✨ Features

Servin Container Runtime provides a comprehensive set of features through its revolutionary dual-mode architecture, offering both native Linux containerization and universal VM-based containerization across all platforms.

🚀 Revolutionary Dual-Mode Architecture

🎯 Universal Containerization

  • ✅ Native Mode (Linux): Direct kernel integration for maximum performance
  • ✅ VM Mode (Universal): True Linux containers on Windows, macOS, and Linux
  • ✅ Automatic Selection: Optimal mode chosen per platform
  • ✅ Identical API: Same commands work across all platforms and modes
  • ✅ Seamless Switching: Change modes without losing containers or data

Platform Support Matrix

Feature Linux Native Linux VM Windows VM macOS VM
Full Linux Containers ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Namespaces (PID/Net/Mount/etc) ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
cgroups Resource Control ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Hardware Isolation ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅
Security Boundaries Process VM VM VM
Performance Native Near-Native Near-Native Near-Native

🎯 Core Runtime Features

Container Lifecycle Management

  • ✅ Create, Start, Stop, Delete - Full container lifecycle control (all modes)
  • ✅ Pause/Unpause - Container execution control (all modes)
  • ✅ Restart Policies - Automatic container restart on failure (all modes)
  • ✅ Health Checks - Container health monitoring and reporting (all modes)
  • ✅ Resource Limits - CPU and memory constraint enforcement (all modes)
  • ✅ Environment Variables - Dynamic container configuration (all modes)
  • ✅ Port Mapping - Network port forwarding and exposure (all modes)
  • ✅ VM Persistence - Container state survives VM restarts (VM mode)

Image Management

  • ✅ Pull/Push Operations - Registry integration for image distribution (all modes)
  • ✅ Image Building - Dockerfile-based image creation (all modes)
  • ✅ Tag Management - Image versioning and tagging (all modes)
  • ✅ Layer Caching - Efficient image storage and reuse (all modes)
  • ✅ Multi-Architecture - ARM64 and AMD64 image support (all modes)
  • ✅ Image Cleanup - Automatic removal of unused images (all modes)
  • ✅ Cross-Mode Sharing - Images work in both native and VM modes

Volume Management

  • ✅ Bind Mounts - Host directory mounting (all modes)
  • ✅ Named Volumes - Persistent volume creation and management (all modes)
  • ✅ Volume Drivers - Pluggable storage backend support (all modes)
  • ✅ Volume Backup - Data protection and migration (all modes)
  • ✅ Permission Management - Access control for mounted volumes (all modes)
  • ✅ VM Volume Bridge - Seamless host-VM volume sharing (VM mode)
  • ✅ Volume Cleanup - Automatic removal of unused volumes (all modes)

Network Management

  • ✅ Bridge Networks - Container-to-container communication (all modes)
  • ✅ Host Networking - Direct host network access (all modes)
  • ✅ Custom Networks - User-defined network configurations (all modes)
  • ✅ Network Isolation - Security through network segmentation (all modes)
  • ✅ DNS Resolution - Automatic service discovery (all modes)
  • ✅ VM Network Bridge - Host-VM network integration (VM mode)
  • ✅ Load Balancing - Traffic distribution across containers (all modes)

🔌 Kubernetes Integration

Container Runtime Interface (CRI)

  • ✅ Full CRI v1alpha2 - Complete Kubernetes compatibility (all modes)
  • ✅ Pod Sandbox Management - Kubernetes pod lifecycle support (all modes)
  • ✅ Container Runtime Service - gRPC-based container operations (all modes)
  • ✅ Image Service - Kubernetes image management integration (all modes)
  • ✅ Runtime Configuration - Dynamic runtime parameter adjustment (all modes)
  • ✅ Security Contexts - Kubernetes security policy enforcement (all modes)
  • ✅ VM-Aware CRI - CRI optimized for VM mode operations (VM mode)

Kubelet Integration

  • ✅ gRPC API Server - Port 10010 for kubelet communication (all modes)
  • ✅ Pod Lifecycle - Full pod creation, execution, and cleanup (all modes)
  • ✅ Container Logs - Kubernetes-compatible log streaming (all modes)
  • ✅ Resource Reporting - Node resource usage metrics (all modes)
  • ✅ Health Monitoring - Container and pod health status (all modes)
  • ✅ Event Reporting - Kubernetes event system integration (all modes)
  • ✅ VM Resource Mapping - VM resources exposed to Kubernetes (VM mode)

🖥️ User Interfaces

Command Line Interface (CLI)

Universal CLI that works identically across all platforms and modes:

# Container Operations (work in all modes)
servin containers ls                 # List all containers
servin containers create ubuntu      # Create new container
servin containers start web-app     # Start container
servin containers stop web-app      # Stop container
servin containers rm web-app        # Remove container

# Image Operations (work in all modes)
servin images ls                     # List local images
servin images pull ubuntu:latest     # Pull image from registry
servin images build -t myapp .       # Build image from Dockerfile
servin images push myapp:latest      # Push image to registry

# Volume Operations (work in all modes)
servin volumes ls                    # List volumes
servin volumes create data-vol       # Create new volume
servin volumes rm data-vol           # Remove volume

# Network Operations (work in all modes)
servin networks ls                   # List networks
servin networks create app-net       # Create network
servin networks rm app-net           # Remove network

# VM Mode Specific Operations
servin vm status                     # Show VM status (VM mode only)
servin vm start                      # Start VM (VM mode only)
servin vm stop                       # Stop VM (VM mode only)
servin vm reset                      # Reset VM to clean state (VM mode only)

Terminal User Interface (TUI)

  • 🖥️ Mode Indicator - Clear display of current mode (Native/VM)
  • 📊 Real-time Status - Live container and resource monitoring (all modes)
  • 🔍 Search and Filter - Quick navigation through containers and images
  • 📋 Detailed Views - Comprehensive container and image information
  • ⌨️ Keyboard Navigation - Efficient keyboard-only operation
  • 🎨 Color-coded Status - Visual status indicators
  • 📱 Responsive Design - Adapts to different terminal sizes
  • 🔧 VM Controls - VM management interface (VM mode)

Desktop GUI Application

  • 🖱️ Visual Management - Point-and-click container operations
  • 📊 Resource Monitoring - Real-time CPU, memory, and network graphs
  • 📋 Container Inspector - Detailed container configuration viewer
  • 📄 Log Viewer - Integrated container log streaming
  • 🗂️ File Browser - Container filesystem exploration
  • ⚙️ Settings Panel - Runtime configuration management
  • 🎨 Modern UI - Clean, professional desktop interface
  • 🚀 Enhanced VM Engine Status - Real-time VM engine monitoring with color-coded indicators
  • 🟢 Live Status Updates - Automatic refresh of engine state (running/stopped/starting)
  • 🎛️ VM Control Panel - Start, stop, and restart VM engine with visual feedback
  • 🔄 Auto-Connect Terminal - Seamless terminal integration with automatic VM connection
  • 🌈 Visual Status Indicators - Green/red/orange status dots for instant engine state recognition
  • ⚡ Cross-Platform VM Support - Universal development provider for consistent behavior across platforms

📦 Installation Options

Windows

  • 🧙‍♂️ NSIS Wizard Installer - Professional Windows installation experience
  • 🚀 Start Menu Integration - Easy access from Windows Start Menu
  • 🔧 Service Installation - Background service with auto-start
  • 🗑️ Professional Uninstaller - Clean removal with registry cleanup
  • 👨‍💼 Administrator Privileges - Proper Windows service management
  • 📋 System Requirements Check - Pre-installation compatibility validation

Linux

  • 🐧 GUI Installer - Python/Tkinter-based cross-distribution installer
  • 🔧 systemd Integration - Background service with proper lifecycle management
  • 🖥️ Desktop Integration - Application menu and desktop shortcut creation
  • 📦 Package Dependencies - Automatic dependency resolution
  • 🔐 Permission Management - Proper user and group setup
  • 🔄 Update Support - In-place version upgrades

macOS

  • 🍎 Native Installer - Apple HIG-compliant installation experience
  • 📱 Application Bundle - Standard .app bundle creation
  • 🔧 launchd Service - macOS service management integration
  • 🔐 Code Signing - Signed application for security
  • 📋 System Integration - Proper macOS system integration
  • 🔄 Automatic Updates - Built-in update mechanism

🔧 Advanced Features

Security

  • 🔒 Rootless Containers - Enhanced security through non-root execution
  • 🛡️ AppArmor/SELinux - Linux security module integration
  • 🔐 Secret Management - Secure handling of sensitive data
  • 📜 Security Policies - Configurable security constraint enforcement
  • 🔍 Vulnerability Scanning - Automated image security analysis
  • 📋 Audit Logging - Security event tracking and reporting

Performance

  • ⚡ Fast Startup - Optimized container initialization
  • 💾 Memory Efficiency - Minimal memory footprint
  • 🔄 Resource Pooling - Efficient resource utilization
  • 📊 Performance Monitoring - Real-time performance metrics
  • 🚀 Parallel Operations - Concurrent container management
  • 💨 Layer Caching - Intelligent image layer reuse

Monitoring & Observability

  • 📊 Metrics Collection - Prometheus-compatible metrics
  • 📄 Structured Logging - JSON-formatted log output
  • 🔍 Distributed Tracing - OpenTelemetry integration
  • 📈 Performance Profiling - Runtime performance analysis
  • 🚨 Alerting - Configurable alert conditions
  • 📋 Health Checks - Container and service health monitoring

Development Tools

  • 🔨 Build Integration - CI/CD pipeline integration
  • 🧪 Testing Support - Container testing utilities
  • 📝 API Documentation - Comprehensive API reference
  • 🔌 Plugin System - Extensible plugin architecture
  • 📊 Debug Tools - Container debugging utilities
  • 🔄 Hot Reload - Development workflow optimization

🌐 Cross-Platform Compatibility

Operating Systems

  • ✅ Windows 10+ - Full Windows 10 and 11 support
  • ✅ Linux Distributions - Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Arch
  • ✅ macOS 10.12+ - Intel and Apple Silicon support

Architectures

  • ✅ AMD64/x86_64 - Standard 64-bit Intel/AMD processors
  • ✅ ARM64/AArch64 - Apple Silicon, ARM-based servers
  • ✅ ARMv7 - Raspberry Pi and embedded systems

Container Standards

  • ✅ OCI Compliance - Open Container Initiative standards
  • ✅ Docker Compatibility - Full Docker API compatibility
  • ✅ CRI Standard - Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface
  • ✅ CNI Support - Container Network Interface plugins

🔮 Upcoming Features

Planned for Next Release

  • 🔄 Container Migration - Live container migration between hosts
  • 🌍 Multi-Node Clustering - Distributed container orchestration
  • 🔐 OIDC Integration - OpenID Connect authentication
  • 📊 Advanced Metrics - Enhanced monitoring and observability
  • 🗄️ Database Integration - Persistent metadata storage
  • 🔌 WebUI - Web-based management interface

Future Roadmap

  • ☸️ Kubernetes Distribution - Full Kubernetes cluster management
  • 🌩️ Cloud Integration - AWS, Azure, GCP provider plugins
  • 🔒 Hardware Security - TPM and secure enclave support
  • 🚀 GPU Support - NVIDIA and AMD GPU container access
  • 📱 Mobile Apps - iOS and Android management applications

🚀 Getting Started

Ready to explore these features? Install Servin and start managing containers with professional tools designed for modern development workflows.

🎯 Choose Your Interface

💻 CLI Documentation 📟 TUI Guide 🖥️ GUI Tutorial