Using containers instead of virtual machines?

Question

virtual box

Hello.
There are a number of server tasks that require several virtual machines to test (4-6, for example).
Server tasks, for the most part, come down to installing / configuring various software, setting up a local network between these machines, maybe something else, for example, load balancing, setting up DBMS replications, setting up VPN between clients, etc.
At the moment I use cloned virtual machines for this in VirtualBox with Ubuntu Server, but in my heart I want to do it somehow more organized, console. Well, the space occupied by each Ubuntu on the SSD is quite noticeable.
Can containers help me with this issue? Are there any ways to take out the lion's share of the system separately and somehow launch instances without duplicating sets of software, cores? I heard something about Docker, BitNami, Vagrant, but I didn’t have to work with all this.
In general, advise in which direction to dig, please.
Thanks in advance.

UPD: the host is running Mac OSX

Answer 1

In my opinion, LXC is suitable in this case.

Answer 2

To get started, you need a normal host or a virtual machine on the same Virtualbox as a host.
Let's say we figured out the host. If you need normal containers with a full-fledged OS, then OpenVZ hasn’t come up with anything better yet.