OpenSolaris

You are not signed in. Sign in or register.

OpenSolaris Project: Crossbow: Network Virtualization and Resource Control

View the leaders for this project
Project Observers

Endorsing communities

Device Drivers
HPC Developer
Logical Domains
Networking
OS/Net (ON)
Performance
Xen

What's New

  • Community Conference One (June 1-3, 2009) - You're Invited
    • We are inviting everyone to the CommunityOne open developer's conference.
    The CommunityOne Developer's Conference will be held on June 1-3 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA.
    This is an opportunity for the Networking Community to see the latest innovations, to share information, and help direct the future not only of Crossbow, but the entire networking endeavor.
    If you plan to attend, register here.
    Make sure also to attend the Crossbow BOF on June 2 at 5:30 p.m., followed by Hands-on Workshop at 7:30 p.m. If you're interested, register at this site.
  • Crossbow now available in Nevada
    • Crossbow was integrated in the Nevada build 105 on December 4th, 2008!
    A list of Current features and ongoing work is available here.
    To download a build with Crossbow features, follow the instructions on the OpenSolaris download page.

Introduction to Crossbow

Crossbow provides the building blocks for network virtualization and resource control by virtualizing the stack and NIC around any service (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NFS, etc.), protocol or Virtual machine.

Each virtual stack can be assigned its own priority and bandwidth on a shared NIC without causing any performance degradation. The architecture dynamically manages priority and bandwidth resources, and can provide better defense against denial-of-service attacks directed at a particular service or virtual machine by isolating the impact just to that entity. The virtual stacks are separated by means of H/W classification engine such that traffic for one stack does not impact other virtual stacks.

Project Crossbow is next step in the evolution of Solaris networking stack and brings bandwidth resource control and virtualization as part of the architecture itself instead of the usual add-on layers which have heavy overheads and complexity.

Functional Components

Virtualization Components

Virtual NICs
  • Based on hardware and software
  • Configurable link speed
  • Based on open standards
  • No configuration changes on the switch
  • Real time information and historical data on resource use
  • High availability
Virtual Switching
  • Provides connectivity between virtual machines
  • Enables vWire: Network In a Box
  • VLAN separation
Virtual NICs

Flows (QoS Reinvented)

The following attributes can be defined on a flow:
  • Services (protocol + remote/local ports)
  • Transport (TCP, UDP, SCTP, iSCSI, etc)
  • Remote and local IP addresses
  • Remote IP Subnets
  • DSCP labels
The following properties can be set on each flow:
  • Bandwidth limits
  • Priorities
  • CPUs
 Flows

Virtual Wire

Crossbow enables you to map a physical network setup to a single box, even a low end laptop.
  • Creation of virtual networks and virtual network interfaces
  • Enforcement of limits to network bandwidth
  • Reconfiguration of virtual networks on the fly
 Virtual Networks

Announcements

08 Dec 2008 Crossbow Available in Nevada
10 Mar 2008 Crossbow Beta bits are available
14 Feb 2008 New Crossbow Beta Pre-Release Available
20 Feb 2007 Sun Multithreaded Networking 10Gbps Card and Project Crossbow
18 Sep 2006 The IP instances piece of crossbow is now ready for design rev

News

REVIEW: Network Virtualization Stands Out in OpenSolaris 2009.06 | eWEEK.com | 06/24/2009

Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris 2009.06 offers a sneak peek at what's coming down the pike in Solaris. One of the most compelling features in OpenSolaris 2009.06 is the Crossbow network virtualization system, which allows OpenSolaris administrators to provide individual network services or virtual machines with their own virtualized network adapter and stack.

Sun Boosts OpenSolaris On Networking, Virtualization | InformationWeek | 06/08/2009

The OpenSolaris 2009.6 networking stack has been rewritten to take advantage of large-scale, multiprocessor servers functioning on a high-speed network.

Sun Boosts OpenSolaris On Networking, Virtualization | InformationWeek | 06/03/2009

The OpenSolaris 2009.6 networking stack has been rewritten to take advantage of large-scale, multiprocessor servers functioning on a high-speed network.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 released | Help Net Security (HNS) | 06/02/2009

Sun unveiled OpenSolaris 2009.06, delivering features in networking, storage and virtualization, along with performance enhancements and developer productivity updates...

OpenSolaris 2009.06 features major virtualization, storage upgrades | ComputerWorld | 06/02/2009

Sun Microsystems on Monday made available the OpenSolaris 2009.06 operating system, which included for the first time Sun's Crossbow technology for creating virtual network infrastructure on a single system.

Blogs

stw - ssh and friends scp, sftp say "hello crypto!"

Jun 17, 4:07 PM

Solaris includes the SunSSH toolset (ssh, scp, and sftp) in Solaris 9 and later. Solaris 10 comes with the Solaris Cryptographic Framework that provides an easy mechanism for applications that use ...

stw - OpenSolaris 2009.06 Delivers Crossbow (Network Virtualization and Resource Control)

Jun 1, 8:00 AM

Today OpenSolaris 2009.06, the third release of OpenSolaris, is announced and available for download. Among the many features in this version is the delivery of Project Crossbow , in a fully ...

markusflierl - Crossbow BOF and hands-on workshop

May 29, 3:34 PM

Next week is going to be very exciting for me, Sun will have its big developer conferences, CommunityONE and JavaONE at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Crossbow will be one of the main features ...

sunay - Crossbow Sigcomm09 papers are now online

May 26, 7:14 PM

Crossbow Sigcomm09 papers are now online Here are the details of the two Crossbow ACM Sigcomm09 papers Crossbow: From Hardware Virtualized NICs to Virtualized Networks Abstract: This paper describes ...

droux - Crossbow for Cloud Computing Architectures

May 26, 10:21 AM

The first phase of Crossbow was integrated in OpenSolaris last December. I recently posted a paper which shows how Crossbow technology such as virtual NICs (VNICs), virtual switches, Virtual Wires ...