# A Detailed Comparison of Virtualization Solutions -- Oh, and VZ7 probably won't support SimFS and re



## Geek (Sep 27, 2015)

+1 to @Francisco for passing this along to me. A few days ago OpenVZ published this really nifty and surprisingly detailed comparison of commonly used virtualization platforms.  Prior to this. neither of us really knew if SimFS would accompany us to Virtuozzo 7 or not,, as it's currently "not functional" in the current "betastable" release thingy..... how did they word that again, Fran?  I forgot to bookmark it.... Anyhoo we both had the feeling that automatic Ploop conversions would be the route they'd take, and it seems like that's what will probably happen....and, well... https://twitter.com/FrantechCA/status/647915686749077505

If you pull up the OVZ LiveJournal, you'll see that the majority want out of 2.6.32 and on to the mainline. Next thing is KVM/hypervisor support to achieve parallel/nested virtualization.  The comparison will give you a pretty good idea of what's in store for Odin, Virtuozzo, and their "premium" service .. cause I know how much you guys love that word.  

Running strictly Ploop FS layouts is still a concern to some.  It is with me, so I'm hoping that if it is EOL'd , it will be done gradually, keeping in mind how long people were using SimFS before, and the time involved in preparing for such a change, and VZ7 is barely a month old. Unless it's phased out gradually, alternative business models will continue to be in the back of my head.

Oh, one more thing.  Hope you've got some time to kill to make your own OS templates.  They're reaching out to the community for help.  https://wiki.openvz.org/Best_practices_for_development_of_EZ_templates

Feature comparison of different virtualization solutionsFeatureDescriptionOpenVZ (stable)Virtuozzo 6 (PCS 6)Virtuozzo 7Virtuozzo 7 PlusLXCProxmox VEMicrosoft Hyper-V 2012 R2RHEV 3.5Citrix XenServer 6.51. Virtualization platform1.1. Overview*HW virtualization support (Hypervisor)*Full emulation of underneath hardware level: full isolation guest environment, no dependencies from host OS, overhead for hypervisor layer.NoYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYes*OS-level virtualization (Containers)*Sharing the same instance of host OS: high density, high performance, high dependencies from host OS.YesYesYesYesYesYesNoNoNo*Hypervisor technology*Technology that enables to run Virtual Machines.NoneParallels Desktop MonitorKVMKVMNoneKVMHyper-VKVMXen*Containers technology*Technology that enables to run Containers.Virtuozzo ContainersVirtuozzo Containers with enhancementsVirtuozzo Containers with enhancementsVirtuozzo Containers with enhancementsLinux containersLXC (moved from OpenVZ since 4.0)NoneNoneNone1.2. Memory*Memory Overcommit*Ability to present more memory to virtual machines than physically availableYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes*Page sharing*Memory (RAM) savings through sharing identical memory pages across virtual machinesYesYes, only for CTsYesYesYesYesNoYesNo2. Management2.1. General*Unified management tool for CTs and VMs*Single tool for managing both containers and virtual machines (if applicable)NoneYesYesYesNoneNoNoneNoneNone*Central Management tool*Is centralized multi-server management available for this edition?Yes, 3rd partyYes, Parallels Virtual Automation (PVA)NoYes, PVAYes, 3rd partyYesYes, System Center Virtual Machine ManagerYes, RHEV ManagerYes, XenCenter2.2. Upgrade & Backup*Update Management*Integrated patching mechanism for the virtual environments (Guest OS) / guest tools / templatesNo integrated update, YUM (Linux)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)No integrated update, APT (Linux)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)Yes (WSUS, SCCM, Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 for offline VM update)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)No integrated update, YUM (Linux), WSUS (Windows)*Live VE snapshot*Ability to take a snapshot of a virtual environment while the guest OS is running (e.g. for roll-back or backup purposes)YesYesYesYesOffline, CRIU support is plannedYesYesYesYes*Integrated Backup*Are backup plugins/tools provided to backup virtual environments (over and above the ability to perform classic backup using agents in the guests)NoYesNoYesNoYesYesNoNo*Backup Integration API*Integration with 3rd party backup applications for backup of the virtual environment.No (only through snapshots)YesYesYesNo (only through snapshots)Yes (vzdump)YesYesNo2.3. Others*VEs Templates (VM, CT)*Ability to create and store master images and deploy virtual machines from themYes (CT only)YesYesYesYes (OpenVZ templates)YesYesYesYes*P2V migration*Integrated or added P2V (or V2V) capability in order to convert physical systems to virtual environment.NoYesYesYesNoNo, 3rd party toolsYesNoNo3. VE Mobility and HA3.1. VE Mobility*Live Migration of VEs*Ability to migrate virtual machines between hosts without perceived downtimeYes, but with no zero downtimeYes, Kernal-Level MigrationYes, CRIUYes, CRIUOffline, CRIU support is plannedYesYesYesYes*Automated Live Migration (DRS)*Ability to put host into maintenance mode which will automatically live migrate all virtual machines onto other available hosts so that the host can be brought shut down safelyNoNoNoYesNoNoYesYesYes*Storage Migration*Integrated Power Management features Ability to automatically migrate vms onto fewer hosts and power off unused capacity (hosts), wake systems back up when requiredNoNoNoNoNoNoYesYesYes3.2. HA / DR*Cluster size*Maximum number of hosts in the cluster/pool relationship and maximum number vms per cluster/pool (if specified)None32 hosts/cluster validated (100 hosts/cluster maximum) - PStorage limitationNot tested yetNot tested yetNone32 nodes64 nodes200 nodes16 nodes*Integrated HA*Recover virtual environment in case of host failures through restart on alternative hosts (downtime = restart time)NoYesNoYesNoYesYesYesYes*Site Failover*Integrated ability to (ideally live) migrate virtual machine data (virtual disk files) to different storage e.g. for array upgrades/migration and I/O managementNoNoNoNoNoNoManualNoIntegrated Disaster Recovery - manual4. Network and Storage4.1. Storage*Supported Storage*Supported types of Storage (DAS: Direct Attached Storage, NAS: Network Attached Storage, FC: Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCoE - Fibre Channel over Ethernet)DAS (EXT4)NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)DAS (EXT4)NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)SAN, NAS (NFS), Ceph DAS, NAS (SMB), SAN (iSCSI, FC, FCoE)DAS, NAS (NFS), SAN (iSCSI, FC, FCoE)DAS, NAS (NFS), SAN (iSCSI, FC, FCoE)*Virtual Disk Format*Supported format(s) of the virtual disks for the virtual machinesCT - ploopCT - ploop, VM - ploopCT - ploop, VM - ploop\Qcow2CT - ploop, VM - ploop\Qcow2Anyqcow2vhdx, vhd, pass-though (raw)Qcow2, raw diskvhd, raw disk*Thin Disk Provisioning*Ability to over-commit overall disk space by dynamically growing the size of virtual disks based on actual usage rather than pre-allocating full size.YesYesYesYesYes, depends on disk format (dm-thin)Yes (???)YesYesYes*Virtual SAN*Enhanced storage capability e.g. providing a virtual SAN through virtualized 'local' storageYes, Virtuozzo StorageYes, Virtuozzo StorageYes, Virtuozzo StorageYes, Virtuozzo StorageYes, but 3rd party (DRBD 9, Ceph, GlusterFS)Yes, but 3rd party (DRBD 9, Ceph, GlusterFS)Yes, Storage SpacesYes, Red Hat StorageNo*Storage QoS*Ability to control Quality of Service for Storage I/O for virtual machinesNoOnly IOPs limitsOnly IOPs limitsOnly IOPs limitsNoNoYesYesYes4.2. Network*Advanced Network Switch*Centralized virtual network configuration (rather than managing virtual switches on individual hosts), typically with enhanced networking capabilitiesNoNoNoNoNoYes, Open vSwitch supportYesOpenStack Neutron IntegrationOpen vSwitch integration*Network QoS*Ability to create and store master images and deploy virtual machines from themOnly bandwidth limitsOnly bandwidth limitsOnly bandwidth limitsOnly bandwidth limitsOnly bandwidth limitsYes, with Open vSwitch YesYesYes5. Others – most of features are relevant only for Odin Virtuozzo editions*Memory deduplication for binary files*Memory and IOPS deduplication management that enables/disables caching for Container directories and files, verifies cache integrity, checks Containers for cache errors, and purges the cache if neededNoYes, pfcacheYes, pfcacheYes, pfcacheNoNoNoneNoneNone*Completely isolated disk subsystem for CTs* Yes, ploopYes, ploopYes, ploopYes, ploopYes, with LVMNoNoneNoneNone*API\SDK* OpenVZ API for Ruby, LibVirtVirtuozzo SDK, LibVirtVirtuozzo SDK, LibVirtVirtuozzo SDK, LibVirtLibLXC, API for Ruby, Python 2, Haskell, GoProxmox VE uses a REST like API (JSON data format)Windows SDKRHEV-M API: REST API, SDKsXenAPI, XenServer SDKs*Image Catalog integration*Integration with 3rd-party image catalog services of popular server applications and development environments that can be installed with one click.NoNoNoYes (Bitnami)NoYes (Turnkey)NoneNoneNone*Open Stack integration*Driver for Open Stack NovaYesYesYesYesYes(LXC and KVM supported through libvirt)YesYesYes*Kernel maintenance*Ability to upgrade kernel with minimal downtime.KernelCare service integrationkernel rebootless update (vzreboot)KernelCare service integrationkernel rebootless update (vzreboot)KernelCare service integrationKernelCare service integrationNoneKernelCare service integrationKernelCare service integration*Power Panel*A tool used for managing particular virtual machines and containers by their end users.NoYesNoYesNoneNoneNoneNoneNone6. Commercial*Open Source* YesNoYesNoYesYesNoNoNo (but there is Open Source edition)*License\Subscription* NoYesNoYesNoNoYesYesYes, Enterprise Edition*Support* Both community and commercial supportCommercial supportCommunity supportCommercial SupportYes, Canonical Ltd.Both community and commercial supportCommercial supportCommercial supportBoth community and commercial support

 

Navigation menu
Log in
Request account
Log in / create account with OpenID


Page
Discussion


Read
Edit
View history

 

 

 


Main Page
FAQ
Installation
OS templates
Latest news
Recent changes
Contribute

News and support

Services
Source code
Report a bug
Downloads
Download mirrors
OpenVZ statistics
Official merchandise

Donate






Tools
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
Printable version
Permanent link
Page information


This page was last modified on 25 September 2015, at 16:28.
This page has been accessed 5,510 times.


----------



## Geek (Sep 27, 2015)

Okay, so... that's not the formatting I was expecting, so you might just want to go here.  https://openvz.org/Comparison  

Night y'all.


----------



## DomainBop (Sep 27, 2015)

Quote said:


> A few days ago OpenVZ published this really nifty and surprisingly detailed comparison of commonly used virtualization platforms


Conspicuously missing from their feature comparison is the leading x86 server virtualization platform which has over 46% market share (2014 market share figures: VMWare 46%, Hyper-V 30%, everyone else splits the remaining 24%)


----------



## Francisco (Oct 6, 2015)

I just don't see SIMFS getting added, but it's going to really hurt their market if that's the case.

I've still not had good experiences with PLOOP. I've had multiple times (in testing) if I pushed a volume past like 500GB it would completely corrupt for no reason. There was no way to fix it either, FSCK wouldn't fix it, nothing.

I'm honestly scared to put *any* of our customers on PLOOP. Originally our new backups system was going to be based around it but with the above corruption but there was no way I could consider it. While i'm excited for OVZ7, I'm honestly looking towards LXC to see if I can add the missing things somehow (disk quotas is the most major thing).

Francisco


----------

