OS-level virtualization
method for creating isolated software execution environments, provided by some operating system kernels
OS-level virtualization is an operating system (OS) virtualization paradigm in which the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated user space instances, including containers (LXC, Solaris Containers, AIX WPARs, HP-UX SRP Containers, Docker, Podman, Guix), zones (Solaris Containers), virtual private servers (OpenVZ), partitions, virtual environments (VEs), virtual kernels (DragonFly BSD), and jails (FreeBSD jail and chroot). Such instances may look like real computers from the point of view of programs running in them. A computer program running on an ordinary operating system can see all resources (connected devices, files and folders, network shares, CPU power, quantifiable hardware capabilities) of that computer. Programs running inside a container can only see the container's contents and devices assigned to the container.
On Unix-like operating systems, this feature can be seen as an advanced implementation of the standard chroot mechanism, which changes the apparent root folder for the current running process and its children. In addition to isolation mechanisms, the kernel often provides resource-management features to limit the impact of one container's activities on other containers. Linux containers are all based on the virtualization, isolation, and resource management mechanisms provided by the Linux kernel, notably Linux namespaces and cgroups.
Although the word container most commonly refers to OS-level virtualization, it is sometimes used to refer to fuller virtual machines operating in varying degrees of concert with the host OS, such as Microsoft's Hyper-V containers. For an overview of virtualization since 1960, see Timeline of virtualization technologies.
Operation
On ordinary operating systems for personal computers, a computer program can see (even though it might not be able to access) all the system's resources.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2079320. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “OS-level virtualization” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.