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Overview

Frag-falcon is a Firecracker micro VM management tool, which allows you to create Firecracker VMs from Docker images.

Like many others these days, I relied heavily on Docker containers for managing my compute workloads, along with tools like Portainer for orchestration. However, I encountered issues with Podman’s preferred network backend, Netavark, particularly in maintaining stable DHCP assignments for containers accessible from my internal network.

This led me to consider whether it was possible to move away from container runtimes altogether. Instead of relying on a second layer of container and networking setups, I explored the idea of migrating my Docker images and storage volumes to VMs. Firecracker, with its minimalist, single-binary Hypervisor runtime, seemed like a natural fit for this experiment. Coupling that with well-known Linux networking components like bridges and tap devices allowed me to reduce the number of moving pieces.

So flc was initially a one-month experiment aimed at determining whether I could transition from container-based virtualization to a MicroVM-based approach. While it may not be suitable for everyone, it has proven effective in my scenario, and it may serve as a valuable tool for others facing similar challenges in their virtualization workflows.