Proxmox VE has long been the go-to option for homelab enthusiasts, and with good reason. Its accessible web interface and built-in support for both LXC containers and KVM virtual machines make it a great option for anyone looking for a hypervisor beyond the expensive, enterprise-oriented options.
But while Proxmox is popular, it isn’t the only option. In some cases, it isn’t even the best option. At its core, Proxmox is just a standard Linux distribution that handles storage pools, networking, and services, wrapped in a polished user interface.
If you’re serious about your hypervisor, and you want to go the bare-metal route, SmartOS offers a cleaner, more secure option. And it’s one that you definitely shouldn’t overlook.
Use your storage for storing stuff, not the OS
Stateless booting for the masses
Hypervisors like Proxmox are installed directly on your server’s local storage, whether that’s a spinning hard disk or a fast SSD. It’s no different from a standard Linux or even Windows installation in that regard and works in much the same way.
Updating Proxmox requires writing to the same installation on the same storage, which opens the door to configuration drift and similar issues. Even something as simple as a power outage can risk hosing your Proxmox server, leaving you and your users in the dark.
SmartOS is a very different beast. Instead of being installed on your server’s storage, it runs entirely in its RAM. The SmartOS boot image lives on a USB stick, an ISO image, or even somewhere on your network. Because the boot image isn’t being actively used or written to, it’s safe and sound — even from a power outage.
Even better, because the SmartOS system runs in RAM, you get to use all of your server’s storage for actual storage. You don’t have to waste precious (and expensive) storage on the system itself.
It’s all in the kernel
Run your servers in a whole new way
The key differences between Proxmox and SmartOS extend beyond where the operating system lives. It extends to how it handles the virtual machines that it powers, too.
Proxmox relies on LXC for Linux containers and KVM for full virtualization capabilities. In the case of LXC, Proxmox essentially layers kernel namespaces and control groups on a standard operating system kernel. In theory, at least, this opens the door to security issues due to the shared attack surface between the host and client machines.
But SmartOS is built on the Illumos kernel, which is an open-source variation of Sun Microsystems’ OpenSolaris. And that changes the way it approaches virtualization entirely.
SmartOS uses Solaris Zones, dubbed SmartOS Zones, to provide a lightweight operating system virtualization solution. Vitally, it does it with full process, filesystem, and network isolation. Instead of running a Linux kernel atop another Linux kernel, SmartOS and the Illumos kernel interpret Linux system calls on the fly and at speed.
Pro-level tools at home
The good news extends to networking thanks to Crossbow, the virtual networking architecture used by SmartOS. SmartOS creates Virtual Network Interfaces (VNICS) directly on physical interfaces, including built-in hardware resource allocation. Bandwidth caps and security profiles are also applied at the kernel level and, vitally, without a performance hit.
Another area where SmartOS shines is native ZFS support, including native memory allocation and instant volume cloning. Copy-on-write snapshots also help maintain data integrity right out of the gate. And because all of this is built right into SmartOS itself, you won’t have to use bolt-on solutions just to get the features that you need.
Finally, SmartOS includes a native tool for powerful real-time monitoring and tracing. DTrace allows server administrators to inspect kernel-level functions, observe disk latency, diagnose network packet traversals, and more. Even better, DTrace allows all of this to be done across any container or virtual machine the server is running. And it does it in real time, to boot.
SmartOS isn’t for everyone
But it’s well worth checking out
As promising as SmartOS is, it’s important to note that it isn’t for everyone. If you’re a fan of Proxmox’s relative ease of use, SmartOS will be quite the culture shock.
Out goes Proxmox’s comprehensive web UI, and in comes an interface mostly made up of command-line interfaces with minimal web-based solutions. The shift from local disk installations to a stateless approach can be an adjustment, and there’s no denying that the SmartOS learning curve is steep. It’s very much aimed at the advanced homelab community.
But if you can get beyond that, or you’re looking for a project to help sharpen your hypervisor and server admin tools, SmartOS is a great way to do it. By combining a stateless base with powerful Crossbow virtual networking and full ZFS storage integration, SmartOS has the potential to be a great way to run your virtual machines both today and for the years to come.