Parallels - Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 review
Operating System virtualisation
Review date: 24 October, 2008. Review by: IT Reviews Staff
Designed to compete against high-end server virtualisation products from vendors such as VMWare, Microsoft, Citrix and others, Virtuozzo Containers can be used with Windows Server 2003 and a number of Linux distros including Red Hat. There's support for both 32-bit and 64-bit implementations and you only ever need to install and run the one host OS, each container sharing the bulk of the files and services involved.
In addition, however, each then gets its own memory space, registry, user and other settings and can be configured with unique applications to deliver what appears to be a separate, self-contained virtual machine.
It's easy to install. We tested it using Windows Server 2003 R2 using, as recommended, a fresh install with no patches or applications, to avoid conflicts. The whole process took about 20 minutes with two tools available to configure and manage the containers. We used the bundled Parallels Management Console which we ran on the server itself but there's also a Web-based tool, the Parallels Infrastructure Manager, which can remotely manage multiple Virtuozzo servers and other Parallels products.
We found the user interface straightforward, and creating and managing containers was much like working with virtual machines. However, there's no need to install an OS every time, so creating a new container is a lot quicker. Templates further help speed up and simplify the process and, if required, end users can be allowed to create and manage containers themselves using another Web-based tool, the Parallels Power Panel.
To all intents and purposes, containers look and act like separate instances of the host OS. We were, therefore, able to connect to containers on our test Windows server using remote desktop and install and run applications just as though connecting to a “real” system. Monitoring and backup tools are also provided, along with others to port physical and virtual workloads to the Virtuozzo Containers environment.
One drawback is the inability to support different platforms on the same host (Windows and Linux, for example), as with conventional virtualisation tools. However, you can expect performance to match the leading hypervisor products, plus storage overheads are much lower and you can host a lot more containers per server (hundreds) than conventional virtual machines. Added to which, by patching the host you immediately patch all of the containers, with benefits in terms of both security and management.
Other features worth having include dynamic resource allocation and load balancing plus built-in support for high-availability failover. You also get the much coveted live migration option as implemented by VMware, enabling containers to be moved between host servers without having to be shut down.
The only real drawback is price. That said, Virtuozzo Containers is a high-end enterprise package designed to be used to support production systems. Moreover, although alternatives like VMWare ESX and Microsoft's Hyper-V appear cheaper, by the time you factor in optional management tools and high availability add-ons there's little in it, and the Parallels solution is a complete offering.
Verdict
By virtualising the host operating system rather than hardware, Virtuozzo Containers can match the best hypervisors on performance, while containers are quicker and easier to deploy. You can also host more containers per system and patch all your containers at the same time. It seems expensive but is a complete package that compares well against more conventional production quality solutions.
Company: Parallels
Contact: 020 7060 0880
