On Tue, 2008-04-15 at 15:39 +0800, Stephen Liu wrote: > Hi folks, > > > Linux-VServer and FreeVPS are complete new to me. Just came across > them on Internet browsing. Having read the FAQ of the former briefly. > Still have following questiong unsolved; > > > 1) > What will be the advantage in running Vserver compared to > Xen/VirtualBox/VMWare/etc. IIRC on FAQ it mentiones Vserver taking > only Windows Guest. The others can take Windows guest additional to > Linux/Unix guests. Vserver abstracts things at a higher level than Xen et al. They provide you with a virtual computer, while vserver provides you with (essentially) a virtual userland. This means that vserver is lower overhead (it doesn't need a separate kernel per instance, also because it 'is aware' of OS abstractions like file systems, it can do things like vhashify), is more tighly intergrated (from the host machine it's essentially one *NIX boxen), can manage resources in a much more fine grained manner and doesn't suffer from some of the 'clashing' problems that virtual machines do (i.e. both the kernel and emulated kernel have their own memory management systems, neither of which was designed to be heirarchical). On the flip side, you are limited to a Linux style userland in the guests. They are very different tools, aimed at solving different problems. If you have a large number of Linux boxen you wish to consolidate / plan to deploy a large number of boxen then vserver can make the management of them easier and reduce the hardware requirements. If you want to run multiple, distinct, uncoperative OSs on the same hardware - then you need one of the virtual machine style systems. > 2) > What are the major difference between VServer and FreeVPS They are both doing the same /conceptual/ thing. The differences are in how it's achieved and how they are implemented. Last I looked FreeVPS had a fully virtualised network stack (more costly but more flexible) while VServer had IP level separation (simplier and faster but less flexible) but I know this has been an active area of development so that may no longer be true. Conversely I don't think (last time I looked) FreeVPS had an equivalent of vhashify. It was a while since I checked the actual feature lists so I may well be wrong. HTH Cheers, - Martin