OpenVZ Explained

What is OpenVZ?additional user land tools and control panels (though
OpenVZ is server virtualization software provided bythird party ones have been written).
SWSoft, Inc. licensed under the GPL version 2.OpenVZ improves efficiency, flexibility and quality of
OpenVZ is the software that every systemservice in the enterprise environment. Each Virtual
administrator requires. It allows you to host multiplePrivate Server is hardware independent and can be
Virtual Environments (Aka VE) on a single server. Themoved to another OpenVZ-based system in seconds
only limitations are RAM and CPU.over the network.
OpenVZ is an operating system-level virtualizationSome Important OpenVZ Commands:
technology based on the Linux kernel and operating1. vzlist -a : Shows list of all the VPS's hosted on the
system. It allows a physical server to run multipleNode.
isolated operating system instances, known as Virtual2. vzctl start VPS_ID: To start the VPS.
Private Servers (VPS) or Virtual Environments (VE).3. vzctl stop VPS_ID : To stop (Shut Down) the VPS
Unlike VMWare and Para virtualization technologies4. vzctl status VPS_ID : To view the status of the
such as Xen, OpenVZ is more limited in that itparticular VPS
requires both the host and guest OS to be Linux5. vzctl stop VPS_ID -fast : to stop the VPS quickly
(although Linux distributions can be different inand forcefully
different VEs) under the same kernel. OpenVZ claims6. vzctl enter VPS_ID : To enter in a particular VPS
a true performance advantage. According to itsConfiguration Commands
website, there is only a 1-3% performance penalty1. vzctl set VPS_ID -hostname -save: To set the
for running OpenVZ compared to using a standaloneHostname of a VPS.
server.2. vzctl set VPS_ID -ipadd 1.2.3.4 -save : To add a
As OpenVZ employs a single kernel model, and isnew IP to the hosting VPS.
scalable as the 2.6 Linux kernels; in that it will support3. vzctl set VPS_ID -ipdel 1.2.3.4 -save : To delete the
up to 64 CPUs and up to 64 GB of RAM. A singleIP from VPS.
virtual environment can scale up to the whole physical4. vzctl set VPS_ID -userpasswd root:new_password
box (known as a "heavy VPS") i.e. use all the CPUs-save : to reset root password of a VPS.
and the entire RAM.5. vzctl set VPS_ID -nameserver 1.2.3.4 -save : To
OpenVZ is divided into a custom kernel and a numberadd the nameserver IP's to the VPS.
of user-level tools such as vzctl, vzstat etc. OpenVZ6. vzctl exec VPS_ID command : To run any
lacks some of the features of the commercialcommand on a VPS from Node.
product Virtuozzo, such as the advanced vzfs file7. vzyum VPS_ID install package_name : To install
system, templating features, to save disk space, andany package/Software on a VPS from Node.