PXEN: infrastructure orchestration
PXEN is a server management system that serves as a one-stop-shop for managing on-premise infrastructure - from baremetal OS installations to VM configuration and container orchestration. Placing an emphasis on simplicity, determinism, and security, PXEN minimizes the complexities often associated with large-scale orchestration systems.
current features
- extreme determinism via diskless hypervisors and centralized architecture
- eliminates entire classes of security vulnerabilities via in-ram OS
- plug-and-play integration with existing network infrastructure
- simple per-node config format with change tracking & easy reversion
- centralized configuration and secrets management
- reboot to update os and kernel
demo
Four virtual machines with a core node (upper left) hosting three diskless nodes, one of which (upper right) has a unique hardware fingerprint that's been assigned a custom configuration.
planned features
- autodetection of new diskless nodes from the host node
- full disk encryption on local node storage with centralized keys
- centralized management of VMs, micro-VMs, unikernels, and containers with dynamic migration and virtual networking
- desktop app for system management and generating host node images
- web interface for remote management with optional self-hosting
- multi-region networking with per-region host nodes
- secure, encrypted configuration distribution augmented with TPM integration
tech stack
- Alpine Linux
- Xen hypervisor
- PXE netbooting
- TCL, bash & python
inquiries
PXEN is currently in pre-release status. A beta version of the software may be downloaded via bittorrent here, and the password is available upon request. For any other inquiries, contact sales@pxen.io