The OpenVZ project announced today that its OS-level server virtualization software technology has been ported to — and is now available for — systems based on 64-bit Power processors.

When you think virtualization and Linux, chances are the first program that comes to mind is Xen, followed quickly by VMware — or perhaps in the embedded and mobile space, VirtualLogix VLX or Trango. OpenVZ, however, is pushing hard to win your mind with this new Power processor release.

OpenVZ is SWsoft's open-source virtualization engine from its container-based Virtuozzo virtualization program for Windows and Linux on the x86, x86_64, and IA64 processors.

OpenVZ, itself, is built on top of Linux. Unlike Xen's paravirtualization technique, with container (or virtual server) virtualization, the operating environment — rather than the hardware — is virtualized. Thus, while there is only one operating system kernel, multiple programs run in isolation from each other within the single OS instance.

OpenVZ architecture
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“This turned out to be a simple procedure to port our code to the Power 64 processor, which demonstrates the portability of OpenVZ software,” OpenVZ project manager Kir Kolyshkin said in a statement.

“Unlike hypervisor-based virtualization technology [such as Xen and VMware], OpenVZ is extremely easily portable across different architectures, since 95 percent of the code is platform-independent. With the port to Power, we've opened the door for another segment of the user community to benefit from our open source virtualization software,” Kolyshkin added.

According to Kolyshkin, the OpenVZ project will soon support additional processor architectures

IBM System p5 marketing director Jeff Howard stated, “Power architecture servers like our IBM System p5 and BladeCenter JS21 make a great platform for Linux and open source applications.”

Power system users will be able to provision physical servers to run applications on virtual servers, rather than a full physical server. The OpenVZ project makes available templates that allow for provisioning of a virtual server.

The OpenVZ software including Power support can now be downloaded from the project's website, here. The project also maintains a blog devoted to discussing virtualization technology.

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