A new community led project within Xen.org, the Xen Introspection Project, is being officially launched today.
The purpose of the Xen Introspection Project is to design an API for performing VM introspection and implement the necessary functionality into Xen. It is anticipated that the project will include the following activities (in loose order):
(1) Identification of specific services/functions that introspection should support
(2) Discussion of how that functionality could be achieved under the Xen architecture
(3) Prioritization of functionality and activities
(4) API definition
(5) Implementation.
Some potential applications of VM introspection include security, forensics, debugging, and systems management.
I will be setting up a new xen-introspect@lists.xensource.com email alias shortly (having problems with the system today) and will also be contacting interested community members to setup the first meeting; most likely next week. A Xen Wiki section is setup for the project with three new pages:
- Project Information: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/Project_Information
- Meeting Minutes: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/Meeting_Minutes
- Project Updates: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/Project_Update
If you are interested in being on the first meeting, please email me with your contact information so I can make sure you are on the initial meeting setup mailing list. Please add a comment about Xen Introspection so I know that you are interested in this project from your email.