OpenVZ Virtuozzo Containers Wiki - User contributions [en]

Testimonials

2008-06-03T15:37:24Z

Rbressers:

'''Following are some comments we've received from OpenVZ users.'''

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I'm curious. For the past few months, people@openvz.org have discovered
(and fixed) an ongoing stream of obscure but serious and quite
long-standing bugs.

How are you discovering these bugs?

''Andrew Morton, [http://openvz.org/pipermail/devel/2007-July/006281.html Devel mainling list]''

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OpenVZ, which also is vying for inclusion in the mainstream Linux kernel, would complement Xen well and has impressed me in the initial testing I've conducted.

''Jason Brooks, Senior Analyst, Ziff Davis. [http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Red-Hat-Isnt-Exhibiting-XenOphobia/ eweek.com]''

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I just wanted to congratulate you and the rest of the OpenVZ team for your
excellent, excellent work. We are now have an OpenVZ subject in our 120
hours Total Linux course here at the Bluepoint Foundation, and our
students really appreciate the work you've done. I'm learning a lot from
lurking in the devel list too. Thanks again and keep 'em coming! :D

''Engels Antonio, [http://bluepoint.com.ph/ Bluepoint Foundation]''

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I would say, OpenVZ is '''United States of Linux''' because i can run all my lovely different type of GNU/Linux distributions(States) on '''one single machine''' with '''one kernel''' model. As stable as guaranteed for production server and handy for software development (well no more dual, tri, quad boot partition). After all, it is just a good quality software piece for Linux User. Again, welcome to '''United States of Linux''' world!!

''Victor, System Admin, [http://www.kholix.com kholix.com]''

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Thanks for producing OpenVZ, we use it ourselves at PlanetMirror and
find that it's fantastic.

''Robert McLeay, PlanetMirror.com stuff''

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OpenVZ is about the greatest thing we've ever found, and we're SO glad for it.

''Gregor Mosheh, HostGIS'' [https://openvz.org/pipermail/users/2007-August/001104.html]

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OpenVZ has me seriously impressed, I was looking to try virtualisation technology and got OpenVZ up and running in only 3 trips to the coffee machine! ''-barf''

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Hello all, just downloaded and installed OpenVZ, and i must say its a big improvement over other container systems that i have tested IMHO.
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=tree&goto=646&#msg_646]

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Virtuozzo and openvz are wonderful - I don't know why more people aren't
using them. I hear a lot of hype for xen and usermode but
virtuozzo/openvz is so great for many common needs.
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=rview&goto=650#msg_650]

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For my needs, OpenVZ is better than Xen. The one-kernel approach conserves memory, leaving more for applications. And having all container in one disk partition saves disk space. A surprise bonus was the template cache management with yum. The ease of keeping templates updated and quickly installing new operating environments is yummy!
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=rview&goto=3119#msg_3119]

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I agree with you very much. I would say for enterprise use where cost/efficiency is not a factor, Xen has an edge over VZ. However for a service provider or other situation where CPU/RAM/DISK resources are shared among environments to ensure profitability/efficiency, openvz is far superior. Also, VZ is much simpler to use, and all of the command line utilities are well documented.
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=tree&th=572&mid=3122]

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Last week when we were in limbo about what to do, it was decided to try out XEN Virtualization. From what is written in the press the Xen system has alot of promise, Features such as opensource with live migration and backups sounds great; but was far too complicated to get working in our configuration. OpenVZ was the only virtual server system that was simple to install and get working.
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=msg&goto=568#msg_568]

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It still amazes me how well OpenVZ works.
[http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=msg&th=368&#msg_2086]

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[03:30:15] <pookey> well, I've been using openvz for all of about an hour, and I'm pretty impressed so far :)<br/>
''from #openvz IRC channel''

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I am playing around for years with all major virtualization environments like all VMware products, Microsoft and several xen based solutions. But OpenVZ is the overall winner. [http://blog.openvz.org/14313.html]

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I messed around with VMWare and Xen. I found VMWare to be somewhat over kill and Xen was damned hard to get working. The user community on the Xen mailing list is rather hostile. It looked like A number of people hang out there for the sole purpose of flaming the clueless.

I've found the OpenVZ folks to be very helpful and knowledgeable. OpenVZ is simple to install and get running. It pretty much satisfies my needs. [http://blog.openvz.org/14313.html?thread=17897#t17897]

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I'm a sysadm and have always used xen/qemu/virtualbox/vmware server for my VMs and my customer's ones. Yesterday I decided to give OpenVZ a try and... I'm amazed. It's fast, easy and reliable.Live migration works like a charm and the use of rsync assures low data transfers. Great. [http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=tree&goto=14724&#msg_14724] ''Stefano Marinelli, http://www.dragas.net''

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OpenVZ is one of the few pieces of software that I truly love. It works wonderfully. It should become part of the mainline kernel. ''Nick Andrew, http://www.nick-andrew.net''

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And thanks again for OpenVZ. Our business couldn't do what we do, as well as we do, with VMWare or Xen. ''Gregor Mosheh'', System Administrator, HostGIS cartographic development & hosting services.

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Thank you for OpenVZ by the way... it is awesome. It saves me hours of work every day. ''Eric Gearhart, http://nixwizard.net''

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For us at [http://www.signet.nl Signet], OpenVZ is ideal as a virtualization platform as it's open-source, no vendor lock-in's and great performance. It perfectly integrates into our high-availability SAN and server setup so it's great. ''Remco Bressers, http://www.signet.nl''

Hosting providers

2008-06-03T15:29:32Z

Rbressers:

OpenVZ makes for a great hosting platform for VPS hosting. The providers below offer VPS services using OpenVZ.

== Canada ==

* [http://www.vistapages.com/vps Vistapages VPS] - IBM & Dell Hardware. MCI/Verizon Backbone. Distros: Centos, Fedora, Debian & more. Full management available. Located in Toronto.
* [http://vpsville.ca/ VPSVille] - Good network. Good CPU. Good choice of distros: Centos, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, CERN. My favorite OpenVZ provider. [mailto:jak@isp2dial.com John Kelly]

== Netherlands ==

* [http://www.signet.nl/ Signet VPS Hosting] - Signet delivers VPS hosting plans based on CentOS or Debian templates, including control-panel Virtualmin.

== USA ==

* [http://www.silverrack.com/ SilverRack VPS Hosting] - SilverRack provides affordable VPS hosting using the OpenVZ platform.
* [http://www.buyavps.com/ BuyAVPS] - BuyAVPS provides stable yet affordable VPS hosting with a great support staff.
* [http://vpslink.com VPSLink.com] provides virtual private server hosting on the OpenVZ platform.
* [http://glesys.se GleSYS] is a hosting company specialized in serverhosting. Also offering VPS hosting mainly based on OpenVZ. GleSYS has provided access to server and Cisco hardware for developers from OpenVZ to find problem with VLAN implementation.
* [http://lylix.net LYLIX] offers affordable VPS hosting with a choice of eight different Linux distributions, dedicated VPS hosting, and specializes in Asterisk/VOIP based hosting including Trixbox, AsteriskNow, Elastix, and PBX-in-a-Flash. Popular choice for unmanaged IP-PBX services; entire infrastructure built on a High-availability (HA) network across three regional NOCs.
* [http://www.servergrove.com ServerGrove] uses OpenVZ as the main virtualization platform for its state of the art VPS hosting services.
* [http://www.tektonic.net TekTonic] provides VPS hosting services using both Virtuozzo and OpenVZ technology.
* [http://www.micfo.com Micfo.com] offers VPS hosting services for both Linux VPS hosting and Window VPS hosting on affordable price combined with world-class 24x7x365 support.

== UK ==

* [http://www.vt6.co.uk/ VT6 Internet] - Affordable OpenVZ virtual servers based in the UK and USA. Choice of control panels and management options.

* [http://www.weycrest.co.uk/vps-hosting.php Weycrest VPS] - Low Cost, Stable OpenVZ and Parallels' Virtuozzo Virtual Private Server solutions. London UK Hosted at Coreix with a choice of operating systems, and root and control panel options.

* [http://blueroomhosting.com/plans.pxl Blue Room Hosting] - OpenVZ containers hosted at the Bluesquare data centre in Maidenhead, UK

== Portugal ==

* [http://www.efeito.net/ Weblevel.pt] - OpenVZ virtual servers based in Portugal.

== South Africa ==

* [http://www.SoftDux.co.za/ SoftDux] - OpenVZ virtual servers based America & South Africa. All VPS's come with cPanel or Plesk control panels. XEN VPS's also available.

== Lithuania ==

* [http://www.serveriai.lt/ Serveriai.lt] - Affordable OpenVZ containers on quality HP hardware. Wide choice of virtual dedicated servers up to 8 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM. Full management available. Located in Vilnius.

== Venezuela ==

[http://www.iguanahosting.com Iguanahosting.com] The Iguanahosting OpenVZ based VEs also called "SDV"(Servidor Dedicado Virtual in Spanish). Running on Full Quality Nodes of up to 8 CPU and 8 GB RAM. XEN VPS's also will be available cooming soon. All VPS's come with cPanel, Fantastico and RVSkin and a Real 24/7/365 Technical Support.

== See also ==

* [[Partners]]
* [[Download mirrors]]
* [[VPS vs Dedicated]]

Partners

2008-06-03T15:27:40Z

Rbressers:

Here are some companies that are working together with OpenVZ project in one or another way. Feel free to add your company profile here ('''in alphabetical order''').

== Alticon ==
[http://www.alticon.net Alticon] has provided OpenVZ based VPS/VE hosting for over 2½ years. Many clients use OpenVZ based VEs as a cost effective solution for hosting highly secured, customized versions of ZenCart & WordPress. Other clients use OpenVZ for DNS mirroring, messages board hosting, and general use.

== BinaryKarma ==
[http://www.binarykarma.com BinaryKarma] is offering an multi-hypervisor platform, FluidVM that also supports OpenVZ, apart from Xen. FluidVM supports local and SAN storage and is also extensible via an XML-RPC based API. See [http://www.binarykarma.com/fluidvm_screenshots.php Screen shots] and [http://www.binarykarma.com/demo.php Demo Videos] for more information. FluidVM ships with a browser based interface with which users can manage multiple servers and VEs. BinaryKarma is also the developer of [http://easyvz.sourceforge.net EasyVZ], a GPL'd free GUI available for OpenVZ.

== Blended Perspectives ==

[http://www.blendedperspectives.com Blended Perspectives] is a strategy-to-execution consultancy based in Toronto, Canada. Our core offerings are centered on provision of Wiki platforms and OpenVZ is a favoured host operating environment to achieve scale and resiliency.

== Computer Tyme ==
[http://ctyme.com Computer Tyme] is using OpenVZ for their spam filtering service [http://junkemailfilter.com Junk Email Filter dot com]. They are active proponents of OpenVZ; Marc Perkel worked at the OpenVZ booth during LinuxWorld Expo 2007.

== Fortech I.T. Solutions ==
[http://FortechITSolutions.ca Fortech I.T. Solutions] is an IT consulting company based in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) specializing in open-source solutions. We offer services in a variety of areas, including virtualization solutions based on a number of platforms - including OpenVZ.

== Fry-IT Ltd ==
[http://www.fry-it.com Fry-IT Ltd] is a London based web, mobile and hosting consultancy and among the services we provide are system solutions involving Clustering, Load Balancing and High Availability, with OpenVZ as the virtualization technology of choice.

An example of our consulting work is the OpenVZ cluster powering 6 applications at [http://www.da.mod.uk/ MOD Defence Academy] in the UK, the public website being one of the applications. To our clients, hosted with us or running their own infrastructure, we provide a complete solution from custom OpenVZ scripts, a container resource limits management web application to thorough documentation of system management procedures.

== Iguanahosting ==
[http://www.iguanahosting.com/site/es/ Iguanahosting.com] Webhosting Reseller Provider focused on Latin America market, has provided OpenVZ based VPS/VE hosting for over 2 years. The Iguanahosting OpenVZ based VEs also called "SDV" (Servidor Dedicado Virtual in Spanish) was intended as a cost effective solution for support webhosting companies.

== Inguza Technology AB ==
[http://inguza.com/ Inguza Technology AB] maintains the Debian GNU Linux version of OpenVZ.

== LastSpam ==
[http://www.lastspam.com LastSpam] offers managed e-mail security services (anti-spam and anti-virus/bad content) and uses OpenVZ to deliver excellent service and support to its customers. Ugo Bellavance, LastSpam's head server architect and manager is an active member of the OpenVZ community: helping on the forum, making suggestions, and submitting patches.

== netVOICE communications ==
[http://www.netvoice.ca/ netVOICE communications] is an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) that uses OpenVZ as the basis for their [http://www.vpas.ca/ Virtual Private Asterisk Server (VPAS)] offering. They also offer consulting on running Asterisk (the leading Open Source telephony platform) on OpenVZ. netVOICE is a Digium Approved Reseller and has a Digium Certified Asterisk Professional [http://www.digium.com/en/training/certifications/ (dCAP)] on staff.

== Openwall ==

At [http://www.openwall.com Openwall], we develop our own Open Source software with a focus on security, including [http://www.openwall.com/Owl/ Openwall GNU/*/Linux] (or Owl for short), a security-enhanced server platform.
Our [http://www.openwall.com/services/ professional services] include remote installation (you boot off CD, we do the rest) and maintenance (systems and security administration) of OpenVZ-enabled servers and mini-networks of such servers. We typically use the OpenVZ kernel, the Owl userland for the host system, and arbitrary Linux distributions for the containers (most often that's Owl as well - with additional software to meet your needs). We readily have software solutions for provision of advanced LAMP hosting with cross virtual host security separation within each container (that is, not only the containers are separated due to OpenVZ, but also virtual hosts within containers are separated at the OS level), multi-server backups (incremental, remote, encrypted, integrity-checked), monitoring (many custom Nagios sensors, including for things such as backups, filesystem errors, RAID status, etc.), and more.

== Proxmox Virtual Environment==

[http://pve.proxmox.com Proxmox VE] is an easy to use Open Source virtualization platform for running pre-built Virtual Appliances and Virtual Machines (based on OpenVZ and also [http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki KVM] for full virtualization).

[http://proxmox.com Proxmox] is [http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/en/virtualization/openvz/ using OpenVZ] for their spam filtering appliance (see [[Proxmox Mail Gateway in container]]). Proxmox is also the author of [http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/en/virtualization/openvz/vzdump/ vzdump] utility.

== Signet ==
[http://www.signet.nl Signet] is providing OpenVZ based VPS/VE hosting on a high-availability. Clients use VPS hosting to prevent hosting physical servers at our datacenter. This way, clients can get a high-performance, low cost solution for their services. We also deliver control panels Virtualmin or Plesk.

== Solarspeed Ltd. ==
[http://www.solarspeed.net Solarspeed Ltd.] is a CentOS + BlueQuartz server specialist, selling server systems and software solutions. We developed [http://www.aventurin.net Aventurin{e}], which is a Linux Virtualization Appliance Software. It is based on OpenVZ and is available in a non-clustering and a clustering version. The clustering version uses DRBD and Heartbeat. The GUI interface of [http://www.aventurin.net Aventurin{e}] is based on the [http://www.bluequartz.org BlueQuartz] and allows to easily manage and create virtual servers or to perform administrative tasks on the master node. [http://www.aventurin.net Aventurin{e}] is available as [http://www.solarspeed.net/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16261&category_id=272 ISO image download], as a ready to run [http://www.solarspeed.net/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16263&category_id=272 Linux Virtualization Appliance] or as a ready to run [http://www.solarspeed.net/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16264&category_id=272 Linux Virtualization Appliance Cluster].

== Solutions First ==
[http://www.solutionsfirst.com.au Solutions First] is a Linux and Open Source infrastructure specialist company. Amongst many other FOSS products, we sell and support OpenVZ for our customers. We are happy to provide support of OpenVZ any Asia-Pacific customers. We have experience in generic container hosting environments, templated applications, HA clusters and much more OpenVZ specific applications.

== SpiderTools.com ==
[http://spidertools.com SpiderTools] provides training for OpenVZ servers. Students work on live servers to gain skills on how to implement OpenVZ. 20% of all sales go back to OpenVZ for development. Students will get 6 weeks of live instruction and support.

== Thomas-Krenn.AG ==
[http://www.thomas-krenn.com Thomas-Krenn.AG] is a server specialist, selling server systems and solutions. One of the solution products is a pre-installed [http://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/system-solutions/ha-linux-cluster.html cluster system], built with Virtuozzo. They published how to build such a cluster with OpenVZ at [[HA cluster with DRBD and Heartbeat]].

== See also ==

* [[Hosting providers]] — HSPs using OpenVZ
* [[Download mirrors]] — people and companies providing mirrors for OpenVZ software
* [[Control panels]]
* [[2006 contributions]]

Backup of a running container with vzdump

2008-04-18T13:39:58Z

Rbressers: /* Vzdump */

= Vzdump =
Vzdump is a utility to make consistent snapshots of running OpenVZ VEs. It basically creates a tar archive of the VE private area, which also includes the VE configuration files.

There are several ways to provide consistency:

- Stop the VE during backup (very long downtime)

- Use rsync and suspend/resume (minimal downtime)

- Use LVM2 (no downtime)

Vzdump stores the backup on the disk in a single file. This file should go to a tape backup for archiving.

== Download ==
Download vzdump rpm or deb packages from http://download.openvz.org/contrib/utils/vzdump/ or for newest version, check http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/en/technology/oss-software/openvz/

For rpm based systems:
<pre>wget http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/cms/upload/vzdump/vzdump-1.0-2.noarch.rpm</pre>

For Debian based systems:
<pre>wget http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/cms/upload/vzdump/vzdump_1.0-2_all.deb</pre>

== Installation ==
For rpm based systems:
<pre>rpm -i vzdump-1.0-2.noarch.rpm</pre>

For Debian based systems:
<pre>dpkg -i vzdump_1.0-2_all.deb</pre>

== Synopsis ==

vzdump OPTIONS [--all | <CTID>]
--compress compress dump file (gzip)
--dumpdir DIR store resulting files in DIR
--xdelta create a differential backup using xdelta
--mailto EMAIL send notification mail to EMAIL
--stop stop/start container if running
--suspend suspend/resume container when running
--snapshot use LVM snapshot when running
--restore FILENAME restore FILENAME

= Examples =
Use a running container, for example install this: [[Proxmox Mail Gateway in VE]]

== Backup ==

Simply dump CT 777 - no snapshot, just archive the container private area and configuration files to the default dump directory (usually /vz/dump/).

<pre>vzdump 777</pre>

Use rsync and suspend/resume to create a snapshot (minimal downtime).

<pre>vzdump --suspend 777</pre>

Backup all containers and send notification mails to root.

<pre>vzdump --suspend --all --mailto root</pre>

Use LVM2 to create snapshots (no downtime).

<pre>vzdump --dumpdir /space/backup --snapshot 777</pre>

Note that using LVM2 and vzdump to create snapshots requires 512Mb of free space in your VG as described [http://weblogs.amtex.nl/index.php?blog=2&title=using_vzdump_snapshot_to_backup_without_downtime&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 here].

== Restore ==

Restore above backup to CT 600

<pre>vzdump --restore /space/backup/vzdump-777.tar 600</pre>

[[Category: HOWTO]]