E. Frank Ball III
North Bay Linux Users Group
Virtualized OS, similar to:
- Solaris Zones/Containers
- BSD Jails
- Linux-Vserver
- Linux-Vserver has had better support for Debian.
- OpenVZ has had better support for rpm based distributions.
- The OpenVZ group is working harder to get patches into the Linux Kernel, and getting more publicity.
- OpenVZ has virtualized networking - easy, but blocks broadcast packets.
Single shared kernel
- Linux on Linux only, but can be different distributions
- All processes from every VE (Virtual Environment) visible, and killable, on host
- Runs on Redhat, Fedora, CentOS, Debian, SuSE, etc.
- Similar to setting up a chroot jail, but easier & better
Very low overhead
- Near zero CPU overhead
- Each VE requires only a few MB RAM + your applications
- My Debian VEs are 200MB of disk space before applications are added.
- RAM and disk space shared dynamically between host and VEs
Density with 768MB RAM
Use Cases:
- Server consolidation
- Security - isolate different services in different VEs
- Cheaper hosting than a dedicated server
- Run multiple (different) Linux distributions on a single host
- Easy to create a new VE, experiment, then destroy it
Other fun facts:
- Can run OpenVZ inside of Xen host
- Live migration of VE to a new host machine
- User_Beancounters allow fine
grained resource control limits for each VE
- Limit number of CPUs
- Limit % of CPU usage
- Set priority for CPU usage
- Limit maximum RAM usage
- Limit maximum disk space
- + many many more parameters
- all parameters can be changed live
Supported by SWSoft
OpenVZ Links:
OpenVZ VPS Providers:
| Provider | price/ month | min RAM | burst RAM | band width | # IP | disk space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quantact | $14.99 | 256MB | ? | 300GB | 1 | 15GB |
| TurboVPS | $10 | 128MB | ? | 150GB | 2 | 10GB |
| CheapVPS | $10/$8.25 | 128MB | 256MB | 150GB | 1 | 10GB |
| VPSLink | $8/$6.62 | 64MB | none | 100GB | 1 | 2.5GB |
| VPSLink | $14/$11.72 | 128MB | none | 150GB | 1 | 5GB |
| swvps.com | $10/$8.33 | 400MB | 800MB | 250GB | 2 | 10GB |
| JoinVPS | $6 | 64MB | 192MB | 100GB | 1 | 3GB |
| JoinVPS | $11 | 128MB | 384MB | 200GB | 1 | 5GB |
| Gotekky | $11/$5 | 128MB | 256MB | 100GB | 1 | 7.5GB |
| Serve by Design | $11 | 256MB | 512MB | 200GB | 1 | 5GB |
| The Server Experts | $15 | 256MB | ? | 1MB/sec | 2 | 20GB |
| NetSpace LTD | $9 | 256MB | 384MB | 100GB | 1 | 10GB |
| FiveBean | $10 | 128MB | 256MB | 100GB | 1 | 5GB |
| RamHost | $2.99 | 80MB | 128MB | 50GB | 1 | 10GB |
| RamHost | $5.99 | 128MB | 192MB | 200GB | 1 | 25GB |
| RapidXen | $7.49/$6.74 | 128MB | 256MB | ? | 1 | 5GB |
| HostLamda | $3.99 | 128MB | 256MB | 200MB | 1 | 5GB |
| TeamVPS | $7.99 | 512MB | 1GB | 400MB | 1 | 25GB |
| EchoServers | $5.99 | 192MB | 384MB | 300MB | 2 | 5GB |
| VPSRepublic | $5.50 | 128MB | 384MB | 75MB | 1 | 5GB |