2025-12-15 21:06:22 -05:00

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🚀 MNMIVM

Fire-and-Forget Virtual Machines

MNMIVM is a minimal, single-binary VM launcher built on QEMU + KVM + cloud-init. It is designed for fast iteration, ephemeral usage, and zero ceremony.

If Docker feels too constrained, and OpenStack / Proxmox feel like overkill — MNMIVM sits comfortably in the middle.

Spin it up. Get a random port. SSH in. Done.

✨ What MNMIVM Is

A fire-and-forget VM launcher
A CLI-first virtualization tool
A thin orchestration layer, not a platform
A way to spin up real Linux VMs without running a control plane

MNMIVM intentionally avoids:

Long-lived port bindings
Static network assumptions
Cluster state
Databases
APIs
Daemons

It launches a VM, hands you SSH + VNC, and gets out of the way.

🧠 Design Philosophy

MNMIVM is built around a few hard rules:

No background services
No required config files
No global state beyond /var/lib/microvm
Every VM is self-contained
Cloud-init is the source of truth
Root-only, explicit control

This makes MNMIVM ideal for:

Homelabs
CI runners
Testing OS images
Disposable dev environments
Learning QEMU/KVM internals
“I just need a VM right now”

🆚 How It Compares (At a Glance)

Feature	MNMIVM	Docker	LXC/LXD	Proxmox	OpenStack
Real VMs	✅	❌	⚠️	✅	✅
Cloud-init	✅	❌	⚠️	✅	✅
Requires Daemons	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Random Ports	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Cluster-aware	❌	❌	⚠️	✅	✅
Stateful Control Plane	❌	❌	⚠️	✅	✅
Setup Time	Seconds	Minutes	Minutes	Hours	Days

MNMIVM behaves more like docker run for VMs, not like a cloud.

🧱 Architecture Overview

QEMU + KVM for virtualization
User-mode networking (no bridges required)
Cloud-init seed ISO (cidata) for provisioning
QCOW2 backing images
Ephemeral SSH + VNC ports
State stored on disk only

/var/lib/microvm/
├── images/        # Base cloud images
└── vms/
    └── vm1/
        ├── disk.qcow2
        ├── seed.iso
        ├── pubkey.pub
        ├── os.name
        ├── ssh.port
        ├── vnc.port
        └── vm.pid

No database. No API. No daemon.

📦 Supported Operating Systems

OS	Version	Boot Mode
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS	BIOS
Debian	13 (Trixie)	BIOS
Fedora	43 Cloud	BIOS
Alpine	3.22	BIOS

UEFI images are intentionally avoided for simplicity and reliability.

🔑 SSH & Identity Management

SSH keys are injected via cloud-init
Keys are fully replaced, not appended
Old keys are revoked
update-cloud regenerates the seed ISO
Changes apply on next boot

This gives you real identity revocation, not just key sprawl.

📀 Disk Behavior

Base disk size is 12GB (configurable constant)
Uses QCOW2 backing images
Root filesystem auto-expands on first boot
Predictable, uniform VM sizing

This keeps resource usage balanced and intentional.

🧰 CLI Usage

Create a VM

sudo mnmivm create vm1 --os debian --pubkey-path ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Start a VM

sudo mnmivm start vm1

Stop a VM

sudo mnmivm stop vm1

Update SSH key (cloud-init)

sudo mnmivm update-cloud vm1 --pubkey-path newkey.pub

List VMs

sudo mnmivm list

Delete a VM

sudo mnmivm delete vm1
# Requires typing YES in all caps

📊 VM List Output

MNMIVM renders a clean Unicode table showing:

Name
Running state
OS
SSH endpoint
VNC endpoint
SSH public key path

This makes it usable without scripting.

⚠️ What MNMIVM Is Not

❌ A cloud platform
❌ A hypervisor manager
❌ A replacement for Proxmox
❌ A Kubernetes node orchestrator
❌ A long-lived VM manager

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

If you want a VM right now, MNMIVM wins.

🧪 Project Status

✅ Actively working
✅ Under ~600 lines of Go
✅ No external Go dependencies
⚠️ API not stabilized yet
⚠️ CLI flags may evolve

This project is intentionally hackable and readable.

🐧 Why MNMIVM Exists

Sometimes you don’t want:

A cluster
A UI
A dashboard
A service mesh

You just want to:

“Launch a VM and throw it into orbit.”

That’s MNMIVM.

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