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I've opted for 'virtualizing' some software using a containers solution.

However I lack experience with this, and was wondering if anyone could vouch for either V-Server or OpenVZ ?

I'm mostly concerned with ease of use during setup and maintenance, since feature-wise they seem to be on par with each other.

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  • I know it's not Linux but Solaris has a very good "container" management system and you can create Linux containers with ease. Dec 20, 2009 at 14:35
  • Well I'm sort of a unix noob, so I'll probably pass on that :)
    – julien
    Dec 20, 2009 at 21:24
  • I'm supporting too the (Open)Solaris BrandZ alternative solution. You'll have ZFS and Dtrace and several other features unavailable with Linux (kernel) while still somewhat running Gnu/Linux userland.
    – jlliagre
    Dec 21, 2009 at 1:00
  • @jlliagre i'm most definitely NOT a sysadmin, do you really think these tools justify learning a new OS ?
    – julien
    Dec 21, 2009 at 1:54

4 Answers 4

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I used they both in production environments. While VServer uses the 100% of the host operating system resources, OpenVZ resource shortage is very grained: memory, cpu consumption, quotas (two levels, per container and per user/group inside a container), ipfilter entries, etc. OVZ also supports soft and hard limits: You have a memory limit (soft) of 512MB, but also a hard limit of 768MB. Your container may use up to 512 Mb, but if more is needed, it will take up to 768MB.

If you are planning to use all of your machine, Linux-Vserver is your solution due it simple configuration and zero resource checking if any container gets small for their processes, it scales along all your containers.

Now, if you want all control, OpenVZ is the path to follow. But, be careful, you should check if any container is getting small and assign more resources to it. I use OpenVZ for many things, for example, one NS server with 256MB of ram and 5GB disk space.

You should check both and finally choose the one who best fits into your requeriments.

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  • in this case i'll probably checkout vserver first, don't really need a very fine grained resource control for my purpose, thanks for the info
    – julien
    Dec 21, 2009 at 12:25
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I've no experience with V-Server but I did some experiments with OpenVZ a few months ago while comparing different virtualization solutions and I found setup & configuration (including ressource allocation on running VMs) quite straightforward.

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I'll just represent the opposite view from Mathias : I've no experience with OpenVZ but my company uses VServer in production (100's of them). It's really straightforward as well and quickly deployed.

Looking at OpenVZ, I do not feel there is a significant difference between the two implementations, OP probably should try them out and choose whatever solution he's most comfortable using (because of the more familiar syntax or better laid-out documentation, for instance)

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In my little experience, openVZ is more scalable. However I used very little vserver. I think you should try both of them anyway, just to know which is the best for you or your problem.

Anyway openvz its very easy to configure, but just try a linux distro with all ready to run openvz like proxmox or somothing similar.

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