OS Virtualization

[swapnilm]

From the point of view of applications and Virtual Private Server users, each VPS is an independent system. This independency is provided by a virtualization layer in the kernel of the host OS. Note that only a negligible part of the CPU resources is spent on virtualization (around 1-2%). The main features of the virtualization layer implemented in OpenVZ are the following:

• Any VPS looks and behaves like a regular Linux system. It has standard startup scripts; software from vendors can run inside a VPS without OpenVZ-specific modifications or adjustment;
• A user can change any configuration file and install additional software;
• Virtual Private Servers are completely isolated from each other (file system, processes, Inter Process Communication (IPC), sysctl variables);
• Processes belonging to a VPS are scheduled for execution on all available CPUs. Consequently, VPSs are not bound to only one CPU and can use all available CPU power.

-- Swapnil M

[nevaeh]

So does that mean that it doesn't use OpenVZ at all or that the settings are just non specific. Can use still use it and set it to become more specific if you wanted it to?