100 Essential Virtualization and Cloud Tools for Linux
Introduction
Virtualization and cloud computing are fundamental to modern infrastructure. Here are 100 essential tools for virtualization and cloud management.
📑 Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Hypervisors
- 1. KVM
- 2. QEMU
- 3. VirtualBox
- 4. VMware Workstation
- 5. VMware ESXi
- 6. Xen
- 7. Proxmox VE
- 8. oVirt
- 9. Hyper-V
- 10. bhyve
- VM Management
- 11. libvirt
- 12. virt-manager
- 13. virsh
- 14. Vagrant
- 15. Packer
- 16. Multipass
- 17. Lima
- 18. Firecracker
- 19. Cloud Hypervisor
- 20. GNOME Boxes
- Container Runtimes
- 21. Docker
- 22. containerd
- 23. Podman
- 24. CRI-O
- 25. runc
- 26. crun
- 27. gVisor
- 28. Kata Containers
- 29. LXC/LXD
- 30. Singularity/Apptainer
- Cloud CLIs
- 31. AWS CLI
- 32. Azure CLI
- 33. gcloud
- 34. doctl
- 35. linode-cli
- 36. vultr-cli
- 37. hcloud
- 38. ibmcloud
- 39. oci
- 40. aliyun
- Private Cloud
- 41. OpenStack
- 42. CloudStack
- 43. OpenNebula
- 44. Eucalyptus
- 45. ManageIQ
- Infrastructure as Code
- 46. Terraform
- 47. OpenTofu
- 48. Pulumi
- 49. Ansible
- 50. CloudFormation
- 51. Crossplane
- 52. CDK
- 53. Terragrunt
- 54. Atlantis
- 55. Spacelift
- Configuration Management
- 56. Chef
- 57. Puppet
- 58. SaltStack
- 59. CFEngine
- 60. mgmt
- Cloud Storage
- 61. MinIO
- 62. Ceph
- 63. GlusterFS
- 64. OpenEBS
- 65. Longhorn
- 66. Rook
- 67. SeaweedFS
- 68. LizardFS
- 69. JuiceFS
- 70. Swift
- Serverless
- 71. OpenFaaS
- 72. Knative
- 73. Kubeless
- 74. Fission
- 75. Nuclio
- 76. Apache OpenWhisk
- 77. Fn Project
- 78. OpenFunction
- Cost Management
- 79. Kubecost
- 80. OpenCost
- 81. Infracost
- 82. Cloud Custodian
- 83. Komiser
- Image Building
- 84. Buildah
- 85. Kaniko
- 86. Buildx
- 87. img
- 88. ko
- 89. Jib
- 90. pack
- Security
- 91. Trivy
- 92. Falco
- 93. Aqua Security
- 94. Sysdig
- 95. Snyk
- Miscellaneous
- 96. cloud-init
- 97. Terraform Cloud
- 98. LocalStack
- 99. steampipe
- 100. Terraformer
- Conclusion
Hypervisors
1. KVM
Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux.
2. QEMU
Generic machine emulator and virtualizer.
3. VirtualBox
Cross-platform virtualization application.
4. VMware Workstation
Desktop virtualization software.
5. VMware ESXi
Enterprise bare-metal hypervisor.
6. Xen
Open-source type-1 hypervisor.
7. Proxmox VE
Open-source virtualization platform.
8. oVirt
Free virtualization management platform.
9. Hyper-V
Microsoft hypervisor.
10. bhyve
FreeBSD hypervisor.
VM Management
11. libvirt
Virtualization API and toolkit.
12. virt-manager
Desktop virtual machine manager.
13. virsh
Command-line interface for libvirt.
14. Vagrant
Development environment management.
15. Packer
Automated machine image creation.
16. Multipass
Ubuntu VMs on demand.
17. Lima
Linux VMs for macOS.
18. Firecracker
MicroVM for serverless computing.
19. Cloud Hypervisor
Rust-based VMM for cloud workloads.
20. GNOME Boxes
Simple GNOME virtualization app.
Container Runtimes
docker">21. Docker
Container platform.
22. containerd
Industry-standard container runtime.
23. Podman
Daemonless container engine.
24. CRI-O
Lightweight container runtime for Kubernetes.
25. runc
CLI tool for containers.
26. crun
Fast OCI container runtime in C.
27. gVisor
Container runtime sandbox.
28. Kata Containers
Secure container runtime with VMs.
29. LXC/LXD
Linux container tools.
30. Singularity/Apptainer
Container platform for HPC.
Cloud CLIs
31. AWS CLI
Amazon Web Services command-line.
32. Azure CLI
Microsoft Azure command-line.
33. gcloud
Google Cloud command-line.
34. doctl
DigitalOcean command-line.
35. linode-cli
Linode command-line.
36. vultr-cli
Vultr command-line.
37. hcloud
Hetzner Cloud command-line.
38. ibmcloud
IBM Cloud command-line.
39. oci
Oracle Cloud command-line.
40. aliyun
Alibaba Cloud command-line.
Private Cloud
41. OpenStack
Open-source cloud computing platform.
42. CloudStack
Open-source cloud computing software.
43. OpenNebula
Simple, feature-rich cloud management.
44. Eucalyptus
AWS-compatible private cloud.
45. ManageIQ
Cloud management platform.
Infrastructure as Code
46. Terraform
Infrastructure as code tool.
47. OpenTofu
Open-source Terraform fork.
48. Pulumi
Infrastructure as code with programming languages.
ansible">49. Ansible
Agentless automation tool.
50. CloudFormation
AWS infrastructure as code.
51. Crossplane
Kubernetes-native infrastructure.
52. CDK
AWS Cloud Development Kit.
53. Terragrunt
Thin wrapper for Terraform.
54. Atlantis
Terraform pull request automation.
55. Spacelift
Infrastructure orchestration platform.
Configuration Management
56. Chef
Configuration management platform.
57. Puppet
Infrastructure automation.
58. SaltStack
Event-driven automation.
59. CFEngine
Configuration management system.
60. mgmt
Next-generation config management.
Cloud Storage
61. MinIO
High-performance object storage.
62. Ceph
Unified distributed storage.
63. GlusterFS
Scalable network filesystem.
64. OpenEBS
Kubernetes native storage.
65. Longhorn
Cloud-native distributed storage.
66. Rook
Storage orchestration for Kubernetes.
67. SeaweedFS
Fast distributed storage.
68. LizardFS
Distributed fault-tolerant filesystem.
69. JuiceFS
Distributed POSIX filesystem.
70. Swift
OpenStack object storage.
Serverless
71. OpenFaaS
Serverless functions made simple.
72. Knative
Kubernetes-based serverless platform.
73. Kubeless
Kubernetes-native serverless framework.
74. Fission
Kubernetes serverless functions.
75. Nuclio
High-performance serverless platform.
76. Apache OpenWhisk
Open-source serverless platform.
77. Fn Project
Container-native serverless platform.
78. OpenFunction
Cloud-native FaaS platform.
Cost Management
79. Kubecost
Kubernetes cost monitoring.
80. OpenCost
Open-source Kubernetes cost monitoring.
81. Infracost
Cloud cost estimates for IaC.
82. Cloud Custodian
Cloud security and cost management.
83. Komiser
Cloud environment inspector.
Image Building
84. Buildah
Build OCI container images.
85. Kaniko
Build images in Kubernetes.
86. Buildx
Docker extended build capabilities.
87. img
Standalone, rootless image builder.
88. ko
Build Go applications into images.
89. Jib
Build Java container images.
90. pack
Cloud Native Buildpacks CLI.
Security
91. Trivy
Vulnerability scanner for containers.
92. Falco
Runtime security for containers.
93. Aqua Security
Cloud-native security platform.
94. Sysdig
Container visibility and security.
95. Snyk
Developer security platform.
Miscellaneous
96. cloud-init
Cloud instance initialization.
97. Terraform Cloud
HashiCorp managed Terraform.
98. LocalStack
Local AWS cloud stack.
99. steampipe
Query cloud APIs with SQL.
100. Terraformer
Generate Terraform from existing infrastructure.
Conclusion
These 100 virtualization and cloud tools provide comprehensive coverage for building and managing modern cloud infrastructure.
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About Ramesh Sundararamaiah
Red Hat Certified Architect
Expert in Linux system administration, DevOps automation, and cloud infrastructure. Specializing in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, Docker, Ansible, and enterprise IT solutions.