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END USERS: The Great KVM vs XEN vs OpenVZ Debate
MeanServers
Member, Host Rep
Maybe this topic has been beaten to death before many times but we are curious to see what everyone thinks about the subject at the moment.
Which visualization technology do you prefer, KVM, XEN or OpenVZ and why? Ideally, we would like to hear from END USERS and NOT hosts as we are trying to decide if we should expand beyond KVM in our VPS lineup.
Thanks!
Comments
Both can be oversold..
I say would say OpenVZ just for the sake of it.
> Both can be oversold..
KVM/XEN for production or at least important stuff. OpenVZ for dev or services that are not critical.
Why KVM/XEN? For the extra bucks I pay, I'd expect better quality or at least =< 1% downtime.
Xen > KVM > OVZ in my opinion.
Xen and KVM for the good stuff, OVZ for mainly testing and using non-critical stuff.
256 colour vga at 640x800
Have had good experience with all three. In the end the virtualization technology only matters if you need specific kernel modules; server quality depends mostly on the provider.
I'd go with KVM and OVZ. I believe people rarely look into XEN and usually go for OVZ if they want something cheap and for KVM if they want something premium.
I don't mind OpenVZ to be honest, even though it's most likely to be oversold. My sites are not for production so it doesn't affect me that much, not to mention the price is very attractive given this is ultimately a hobby at best for me. When a provider knows what they're doing it shouldn't really matter which virtualization it is.
KVM>XEN>OVZ
That's not sure, if I can share my experience with your company. I have a XEN box in Miami with you and I recently bought an OVZ box, setting up a similar traffic website. The new OVZ box is behave similar -if not even better- than the XEN one in the same location! (both are working very very good)
Bottom line, it depends on what are you going to do with the box, how will u use it, and first of all, who is the provider. OVZ is much more simple for the end user and if provider is honest and reliable, then, it should work fine for most cases.
it all depends who is your host. personally i like ovz
under normal circumstances (no overselling) I prefer OVZ, unless Winblows is a requirement of course..
Everything can be overzold, but KVM is better isolated as OpenVZ.
+1
OpenVZ always seems to be cheaper, and performance is good.
XEN>KVM>OVZ
Love your Xen
Flame suits, get your flame suits! Limited time only, $20 each!
It all comes down to the provider for me. I've been with providers who can keep OpenVZ nodes running like clockwork and some who couldn't keep KVM or Xen nodes up for more than a month without a reboot.
Much KVM.
Oh boy. Here we go again. "Buh but OVZ haz=oversellzzz" because they can.
Then again I am not an end user other than using it on nodes I also control. It is by far the easiest to administer for a bunch of reasons and I love it for that. When you have a bunch of nodes and you have to go through hundreds of VPS containers to do something you will realize how much nicer it is. Although poop...err ploop changes that a bit.
If you own the node, it's a complete different story
Yep, that was just my personal preference these days not from a host perspective or it would have gone: Xen > OVZ > KVM
I love Xen from a management perspective it is ridiculously configurable and the tool sets are awesome, OpenVZ comes second again because of the simplistic management, KVM out performs both Xen and OVZ but I see it like the teenage kid, it can definitely run faster than old man Xen and mid life crisis OVZ but it often trips up and is not very refined or mature
You can Oversell KVM its just a bit silly due the user space overhead and stability, Xen you can oversell disk if you use file based storage but again that is a little silly but not Ram unless you slab PV in to KVM (never tried) while OpenVZ is pretend virt so it just takes what ever you throw at it 8:1 overselling is ridiculously easy without slabbing.
Very true, using OVZ on some colo'd hardware cause it was simple to setup :-).
^^This.
And you can have smaller overhead
As an end user, I like kvm or openvz.. xen only if both of them not available.
I am an end user. I have OpenVZ and KVM VPSs. I have not signed up for a Xen VPS (yet).
Why do these polls/discussions/etc. keep referring to Xen as if it is monolithic to the customer? From my end user point of view, Xen PV seems very different from Xen HVM. Isn't the VP vs. HVM question similar to the debate about OpenVZ vs. KVM?
--> Between OpenVZ and KVM, I prefer KVM.
OpenVZ has some quirks that I had to figure out, related to firewall configuration at startup for example. Devices are not the same as a plainwrap Linux installation. Furthermore, OpenVZ reaches into the file system - overwriting or editing several files at startup, which was disconcerting to a beginner like me. Nonetheless, OpenVZ templates make it easy for a beginner to get started (or start over) with their new VPS.
KVM feels like the virtual machines I install and use on my home computer, which may be why I prefer KVM. Initial configuration of a VPS under KVM is more challenging for beginners.
Thanks everyone for your responses. However, it seems the debate about what we should offer next is not over. Might just end up adding Xen and OpenVZ so that we offer all three in the end to make everyone happy. Thanks again!
KVM > OpenVZ.
OpenVZ done right can sometimes > KVM.
OVZ = Less hassle