Hypervisor in virtualization

Hypervisor make it possible to use more of a system’s available resources and provide grater IT mobility since the guest VM’s are independent of the host hardware. This means they can be easily moved between different servers.

A hypervisor reduces “Space, Energy, Maintenance, Requirements”.

In reality, Apps are running on the same physical server but on a dedicated virtual machine.

Hypervisor or Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)

Type 1 is a command set that is embedded into a physical layer of the host computer. From there, the hypervisor spins up and spins down virtual machines as needed and dynamically assigns host computer resources to the VMs.

Type 1 Hypervisor Vendors

These hypervisor products include virtualization industry leaders VMware ESX/ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as hypervisors from Citrix and Oracle VM Server. The latter includes SPARC and x86 versions.

Type 2 hypervisors are more limited in scope, often running from a single computer. This type runs from the host computer software layer, where you can create virtual machines as different processes. Like Type 1, Type 2 can define different operating systems in its VMs.

Type 2 Hypervisor Vendors

Type 2 hypervisors work from the operating system level and decouple guest operating systems from the host OS. Examples include VMware Workstation and Oracle’s open source VirtualBox.

Benefits

Type 1

· Higher performance

· Lower resource usage

· Firmware location is more secure

· Runs virtualized production environments

· Requires active administration

Type 2

· Much simpler to set up

· Easier to manage

· Software-based virtualization is compatible with wide range of hardware

· Does not require dedicated admin

· Test multiple operating systems within Windows, OS X, or Linux environments

· Type 1 may support a few drivers, but Type 2 has full access to Windows or Linux drivers