OS Virtualization in its Simplest Way

Virtuozzo is an OS virtualization and Server automation solution. With Virtuozzo, you can create independent VPSes (Virtual Private Servers) on one server by virtualizing the Host OS, ie running Windows 2003 on your server would mean that all Virtual Servers run Win 2003 but each VPS performs like a stand-alone machine with its own IP address, memory, processes configuration files, etc. Also every VPS has its unique administrator, which has total control over that VPS. With Virtuozzo, you can increase hardware utilization of your servers by placing multiple VPSes on a single hardware node. The Virtuozzo layer makes sure that all VPSes sharing the OS and Server’s hardware are completely isolated. The VPSes use Virtuozzo network adapter as their gateway to communicate with outside networks.

According to Virtuozzo all virtual private servers share same executable code, which saves disk space as well as RAM. Virtuozzo comes with two types of templates—Application and OS. The OS template has a set of applications and the OS itself and is used when creating a VPS. The application template contains application files with their registry settings and is used for installing software on existing VPS.

It also allows you to move the VPS between two physical servers, without any downtime. All these processes are transparent to the user. Creating virtual private servers with Virtuozzo is pretty simple, it takes only about 5 mins to create a VPS. You can manage virtual servers using each VPS’s web interface or through VMC (Virtuozzo Management Console). Through its management console, you can monitor a running VPS for various parameters and also manage resources used by the VPS such as memory, disk space, CPU usage.

Monitoring counters provide real-time status or a VPS. The counters can be set for various resources like CPU, disk, memory usage, etc

Using Virtuozzo



Installing Virtuozzo is simple; all you need is a dedicated server running Windows 2003. The amount of RAM and hard disk space available on the server will determine the performance of VPS and the number of VPSes you can have. To create a VPS, go to VMC and select the Configuration option. In the new window, choose ‘Create Virtual Private Server’.

In hardware virtualization, virtual h/w is made available to every VM while in OS virtualization, virtual layer sits between VM’s and Host OS and same OS is used by all VMs

This will launch a wizard, wherein first choose type of sample configuration for the VPS. Here, you will have five samples available, one is a basic standard VPs and other includes configuration files for Oracle, MS SQL Server, Plesk, and sharepoint. Next it will ask you how many virtual private servers you want to create; Virtuozzo allows you to create a 100. Next it will ask you for various things like IP addresses of virtual machine’s path to VPS private data, etc. Wizard will also ask you to specify disk quota limit, and CPU and memory parameters for the VPS. Once the wizard finishes, it will automatically create your VPS. You can view VPS by going to Virtual Private Servers option in the main console.

Managing VPS



To start using the VPS you just created, from the VPS window, right click on the VPS and choose ‘Connect via remote desktop’. Once you have logged into the VPS, you can start using it as a standard server. To manage the VPS, right click and select ‘Manage VPS’ option. This will open a new window, where you can perform various administrative tasks such as managing users, files, services logs, etc. You can also monitor VPS
for its performance in real time.



For this, you will have to first
create monitoring counters. It lets you create monitoring counters or CPU, Disk, Memory usage, Network traffic and QoS.

To manage QoS of a Virtual Private Server, right click and go to Properties. In the new window, click on QoS tab. Here you can manage maximum number of CPU Units limit that can be used by a VPS. By default Virtuozzo assigns 1000 units.

Virtuozzo allows you to change resources consumed by a VPS while a VPS is running. These include CPU units, HDD space and memory used by a VPS/td>

To change this, expand CPU parameter option, select CPU units, and choose ‘Modify QoS counter limits’. Similarly, you can also modify disk quota of VPS, number of processes that can be executed simultaneously in a VPS, number of users who can simultaneously login to a VPS, etc. You can also manage a VPS remotely through

Virtuozzo power panel through a Web browser.

By Default, Virtuzzo power panel runs on port 4643 of every Virtual Private Server.