SmartOS
Virtualization
Official Website →SmartOS is a specialized Type 1 hypervisor based on illumos (OpenSolaris derivative), combining OS-level virtualization (Zones) with hardware virtualization (KVM) on a ZFS foundation.
Key Technologies
- Zones - Lightweight OS-level virtualization containers
- KVM - Full hardware virtualization for Linux, Windows, BSD
- ZFS - Enterprise-grade file system with built-in data protection
- DTrace - Dynamic tracing for deep system observability
- Crossbow - Network virtualization stack
Key Features
- Live from USB/PXE - Stateless hypervisor boots from image
- imgadm - VM image management
- vmadm - VM lifecycle management
- ZFS Snapshots - Instant, space-efficient backups
- Resource Controls - CPU caps, memory limits, I/O throttling
Use Cases
- Cloud infrastructure (originally developed by Joyent)
- High-performance containerized workloads
- Multi-tenant hosting environments
- Storage-intensive applications
- Environments requiring advanced debugging (DTrace)