Linux-VServer: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|OS-level virtualisation}}

{{multiple|

{{primary sources|date=May 2014}}

{{Citations|date=January 2014}}

}}

{{Infobox software

| name =

| logo = [[Image:Linux-VServer-logo.png|Linux-VServer]]

| screenshot =

| caption =

| developer = Herbert Pötzl (Community Project)

| latest release version = 2.6.22.19-vs2.2.0.7

| latest release date = {{start date and age|2008|03|14}}

| latest preview version = 34.189.55159-vs2.3.79.58

| latest preview date = {{start date and age|20152019|0110|1905}}

| operating_system = [[Linux]]

| platform = [[x86]], [[SPARC|SPARC/64]], [[PA-RISC]], [[S390|S390z/xArchitecture|s390x]], [[MIPS architecture|MIPS/64]], [[ARM architecture|ARM]], [[PowerPC|PowerPC/64]], [[Itanium]]

| genre = [[Operating system-level virtualization|OS-level virtualization]]

| license = [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL]] v.2

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'''Linux-VServer''' is a [[virtual private server]] implementation that was created by adding [[operating system-level virtualization]] capabilities to the [[Linux kernel]]. It is developed and distributed as [[open-source software]].

==Details==

The project was started by [[Jacques Gélinas]]. It is now maintained by Herbert Pötzl. of [[Austria]] andIt is not related to the [[Linux Virtual Server]] project, which implements network [[Load balancing (computing)|load balancing]].

Linux-VServer is a [[Operating-system-level virtualization|jail mechanism]] in that it can be used to securely partition resources on a computer system (such as the [[file system]], CPU time, network addresses and memory) in such a way that [[process (computing)|processes]] cannot mount a [[denial-of-service attack]] on anything outside their partition.

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* Virtual servers share the same [[system call]] interface and do not have any [[emulator|emulation]] overhead.

* Virtual servers do not have to be backed by opaque [[disk image]]s, but can share a common file system and common sets of files (through copy-on-write hard links). This makes it easier to back up a system and to pool disk space amongst virtual servers.

* Processes within the virtual server run as regular processes on the host system. This is somewhat more memory-efficient and I/O-efficient than whole-system emulation, whichalthough cannotmemory returnballooning and modern VMs allow returning "unused" memory or shareand asharing disk cache with the host and other virtual servers.

* Processes within the virtual server are queued on the same scheduler as on the host, allowing guestsguest's processes to run concurrently on [[Symmetric multiprocessing|SMP]] systems. This is not trivial to implement with whole-system emulation.

* Networking is based on isolation rather than virtualization, so there is no additional overhead for packets.

* Smaller plane for security bugs. Only one kernel with small additional code-base compared to 2+ kernels and large interfaces between them.

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==See also==

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

* [[Comparison of platform virtualization software]]

* [[Operating system-level virtualization]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==

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[[Category:Linux kernel features]]

[[Category:Free virtualization software]]

[[Category:Linux-only free software]]

[[Category:Virtualization-related software for Linux]]