Cloud Computing Virtualization Comprehensive Guide

Explore cloud computing virtualization, including hardware virtualization, types of hypervisors, and various virtualization techniques. Learn about Full Virtualization, Emulation Virtualization, and Paravirtualization.

Cloud Computing Virtualization

Virtualization is a technique that allows sharing a single physical instance of an application or resource among multiple organizations or tenants (customers). It assigns a logical name to a physical resource and provides a pointer to that resource on demand.

Virtualization Concept

Hardware Virtualization involves creating a virtual machine (VM) over existing operating systems and hardware. VMs provide an environment logically separated from the underlying hardware.

• Host Machine: The physical machine on which the VM is created.
• Guest Machine: The virtual machine managed by the software or firmware known as the hypervisor.

Hypervisor

A hypervisor is a firmware or low-level program that acts as a Virtual Machine Manager. There are two types of hypervisors:

Type 1 Hypervisor

Definition: Executes directly on the bare hardware without a host operating system.

Examples: LynxSecure, RTS Hypervisor, Oracle VM, Sun xVM Server, VirtualLogic VLX.

Diagram: Type 1 hypervisor installed on a bare system.

Type 2 Hypervisor

Definition: A software interface that emulates devices typically interacted with by the system.

Examples: Containers, KVM, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware Fusion, Virtual Server 2005 R2, Windows Virtual PC, VMware Workstation 6.0.

Diagram: Type 2 hypervisor running on top of a host operating system.

Types of Hardware Virtualization

Full Virtualization

Definition: The underlying hardware is fully simulated, and guest software does not require modification to run.

Diagram: Illustrates full virtualization with simulated hardware.

Emulation Virtualization

Definition: The VM simulates the hardware, making it independent of the actual hardware. Guest operating systems do not require modification.

Diagram: Shows emulation virtualization with independent guest OS.

Paravirtualization

Definition: The hardware is not simulated. Guest software runs in its own isolated domains and communicates with the hypervisor.

Diagram: Depicts paravirtualization with isolated guest domains.

Additional Information

VMware vSphere is an advanced infrastructure offering a management framework for virtualization. It virtualizes system, storage, and networking hardware.