Editing Comparison

{{Note|This comparison doesn't include Docker, because Docker is not a virtualization solution. It automates the deployment of applications inside software containers, by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of operating-system-level virtualization.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker_(software) Wikipedia article about Docker]</ref>}}


== Disclaimer ==

The information regarding Virtuozzo 7 is provided by [http://www.virtuozzo.com Virtuozzo]. Here is the Virtuozzo's statement regarding this information:

:#The information contained herein is intended to outline general product direction and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
:#The content is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract.
:#The information presented is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality.
:#Any references to the development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for these products remains at Virtuozzo’s sole discretion.
:#Product capabilities, timeframes and features are subject to change and should not be viewed as Virtuozzo commitments.

The information regarding all other solutions are taken from public sources only.

== Feature comparison of different virtualization solutions ==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Feature
! Description
! OpenVZ
! Virtuozzo&nbsp;6 (PCS 6)
! OpenVZ&nbsp;7
! [https://virtuozzo.com/products/virtuozzo-containers/ Virtuozzo&nbsp;7]
! LXC
! Proxmox VE
! Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2
! RHEV 3.5
! Citrix XenServer 6.5
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|1. Virtualization platform
|-
!colspan="11" align="left"|1.1. Overview
|-
|'''HW virtualization support (Hypervisor)'''
|Full emulation of underneath hardware level: full isolation guest environment, no dependencies from host OS, overhead for hypervisor layer.
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''OS-level virtualization (Containers)'''
|Sharing the same instance of host OS: high density, high performance, high dependencies from host OS.
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Hypervisor technology'''
|Technology that enables to run Virtual Machines.
|{{No}}
|Parallels Desktop Monitor
|KVM
|KVM
|{{No}}
|KVM
|Hyper-V
|KVM
|Xen
|-
|'''Windows guest OS additional support'''
|WHQL-signed drivers, SVVP certification
|N/A
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''Containers technology'''
|Technology that enables to run Containers.
|Virtuozzo Containers
|Virtuozzo Containers with enhancements
|Virtuozzo Containers with enhancements
|Virtuozzo Containers with enhancements
|Linux containers
|LXC (moved from OpenVZ since 4.0)
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
!colspan="11" align="left"|1.2. Memory
|-
|'''Memory Overcommit'''
|Ability to present more memory to virtual machines than physically available 
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}, with new VCMMD memory management
|{{Yes}}, with new VCMMD memory management and different policies
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''Page sharing'''
|Memory (RAM) savings through sharing identical memory pages across virtual machines
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}, only for CTs
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Online Memory Management for VM'''
|Ability to change amount of RAM for CT and VM without reboot
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|N/A
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|2. Management
|-
!colspan="11"|2.1. General
|-
|'''Unified management tool for CTs and VMs'''
|Single tool for managing both containers and virtual machines (if applicable)
|N/A
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|-
|'''OpenStack integration'''
|Integration with OpenStack components ([http://docs.openstack.org/developer/nova/support-matrix.html see details])
|{{Yes}}, only Nova
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''Integrated GUI'''
|Centralized multi-server management
|{{Yes}}, 3rd party
|{{Yes}}, Parallels Virtual Automation (PVA)
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, [https://www.virtuozzo.com/support/all-products/virtuozzo-automator.html Automator]
|{{Yes}}, 3rd party
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}, System Center Virtual Machine Manager
|{{Yes}}, RHEV Manager
|{{Yes}}, XenCenter
|-
!colspan="11"|2.2. Upgrade & Backup
|-
|'''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)
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''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)
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Backup Integration API'''
|Integration with 3rd party backup applications for backup of the virtual environment.
|{{No}} (only through snapshots)
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}} (only through snapshots, new version is not finished yet)
|{{No}} (only through snapshots, new version is not finished yet)
|{{No}} (only through snapshots)
|{{Yes}} (vzdump)
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|-
!colspan="11"|2.3. Others
|-
|'''VEs Templates (VM, CT)'''
|Ability to create and store master images and deploy virtual machines from them
|{{Yes}} (CT only)
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}} 
|{{Yes}} (OpenVZ templates)
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''P2V migration'''
|Integrated or added P2V (or V2V) capability in order to convert physical systems to virtual environment.
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}, 3rd party tools
|{{No}}
|{{No}}, 3rd party tools
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|3. VE Mobility and HA
|-
!colspan="11"|3.1. VE Mobility
|-
|'''Live Migration'''
|Ability to migrate virtual machines between hosts without perceived downtime
|{{Yes}}, but with no zero downtime
|{{Yes}}, Kernel-Level Migration
|{{Yes}}, CRIU for containers
|{{Yes}}, CRIU for containers
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
!colspan="11"|3.2. HA / DR
|-
|'''Integrated HA'''
|Recover virtual environment in case of host failures through restart on alternative hosts (downtime = restart time)
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|4. Network and Storage
|-
!colspan="11"|4.1. Storage
|-
|'''Supported Storage'''
|Supported types of Storage (DAS, NAS or SAN)
|DAS (EXT4)
|NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)
|DAS (EXT4)
|NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)
|NAS (NFS), DAS (EXT4)
|DAS, NAS (NFS, ZFS), SAN (iSCSI), 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 machines
|CT - [[ploop]]
|CT - [[ploop]], VM - [[ploop]]
|CT - [[ploop]], VM - [[ploop]]\Qcow2
|CT - [[ploop]], VM - [[ploop]]\Qcow2
|Any
|Qcow2, vmdk, raw
|vhdx, vhd, pass-though (raw)
|Qcow2, raw disk
|vhd, 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.
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}, depends on disk format (dm-thin)
|{{Yes}}, depends on underlying storage driver
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
|'''Software-defined Storage'''
|Enhanced storage capability  e.g. providing a virtual SAN through virtualized 'local' storage 
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, Virtuozzo Storage
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, Virtuozzo Storage
|{{Yes}}, but 3rd party (DRBD 9, Ceph, GlusterFS)
|{{Yes}}, but 3rd party (DRBD 9, Ceph, GlusterFS, sheepdog)
|{{Yes}}, Storage Spaces
|{{Yes}}, Red Hat Storage
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Storage QoS'''
|Ability to control Quality of Service for Storage I/O or Throughput for CT/VM
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, VMs only
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
!colspan="11"|4.2. Network
|-
|'''Network QoS'''
|Ability to create and store master images and deploy virtual machines from them
|Only bandwidth limits
|Only bandwidth limits
|Only bandwidth limits
|Only bandwidth limits
|Only bandwidth limits
|{{Yes}}, with Open vSwitch 
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|5. Others – most of features are relevant only for 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 needed
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, pfcache
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}, pfcache
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|-
|'''Completely isolated disk subsystem for CTs'''
|
|{{Yes}}, ploop
|{{Yes}}, ploop
|{{Yes}}, ploop
|{{Yes}}, ploop
|{{Yes}}, with LVM or ZFS
|{{Yes}}, LVM, ZFS, or loop devices
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|-
|'''API\SDK'''
|
|OpenVZ API for Ruby, LibVirt
|Virtuozzo SDK, [[LibVirt]]
|Virtuozzo SDK, [[LibVirt]]
|Virtuozzo SDK, [[LibVirt]]
|LibLXC, API for Ruby, Python 2, Haskell, Go
|Proxmox VE uses a REST like API (JSON data format)
|Windows SDK
|RHEV-M API: REST API, SDKs
|XenAPI, 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.
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}} Application Image Catalog [https://virtuozzo.com/introducing-the-virtuozzo-application-catalog/ Virtuozzo Application Catalog]
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}} (Turnkey)
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Kernel update without reboot'''
|Integrated ability to upgrade kernel or install security patches without downtime.
|{{No}}, only 3d party tools
|{{Yes}}, Rebootless Kernel Update
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}} [https://readykernel.com/ ReadyKernel Service]
|{{No}}, only 3d party tools
|{{No}}, only 3d party tools
|N/A
|{{No}}, only 3d party tools
|{{No}}, only 3d party tools
|-
|'''Power Panel'''
|A tool used for managing particular virtual machines and containers by their end users.
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}}
|-
|'''Secure for using in public networks'''
|
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}<ref name="LXC security">[https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2015/q3/att-171/LxcSecurityAnalysis.txt LXC Security Analysis]</ref>, <ref name="Security issues and mitigations with lxc">[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LxcSecurity Security issues and mitigations with LXC]</ref>
|{{No}}<ref name="LXC security">[https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2015/q3/att-171/LxcSecurityAnalysis.txt LXC Security Analysis]</ref>, <ref name="Security issues and mitigations with lxc">[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LxcSecurity Security issues and mitigations with LXC]</ref>
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|-
!colspan="11" style="font-style:bold;background-color:gold;"|6. Commercial
|-
|'''Open Source'''
|
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{No}} (but there is Open Source edition(oVirt))
|{{No}} (but there is Open Source edition)
|-
|'''License\Subscription'''
|
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{No}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}
|{{Yes}}, Enterprise Edition
|-
|'''Support'''
|
|Both community and commercial support
|Commercial support
|Community support
|Commercial Support
|Yes, Canonical Ltd.
|Both community and commercial support
|Commercial support
|Commercial support
|Both community and commercial support
|-
|'''EOL policy'''
|
|[[Releases|5 years of support]]
|[https://virtuozzo.com/support/server-lifecycle/ 7 years of support]
|TBD
|[https://virtuozzo.com/support/server-lifecycle/ 7 years of support]
|
|
|[https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=hyper-v 11 years of support]]
|
|
|-
|}