If you are new to server virtualization, you have probably been bombarded with literature and information about products such as VMware GSX Server, VMware Server, VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server. True, these are all fantastic products and do a great job accomplishing exactly what they set out to do, but are they the only solutions out there? The short answer is no. While these products have been around for years in one form or another, they aren't alone and the space has been heating up for quite some time producing more and more entries into the market.

One such product is Virtuozzo from SWSoft. And while they take a different approach to server virtualization than say VMware, you might want to take a closer look at them. Paul Venezia does just that in his InfoWorld article, "Virtuozzo commands virtual server stage". In it, he writes:

If you think of server virtualization in terms of VMware, SWSoft Virtuozzo will turn that thinking around.

Whereas VMware virtualizes and emulates the hardware layer, Virtuozzo runs with the native OS on the host server and creates VPSes (virtual private servers), by generating chroot jails for the host. It then tightly controls the network and kernel layers to deliver packets correctly and to handle disk, memory, and CPU quotas.

I looked at Version 3.0 of SWSoft’s Virtuozzo for Linux. First released in 2001, Virtuozzo for Linux has come a long way, and this version has a lot to offer, not the least of which is the v2.6 kernel base -- better late than never.

SWSoft’s approach to server virtualization has some definite benefits over VMWare’s. Among them, it requires much less overhead, so more virtual servers can be run from a single server without noticeable performance degradation. Further, the management of the servers is simpler.

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The templates Virtuozzo provides are broad in range, though by no means complete. Fortunately, SWSoft has provided plenty of tools for admins to roll their own templates, which is generally as simple as providing a pointer to a standard RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) for any given distribution, or simply a directory of files. After the template is created, it can be applied to one or more VPSes in a single command.

Also present in the management console are control panels for quickly modifying Apache and Sendmail configurations on a per-VPS basis, and monitoring panels for each VPS, complete with Windows Performance Monitor-style live-utilization graphing. Very cool.

Paul gives SWSoft Virtuozzo for Linux 3.0 an excellent rating of 9.3. To read more of his review and findings, check out his article, here.

And to find out more about SWSoft Virtuozzo, check out their Web site, here.

Posted by David Marshall on April 22, 2006 07:08 AM