SmartOS Alternatives
SmartOS
SmartOS is a specialized Type 1 Hypervisor platform based on Illumos. It supports two types of virtualization:
OS Virtual Machines (Zones): A light-weight virtualization solution offering a complete and secure userland environment on a single global kernel, offering true bare metal performance and all the features Illumos has, namely dynamic introspection via DTrace
KVM Virtual Machines: A full virtualization solution for running a variety of guest OS's including Linux, Windows, *BSD, Plan9 and more
SmartOS is a "live OS", it is always booted via PXE, ISO, or USB Key and runs entirely from memory, allowing the local disks to be used entirely for hosting virtual machines without wasting disks for the root OS. This architecture has a variety of advantages including increased security, no need for patching, fast upgrades and recovery.
Virtualization in SmartOS builds on top of the foundational Illumos technologies inherited from OpenSolaris, namely:
- ZFS for storage virtualization
- Crossbow (dladm) for network virtualization
- Zones for virtualization and containment
- DTrace for introspection
- SMF for service management
- RBAC/BSM for auditing and role based security
etc.
These technologies are combined into a single operating system, providing an arbitrarily-observable, highly multi-tenant environment built on a reliable, enterprise-grade storage stack.
Best SmartOS Alternatives for Linux
If you want similar software to SmartOS, we have a list for that. Are there SmartOS alternatives out there? Let's find out.
KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)
FreeOpen SourceLinuxAndroidKVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists...
Features:
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Linux-based
- Virtualization
Proxmox Virtual Environment
FreemiumOpen SourceWindowsLinuxEnterprise-class, open-source virtualization platform supporting container-based and full virtualization.
Features:
- Live migration
- Clustering
- Container
- High Availability
- Virtualization
- WebUI Management
Xen
FreeOpen SourceLinuxXen.org, home of the Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization. It is a native (bare-metal) hypervisor providing services that allow...
Features:
- Hypervisor
- Virtualization
VMware vSphere Hypervisor
CommercialWindowsLinuxNVIDIA vGPUAMD MxGPUVMware vSphere Hypervisor ( based on ESXi ) is a free bare-metal hypervisor that virtualizes servers so you can consolidate your applications on less hardware.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server
CommercialWindowsLinuxMicrosoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server...
Features:
- Hypervisor
- Virtualization
Citrix Hypervisor
FreemiumOpen SourceWindowsLinuxRadeonProNVIDIA vGPUNvidia GridAMD MxGPU(formerly XenServer) Citrix Hypervisor is a leading virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.
Features:
- Hypervisor
- Virtualization
OpenVZ
FreeOpen SourceLinuxOpenVZ is container-based virtualization for Linux. OpenVZ creates multiple secure, isolated Linux containers (otherwise known as VEs or VPSs) on a single physical...
Features:
- Container
- Container virtualization
- Linux-based
- Virtualization
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