OpenVZ Software Available for Latest Linux Kernel 2.6.22

HERNDON, Va., September 14, 2007 — Keeping in step with the Linux kernel development, the OpenVZ project (http://openvz.org) today announced availability of its operating system (OS) server virtualization software for the most recent stable Linux kernel 2.6.22 — introduced in July.

OpenVZ for Linux 2.6.22 includes new PID (Process ID) namespace code that replaces the implementation that was previously in OpenVZ. The code is expected to be adopted in an upcoming release of the Linux kernel and was contributed to the Linux kernel by the OpenVZ project with additional contributions from IBM, plus requests, reviews and comments from other parties. Including the new PID code as part of this OpenVZ software release will provide better testing by broadening coverage. PID namespace ensures that a set of processes does not see any other processes that do not belong to the same set and is an essential prerequisite for live migration.

The new OpenVZ software also supports UID (User ID) namespaces, which is already included in the Linux kernel.

"In this kernel, we already support new Linux 2.6.22 features like the tickless kernel that results in cooler-running processors and increased power savings, along with the SLUB allocator, which is the core of kernel memory management and promises better performance and scalability," said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project.

The new OpenVZ kernel software can be downloaded here, http://openvz.org/download/kernel/2.6.22. 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.

About the OpenVZ Project
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.

Since going into full production late in 2005, the OpenVZ project has been very active with the user community with more than 16,000 message posts on its support Forum. The OpenVZ website attracts tens of thousands of visitors each month as more businesses and individuals explore and contribute to the leading open source operating system virtualization project.

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 can be used to help consolidate servers and increase server utilization rates, or for creating "sandboxes" for test and development, or when sharing resources so that every user can have root access while being kept isolated from each other.

The 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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