The architecture of OpenVZ is different from the traditional virtual machines architecture because it always runs the same OS kernel as the host system (while still allowing multiple Linux distributions in individual [[container]]s). This single-kernel implementation technology enables running [[container]]s with a near-zero overhead. Thus, OpenVZ offer an order of magnitude higher efficiency and manageability than traditional virtualization technologies.

From the point of view of applications and [[container]] users, each container is an independent system. This independence is provided by a virtualization layer in the kernel of the host OS. Note that only a negligible part of the CPU resources is spent on virtualization (around 1-2%). The main features of the virtualization layer implemented in OpenVZ are the following: