* OpenVZ server virtualization project
The OpenVZ server virtualization project recently announced a new version of its software with new features that give administrators more flexibility and networking options when deploying virtualized servers.
OpenVZ’s software allows users to run multiple Linux server instances on top of a single host machine — similar to VMWare, Xen, and other virtualization technologies. OpenVZ says its product has a tighter coupling between the virtualization layer and the host system’s Linux kernel, allowing the system to be more efficient and stable.
New to the OpenVZ stack is the ability for Linux servers running on 64-bit Intel architectures to migrate to an OpenVZ box. Users can now migrate virtual server instances between physical servers, without taking any machines offline, according to OpenVZ.
The software does this by freezing an image of a virtual environment running on a separate machine, storing the image to the OpenVZ host disk, and restoring the image on the OpenVZ machine as a new image.
New file system features are also part of the update. Network File System (NFS) is now supported on the system, as well as File System User Space (FUSE), which allows FTP or SSH servers running in a virtual server to appear as LAN-based network file structures to other machines, OpenVZ says.
OpenVZ has added support to the new software for Ethernet-based virtual LAN — virtual, virtual LANs, you could say. This allows administrators to group OpenVZ server images in separate VLAN segments inside the host machine.
The latest version of OpenVZ can be downloaded here.
