# ZSvirt Open Source Monthly, Issue #1 — Around the World > Issue #1 of ZSvirt Open Source Monthly: one month after open-sourcing, 1,664 GitHub stars and downloads from 106 countries and regions; OVA and QCOW2 images plus an open-source MCP Server; three Storytellers participants with five more in progress. - Published: 2026-09-15 - Updated: 2026-09-15 - Author: [ZSvirt Team](https://github.com/ZSvirt) - Category: Community - Tags: ZSvirt, Open Source, Monthly, Virtualization, VMware Alternative, OVA, QCOW2, ZSvirt monthly, ZSvirt Open Source Monthly, ZSvirt open source, ZSvirt download, VMware alternative, QCOW2 image, OVA image, ZSvirt Storytellers [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Cover of ZSvirt Open Source Monthly, Issue #1](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) Data as of 2026-09-11 Coverage window: 2026-08-12 – 2026-09-11 (first month of open source) --- One month ago, we open-sourced ZSvirt. Over the past month we kept building, kept learning, and kept connecting with people around the world. The first month brought new users, new ideas, new content, and plenty of moments worth sharing. This is the first issue of ZSvirt Open Source Monthly. Let's look back at ZSvirt's first month — what happened around the world, and where we go from here. --- ## 01 — Product & Releases ### ZSvirt Goes Open Source Worldwide On 2026-08-12 we open-sourced ZSvirt's core IaaS engine under GPL-3.0. A month later, that code has reached **106 countries and regions** (unique downloads, counted by ISO 3166) — further than we expected for an engine that has been public for a single month. [Image available on the canonical HTML page: The ZSvirt website homepage](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) Open-sourcing also meant more than publishing code. In the same month we kept lowering the barrier to running ZSvirt: new OVA and QCOW2 images, an open-source MCP Server, and fuller documentation, so it can be brought up on VMware, VirtualBox, KVM, or any cloud host. ### OVA & QCOW2 Packages We added OVA and QCOW2 images for more flexible installation across different environments, further lowering the barrier to deploying ZSvirt. Importing an OVA or QCOW2 image into an existing vSphere or KVM environment brings up a complete ZSvirt environment in about five minutes. The download center now offers four package types — ISO (5.41 GB), OVA (17.02 GB), QCOW2 (24.02 GB), and ZMigrate — each with a SHA256 checksum. [Image available on the canonical HTML page: The ZSvirt download center](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) - [Deploy ZSvirt Without Physical Hardware: qcow2 and OVA Images Are Here](https://zsvirt.io/blog/nested-virtualization-management-node) - [ZSvirt Download Center](https://zsvirt.io/download) ### MCP Server Open-Sourced We open-sourced the companion [ZSvirt MCP Server](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt-mcp-server), letting AI assistants dynamically discover and call ZSvirt's 2,000+ OpenAPI endpoints. Only read-only APIs are exposed by default, supporting AI-driven interaction with and monitoring of virtualized environments. Install it from PyPI: `pip install zsvirt-mcp-server`. ### Project Data - **GitHub**: [ZSvirt/zsvirt](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt) — **1,664 stars / 303 forks** (as of 2026-09-11) - **Trendshift**: reached **#1 Java Repository of the Day** (2026-08-16, #21 across all languages) and **#2 Java Repository of the Week** for week 34 - **Media coverage**: [Open Source For You](https://www.opensourceforu.com/2026/08/zstack-open-sources-zsvirt-virtualisation-platform/), GlobeNewswire, and others - **Download reach**: 106 countries and regions, counted by ISO 3166 [Image available on the canonical HTML page: ZSvirt global download distribution map](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) --- ## 02 — Official Content Over the past month we published a run of practical content covering installation, deployment, migration, and real-world use cases. ### Best Practices - ★ [Evaluating ZSvirt as a VMware Alternative: A PoC Guide from Deployment to Migration (2026-08-27)](https://zsvirt.io/blog/evaluate-zsvirt-as-a-vmware-alternative) — a complete evaluation guide: how to deploy ZSvirt, verify key capabilities, and plan a migration path away from VMware. - ★ [ZSvirt Migration in Practice: Three Ways to Migrate VMs from VMware (2026-08-19)](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zmigrate-workflow-walkthrough) — ZMigrate live migration (about five minutes per VM switch, up to 50 concurrent), OVF import, and VMDK upload — three approaches for different migration scenarios. - ★ [ZSvirt Architecture Explained: How a Production-Proven Virtualization Engine Is Built (2026-08-17)](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-architecture) — a breakdown of ZSvirt's architecture: one control plane supporting 10,000+ hosts, 768 vCPUs per VM, and the engineering trade-offs behind it. - [ZSvirt Quick Start: From ISO to Your First VM, Step by Step](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-quickstart-deploy-your-first-vm) — deploy in 30–40 minutes with All-in-One mode and create your first VM. ★ marks this month's editor's picks. ### Official Videos As of 2026-09-11, the [official ZSvirt YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@ZSvirt) has published **10 videos**: | Type | Count | Content | |---|---|---| | Launch video | 1 | ZSvirt goes open source | | Hands-on tutorials | 2 | Installing from scratch, migrating from VMware | | VirtWatch Weekly | 1 | Episode 1 | | ZSvirt Episode feature tutorials | 6 | Datacenter/cluster/hosts, data storage, distributed switches and port groups, VMTools, and more | --- ## 03 — Community & Creators ### ZSvirt Community Discord The ZSvirt Community Discord is now open — a place for users and community members to talk, ask questions, share experience, and help each other out. [Join ZSvirt Community →](https://discord.gg/KHsw63z9xA) You can also find us on [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt/discussions), LinkedIn ([ZSvirt Community](https://www.linkedin.com/in/zsvirt-community/)), and X ([@ZSvirt](https://x.com/ZSvirt)) — or email us at [community@zsvirt.io](mailto:community@zsvirt.io). ### ZSvirt Storytellers — Phase 1: YouTube Challenge We launched **ZSvirt Storytellers**, inviting creators and community members to share their stories, hands-on experience, and perspectives on ZSvirt. The challenge is still running. As of 2026-09-11, **3 participants have submitted videos and 5 more are in progress**: | | | |---|---| | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: vikas9452-git's ZSvirt vs VMware vs Proxmox](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | **#01 vikas9452-git (India)** — the first participant from India, publishing [ZSvirt vs VMware vs Proxmox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIGsCokaF9s) on the Labs Hands On channel (72.2k subscribers), with 10k views. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: Profe Carlos Leal's Spanish-language ZSvirt video](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | **#02 Profe Carlos Leal (Nicaragua)** — the first participant from Nicaragua, publishing the Spanish-language [ZSvirt: ¿Rival de Proxmox VE y sucesor de VMware?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHlj0U2PQjI), with 19k views. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: sriramya11's What is ZSvirt video](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | **#03 sriramya11 (India)** — published [What is ZSvirt? VMware Alternative?](https://youtu.be/9qC6cKzFTGw) on 2026-09-07. | [ZSvirt Storytellers Phase 1: YouTube Challenge (GitHub Discussion #8)](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt/discussions/8) ### Third-Party Creators | | | |---|---| | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: Byron Xie's ZSvirt vs Proxmox video](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | ★ **Byron Xie** — a ZSvirt comparison series (including [ZSvirt vs Proxmox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYlFPKz1fA) and three more videos), with hands-on benchmarks. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: SoftsWeb's ZSvirt hands-on video](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | ★ **SoftsWeb** — [ZSvirt: The Best VMware Alternative You Need to Try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eptOKZXWSts), 43k views — among the most-watched third-party ZSvirt videos to date. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: Libre-Data's ZSvirt test video](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | ★ **Libre-Data** — [I Tested This New Platform for Virtual Machines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ucRaGLX3m8), a test on real hardware with 10k views. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: AskGuru's ZSvirt installation walkthrough](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | **AskGuru** — a [44-minute uncut installation walkthrough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXBujaKHDv4) from a blank machine to a working platform, nothing trimmed and nothing skipped. | | [Image available on the canonical HTML page: Thumbnail: hairong lu's ZSvirt feature walkthrough](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) | **hairong lu** — a [full feature walkthrough of ZSvirt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7AeL0fRb7M), stepping through the platform feature by feature. | ★ marks this month's editor's picks. ### Community Discussion - **Hacker News** — [Show HN: ZSvirt – A lightweight, scalable open source virtualization platform](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536562) picked up 72 points and 14 comments, sparking discussion about open-source virtualization and vendor lock-in. - **GitHub Discussions** — installation and usage Q&A stayed busy: an installation thread (11 replies), a ZMigrate deployment discussion (9 replies), an aarch64 image question, a QCOW2 installation issue, and more. Thanks to everyone who asked and answered. --- ## 04 — Contributors The progress of our first month came from everyone who submitted code, reported issues, translated docs, disclosed security findings, and took part in Q&A. ### Thanks to Our Community Thanks to the community members who contributed code, reported issues, and joined the discussion this month (in no particular order): **tllovesxs**, **chayu163**, **Jorge Perez**, **libre-data**, **shuchaoma**, **fankejing-just**, **techknight2020**, **dawnorigin** ### Security Disclosure Thanks to the following two community members, who reported security-related findings to [security@zsvirt.io](mailto:security@zsvirt.io). We're glad to credit them publicly: - **Svector Anu** - **Jorge Perez** If you find a potential security issue in ZSvirt, we'd welcome a note at [security@zsvirt.io](mailto:security@zsvirt.io) as well. --- ## 05 — What's Next The first month is only the beginning. From here we'll keep pushing on two fronts: product and community. ### Product Next up is continued work on hardware compatibility and product capabilities: aarch64 support is under evaluation and GPU components are on the roadmap. We'll also establish a formal release process (GitHub Release / Tag) so that version evolution is clearer and traceable. For the rest of 2026 H2, the roadmap centers on five areas: - **Security** — add disk encryption and live-migration encryption for virtual machines. - **DRS & VM migration** — more flexible migration options: data-disk-only migration; hot and cold migration for SAN scenarios, and cold migration for NFS. - **ZMigrate** — ZMigrate 2.1 adds pre-checks that mitigate risk in complex migrations, alongside simpler and smarter migration workflows. - **Operations** — more monitoring metrics (VM CPU ready time, VM disk read/write latency, network packet drop rate, host CPU ready time); finer-grained log levels for external syslog forwarding; NVMe and FC device monitoring including IOPS and latency; and built-in QXL drivers in VMTools for better VM console display and resolution. - **Inventory management** — extend storage and VM registration to cover same-site registration. ### Community - **VirtWatch Weekly** — our virtualization and open-source infrastructure weekly will keep publishing (Episode 1 is on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oO7FAFX9Jw)). - **Storytellers Phase 1 and later phases** — Phase 1 closes on 2026-09-28, and further phases are in planning. More creators are welcome to join. --- ## 06 — Get Involved | | | |---|---| | **Source** | [github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt) | | **Download** | [zsvirt.io/download](https://zsvirt.io/download) | | **Docs** | [docs.zsvirt.io/en/docs](https://docs.zsvirt.io/en/docs) | | **Community** | [Discord](https://discord.gg/KHsw63z9xA) · [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt/discussions) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/zsvirt-community/) · [X @ZSvirt](https://x.com/ZSvirt) | | **Contact** | [community@zsvirt.io](mailto:community@zsvirt.io) | --- Thank you for every download, every install, every video, and every piece of feedback. One month. One world. More to come. — ZSvirt Team --- ## Official links - [Canonical HTML page](https://zsvirt.io/blog/zsvirt-open-source-monthly-issue-1/) - [Discuss on GitHub](https://github.com/ZSvirt/zsvirt/discussions)