EbbRT: Elastic Building Block Runtime - overview

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides a developer the ability to construct applications that dynamically acquire and release potentially large numbers of raw virtual or physical machines (nodes). The Elastic Building Block Runtime (EbbRT) is a new runtime for constructing and retro-fitting applications to take advantage of this opportunity. EbbRT is a realization of the MultiLibOS model[?]. This model is based on the simple idea that not all IaaS nodes, used by a single application, need a general purpose OS. Rather, an asymmetric system software structure can be adopted where an application is distributed across a mix of general purpose OSs and specialized library OSs. The general purpose OS nodes support complete OS functionality and legacy compatibility. The rest of the nodes execute simple, customized, library operating systems that support a single application operation. EbbRT provides a lightweight runtime that enables the construction of reusable, low-level system software which can integrate with existing, general purpose systems. It achieves this by providing a library that can be linked into a process on an existing OS, and as a small library OS that can be booted directly on an IaaS node. The two core primitives that EbbRT provides are: