Recently, various Linux flavors have been coming out with announcements that they are incorporating and integrating virtualization technology into their versions of Linux. Until now, it seems as though Xen has exclusively been given the nod to BE that technology.

Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, is the publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux operating system. It seems as though they too have now made a commitment to add virtualization technology into their product roadmap. Unlike the others who have chosen Xen, Mandriva has made an announcement that they are working with the OpenVZ project calling for the OpenVZ operating system virtualization software to be included as part of the Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0 product. The product hopes to offer a solid foundation for a stable and cost-effective open source infrastructure for organizations building on Linux.

OpenVZ is operating system level server virtualization technology, built on Linux, which creates isolated, secure virtual environments on a single physical server - enabling greater server utilization and superior availability with fewer performance penalties. The virtual servers ensure that applications do not conflict and can be re-booted independently.

"The OpenVZ technology is a perfect match for our next Mandriva Corporate Server release 4.0. It provides our customers with a proven virtualization layer to deliver flexible and efficient solutions. We are pleased to offer OpenVZ as a standard component in the Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0 toolbox to simplify production management and maximize hardware usage," said David Barth, CTO at Mandriva.

"Embedding the OpenVZ technology directly into the Mandriva kernel will give Mandriva customers unparalleled virtualization functionality," said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project. "We're very pleased to work with Mandriva and make our technology widely available via the popular Linux distribution."

"OpenVZ is also an excellent open source project. By making it available more widely and easily as part of Mandriva Linux, we hope to widen the user community and help improve the integration of virtualization technologies into a standard Linux kernel," added Klara Mika, ISV Manager at Mandriva.

To learn more about the OpenVZ project, visit their blog site that discusses the technology by going here, blog.openvz.org.

Posted by David Marshall on May 27, 2006 02:18 PM