Virtuozzo, a former subsidiary of Parallels that develops server software for virtualization based on open projects, has begun the public distribution of the VzLinux distribution, which was previously used as the base operating system for the virtualization platform and various commercial products developed by the company. From now on, VzLinux is available to everyone and is positioned as a replacement for CentOS 8, ready for production deployments.
The release VzLinux 8.3-7 is offered for download, built by reassembling the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 packages. The builds are prepared for the x86_64 architecture and are available in two versions — full (4.2G) and compact (1.5G). System images for OpenStack and Docker have been separately prepared. VzLinux is fully binary compatible with RHEL and can be used for a seamless replacement of RHEL 8 and CentOS 8-based solutions.
It is emphasized that VzLinux is provided without restrictions, is free, and will now be developed as an open project with community involvement. A long support cycle will be ensured for the distribution, corresponding to the release cycle of updates for RHEL 8.
The proposed installation image is designed for installation on standard hardware, but two additional editions optimized for use in containers and virtual machines are planned for future publication. Meanwhile, the current build already includes addons for efficient operation under the management of Virtuozzo, OpenVZ, and KVM hypervisors, as well as templates for deployment in cloud systems such as AWS, Azure, and GCP.
To quickly migrate existing solutions that use CentOS 8 to VzLinux, a special tool is provided that supports migration of both of virtual machinesand systems installed on bare metal. Virtuozzo also provides additional functionality to create snapshots for rolling back changes in case of migration issues and to automate group migrations. servers.
In the future, we plan to provide a tool for migrating from CentOS 7, add an agent for Acronis backup systems, and start supplying the Virtuozzo Linux Enterprise Edition, which will feature commercial support and provide Live patches that allow kernel updates without rebooting. Additionally, we plan to release a commercial version called Hoster Edition for use in hosting systems next year.
Alongside VzLinux as alternatives to classic CentOS 8, AlmaLinux (developed by CloudLinux in collaboration with the community), Rocky Linux (developed by the community under the leadership of the CentOS founder with support from a specially created company Ctrl IQ), and Oracle Linux are also positioned. Additionally, Red Hat has made it possible to use RHEL for free in organizations that develop open-source software and in individual developer environments with up to 16 virtual or physical systems.
Source: opennet.ru
