SmartOS

SmartOS is a hypervisor lean enough to run entirely in memory, powerful enough to run as much as you want to throw at it. Provisioning is blindingly fast, thanks to zone...

Free • Open Source
Virtualization Tool
Self-Hosted

What is SmartOS?

SmartOS is a specialized Type 1 Hypervisor platform based on Illumos. It supports two types of virtualization:

OS Virtual Machines (Zones): A light-weight virtualization solution offering a complete and secure userland environment on a single global kernel, offering true bare metal performance and all the features Illumos has, namely dynamic introspection via DTrace KVM Virtual Machines: A full virtualization solution for running a variety of guest OS's including Linux, Windows, *BSD, Plan9 and more

SmartOS is a "live OS", it is always booted via PXE, ISO, or USB Key and runs entirely from memory, allowing the local disks to be used entirely for hosting virtual machines without wasting disks for the root OS. This architecture has a variety of advantages including increased security, no need for patching, fast upgrades and recovery.

Virtualization in SmartOS builds on top of the foundational Illumos technologies inherited from OpenSolaris, namely:

ZFS for storage virtualization
Crossbow (dladm) for network virtualization
Zones for virtualization and containment
DTrace for introspection
SMF for service management
RBAC/BSM for auditing and role based security etc.

These technologies are combined into a single operating system, providing an arbitrarily-observable, highly multi-tenant environment built on a reliable, enterprise-grade storage stack.

show full description ▾

Official Links

SmartOS Screenshots

Add a screenshot

Suggest and vote on features

SmartOS Features

Ad-freeSmartOS doesn't contain any form of external advertising.
LightweightSmartOS consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
Command line interfaceSmartOS either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Rolling ReleaseSmartOS supports updates that are continuously rolled out, rather than in batches of versions.
Container VirtualizationSmartOS can make use of isolated user spaces called "containers" to run applications.
No TrackingSmartOS will not track you or use your personal data.

SmartOS information

Developed byMNX Solutions
LicensingOpen Source and Free product.
PricingOne time purchase (perpetual license)
Written in
C
Alternatives14 alternatives listed

Supported Languages

English

GitHub repository

1,490 Stars
248 Forks
386 Open Issues
Updated

View on GitHub

Popular alternatives

View all

Our users have written 0 comments and reviews about SmartOS, and it has gotten 13 likes

SmartOS was added to AlternativeTo by jodumont on and this page was last updated .

Comments and Reviews Post a comment/review

all • positive • negative relevance • date

No comments or reviews, maybe you want to be first?

Said about SmartOS as an alternative

minikola

It is full OS distribution based on illumos (OpenSolaris continuation), acting as multiple type hypervisor. Includes both HVM and lightweight OS-level virtualization on OpenZFS. With LX Branded zones, can run Docker and Linux distributions without Linux kernels.
Base for private cloud, Joyent Triton, Danube Cloud, Project Fifo

Positive comment• ago

• as an alternative to

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)

Lists containing SmartOS

Hyper-V/Virtualization Front Ends (Cloud and Local) • Runtime & OS

Recent user activities on SmartOS

kibatan liked SmartOS
ago
hh
hhsfool liked SmartOS
ago
NetworkPro added SmartOS as alternative(s) to Acronis Cyber Infrastructure
ago