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What is OpenVZ?

OpenVZ is a container-based virtualization solution that lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server. Each instance of an OpenVZ host runs its own copy of the operating system and its own collection of processes, but shares all other resources with other instances running on the same host. This means that every virtual server has its own CPU, memory and storage, buat they all share the same network interface card (NIC), networking stack and IP address. You can use OpenVz to run multiples Linux or Windows operating systems on one machine at once or even for testing purposes!

What is Openvz?

OpenVZ is a virtualization technology for Linux-based servers. It allows you to create multiple isolated Operating System environments (called containers) on a single physical server. Containers share the same hardware resources of the host, but are isolated from each other and behave as if they are running on separate physical devices.

OpenVZ is a container-based virtualization technology, while KVM is a full machine virtualization technology that also runs on top of Xen hypervisor (another form of x86 VM). OpenVZ provides operating system-level virtualization using containers as its unit for isolating application execution environments from each other and from the underlying system resources.

About the OpenVZ project

The OpenVZ project is an open-source implementation of the container-based virtualization kernel. The main goal of this project is to make it easier to run multiple isolated operating systems on a single server or host computer.

The two types of virtualization are full and paravirtualized. Full or hardware-based virtualization uses special hardware to simulate each guest OS, including the CPU, memory, and hard drive space for each guest OS. Paravirtualized utilizes specialized guest kernels that interact with a privileged hypervisor running directly on top of the host kernel (as opposed to in user space). A benefit of full vs paravirtualized is performance; generally speaking, full tends to be better at performance while paravirtualized offers better isolation between guests but can have issues with shared resources (such as disk I/O).

How does OpenVZ work?

A virtual machine is a complete computer, with its own operating system and applications.

The virtualization software uses the hardware resources of the physical server to run multiple instances of independent operating systems at the same time. The host operating system uses OpenVZ in order to create and manage these instances.

When you start an OpenVZ-based virtualization environment, you will see four different types of terminals:

  • Main -- this terminal is created automatically when you start your first instance on this server (i.e., it's used by default). You can access all your running instances via this terminal;

  • Console -- each instance has its own console that can be accessed using vzctl or by using SSH;

  • Getting Started -- every new container created within an instance will have this as its default console (you can change it if needed);

  • Root Shell - when you install a new container within an existing one (see below), this will be its default console instead of Getting Started

How is it different from VirtualBox, VMware and Xen?

OpenVZ is a Linux-based virtualization technology that uses the kernel infrastructure of Linux to create lightweight virtual servers. Notably, OpenVZ offers a fast boot time, which is crucial for Web hosting and other applications where scalability is key.

OpenVZ was developed by Vladimir Ostanin as part of his PhD research at Moscow State University in 2002. Ostanin's goal was to develop a faster way to run multiple operating systems on one computer without running them simultaneously (as with OS/2 or Windows NT). His solution was to use kernel modules called drivers instead of using full virtual machines like VMware does today. He called this new software 'Virtual Zone' and released it under GPL version 2 in 2005; this marked the beginning of commercial support for OpenVz systems worldwide.

In addition to being faster than other virtualization technologies such as Xen or VirtualBox (which only offer full virtualization), OpenVZ has some distinct advantages over these two competitors: it's open source so anyone can contribute code; it works well with ISPs who want customers with private clouds built around their own hardware; and lastly because it runs on top of any existing Linux system rather than requiring any special hardware setup (e.g., Vmware ESXi or XenServer), users don't need extensive knowledge about server hardware before installing an instance host operating system like CentOS 5/6 Server Edition onto them

Can I run 32-bit OS on a 64-bit OpenVZ host?

Yes, you can run 32-bit OS on a 64-bit OpenVZ host. However, you must use a 64-bit kernel and version of the OpenVZ kernel. The 64-bit kernel will not work on 32-bit guests.

Can I use PHP, Perl, Ruby or Python on my OpenVZ VPS server?

Yes, you can use PHP, Perl, Ruby and Python on your OpenVZ VPS server. You can install them using a standard Linux package manager, or if you prefer to use a web hosting control panel (like cPanel), many of them will have their own versions of these scripting languages available for easy installation.

If I want to run a .NET application, can I do it in an OpenVZ server?

You can run .NET applications on OpenVZ, but you need a 64-bit CPU. If your server only has 32-bit CPUs installed, then it won't be able to run .NET applications.

Conclusion

OpenVZ is a great solution for those who need to run several different operating systems on one VPS server. It's scalable, fast and secure. The OpenVZ project has been around since 2005, so you can trust these guys.