What is SmartOS?
SmartOS is an open-source server operating system based on the Illumos kernel, a derivative of Solaris. It was originally developed by Joyent and focuses on security, virtualization, and cloud computing features.
Some key features of SmartOS include:
- Built-in hypervisor for virtualization using KVM or zones
- ZFS file system for storage with snapshots and cloning
- DTrace for observability and troubleshooting
- Kernel Zones for Docker container isolation
- Software-defined networking support
- Triple parity RAID for storage resilience
- Role-based access control for security
SmartOS is designed to be lightweight and efficient for running large deployments of virtual machines in the cloud. The ZFS file system provides volume management, storage efficiency, and resilience. The built-in KVM and OS virtualization features make it easy to manage VMs and containers. DTrace and Zones enhance debugging, security, and isolation capabilities.
Overall, SmartOS offers an advanced, enterprise-grade open-source operating system optimized for cloud environments demanding security, storage, networking, and virtualization solutions.
VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Proxmox Virtual Environment, Portable Virtualbox, KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), Microsoft Hyper-V Server, OpenStack, UCS Virtual Machine Manager, MicroCloud, Danube Cloud, Citrix Hypervisor, OpenVZ are some alternatives to SmartOS.