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  1. Stackups
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  4. Virtual Machine Platforms And Containers
  5. LXD vs OpenVZ

LXD vs OpenVZ

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

OpenVZ
OpenVZ
Stacks12
Followers36
Votes0
LXD
LXD
Stacks104
Followers194
Votes68

LXD vs OpenVZ: What are the differences?

## Introduction
LXD and OpenVZ are two popular containerization technologies that offer different features and functionalities. Understanding the key differences between them can help in determining which one suits your specific needs.

1. **Virtualization Type**: LXD uses a hypervisor to create containers, while OpenVZ uses a container-based approach that shares the host kernel. This means LXD provides better isolation and security as each container runs its own OS kernel, whereas OpenVZ containers rely on the host kernel which may lead to potential security risks.

2. **Supported Operating Systems**: LXD supports a wide range of Linux distributions, allowing flexibility in choosing the OS for each container. In contrast, OpenVZ primarily supports only CentOS and Ubuntu, limiting the choice of operating systems available for containerization.

3. **Resource Management**: LXD uses cgroups and namespaces for resource isolation and control, providing more granular control over CPU, memory, and I/O. On the other hand, OpenVZ utilizes a Container Resource Management Daemon (CRMD) for resource management, offering less control and flexibility compared to LXD.

4. **Community Support and Development**: LXD is actively maintained and developed by Canonical, with strong community support and regular updates. OpenVZ, on the other hand, has seen reduced community involvement and fewer updates in recent years, leading to concerns about its long-term viability and support.

5. **Networking Capabilities**: LXD supports advanced networking features such as VLANs, bridges, and tunnels, making it more suitable for complex networking setups. OpenVZ, while providing basic networking functionalities, lacks the advanced network configuration options available in LXD.

6. **Scalability and Performance**: LXD offers better scalability and performance due to its lightweight design and efficient resource utilization. OpenVZ, while capable of running multiple containers on a single host, may experience performance bottlenecks and limitations when handling a large number of containers simultaneously.

In Summary, LXD offers better security, flexibility in choosing operating systems, advanced resource management, and networking capabilities, along with continuous development and community support, making it a more robust choice for containerization compared to OpenVZ.

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Advice on OpenVZ, LXD

Florian
Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

OpenVZ
OpenVZ
LXD
LXD

Virtuozzo leverages OpenVZ as its core of a virtualization solution offered by Virtuozzo company. Virtuozzo is optimized for hosters and offers hypervisor (VMs in addition to containers), distributed cloud storage, dedicated support, management tools, and easy installation.

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

A container (CT) looks and behaves like a regular Linux system. It has standard startup scripts; Software from vendors can run inside a container without OpenVZ-specific modifications or adjustment; A user can change any configuration file and install additional software; Containers are completely isolated from each other (file system, processes, Inter Process Communication (IPC), sysctl variables); Processes belonging to a container are scheduled for execution on all available CPUs
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Statistics
Stacks
12
Stacks
104
Followers
36
Followers
194
Votes
0
Votes
68
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet
Pros
  • 10
    More simple
  • 8
    Best
  • 8
    API
  • 8
    Open Source
  • 7
    Cluster
Integrations
Python
Python
C lang
C lang
C++
C++
LXC
LXC

What are some alternatives to OpenVZ, LXD?

Docker

Docker

The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere

LXC

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

rkt

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Studio 3T

Studio 3T

It's the only MongoDB tool that provides three ways to explore data alongside powerful features like query autocompletion, polyglot code generation, a stage-by-stage aggregation query builder, import and export, SQL query support and more.

SmartOS

SmartOS

It combines the capabilities you get from a lightweight container OS, optimized to deliver containers, with the robust security, networking and storage capabilities you’ve come to expect and depend on from a hardware hypervisor.

Clear Containers

Clear Containers

We set out to build Clear Containers by leveraging the isolation of virtual-machine technology along with the deployment benefits of containers. As part of this, we let go of the "generic PC hardware" notion traditionally associated with virtual machines; we're not going to pretend to be a standard PC that is compatible with just about any OS on the planet.

Flatpak

Flatpak

It is a next-generation technology for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux

Lima

Lima

It launches Linux virtual machines with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd. It can be considered as some sort of unofficial "macOS subsystem for Linux", or "containerd for Mac". It is expected to be used on macOS hosts, but can be used on Linux hosts as well. It may work on NetBSD and Windows hosts as well.

Boxfuse

Boxfuse

It generates minimal images for your application in seconds. They boot directly on virtual hardware. There is no classic OS and no container runtime.

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