Photon OS: Container vir­tu­al­isa­tion by VMware

Photon OS is a min­im­al­ist container host from the US company VMware. Although the operating system is optimised for the company’s platforms, it basically also works in other en­vir­on­ments. The dis­tri­bu­tion is lean and secure but is mainly aimed at ex­per­i­enced users.

Photon OS is a Linux server dis­tri­bu­tion developed and published by VMware. The main use of the operating system is container de­ploy­ment. While Photon OS is optimised for VMware platforms, it also runs in several other en­vir­on­ments. The system was first in­tro­duced back in 2015, and since then VMware has developed versions that have been improved upon, es­pe­cially in terms of security and man­age­ment. The min­im­al­ist­ic Linux dis­tri­bu­tion itself is lean and comes with Docker pre­in­stalled. In addition to ARM64 and x64, Raspberry Pi is also supported. Photon OS is open source and uses the Apache License 2.0.

Photon OS is designed for the use of con­tain­ers and is used by all VMware en­vir­on­ments. The operating system is very lean and min­im­al­ist­ic, but also meets high demands in terms of speed, security, and func­tion­al­ity. This makes it the ideal Linux dis­tri­bu­tion for ex­per­i­enced users working in the areas of mi­croservices, con­tain­ers, and vir­tu­al­isa­tion. In data centres in par­tic­u­lar, Photon OS provides excellent services.

Images of Photon OS are currently available for VMware vSphere, VMware Work­sta­tion Pro, VMware Fusion, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and in two versions. The minimum version only requires 512 MB of memory. A minimum of 2 GB of RAM is re­com­men­ded for this. For the full version, 8 GB of memory is estimated for Fusion and Work­sta­tion. vSphere requires twice that.

Photon OS is equipped with the Docker daemon and contains a lifecycle man­age­ment system called tdnf, which is YUM-com­pat­ible and package-based. In addition, there is a kernel that is optimised by VMware according to the guidelines of the Kernel Self Pro­tec­tion Project (KSPP). Since the Photon OS 4.0 version, there is support for OpenSSL 3.0, the pmd-nextgen man­age­ment tool for working with clouds and mobile ap­plic­a­tions, as well as the most important packages for Linux Kernel, Glibc, Systemd, Python3, Openjdk, and Cloud-init. All common container formats can be processed with Photon OS. Container-based ap­plic­a­tions can be migrated with the system from de­vel­op­ment to pro­duc­tion.

Photon OS is spe­cial­ised, and ac­cord­ingly it is only really intended for par­tic­u­lar purposes. For this reason, it is worth taking a closer look at the pros and cons to check if the operating system is the right one for you.

• Size: VMware puts the focus on the min­im­al­ist­ic approach of Photon OS. That is un­der­stand­able. The operating system is very lean and therefore works on many different machines.
• Security: Despite the man­age­able size, the topic of security is cap­it­al­ised on in Photon OS. The security-hardened kernel is very well protected because the re­com­mend­a­tions of the Kernel Self Pro­tec­tion Project (KSPP) are used for the system. VMware regularly provides security updates for the common container packages.
• Man­age­ment: The man­age­ment of Photon OS has been further adapted and optimised over the course of the different versions. Es­pe­cially the Photon Man­age­ment Daemon fa­cil­it­ates the man­age­ment of network in­ter­faces, packages, firewalls, and users. Through native Kuber­netes binaries, Kuber­netes con­tain­ers can be created with Photon OS.
• Open Source: Due to the open-source approach, all users have access to the source code and can freely work on and with Photon OS. The code base is open to every user.
• Container: Even though Photon OS is closely linked to VMware and released by the company, all common con­tain­ers can be used with the operating system.

• No ver­sat­il­ity: Photon OS performs well in container vir­tu­al­isa­tion but is not suitable for many uses beyond that. Those looking for a versatile Linux dis­tri­bu­tion will find better options.
• Reliance on VMware: Even if Photon OS can basically run in other en­vir­on­ments as well, many users criticise the close ties or even de­pend­ence on VMware. The operating system is clearly optimised for the different VMware platforms.
• User friend­li­ness: Photon OS is primarily aimed at ex­per­i­enced users who are already well versed in Linux and container vir­tu­al­isa­tion. The operating system, which only provides a command line interface, is un­suit­able for beginners.
• Small Community: Compared to other dis­tri­bu­tions, Photon OS only has a very small community. Users are often on their own when it comes to questions and problems.

While Photon OS only runs in virtual en­vir­on­ments, there are lots of al­tern­at­ive Linux dis­tri­bu­tions for other purposes. These include the two well-known operating systems Ubuntu and Debian, or the de­riv­at­ive Linux Mint. For extensive security checks and ethical hacking Kali Linux has proven itself. If you are com­fort­able using Linux commands, you will get a min­im­al­ist­ic and therefore extremely flexible operating system with Arch Linux. For users who have got used to CentOS, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux may be welcome suc­cessors.