mrkmntal 7c8ba859fb server edition, first version complete

2025-12-18 21:07:59 -05:00

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🚀 MNMIVM-SE (Server Edition)

A LAN-Native VM Cloud with a Minimal Control Plane

MNMIVM-SE is the server-focused edition of MNMIVM — a minimal, single-binary VM launcher built on QEMU + KVM + cloud-init that turns your LAN into a local VM cloud.

Unlike traditional platforms, MNMIVM-SE exposes the raw infrastructure primitives directly: bridges, TAP devices, MAC addresses, static IPs, and Linux processes.

Your LAN is the fabric.
The kernel is the scheduler.
The CLI is the control plane.

☁️ What MNMIVM-SE Is

A local VM cloud built directly on your LAN
A process-native control plane
A CLI-first infrastructure tool
A Proxmox-style networking model without Proxmox

Each VM:

Has a persistent MAC address
Has a static IP on your LAN
Appears as a first-class network device
Can host real infrastructure services (DNS, CI, storage, routing, etc.)

Routers, firewalls, and switches see MNMIVM-SE VMs as real machines, not NAT artifacts.

🧠 Control Plane Model

MNMIVM-SE does have a control plane — it’s just intentionally minimal, local, and explicit.

The control plane is implemented as:

A single CLI binary
A file-backed state store
Linux process lifecycle tracking

There is:

No always-on daemon
No API server
No database
No reconciliation loop
No scheduler service

Instead:

VM lifecycle = Linux process lifecycle
State = files under /var/lib/microvm
Configuration changes = cloud-init regeneration
Access = SSH + VNC

The filesystem is the state store.
/proc is the source of truth.
Each CLI command is a deliberate control action.

This makes MNMIVM-SE closer to early private IaaS and bare-metal virtualization than modern hyperscaler platforms.

🧱 Supported Host Operating Systems

MNMIVM-SE is conservative about host support and only documents what is tested.

✅ Supported

Host OS	Version
Debian	12+
Alpine Linux	3.22+

🕒 Coming Soon

Host OS	Notes
Ubuntu	Netplan-based host networking support planned

Ubuntu is not currently documented due to netplan-specific bridge handling.
Support will be added, but is not a top priority.

❌ Not Supported

Wi-Fi–only hosts
WSL / nested hypervisors
Desktop laptop setups expecting NAT

🧱 Architecture Overview

QEMU + KVM
Linux bridge (br0)
TAP devices
Cloud-init seed ISO
Static IP networking
VNC console for recovery


/var/lib/microvm/
├── images/
└── vms/
└── vm1/
├── disk.qcow2
├── seed.iso
├── pubkey.pub
├── os.name
├── vm.ip
├── vm.mac
├── vnc.port
└── vm.pid

No libvirt.
No XML.
No daemon.

🌐 Host Networking Requirements (CRITICAL)

MNMIVM-SE requires a proper Linux bridge.

Example: `/etc/network/interfaces` (Debian)

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto ens18
iface ens18 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
    address 192.168.86.10
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.86.1
    dns-nameservers 1.1.1.1 8.8.8.8
    bridge_ports ens18
    bridge_stp off
    bridge_fd 0

Rules that must be followed:

The host IP must live on br0
The physical NIC must have no IP
Wi-Fi cannot be bridged
VMs attach via TAP devices

🔥 Kernel Bridge Filtering (THIS WILL BREAK VMs)

Linux defaults can silently block bridged traffic.

This must be disabled:

cat /proc/sys/net/bridge/bridge-nf-call-iptables
# must be 0

If set to 1, VMs will:

Boot successfully
Have valid IPs
Be completely unreachable

Fix (runtime)

sudo sysctl -w net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables=0
sudo sysctl -w net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables=0
sudo sysctl -w net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-arptables=0

Persistent fix

/etc/sysctl.d/99-bridge.conf:

net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 0
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables = 0
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-arptables = 0

🔐 QEMU Bridge Permissions

QEMU must be allowed to attach TAP devices.

`/etc/qemu/bridge.conf`

allow br0

Verify helper:

ls -l /usr/lib/qemu/qemu-bridge-helper

🐧 Alpine Linux Host Notes (3.22+)

Alpine does not ship a hypervisor stack by default.

Install required packages:

apk add \
  qemu-system-x86_64 \
  qemu-img \
  qemu-hw-display-virtio-vga \
  bridge-utils \
  cdrkit \
  go

Notes:

cdrkit provides genisoimage
bridge-utils provides brctl
qemu-hw-display-virtio-vga is required for VNC
No libvirt or services are used
OpenRC is sufficient

Alpine works well as a minimal KVM host once assembled.

⚙️ Server Edition Configuration (Code-Level)

Networking and sizing are configured in code, not via runtime flags.

Edit these constants in main.go (around lines 25–30):

// Networking
bridgeName = "br0"
lanCIDR    = "192.168.86.0/24"
lanGW      = "192.168.86.1"
lanDNS1    = "192.168.86.1"
lanDNS2    = "8.8.8.8"

// VM sizing
baseDiskSize = "12G"
memMB        = "1024"
cpus         = "1"

This keeps runtime behavior explicit and predictable.

🧰 CLI Usage

Create a VM

sudo mnmivm-se create vm1 \
  --os debian \
  --pubkey-path ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub \
  --ip 192.168.86.53

Start a VM

sudo mnmivm-se start vm1

SSH in

ssh debian@192.168.86.53

Stop a VM

sudo mnmivm-se stop vm1

Update cloud-init (SSH key / IP)

sudo mnmivm-se update-cloud vm1 \
  --pubkey-path newkey.pub \
  --ip 192.168.86.54

🔑 Security Model

SSH key–only access
No password authentication
No root login
Static IPs (no DHCP ambiguity)
MAC addresses pinned via cloud-init
VNC console for recovery only

This follows server-grade discipline, not container ergonomics.

⚠️ What MNMIVM-SE Is Not

❌ A managed cloud service
❌ A multi-tenant platform
❌ A scheduler or orchestrator
❌ A UI-driven system
❌ A laptop-friendly NAT tool

If you want policy, HA, quotas, tenants, use Proxmox or OpenStack.

If you want direct control over real infrastructure, MNMIVM-SE is the tool.

🐧 Why MNMIVM-SE Exists

Because sometimes you don’t want:

libvirt
XML
dashboards
APIs
orchestration layers

You want:

“Put a VM on my LAN, give it an IP, and let me build infrastructure.”

MNMIVM-SE does exactly that — and nothing more.

⚠️ Final Note

If you break networking with MNMIVM-SE, it isn’t a bug.

It’s Linux doing exactly what you told it to do.

And that’s the point.

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