Skip to content
SYNNET DevHub

synvirt (hypervisor · Rust/KVM)

Synced read-only from /home/synnet/mirrors/synvirt-product/README.md. Edit at the source, not here.

SynVirt

Section titled “SynVirt”
 __   ___      __  _______  ____  _  ____
 \ \ / (_)_ __/ /_/ __/\ \/ /  \| |/ /  \
  \ V /| | '_/ __/\__ \ \  /| . `   /| . |
   \_/ |_|_|  \__/____/ /  \|_|\_|_/ |__/
                        /_/

Hypervisor infrastructure for the modern SMB

0.15.0 | Rust 1.95 | Debian 13 | HTTPS

SynVirt is a commercial hypervisor platform built for small and medium businesses and managed service providers across Mexico and Latin America. It offers a console-first operational model, a fully open-source technology stack that operators can audit end-to-end, tiered licensing by CPU socket, and a control plane written entirely in Rust.

Developed by SYNNET — Culiacán, México.

Quick Start

Section titled “Quick Start”
Terminal window
# 1. Internal, local-only repository (no public remote).
#    On the dev host it already lives at /home/synvirt/dev.
cd /home/synvirt/dev


# 2. Start the development daemon on a Debian 13 host
cargo run -p synvirt-daemon -- --dev


# 3. Open the web interface
#    https://localhost:8443
#    (Accept the self-signed certificate warning in your browser)

Architecture

Section titled “Architecture”

SynVirt supports three operational modes that grow with your infrastructure:

+------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +----------------------------------------+
|   STANDALONE     |     |           TWIN              |     |              CLUSTER                   |
|                  |     |                             |     |                                        |
|  +-----------+   |     |  +-------+   +-------+     |     |  +-------+  +-------+  +-------+      |
|  |  Node 01  |   |     |  | Node  |   | Node  |     |     |  | Node  |  | Node  |  | Node  |      |
|  | (primary) |   |     |  |  01   |   |  02   |     |     |  |  01   |  |  02   |  |  03   |      |
|  |           |   |     |  |       |   |       |     |     |  |       |  |       |  |  ...  |      |
|  | daemon    |   |     |  | daemon|   | daemon|     |     |  | daemon|  | daemon|  | daemon|      |
|  | KVM       |   |     |  | KVM   |   | KVM   |     |     |  | KVM   |  | KVM   |  | KVM   |      |
|  | ZFS       |   |     |  | DRBD  |   | DRBD  |     |     |  | DRBD  |  | DRBD  |  | DRBD  |      |
|  +-----------+   |     |  +---+---+   +---+---+     |     |  +---+---+  +---+---+  +---+---+      |
|                  |     |      |           |          |     |      |    \    |    /      |           |
|  1 node          |     |  +---+-----------+---+      |     |  +---+-----\--+--/--------+---+       |
|  No HA           |     |  |     Witness Node   |     |     |  |       etcd Raft quorum     |       |
|  Local storage   |     |  +-------------------+      |     |  +---------------------------+       |
|                  |     |                             |     |                                        |
|  Dev / test      |     |  2 nodes + witness          |     |  3+ nodes, distributed scheduling     |
|  Single-site SMB |     |  Synchronous DRBD repl.     |     |  Full HA, live migration               |
+------------------+     +-----------------------------+     +----------------------------------------+


                         Upgrade path: Standalone --> Twin --> Cluster (non-destructive)

Control Plane Stack

Section titled “Control Plane Stack”
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                     synvirt-daemon                           |
|                   (single Rust binary)                       |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Axum (HTTP router)  |  Rustls (TLS)  |  Tokio (async rt)  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|           Embedded web server on :443 (prod) / :8443 (dev)  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Static assets: /opt/synvirt/web/  (or ./web/ in dev mode)  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Modules

Section titled “Modules”

The repo is a Cargo workspace. The tables below mirror the crate layout under crates/ and the top-level iso-builder/ pipeline.

Core platform

Section titled “Core platform”
Crate Purpose
daemon Control-plane HTTPS API (axum, TLS). The single entry point for operators.
synvirt-libvirt libvirt / KVM wrapper (virsh subprocess + XML renderer).
console-gateway WebSocket ↔ TCP-socket bridge proxying VNC, with HS256 JWT tickets.
guest-tools-iso Builder for the pinned virtio-win + SynVirt guest-tools ISO.
web-ux-v2 Canonical Vue 3.5 + TS + Vite + Pinia dashboard, mounted at /.
web-ux Legacy Vue 3 / Pinia / Tailwind dashboard (vendored), off-ramp at /legacy/.
web-installer-v2 Canonical Vue 3.5 + TS pre-install wizard.
web-installer Legacy hand-rolled pre-install browser wizard (off-ramp).
live Live-ISO TUI (boot-time installer front-end).
console Post-install 23-screen admin TUI on tty1.
boot-splash 12-step boot-progress TUI on tty1 with recovery screen.
tui-theme Shared ratatui palette + layout helpers.
cli Operator CLI binary (synvirt-cli).
agent Placeholder for the future per-host node agent (synvirt-node-agent).
migrator VM import engine: live pull from external hypervisors + offline archive/disk import.
core Cross-cutting types shared by every crate above.

This is a curated subset. The data-plane services (synvirt-network, synvirt-storaged, synvirt-migratord, synvirt-updaterd, synvirt-livemotiond, synvirt-backupd), the Settings-module crates, synvirt-cluster, synvirt-backup-core, and the WebRTC console crates are omitted here — see CLAUDE.md §2 for the full 48-crate workspace.

Guest Tools Suite

Section titled “Guest Tools Suite”
Crate Status Purpose
synvirt-guest-proto Implemented Portable JSON-lines protocol types (hello / heartbeat / report / command / ack / error). No I/O, no tokio, compiles for Linux / BSD / Windows 64 / Windows 32 (XP/2003).
synvirt-guest-tools Implemented Host-side supervisor: per-VM connector tasks, VmToolsState in sled, AgentEvent broadcast. Integrated into daemon.
synvirt-guest-agent Implemented Rust agent for Windows 7+ / Linux 3.10+ / FreeBSD 12+. Binary + systemd/rc.d/SCM service + command handlers. Packaged as .deb, .rpm, FreeBSD pkg, Windows .exe.
synvirt-guest-agent-legacy Implemented C agent for Windows XP / Server 2003 (i686).
synvirt-guest-installer Implemented .NET 8 WinForms self-contained EXE (SynVirt-Setup.exe) with dark theme, rollback stack, silent CLI mode.
synvirt-guest-installer-rs Implemented Rust shim that builds the .NET installer and stages its embedded payloads.

Protocol spec: docs/GUEST_AGENT_PROTOCOL.md.

Development

Section titled “Development”

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
Tool Version Notes
Debian 13 Trixie Same distro as the shipping live-ISO runtime.
Rust 1.95 (stable, pinned in rust-toolchain.toml) Installed via rustup on the dev host.
cargo, gcc, pkg-config latest From the Debian 13 package set.
QEMU / libvirt / OVS / ZFS whatever Debian 13 ships Required for local VM smoke-tests; TCG fallback when /dev/kvm is absent.
sshpass latest For scripts/deploy-to-host.sh hot iteration to the appliance.

Building the Daemon

Section titled “Building the Daemon”
Terminal window
# From the repository root on the Debian 13 dev host
cargo build -p synvirt-daemon

Running in Development Mode

Section titled “Running in Development Mode”
Terminal window
cargo run -p synvirt-daemon -- --dev

The --dev flag activates:

  • Port 8443 instead of 443
  • Pretty (human-readable) log output
  • Static assets served from ./web/ relative to the binary

Environment Variables

Section titled “Environment Variables”
Variable Default Description
SYNVIRT_DEV unset Enable dev mode (same as --dev)
SYNVIRT_PORT 443 / 8443 Override listen port
SYNVIRT_LOG info Log level (trace/debug/info/warn/error)

Building the ISO

Section titled “Building the ISO”

The ISO builder generates a Debian 13 Trixie minimal image (kernel 6.12 LTS) on top of live-build. The result boots into a wizard-driven unattended installer that configures the base OS (including the ZFS layout) and hands off to the synvirt-daemon running from RAM.

Terminal window
cd iso-builder
./build.sh

Output: iso-builder/output/SynVirt-<VERSION>-amd64.iso

Typical build times:

  • First build or after FORCE_REBUILD=1: 30–45 min (bootstrap + chroot).
  • Incremental: 2–5 min (live-build cache hit).

Iterating against a running appliance

Section titled “Iterating against a running appliance”

scripts/deploy-to-host.sh hot-swaps the daemon + dashboard onto a running SynVirt node without rebuilding the ISO:

Terminal window
SSHPASS=<password> HOST=<ip> ./scripts/deploy-to-host.sh hot

Stages: inspect, build, push, apply, web-ux, reboot, verify, all. The hot shortcut runs build + push + apply + web-ux for fast dashboard iteration.

Documentation

Section titled “Documentation”
Document Description
docs/architecture.md System architecture, modes, daemon design, tech stack
docs/build.md Detailed build and dev environment guide
docs/roadmap.md Phase roadmap from MVP to Enterprise
docs/decisions/ Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

License

Section titled “License”

Proprietary — All rights reserved — SYNNET 2026

This software is proprietary and confidential. Unauthorized copying, distribution, or use is strictly prohibited.

See LICENSE for full terms.