Firecracker microVMs can execute actions that can be triggered via PUT
requests on the /actions
resource.
Details about the required fields can be found in the swagger definition.
The InstanceStart
action powers on the microVM and starts the guest OS. It
does not have a payload. It can only be successfully called once.
curl --unix-socket ${socket} -i \
-X PUT "http://localhost/actions" \
-d '{ "action_type": "InstanceStart" }'
The FlushMetrics
action flushes the metrics on user demand.
curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
-X PUT "http://localhost/actions" \
-d '{ "action_type": "FlushMetrics" }'
This action will send the CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence to the microVM. By
convention, this sequence has been used to trigger a soft reboot and, as such,
most Linux distributions perform an orderly shutdown and reset upon receiving
this keyboard input. Since Firecracker exits on CPU reset, SendCtrlAltDel
can be used to trigger a clean shutdown of the microVM.
For this action, Firecracker emulates a standard AT keyboard, connected via an
i8042 controller. Driver support for both these devices needs to be present in
the guest OS. For Linux, that means the guest kernel needs
CONFIG_SERIO_I8042
and CONFIG_KEYBOARD_ATKBD
.
Note1: at boot time, the Linux driver for i8042 spends a few tens of milliseconds probing the device. This can be disabled by using these kernel command line parameters:
i8042.noaux i8042.nomux i8042.nopnp i8042.dumbkbd
Note2 This action is only supported on x86_64
architecture.
curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
-X PUT "http://localhost/actions" \
-d '{ "action_type": "SendCtrlAltDel" }'