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Compute: VM-backed instances (QEMU/KVM) #3
Description
EC2 instances currently run as resource-limited containers on Docker: they share the host kernel and their disk is the container's writable layer. This tracks VM-backed instances (full kernels, real disks, stronger isolation) alongside containers, selectable per image or instance type.
- Hypervisor driver: QEMU/KVM on Linux, QEMU with Hypervisor.framework (hvf) on macOS; clear error when neither is available
- Instance types enforced as real vCPU and memory limits
- Boot cloud images (Ubuntu, Debian, Amazon Linux) with their own kernels
- cloud-init: key pairs, user data, hostname
- EBS volumes as virtual disks: attach/detach, snapshots, enforced sizes
- VMs join VPC subnets with private IPs, same as container instances
- Instance metadata (IMDS) reachable from VMs, including role credentials
- Serial/VNC console in the web console; stop, start and reboot act on the VM
- Containers stay available as a lightweight option
- CloudWatch metrics collected from VMs
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homecloud backupincludes VM disks - Same EC2 API, CLI, Terraform and console, so existing tooling keeps working
Activity
[-]Compute (EC2) (switch to KVM)[/-][+]Compute: VM-backed instances (QEMU/KVM)[/+]drk1rd commentedon Sep 29, 2026
Updated for v0.1.0: container instances, the EC2/VPC AWS API and the instance metadata service are in place, so VM-backed instances can plug into the same API. Still planned.
drk1rd commentedon Sep 30, 2026
Stage 1 is in #82: VM AMIs for Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12, QEMU in a container on the VPC network (passt), KVM or emulation, cloud-init, root disks, lifecycle, console output, security groups, CI with KVM.
Stage 2:
drk1rd commentedon Oct 7, 2026
VM-backed instances shipped in #82 (stage 1 + stage 2: volumes, snapshots, images, backups, run-command, serial terminal, guest metrics, console choice). Open follow-ups: passt on Ubuntu 24.04 (#90), macOS native acceleration.