OS-level virtualizer ships with Linux for first time

This is a very smart move for Linux company, Mandriva. Not only does it allow people to have virtualization technologies built right into their OS, it does so at a level that most Linux users can wrap their minds around.

May 31, 2006  TechWorld.com) — Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0 is to include OpenVZ, and it’s the first time that operating system-level virtualization software has been included as a part of the operating system, according to Linux distributor Mandriva.

Compared to VMware and para-virtualization technologies such as Xen, OpenVZ offers the least flexibility in the choice of operating system: both guest and host operating systems must be Linux. So if you’re in a hurry to pack multiple versions of Linux into a server, this could be the one to choose.

However, OpenVZ’s proponents claim that operating system-level virtualization provides better performance, scalability, density, dynamic resource management and ease of administration. According to the OpenVZ project, there’s only a 1% to 3% performance penalty for OpenVZ compared to stand-alone servers.

The way it works is that each virtual machine — or virtual environment in OpenVZ-speak — uses the same operating system kernel, although from the point of view of its owner each looks like a physical server and is separated by system-level management software. OpenVZ is an open-source project based on SWsoft’s Virtuozzo, which remains proprietary software….. Source: computerworld.com

[tags]linux,openvz,virtualizer,virtual machine[/tags]