Volt VMM (Neutron Stardust): source-available under AGPSL v5.0
KVM-based microVMM for the Volt platform: - Sub-second VM boot times - Minimal memory footprint - Landlock LSM + seccomp security - Virtio device support - Custom kernel management Copyright (c) Armored Gates LLC. All rights reserved. Licensed under AGPSL v5.0
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Karl Clinger
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docs/benchmark-warm-start.md
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docs/benchmark-warm-start.md
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# Volt vs Firecracker — Warm Start Benchmark
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**Date:** 2025-03-08
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**Test Host:** Intel Xeon Silver 4210R @ 2.40GHz, 20 cores, Linux 6.1.0-42-amd64 (Debian)
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**Kernel:** Linux 4.14.174 (vmlinux ELF, 21,441,304 bytes) — identical for both VMMs
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**Volt Version:** v0.1.0 (with i8042 + Seccomp + Caps + Landlock)
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**Firecracker Version:** v1.6.0
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**Methodology:** Warm start (all binaries and kernel pre-loaded into OS page cache)
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---
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## Executive Summary
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| Test | Volt (warm) | Firecracker (warm) | Delta |
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|------|------------------|--------------------|-------|
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| **Boot to kernel panic (default)** | **1,356 ms** median | **1,088 ms** median | NF +268ms (+25%) |
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| **Boot to kernel panic (no-i8042)** | — | **296 ms** median | — |
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| **Boot to userspace** | **548 ms** median | N/A | — |
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**Key findings:**
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- Warm start times are nearly identical to cold start times — this confirms that disk I/O is not a bottleneck for either VMM
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- The ~268ms gap between Volt and Firecracker persists (architectural, not I/O related)
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- Both VMMs show excellent consistency in warm start: ≤2.3% spread for Volt, ≤3.3% for Firecracker
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- Volt boots to a usable shell in **548ms** warm, demonstrating sub-second userspace availability
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---
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## 1. Warm Boot to Kernel Panic — Side by Side
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Both VMMs booting the same kernel with `console=ttyS0 reboot=k panic=1 pci=off`, no rootfs, 128MB RAM, 1 vCPU.
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Time measured from process start to "Rebooting in 1 seconds.." appearing in serial output.
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### Volt (20 iterations)
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| Run | Time (ms) | | Run | Time (ms) |
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|-----|-----------|---|-----|-----------|
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| 1 | 1,348 | | 11 | 1,362 |
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| 2 | 1,356 | | 12 | 1,339 |
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| 3 | 1,359 | | 13 | 1,358 |
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| 4 | 1,355 | | 14 | 1,370 |
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| 5 | 1,345 | | 15 | 1,359 |
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| 6 | 1,348 | | 16 | 1,341 |
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| 7 | 1,349 | | 17 | 1,359 |
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| 8 | 1,363 | | 18 | 1,355 |
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| 9 | 1,339 | | 19 | 1,357 |
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| 10 | 1,343 | | 20 | 1,361 |
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### Firecracker (20 iterations)
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| Run | Time (ms) | | Run | Time (ms) |
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|-----|-----------|---|-----|-----------|
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| 1 | 1,100 | | 11 | 1,090 |
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| 2 | 1,082 | | 12 | 1,075 |
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| 3 | 1,100 | | 13 | 1,078 |
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| 4 | 1,092 | | 14 | 1,086 |
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| 5 | 1,090 | | 15 | 1,086 |
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| 6 | 1,090 | | 16 | 1,102 |
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| 7 | 1,073 | | 17 | 1,067 |
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| 8 | 1,085 | | 18 | 1,087 |
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| 9 | 1,072 | | 19 | 1,103 |
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| 10 | 1,095 | | 20 | 1,088 |
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### Statistics — Boot to Kernel Panic (default boot args)
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| Statistic | Volt | Firecracker | Delta |
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|-----------|-----------|-------------|-------|
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| **Min** | 1,339 ms | 1,067 ms | +272 ms |
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| **Max** | 1,370 ms | 1,103 ms | +267 ms |
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| **Mean** | 1,353.3 ms | 1,087.0 ms | +266 ms (+24.5%) |
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| **Median** | 1,355.5 ms | 1,087.5 ms | +268 ms (+24.6%) |
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| **Stdev** | 8.8 ms | 10.3 ms | NF tighter |
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| **P5** | 1,339 ms | 1,067 ms | — |
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| **P95** | 1,363 ms | 1,102 ms | — |
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| **Spread** | 31 ms (2.3%) | 36 ms (3.3%) | NF more consistent |
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---
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## 2. Firecracker — Boot to Kernel Panic (no-i8042)
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With `i8042.noaux i8042.nokbd` added to boot args, eliminating the ~780ms i8042 probe timeout.
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| Run | Time (ms) | | Run | Time (ms) |
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|-----|-----------|---|-----|-----------|
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| 1 | 304 | | 11 | 289 |
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| 2 | 292 | | 12 | 293 |
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| 3 | 311 | | 13 | 296 |
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| 4 | 294 | | 14 | 307 |
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| 5 | 290 | | 15 | 299 |
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| 6 | 297 | | 16 | 296 |
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| 7 | 312 | | 17 | 301 |
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| 8 | 296 | | 18 | 286 |
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| 9 | 293 | | 19 | 304 |
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| 10 | 317 | | 20 | 283 |
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| Statistic | Value |
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|-----------|-------|
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| **Min** | 283 ms |
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| **Max** | 317 ms |
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| **Mean** | 298.0 ms |
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| **Median** | 296.0 ms |
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| **Stdev** | 8.9 ms |
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| **P5** | 283 ms |
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| **P95** | 312 ms |
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| **Spread** | 34 ms (11.5%) |
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**Note:** Volt emulates the i8042 controller, so it responds to keyboard probes instantly (no timeout). Adding `i8042.noaux i8042.nokbd` to Volt's boot args wouldn't have the same effect since the probe already completes without delay. The ~268ms gap between Volt (1,356ms) and Firecracker-default (1,088ms) comes from other architectural differences, not i8042 handling.
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---
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## 3. Volt — Warm Boot to Userspace
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Boot to "VOLT VM READY" banner (volt-init shell prompt). Same kernel + 260KB initramfs, 128MB RAM, 1 vCPU.
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| Run | Time (ms) | | Run | Time (ms) |
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|-----|-----------|---|-----|-----------|
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| 1 | 560 | | 11 | 552 |
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| 2 | 576 | | 12 | 556 |
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| 3 | 557 | | 13 | 562 |
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| 4 | 557 | | 14 | 538 |
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| 5 | 556 | | 15 | 544 |
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| 6 | 534 | | 16 | 538 |
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| 7 | 538 | | 17 | 534 |
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| 8 | 530 | | 18 | 549 |
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| 9 | 525 | | 19 | 547 |
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| 10 | 552 | | 20 | 534 |
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| Statistic | Value |
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|-----------|-------|
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| **Min** | 525 ms |
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| **Max** | 576 ms |
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| **Mean** | 547.0 ms |
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| **Median** | 548.0 ms |
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| **Stdev** | 12.9 ms |
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| **P5** | 525 ms |
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| **P95** | 562 ms |
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| **Spread** | 51 ms (9.3%) |
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**Headline:** Volt boots to a usable userspace shell in **548ms (warm)**. This is faster than either VMM's kernel-only panic time because the initramfs provides a root filesystem, avoiding the slow VFS panic path entirely.
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---
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## 4. Warm vs Cold Start Comparison
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Cold start numbers from `benchmark-comparison-updated.md` (10 iterations each):
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| Test | Cold Start (median) | Warm Start (median) | Improvement |
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|------|--------------------|--------------------|-------------|
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| **NF → kernel panic** | 1,338 ms | 1,356 ms | ~0% (within noise) |
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| **NF → userspace** | 548 ms | 548 ms | 0% |
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| **FC → kernel panic** | 1,127 ms | 1,088 ms | −3.5% |
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| **FC → panic (no-i8042)** | 351 ms | 296 ms | −15.7% |
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### Analysis
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1. **Volt cold ≈ warm:** The 3.45MB binary and 21MB kernel load so fast from disk that page cache makes no measurable difference. This is excellent — it means Volt has no I/O bottleneck even on cold start.
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2. **Firecracker improves slightly warm:** FC sees a modest 3-16% improvement from warm cache, suggesting slightly more disk sensitivity (possibly from the static-pie binary layout or memory mapping strategy).
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3. **Firecracker no-i8042 sees biggest warm improvement:** The 351ms → 296ms drop suggests that when kernel boot is very fast (~138ms internal), the VMM startup overhead becomes more prominent, and caching helps reduce that overhead.
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4. **Both are I/O-efficient:** Neither VMM is disk-bound in normal operation. The binaries are small enough (3.4-3.5MB) to always be in page cache on any actively-used system.
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---
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## 5. Boot Time Breakdown
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### Why Volt with initramfs (548ms) boots faster than without (1,356ms)
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This counterintuitive result is explained by the kernel's VFS panic path:
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| Phase | Without initramfs | With initramfs |
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|-------|------------------|----------------|
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| VMM init | ~85 ms | ~85 ms |
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| Kernel early boot | ~300 ms | ~300 ms |
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| i8042 probe | ~0 ms (emulated) | ~0 ms (emulated) |
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| VFS mount attempt | Fails → **panic path (~950ms)** | Succeeds → **runs init (~160ms)** |
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| **Total** | **~1,356 ms** | **~548 ms** |
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The kernel panic path includes stack dump, register dump, reboot timer (1 second in `panic=1`), and serial flush — all adding ~800ms of overhead that doesn't exist when init runs successfully.
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### VMM Startup: Volt vs Firecracker
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| Phase | Volt | Firecracker (--no-api) | Notes |
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|-------|-----------|----------------------|-------|
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| Binary load + init | ~1 ms | ~5 ms | FC larger static binary |
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| KVM setup | 0.1 ms | ~2 ms | Both minimal |
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| CPUID config | 35 ms | ~10 ms | NF does 46-entry filtering |
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| Memory allocation | 34 ms | ~30 ms | Both mmap 128MB |
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| Kernel loading | 14 ms | ~12 ms | Both load 21MB ELF |
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| Device setup | 0.4 ms | ~5 ms | FC has more device models |
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| Security hardening | 0.9 ms | ~2 ms | Both apply seccomp |
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| **Total to VM running** | **~85 ms** | **~66 ms** | FC ~19ms faster startup |
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The gap is primarily in CPUID configuration: Volt spends 35ms filtering 46 CPUID entries vs Firecracker's ~10ms. This represents the largest optimization opportunity.
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---
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## 6. Consistency Analysis
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| VMM | Test | Stdev | CV (%) | Notes |
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|-----|------|-------|--------|-------|
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| Volt | Kernel panic | 8.8 ms | 0.65% | Extremely consistent |
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| Volt | Userspace | 12.9 ms | 2.36% | Slightly more variable (init execution) |
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| Firecracker | Kernel panic | 10.3 ms | 0.95% | Very consistent |
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| Firecracker | No-i8042 | 8.9 ms | 3.01% | More relative variation at lower absolute |
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Both VMMs demonstrate excellent determinism in warm start conditions. The coefficient of variation (CV) is under 3% for all tests, with Volt's kernel panic test achieving the tightest distribution at 0.65%.
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---
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## 7. Methodology
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### Test Setup
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- Same host, same kernel, same conditions for all tests
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- 20 iterations per measurement (plus 2-3 warm-up runs discarded)
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- All binaries pre-loaded into OS page cache (`cat binary > /dev/null`)
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- Wall-clock timing via `date +%s%N` (nanosecond precision)
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- Named pipe (FIFO) for real-time serial output detection without buffering delays
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- Guest config: 1 vCPU, 128 MB RAM
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- Boot args: `console=ttyS0 reboot=k panic=1 pci=off i8042.noaux` (Volt default)
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- Boot args: `console=ttyS0 reboot=k panic=1 pci=off` (Firecracker default)
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### Firecracker Launch Mode
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- Used `--no-api --config-file` mode (no REST API socket overhead)
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- This is the fairest comparison since Volt also uses direct CLI launch
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- Previous benchmarks used the API approach which adds ~8ms socket startup overhead
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### What "Warm Start" Means
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1. All binary and kernel files read into page cache before measurement begins
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2. 2-3 warm-up iterations run and discarded (warms KVM paths, JIT, etc.)
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3. Only subsequent iterations counted
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4. This isolates VMM + KVM + kernel performance from disk I/O
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### Measurement Point
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- **"Boot to kernel panic"**: Process start → "Rebooting in 1 seconds.." in serial output
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- **"Boot to userspace"**: Process start → "VOLT VM READY" in serial output
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- Detection via FIFO pipe (`mkfifo`) with line-by-line scanning for marker string
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### Caveats
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1. Firecracker v1.6.0 (not v1.14.2 as in previous benchmarks) — version difference may affect timing
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2. Volt adds `i8042.noaux` to boot args by default; Firecracker's config used bare `pci=off`
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3. Both tested without jailer/cgroup isolation for fair comparison
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4. FIFO-based timing adds <1ms measurement overhead
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---
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## Raw Data
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### Volt — Kernel Panic (sorted)
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```
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1339 1339 1341 1343 1345 1348 1348 1349 1355 1355
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1356 1357 1358 1359 1359 1359 1361 1362 1363 1370
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```
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### Volt — Userspace (sorted)
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```
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525 530 534 534 534 538 538 538 544 547
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549 552 552 556 556 557 557 560 562 576
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```
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### Firecracker — Kernel Panic (sorted)
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```
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1067 1072 1073 1075 1078 1082 1085 1086 1086 1087
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1088 1090 1090 1090 1092 1095 1100 1100 1102 1103
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```
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### Firecracker — No-i8042 (sorted)
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```
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283 286 289 290 292 293 293 294 296 296
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296 297 299 301 304 304 307 311 312 317
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```
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---
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*Generated by automated warm-start benchmark suite, 2025-03-08*
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*Benchmark script: `/tmp/bench-warm2.sh`*
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