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libvirt vs OpenStack: What are the differences?
What is libvirt? An open-source virtualization API. It is an open-source API, daemon and management tool for managing platform virtualization. It can be used to manage KVM, Xen, VMware ESXi, QEMU and other virtualization technologies.
What is OpenStack? Open source software for building private and public clouds. OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
libvirt and OpenStack are primarily classified as "Virtual Machine Management" and "Open Source Cloud" tools respectively.
Some of the features offered by libvirt are:
- manage virtualization platforms
- accessible from C, Python, Perl, Java and more
- supports KVM, QEMU, Xen, Virtuozzo, VMWare ESX, LXC, BHyve and more
On the other hand, OpenStack provides the following key features:
- Compute
- Storage
- Networking
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Learn MorePros of libvirt
Pros of OpenStack
Pros of libvirt
- Low overhead2
- Free2
- Built into most Linux distros2
- Fast2
- Native KVM and QEMU2
- Native hypervisor2
- Can fully manage via CLI or VirtManager2
- VirtIO direct hardware access2
- VirtIO direct hardware support1
Pros of OpenStack
- Private cloud54
- Avoid vendor lock-in37
- Flexible in use22
- Industry leader6
- Supported by many companies in top5004
- Robust architecture4
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What is libvirt?
It is an open-source API, daemon and management tool for managing platform virtualization. It can be used to manage KVM, Xen, VMware ESXi, QEMU and other virtualization technologies.
What is OpenStack?
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
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What companies use libvirt?
What companies use OpenStack?
What companies use libvirt?
What companies use OpenStack?
See which teams inside your own company are using libvirt or OpenStack.
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What tools integrate with libvirt?
What tools integrate with OpenStack?
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What are some alternatives to libvirt and OpenStack?
KVM
KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).
VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.
Qemu
When used as a machine emulator, it can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance.
When used as a virtualizer, it achieves near native performance by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. it supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, it can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, 64-bit POWER, S390, 32-bit and 64-bit ARM, and MIPS guests.
Docker
The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere
Vagrant
Vagrant provides the framework and configuration format to create and manage complete portable development environments. These development environments can live on your computer or in the cloud, and are portable between Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.