Motivation

Unikernels seem like a really interesting way to tackle certain architectural problems effectively. I wanted to dive in and explore them a bit (just scratching the surface, though) and see what they're all about.

About

gifkernel is a proof-of-concept project—a small, single-purpose web app built for quick and easy deployment as a unikernel on AWS EC2.

Requirements

Note: Currently tested on Linux.

• Go _{for the web server (tested on 1.23.4)}
• Ops _{to create and deploy the unikernel}
• Giphy _{API key}
• Vegeta _{(optional - for load testing)}

Usage

1. Clone this repository.
2. Open config.json and provide your information, especially the S3 bucket name.
3. Open www/index.html and add your Giphy API key.
4. Build:
   GOOS=linux go build -o gifkernel server.go
5. Run:
   ops run gifkernel
   _{then visit http://localhost:8888.}

Test

A basic load test program is available under cmd/bench.go. You can test locally or against your deployed server.

Deploy

• Ensure your ~/.aws/credentials file is setup.
• Execute the deploy.sh script.