VSOCK: From Convenience to Performant VirtIO Communication

Explore the evolution of VSOCK from a convenient communication tool to a high-performance networking protocol in virtualized environments. Delve into the recent advancements of virtio/vsock, including its new support for datagrams, which enables efficient packet exchange between virtual machines and the host. Compare VSOCK datagrams with UDP over virtio to understand its practical performance advantages in high-throughput point-to-point socket-based communication scenarios. Examine the integration of sockmap for VSOCK, allowing eBPF programs to interact with VSOCK sockets within the kernel, and learn how this capability enables dynamic socket management and combines the performance benefits of both sockmap and VSOCK in practical applications. This 38-minute conference talk from the Linux Plumbers Conference provides valuable insights into the growing potential of VSOCK for demanding networking workloads across the host/VM boundary.