The problem(s) of Full virtual servers:
- Consume another layer of system memory.
- IO is slower than the actual real system and makes Drupal sluggish to respond.
- Are very complex to configure.
- Drupal needs faster automated deployments solutions.
- Costumers need full shell access, with services admin.
The proposed solution:
- Linux containers with vagrant & docker automatic deployments.
LXC is a lightweight virtualization method that provides operating system-level virtualization optional to an heavy full virtual machine. It relies on the Linux kernel cgroups functionality that became available in version 2.6.24, It provides a virtual environment that has its own process and network space. This option makes the perfect option for deploying several contained Drupal dev environments independent of the distribution.
Docker is a solution from dotCloud, which simplifies and improves the process of creating and managing Linux containers.
Vagrant 1.1+ lxc plugin allows it to control and provision Linux Containers as an alternative to the built in (and heavy) Vagrant VirtualBox provider for Linux hosts.