How We Run Firecracker VMs Inside EC2 and Start Browsers in Less Than 1 Second

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of cloud infrastructure, every millisecond counts. For businesses that rely on browsers for their daily operations, the ability to start quickly and operate cost-effectively is crucial. This is where we decided to reevaluate our strategy and adopt Firecracker, a lightweight virtual machine (VM) system, which we run inside Amazon's EC2 instances. This article details our journey and how we managed to start browsers in less than a second.

Why Firecracker?

Previously, we used Unikraft for our cloud browsers. However, while unikernels are lightweight, they did not meet our needs for speed and isolation. Firecracker, developed by AWS, allows us to create VMs that start in milliseconds while providing strong isolation. This enables us to launch thousands of browsers simultaneously without compromising on security or speed.

Integration with EC2

While Firecracker is typically used on bare-metal servers, we chose to run it on EC2. This means we operate VMs within VMs, which might seem counterintuitive. However, thanks to EC2's capabilities, we were able to optimize performance and reduce costs. On average, our browser sessions now cost $0.02 per hour, down from $0.06.

Technical Challenges

Memory Slowness

Running nested VMs can increase memory access time. To overcome this, we optimized memory allocation and used advanced caching techniques to minimize bottlenecks.

Chromium Startup

Chromium browser startup is another challenge. We reduced startup time by preloading essential components and using session snapshots to avoid full reset on each launch.

Results

Thanks to these optimizations, we not only reduced costs but also improved user experience. Browsers now start in less than a second, providing near-instant responsiveness.

Conclusion

By combining Firecracker and EC2, we have managed to provide a cloud browser solution that is both fast, secure, and cost-effective. This approach is a game-changer for businesses requiring large-scale browser sessions.

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