Virtualisation

Virtualisation made easy

Ubuntu Server is an extremely popular platform for virtualising data centres. Ubuntu Server provides KVM as the core option for both host and guest virtualisation. A wide variety of open-source and proprietary technologies are also used in conjunction with Ubuntu Server.

Open-source virtualisation

With each release Ubuntu Server offers more options for building and managing a virtualised environment. Open-source technologies are at the forefront of the modern virtualised environment, and the licence-free model of Ubuntu is ideally suited to the dynamic expansion and reduction of physical and virtual machines that are typical in these environments.

A low footprint operating system

Ubuntu Server can also be configured with a low footprint, creating the ideal base on which to build virtual machines. Ubuntu includes a Virtual Machine Builder which makes this process simple and replicable allowing multiple pre-configured machines to be deployed instantly. Users of Canonical's Landscape management tool will also find it an easy environment to manage as it makes no distinction between virtual and physical machines, allowing them to be managed through the same interface and in the same manner.

Ubuntu Server: ready for virtualisation

Our built-in hypervisor KVM, libvirt and our virtual host profile can get you ready to virtualise x86 workloads. To simplify hardware maintenance and to enable dynamic capacity balancing, live migration of guests between servers only requires that they share a common storage system. Memory aggregation can maximise the number of virtual machines when hosting the same operating systems and applications on the same server.

Improve performance with VirtIO drivers

VirtIO drivers provide virtual machines direct access to hardware which speeds performance and eases maintenance. If you need more throughput, you can dedicate specific hardware to virtual machines. The libvirt interface is becoming an open-source standard and part of the core Linux kernel with multiple third-party interfaces available.

The best guest OS

Ubuntu Server runs smoothly as a guest operating system on popular virtualisation technologies including Amazon EC2, VMware, Xen, Parallels, LXC, VirtualBox, and KVM. With one of the smallest footprints as a minimal install, you can easily base your virtual machines on Ubuntu Server and only add what you really need. We even provide you with tools to automate the build process of virtual machines that can be created, or recreated, in a matter of minutes.