Why do people choose OpenVZ?

Maounique

@harrison said: It's certainly annoying for me that we can't use disk swap as extra RAM in OpenVZ servers.

You can't use disk swap as extra ram in any machine. The two are different things with different roles. It is like saying big warehouses count as extra freight capacity for your shipping business. They are extra storage capacity and might streamline and optimize the flow, but they are not cargo capacity and would never be regardless of how well and fast you could manage them.

emg

@Ownwebservers said:
OpenVZ is popular due to a number of important factors. First off, OpenVZ provides outstanding resource efficiency. Multiple containers use the same kernel thanks to container-based virtualization. Because containers share common libraries and resources, this strategy maximises resource utilisation while requiring less overhead than complete virtualization systems. The effective use of resources results in lower costs and better performance.

OpenVZ may be popular among providers, perhaps. For end users, KVM providers have given me a better user experience with the feeling of more control over my VPS. I can ask the provider to mount a .iso image for me and install an OS from scratch. Providers may include ready-to-use templates (required with OpenVZ), but I prefer the flexibility and control of installing and running my own from scratch. Bare metal console access is another reason for preferring KVM over OpenVZ - with bare metal access I can install an OS over the internet, too.