network, Persistent Memory (PMEM), VirtioFS and Vsock hotplug
Further to our effort to support modifying a running guest we now support
hotplug and unplug of the following virtio backed devices: block, network,
pmem, virtio-fs and vsock. This functionality is available on the (default) PCI
based transport and is exposed through the HTTP API. The `ch-remote` utility
provides a CLI for adding or removing these device types after the VM has
booted. User can use the `id` parameter on the devices to choose names for
devices to ease their removal.
### Alternative `libc` Support
Cloud Hypervisor can now be compiled with the `musl` C library and this release
contains a static binary compiled using that toolchain.
### Multithreaded Multi Queued `vhost-user` Backends
The `vhost-user` backends for network and block support that are shipped by
Cloud Hypervisor have been enhanced to support multiple threads and queues to
improve throughput. These backends are used automatically if `vhost_user=true`
is passed when the devices are created.
### Initial RamFS Support
By passing the `--initramfs` command line option the user can specify a file to
be loaded into the guest memory to be used as the kernel initial filesystem.
This is usually used to allow the loading of drivers needed to be able to
access the real root filesystem but it can also be used standalone for a very
minimal image.
### Alternative Memory Hotplug: `virtio-mem`
As well as supporting ACPI based hotplug Cloud Hypervisor now supports using
the `virtio-mem` hotplug alternative. This can be controlled by the
`hotplug_method` parameter on the `--memory` command line option. It currently
requires kernel patches to be able to support it.
### `Seccomp` Sandboxing
Cloud Hypervisor now has support for restricting the system calls that the
process can use via the `seccomp` security API. This on by default and is
controlled by the `--seccomp` command line option.
### Updated Distribution Support
With the release of Ubuntu 20.04 we have added that to the list of supported
distributions and is part of our regular testing programme.
### Command Line and API Changes
This is non exhaustive list of HTTP API and command line changes
* New `id` fields added for devices to allow them to be named to ease removal.
If no name is specified the VMM chooses one.
* Use `--memory`'s `shared` and `hugepages` controls for determining backing
memory instead of providing a path.
* The `--vsock` parameter only takes one device as the Linux kernel only
supports a single Vsock device. The REST API has removed the vector for this
option and replaced it with a single optional field.
* There is enhanced validation of the command line and API provided
configurations to ensure that the provided options are compatible e.g. that
shared memory is in use if any attempt is made to used a `vhost-user` backed
device.
* `ch-remote` has added `add-disk`, `add-fs`, `add-net`, `add-pmem` and
`add-vsock` subcommands. For removal `remove-device` is used. The REST API
has appropriate new HTTP endpoints too.
* Specifying a `size` with `--pmem` is no longer required and instead the size
will be obtained from the file. A `discard_writes` option has also been added
to provide the equivalent of a read-only file.
* The parameters to `--block-backend` have been changed to more closely align
with those used by `--disk`.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our 0.7.0 release including some new faces.
* Alejandro Jimenez <alejandro.j.jimenez@oracle.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Cathy Zhang <cathy.zhang@intel.com>
* Damjan Georgievski <gdamjan@gmail.com>
* Dean Sheather <dean@coder.com>
* Eryu Guan <eguan@linux.alibaba.com>
* Hui Zhu <teawater@antfin.com>
* Jose Carlos Venegas Munoz <jose.carlos.venegas.munoz@intel.com>
* Martin Xu <martin.xu@intel.com>
* Muminul Islam <muislam@microsoft.com>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Sergio Lopez <slp@redhat.com>
* Yang Zhong <yang.zhong@intel.com>
* Yi Sun <yi.y.sun@linux.intel.com>
# v0.6.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.6.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/7).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.6.0 include:
### Directly Assigned Devices Hotplug
We continued our efforts around supporting dynamically changing the guest
resources. After adding support for CPU and memory hotplug, Cloud Hypervisor
now supports hot plugging and hot unplugging directly assigned (a.k.a. `VFIO`)
devices into an already running guest. This closes the features gap for
providing a complete Kata Containers workloads support with Cloud Hypervisor.
### Shared Filesystem Improvements
We enhanced our shared filesystem support through many `virtio-fs` improvements.
By adding support for DAX, parallel processing of multiple requests, `FS_IO`,
`LSEEK` and the `MMIO` virtio transport layer to our `vhost_user_fs` daemon, we
improved our filesystem sharing performance, but also made it more stable and
compatible with other `virtio-fs` implementations.
### Block and Networking IO Self Offloading
When choosing to offload the paravirtualized block and networking I/O to an
external process (through the `vhost-user` protocol), Cloud Hypervisor now
automatically spawns its default `vhost-user-blk` and `vhost-user-net` backends
into their own, separate processes.
This provides a seamless paravirtualized I/O user experience for those who want
to run their guest I/O into separate executions contexts.
### Command Line Interface
More and more Cloud Hypervisor services are exposed through the
[Rest API](vmm/src/api/openapi/cloud-hypervisor.yaml) and thus only
accessible via relatively cumbersome HTTP calls. In order to abstract
those calls into a more user friendly tool, we created a Cloud Hypervisor
Command Line Interface (CLI) called `ch-remote`. The `ch-remote` binary
is created with each build and available e.g. at
`cloud-hypervisor/target/debug/ch-remote` when doing a debug build.
Please check `ch-remote --help` for a complete description of all available
commands.
### PVH Boot
In addition to the traditional Linux boot protocol, Cloud Hypervisor now
supports direct kernel booting through the [PVH ABI](https://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/misc/pvh.html).
### Contributors
With the 0.6.0 release, we are welcoming a few new contributors. Many thanks
to them and to everyone that contributed to this release:
* Alejandro Jimenez <alejandro.j.jimenez@oracle.com>
* Arron Wang <arron.wang@intel.com>
* Bin Liu <liubin0329@gmail.com>
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Cathy Zhang <cathy.zhang@intel.com>
* Eryu Guan <eguan@linux.alibaba.com>
* Jose Carlos Venegas Munoz <jose.carlos.venegas.munoz@intel.com>
* Liu Bo <bo.liu@linux.alibaba.com>
* Qiu Wenbo <qiuwenbo@phytium.com.cn>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Sergio Lopez <slp@redhat.com>
# v0.5.1
This is a bugfix release branched off v0.5.0. It contains the following fixes:
* Update DiskConfig to contain missing disk control features (#790) - Samuel Ortiz and Sergio Lopez
* Prevent memory overcommit via virtio-fs (#763) - Sebastien Boeuf
* Fixed error reporting for resize command - Samuel Ortiz
* Double reboot workaround (#783) - Rob Bradford
* Various CI and development tooling fixes - Sebastien Boeuf, Samuel Ortiz, Rob Bradford
# v0.5.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.5.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/6).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.5.0 include:
### Virtual Machine Dynamic Resizing
With 0.4.0 we added support for CPU hot plug, and 0.5.0 adds CPU hot unplug and
memory hot plug as well. This allows to dynamically resize Cloud Hypervisor
guests which is needed for e.g. Kubernetes related use cases.
The memory hot plug implementation is based on the same framework as the CPU hot
plug/unplug one, i.e. hardware-reduced ACPI notifications to the guest.
Next on our VM resizing roadmap is the PCI devices hotplug feature.
### Multi-Queue, Multi-Threaded Paravirtualization
We enhanced our virtio networking and block support by having both devices use
multiple I/O queues handled by multiple threads. This improves our default
paravirtualized networking and block devices throughput.
### New Interrupt Management Framework
We improved our interrupt management implementation by introducing an Interrupt
Manager framework, based on the currently on-going [rust-vmm vm-device](https://github.com/rust-vmm/vm-device)
crates discussions. This move made the code significantly cleaner, and allowed
us to remove several KVM related dependencies from crates like the PCI and
virtio ones.
### Development Tools
In order to provide a better developer experience, we worked on improving our
build, development and testing tools.
Somehow similar to the excellent
[Firecracker's devtool](https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/blob/master/tools/devtool),
we now provide a [dev_cli script](scripts/dev_cli.sh).
With this new tool, our users and contributors will be able to build and test
Cloud Hypervisor through a containerized environment.
### Kata Containers Integration
We spent some significant time and efforts debugging and fixing our integration
with the [Kata Containers](https://github.com/kata-containers) project. Cloud
Hypervisor is now a fully supported Kata Containers hypervisor, and is
integrated into the project's CI.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone that contributed to the 0.5.0 release:
* Bo Chen <chen.bo@intel.com>
* Cathy Zhang <cathy.zhang@intel.com>
* Qiu Wenbo <qiuwenbo@phytium.com.cn>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Sergio Lopez <slp@redhat.com>
* Yang Zhong <yang.zhong@intel.com>
# v0.4.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.4.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/4).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.4.0 include:
### Dynamic virtual CPUs addition
As a way to vertically scale Cloud Hypervisor guests, we now support dynamically
adding virtual CPUs to the guests, a mechanism also known as CPU hot plug.
Through hardware-reduced ACPI notifications, Cloud Hypervisor can now add CPUs
to an already running guest and the high level operations for that process are
documented [here](docs/hotplug.md)
During the next release cycles we are planning to extend Cloud Hypervisor
hot plug framework to other resources, namely PCI devices and memory.
### Programmatic firmware tables generation
As part of the CPU hot plug feature enablement, and as a requirement for hot
plugging other resources like devices or RAM, we added support for
programmatically generating the needed ACPI tables. Through a dedicated
`acpi-tables` crate, we now have a flexible and clean way of generating those
tables based on the VMM device model and topology.
### Filesystem and block devices vhost-user backends
Our objective of running all Cloud Hypervisor paravirtualized I/O to a
vhost-user based framework is getting closer as we've added Rust based
implementations for vhost-user-blk and virtiofs backends. Together with the
vhost-user-net backend that came with the 0.3.0 release, this will form the
default Cloud Hypervisor I/O architecture.
### Guest pause and resume
As an initial requirement for enabling live migration, we added support for
pausing and resuming any VMM components. As an intermediate step towards live
migration, the upcoming guest snapshotting feature will be based on the pause
and resume capabilities.
### Userspace IOAPIC by default
As a way to simplify our device manager implementation, but also in order to
stay away from privileged rings as often as possible, any device that relies on
pin based interrupts will be using the userspace IOAPIC implementation by
default.
### PCI BAR reprogramming
In order to allow for a more flexible device model, and also support guests
that would want to move PCI devices, we added support for PCI devices BAR
reprogramming.
### New `cloud-hypervisor` organization
As we wanted to be more flexible on how we manage the Cloud Hypervisor project,
we decided to move it under a [dedicated GitHub organization](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor).
Together with the [cloud-hypervisor](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor)
project, this new organization also now hosts our [kernel](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/linux)
and [firmware](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/rust-hypervisor-firmware)
repositories. We may also use it to host any rust-vmm that we'd need to
temporarily fork.
Thanks to GitHub's seamless repository redirections, the move is completely
transparent to all Cloud Hypervisor contributors, users and followers.
### Contributors
Many thanks to everyone that contributed to the 0.4.0 release:
* Cathy Zhang <cathy.zhang@intel.com>
* Emin Ghuliev <drmint80@gmail.com>
* Jose Carlos Venegas Munoz <jose.carlos.venegas.munoz@intel.com>
* Qiu Wenbo <qiuwenbo@phytium.com.cn>
* Rob Bradford <robert.bradford@intel.com>
* Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>
* Sebastien Boeuf <sebastien.boeuf@intel.com>
* Sergio Lopez <slp@redhat.com>
* Wu Zongyong <wuzongyong@linux.alibaba.com>
# v0.3.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.3.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/3).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.3.0 include:
### Block device offloading
We continue to work on offloading paravirtualized I/O to external processes,
and we added support for
[vhost-user-blk](https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3394851) backends.
This enables `cloud-hypervisor` users to plug a `vhost-user` based block device
like [SPDK](https://spdk.io)) into the VMM as their paravirtualized storage
backend.
### Network device backend
The previous release provided support for
[vhost-user-net](https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3394851) backends. Now we
also provide a TAP based vhost-user-net backend, implemented in Rust. Together
with the vhost-user-net device implementation, this will eventually become the
Cloud Hypervisor default paravirtualized networking architecture.
### Virtual sockets
In order to more efficiently and securely communicate between host and guest,
we added an hybrid implementation of the
[VSOCK](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/vsock.7.html) socket address
family over virtio. Credits go to the
[Firecracker](https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/blob/master/docs/vsock.md)
project as our implementation is a copy of theirs.
### HTTP based API
In anticipation of the need to support asynchronous operations to Cloud
Hypervisor guests (e.g. resources hotplug and guest migration), we added a HTTP
based API to the VMM. The API will be more extensively documented during the
next release cycle.
### Memory mapped virtio transport
In order to support potential PCI-free use cases, we added support for the
[virtio MMIO](https://docs.oasis-open.org/virtio/virtio/v1.1/cs01/virtio-v1.1-cs01.html#x1-1440002)
transport layer. This will allow us to support simple, minimal guest
configurations that do not require a PCI bus emulation.
### Paravirtualized IOMMU
As we want to improve our nested guests support, we added support for exposing
a [paravirtualized IOMMU](docs/iommu.md) device through virtio. This allows
for a safer nested virtio and directly assigned devices support.
To add the IOMMU support, we had to make some CLI changes for Cloud Hypervisor
users to be able to specify if devices had to be handled through this virtual
IOMMU or not. In particular, the `--disk` option now expects disk paths to be
prefixed with a `path=` string, and supports an optional `iommu=[on|off]`
setting.
### Ubuntu 19.10
With the latest [hypervisor firmware](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/rust-hypervisor-firmware),
we can now support the latest
[Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine)](http://releases.ubuntu.com/19.10/) cloud images.
### Large memory guests
After simplifying and changing our guest address space handling, we can now
support guests with large amount of memory (more than 64GB).
# v0.2.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.2.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/2).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.2.0 include:
### Network device offloading
As part of our general effort to offload paravirtualized I/O to external
processes, we added support for
[vhost-user-net](https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3394851) backends. This
enables `cloud-hypervisor` users to plug a `vhost-user` based networking device
(e.g. [DPDK](https://dpdk.org)) into the VMM as their virtio network backend.
### Minimal hardware-reduced ACPI
In order to properly implement and guest reset and shutdown, we implemented
a minimal version of the hardware-reduced ACPI specification. Together with
a tiny I/O port based ACPI device, this allows `cloud-hypervisor` guests to
cleanly reboot and shutdown.
The ACPI implementation is a `cloud-hypervisor` build time option that is
enabled by default.
### Debug I/O port
Based on the Firecracker idea of using a dedicated I/O port to measure guest
boot times, we added support for logging guest events through the
[0x80](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005500/boards-and-kits.html)
PC debug port. This allows, among other things, for granular guest boot time
measurements. See our [debug port documentation](docs/debug-port.md) for more
details.
### Improved direct device assignment
We fixed a major performance issue with our initial VFIO implementation: When
enabling VT-d through the KVM and VFIO APIs, our guest memory writes and reads
were (in many cases) not cached. After correctly tagging the guest memory from
`cloud-hypervisor` we're now able to reach the expected performance from
directly assigned devices.
### Improved shared filesystem
We added shared memory region with [DAX](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt)
support to our [virtio-fs](https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/) shared file system.
This provides better shared filesystem IO performance with a smaller guest
memory footprint.
### Ubuntu bionic based CI
Thanks to our [simple KVM firmware](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/rust-hypervisor-firmware)
improvements, we are now able to boot Ubuntu bionic images. We added those to
our CI pipeline.
# v0.1.0
This release has been tracked through the [0.1.0 project](https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/projects/1).
Highlights for `cloud-hypervisor` version 0.1.0 include:
### Shared filesystem
We added support for the [virtio-fs](https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/) shared file
system, allowing for an efficient and reliable way of sharing a filesystem
between the host and the `cloud-hypervisor` guest.
See our [filesystem sharing](docs/fs.md) documentation for more details on how
to use virtio-fs with `cloud-hypervisor`.
### Initial direct device assignment support
VFIO (Virtual Function I/O) is a kernel framework that exposes direct device
access to userspace. `cloud-hypervisor` uses VFIO to directly assign host
physical devices into its guest.
See our [VFIO](docs/vfio.md) documentation for more detail on how to directly
assign host devices to `cloud-hypervisor` guests.
### Userspace IOAPIC
`cloud-hypervisor` supports a so-called split IRQ chip implementation by
implementing support for the [IOAPIC](https://wiki.osdev.org/IOAPIC).
By moving part of the IRQ chip implementation from kernel space to user space,
the IRQ chip emulation does not always run in a fully privileged mode.
### Virtual persistent memory
The `virtio-pmem` implementation emulates a virtual persistent memory device
that `cloud-hypervisor` can e.g. boot from. Booting from a `virtio-pmem` device
allows to bypass the guest page cache and improve the guest memory footprint.
### Linux kernel bzImage
The `cloud-hypervisor` linux kernel loader now supports direct kernel boot from
`bzImage` kernel images, which is usually the format that Linux distributions
use to ship their kernels. For example, this allows for booting from the host
distribution kernel image.
### Console over virtio
`cloud-hypervisor` now exposes a `virtio-console` device to the guest. Although
using this device as a guest console can potentially cut some early boot
messages, it can reduce the guest boot time and provides a complete console
implementation.
The `virtio-console` device is enabled by default for the guest console.
Switching back to the legacy serial port is done by selecting
`--serial tty --console off` from the command line.
### Unit testing
We now run all unit tests from all our crates directly from our CI.
### Integration tests parallelization
The CI cycle run time has been significantly reduced by refactoring our
integration tests; allowing them to all be run in parallel.