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OpenVZ is container-based virtualization for Linux. OpenVZ creates multiple secure, isolated Linux containers (otherwise known as VEs or VPSs) on a single physical server enabling better server utilization and ensuring that applications do not conflict. Each container performs and executes exactly like a stand-alone server; a container can be rebooted independently and have root access, users, IP addresses, memory, processes, files, applications, system libraries and configuration files. For more information about the technology and how it differs from the others like Xen, VMware etc., see [[introduction to virtualization]], {{PDFlink|[[download:doc/openvz-intro.pdf|doc/openvz-intro.pdf]]|73 KB}} or [[wikipedia:OpenVZ]].
OpenVZ software consists of an optional custom Linux kernel and command-line tools (mainly vzctl). Our kernel developers work hard to merge containers functionality into the upsteam Linux kernel, making OpenVZ team the biggest contributor to Linux Containers (LXC) kernel, with features such as PID and network namespaces, memory controller, checkpoint-restore etc(see http://crui.org) and much more. OpenVZ tools (vzctl) is a solid alternative to LXC tools, see [[vzctl for upstream kernel]] for more details. While OpenVZ can be used with recent upstream kernel, we recommend using OpenVZ kernel for security, stability and features.
OpenVZ is free open source software, available under GNU GPL.
