Virtuozzo: Mixed Workloads Without the Bloat
What Is It?
Virtuozzo’s not another KVM wrapper or yet one more hypervisor dashboard. It’s a platform with a long history in commercial hosting — and it shows. This is the system many VPS providers built their infrastructure on years ago, and it’s still around for a reason: it packs a lot into a tightly managed cluster without getting in your way.
Instead of making a choice between containers and VMs, Virtuozzo runs both — in parallel, on the same infrastructure. Want to spin up a Windows VM with dedicated IOPS limits? Fine. Need 50 lightweight Linux containers for SaaS tenants? Same toolset, same storage pool. It’s not fancy, but it works — and scales.
Capabilities
| Capability | What It Actually Means |
| KVM + Container Support | Mixes system containers and full virtual machines side by side |
| Live Migration | Move running workloads between nodes with almost no disruption |
| Custom Storage Backend | Built-in SDS (vStorage) with redundancy, tiering, and I/O shaping |
| Tenant Isolation | Hard CPU, RAM, and bandwidth limits — not just soft quotas |
| Template System | Base images for Linux and Windows, including app stacks |
| Integrated Billing Hooks | Track usage per container or VM — usable for hosting models |
| Cluster-Aware HA | Workloads recover automatically after node failure |
| Web Panel + CLI/API | GUI for day-to-day ops; REST and CLI for automation at scale |
How It Differs
Where VMware or Proxmox try to be generic — Virtuozzo assumes you’re running workloads for others. It’s built for density, for strict control, and for slicing a cluster into pieces that don’t interfere. You get replication and failover, but also billing support and overcommit settings that won’t collapse under pressure.
And it’s opinionated. It runs best on its own hardened Linux build. It expects Ceph or its own storage stack. It assumes the cluster isn’t just two leftover blades — but a pool meant for work.
Installation (High-Level Walkthrough)
1. Install the Platform
– Use the official ISO — it includes OS + management layer.
– Install on physical hardware. Nested installs are technically possible but unsupported.
2. Set Up the Cluster
– One node becomes master. Others join via UI or CLI.
– Storage is unified (vStorage or Ceph); networks grouped into zones.
3. Prepare Templates
– Pull OS images from official repos or create custom templates.
– Use those to deploy containers or VMs in a few clicks.
4. Configure HA and Limits
– Define resource boundaries per tenant or project.
– Enable live migration and recovery settings per node.
5. Access and Automate
– Web UI on port 8443 by default.
– CLI tools for scripting; REST API for external control or integrations.
Where It Makes Sense
– Hosting companies running 1,000+ tenant containers per node.
– Enterprises that need to blend legacy Windows apps and new container-native services.
– SaaS vendors with high churn and lots of short-lived environments.
– DR clusters with snapshotting, replication, and node awareness.
– Anyone tired of babysitting open-source mashups just to get containers + HA + quotas.
