Virtualization Concepts

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Virtualization

Virtualization represents running software, usually multiple operating systems, concurrently and in isolation from other programs on a single system, called host. The software entity that controls virtualization is called hypervisor. The virtual machines executing on the host under the control of the hypervisor are known as guests or guest operating systems.

There are several types of virtualization: full virtualization allows for an unmodified version of the guest operating system. The guest addresses the host's CPU and other hardware resources via a channel created by the hypervisor. This is the most performant virtualization type, because the guest operating system communicates directly with the physical CPU.

Virtualization Platforms

Hypervisor

The software entity that controls virtualization is referred to as hypervisor. The hypervisor manages the hardware resources of the host system and makes them available to the guest operating systems.

Hypervisors: KVM, Xen, VMware ESX.

Host Operating System

The host operating system (or the host OS) is the operating system of the physical computer on which the hypervisor is installed.

Guest Operating System

The guest operating system (or the guest OS) is the operating system that is running inside the virtual machine.

Virtual Machine

Hardware Devices and Virtualization

Linux Virtualization Concepts

Linux Virtualization Concepts