The tale of a lightweight service manager (re)named Eclipse BlueChi

When Red Hat embarked on the journey of building a functionally safe Linux operating system (OS) for automotive use, it also stepped onto a path that will help the entire automotive industry shape the future of Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs).

We believe container technology is an essential enabler for the success of SDVs. However, running containers in cars is not without its challenges:

• The automotive environment demands a stringent level of determinism on dedicated hardware.
• Coordination of state changes among multiple nodes is essential.
• Adapting to failed and degraded modes varies significantly from cloud environment practices.
• Using Kubernetes in SDVs overextends resources, demanding excessive computational power and expensive hardware.
• Implementing Kubernetes in SDVs could lead to unnecessary complexities and increased costs without significant benefits.

These challenges have led us to work on a new deterministic approach, allowing car manufacturers to design their architecture how they want and take full advantage of the capabilities of their systems.

In April of 2023, we introduced hirte, a deterministic multi-node service controller that embodies this approach and is now available for anyone to try and experiment with. We have designed this project to be as simple, efficient and straightforward as possible.

You could consider it an extension of systemd to allow multinode service management. The advantages of using systemd as the backbone include:

• There is barely any overhead; systemd is already part of the system and running. The only additions are the main process and the process for the agent, both of which are small C programs. 
• It has the flexibility to run anything that systemd supports: services, timers and slices (allowing you to further subdivide the system)
• Using systemd services as an abstraction layer also means the application can be run on bare metal or in a container without changing how the application is managed. 
• It leverages the years of experience, development and bug fixes that went into systemd since its creation in 2010. It also avoids reinventing the wheel for non-trivial tasks such as service dependencies or service startup optimization. For example, systemd can start services in parallel or sequentially based on their dependencies.
• It leverages open standards, including the D-Bus protocol.

This project introduces an additional element beyond simply interfacing with different systemd instances across multiple nodes. It enables services to have dependencies on services running on different systems.

Today, we have two announcements about this project.

First, the project has been renamed from hirte to BlueChi.

Second, the project was made part of the Eclipse Foundation and became Eclipse BlueChi, which you can find under the Eclipse SDV umbrella. In addition to becoming part of the Eclipse Foundation, the project license was changed from "GPLv2 or any later version" to "LGPLv2.1 or any later version."

Making BlueChi part of the Eclipse SDV highlights our trust in the Eclipse Foundation and the work being done as part of the Eclipse SDV Working Group, which Red Hat helped found in 2022. We also believe that BlueChi will be a useful asset to the entire automotive industry and that Eclipse SDV will give it the exposure it deserves.