OpenVZ Open Source Software Virtualization Project Delivers New Features

HERNDON, Va. — The open source project, OpenVZ (www.openvz.org) announces the availability of features in its operating system server virtualization software that include:

- Delivery of checkpointing and live migration support for IA64 processors, which brings a capability that no other open source operating system virtualization software offers. This allows system administrators to move virtual servers between physical servers without end-user disruption or the need for costly storage capacity.

- Network file system (NFS) support, which makes it possible to access network disk files from within OpenVZ virtual environments.

- VLAN (IEEE802.1Q) network standard support in virtual environments, so that every network packet can be tagged to some distinct network.

- Filesystem in userspace (FUSE) support, which allows, for example, for an FTP or SSH server to be presented like a file system within a virtual environment.

- I/O accounting for each virtual environment to be followed with a new per-VE I/O scheduling feature added soon. This solves the problem of distributing I/O throughput (which can be a performance bottleneck) across all virtual environments. The scheduling feature will make it possible to set priorities so that some VEs can be set as "high priority" for disk access, and others as "low priority".

"We intend to continue bringing our users more advanced technology throughout the year," said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project. "We're off and running in 2007 delivering users with new features in OpenVZ software."

With checkpointing and live migration, the state of a running virtual environment is frozen and the image stored on disk then restored on another server. The function executes between any two servers on a network, so the capability works for any server and any application. OpenVZ delivers this capability without additional requirements, such as a storage area network (SAN). The IA64 support is added to previously available OpenVZ support for servers using x86 and x86_64 processors.


The new OpenVZ kernel software can be downloaded here, http://openvz.org/download/kernel/devel. Also, users can access helpful installation instructions from the OpenVZ wiki, http://wiki.openvz.org/Quick_installation. The site serves as a forum to gain and share knowledge about OpenVZ and includes documentation and a knowledge base with helpful advice.

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.

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 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.

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