OpenVZ Project, the open-source community branch of SWsoft, the virtualization company behind Parallels and Virtuozzo, will release on Jan. 8, pre-made Ubuntu 7.10 server and desktop virtual machines.
Here’s how it works. Users will download an Ubuntu software template from OpenVZ. With this template, they can then set up OpenVZ VMs (virtual machines) of either Ubuntu server or desktop on an existing Linux system. This software represents a combined effort by OpenVZ and Canonical, Ubuntu‘s commercial sponsor, to make it easier for administrators to quickly deploy Ubuntu desktops or servers.
How quick? OpenVZ claims that a system manager will be able to set up a new Ubuntu server in about a minute.
Administrators will be able to customize these VMs. So, for example, a network administrator could keep a customized image of Ubuntu 7.10 server that’s been optimized as a Web server on tap for whenever the company needed more Web-serving power. Or, a business could set up an Ubuntu desktop VM with the company’s preferred blend of software applications already pre-set to work on the company intranet, and then clone them up to users’ PC as needed. As Kir Kolyshkin, the OpenVZ project manager, said in a statement, “We wanted to give our users a fast, easy way to deploy Ubuntu in a virtualized environment.”
If a business finds that combination works extremely well for them, commercial support for Ubuntu is available from Canonical. As for OpenVZ, it has a commercial big brother, SWsoft Virtuozzo.
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