The open source project, OpenVZ (www.openvz.org) delivered some 50 software updates and in total more than 2 terabytes of its virtualization software were downloaded in 2006 by the user community – the project announced today. The operating system server virtualization software technology helps increase server utilization rates.
The OpenVZ project freely distributes and offers support to its users, promoting operating system virtualization through a collaborative, community effort. Supported by SWsoft, the OpenVZ project serves the needs of the community developers, testers, documentation experts, and other technology enthusiasts who wish to participate in and accelerate the technology development process. OpenVZ is open source software that is used as the basis for the SWsoft Virtuozzo virtualization software product.
In 2006, OpenVZ operating system virtualization software was made available for the mainstream Linux kernels (2.6.16 and 2.6.18), along with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL4), and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES10) and openSUSE 10.1. Last May, Mandriva became the first Linux distribution to include operating system virtualization technology by embedding the OpenVZ software directly into its Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0 kernel. Now, OpenVZ software is available as part of Linux distributions that include Debian, Gentoo Linux, and ALT Linux Sisyphus.
Over the past year, the OpenVZ project expanded it support to include servers using x86, x86_64, IA64, Power 64-bit and UltraSPARC(r) T1 CoolThreads(TM) processors.
Some progress was made towards the mainstream Linux kernel last year, as well. The Linux kernel 2.6.19 already includes some contributions of OS virtualization from OpenVZ, as well as others.
Also last year, OpenVZ delivered a capability that no other open source operating system-level virtualization software offers -- a live migration feature, which allows system administrators to move virtual servers between physical servers without end-user disruption or the need for costly storage capacity.
"Looking ahead, we already have in development OpenVZ software for the new Linux kernel based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5," said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project. "Users can count on us continuing an aggressive schedule delivering software updates, as well as active efforts with regard to the mainstream Linux kernel and additional Linux distributions."
As further testimony to the increasing interest in the user community, in January 2006 just one month after full production, the OpenVZ website had one million hits. That milestone was reached four times last year. Today, there are some 10,000 message posts on the OpenVZ support Forum among the very active users.
About OpenVZ
OpenVZ is operating system server virtualization software technology, built on Linux, which creates multiple 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.
With the power of today's processors, hardware is often under utilized. With virtualization technology, the server can effectively be split into many small ones, each running its tasks so that the whole server is utilized more efficiently.
OpenVZ software, which can be downloaded at http://openvz.org, comes with user tools that help automate management of virtual servers. With its unique architecture that uses a single operating system instance, the virtual servers perform and execute like independent servers with their own memory, configuration files, users and applications. Each can be re-booted independently. Using template-based application deployment provides a simple way to get new virtual servers up and running in minutes and OpenVZ can run several times more virtual servers per CPU than other virtualization technologies. Also, the OpenVZ project maintains a blog site discussing virtualization technology, which can be accessed here, http://blog.openvz.org.