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Lesson 2 Notes

With virtualization, a hypervisor sits between the physical hardware and virtual machines (VMs), allowing one physical machine to run multiple VMs. There are two types of hypervisors: bare-metal hypervisors install directly on hardware while hosted hypervisors install on an existing operating system. To use virtualization, a hypervisor is installed on a host machine and transforms physical resources like processors and memory into virtual resources that can be allocated to VMs.

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Jhansi Varanasi
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12 views

Lesson 2 Notes

With virtualization, a hypervisor sits between the physical hardware and virtual machines (VMs), allowing one physical machine to run multiple VMs. There are two types of hypervisors: bare-metal hypervisors install directly on hardware while hosted hypervisors install on an existing operating system. To use virtualization, a hypervisor is installed on a host machine and transforms physical resources like processors and memory into virtual resources that can be allocated to VMs.

Uploaded by

Jhansi Varanasi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lesson 2: How Virtualization works

With virtualization, one physical computer can support multiple guest virtual machines, with the help
of a hypervisor. The hypervisor is a layer of software that sits between the hardware and the virtual
machine. This software makes virtualization possible. To understand virtualization, then, you must
understand how a hypervisor works.

On traditional computers, the OS controls the physical resources, such as processing, memory,
networking, and storage, and presents these resources to running applications. Similar to an OS,
hypervisors control the physical resources of a computer. But they use those resources to create and
manage VMs

Types of Hypervisors

Two types of hypervisors are available.

Bare-Metal Hypervisors Hosted Hypervisors

Also called a type 1 hypervisor, a


Also called a type 2 hypervisor, a hosted
bare-metal hypervisor is installed
hypervisor is installed on an OS.
directly on the server hardware.

You do not need to install an OS


before installing the bare-metal You install the hosted hypervisor on an
hypervisor. OS in the same way that you install an
It is easier to maintain than a application.
hosted hypervisor.

Example: VMware Workstation and


VMware Fusion.
Example: VMware ESXi.
These hypervisors can run Windows,
One ESXi host can manage over
Linux, and MAC desktops and
1,000 VMs.
applications on the same host, at the
same time.

Using the Hypervisor

Before you can create and run VMs, you must install the hypervisor on a host or physical machine.
The hypervisor then creates a virtual version of the hardware and is ready to host VMs.

To install an ESXi host, you take the following steps:

Use a media device that contains the software installer and mount it to the physical host.

Connect a display and a keyboard to the host to access the ESXi console.

Manage the ESXi installation process from the ESXi console.


After the ESXi host is installed, it can create VMs and run multiple guest operating systems

Transforming Physical Resources into Virtual Resources

Step 1: When the hypervisor starts, it takes control of the physical resources of the host.

You use the server resources (processors, memory, disks, and network cards) to create and manage
VMs.

Step 2: You create VMs on the ESXi host:

When creating a physical server, you assemble the required physical CPU, RAM, and other resources.
Similarly, for VMs, you specify the software equivalent of the hardware resources that you need to
run the guest OS.

For example, to run a guest Ubuntu server, you create a VM with the resources that the Ubuntu OS
requires, such as a 2 GHz CPU (processor) or 4 GB RAM (memory).

Step 3: The hypervisor creates virtual hardware that VMs can use:

The hypervisor abstracts the processor, memory, disk, network, and other resources and creates a
virtual version of these resources, which are called virtual hardware.

For example, you mount a USB drive with the Ubuntu installation media on the physical host. The
ESXi host recognizes the device and creates a virtual version of it. You assign or virtually mount the
drive on the newly created VM.

Step 4: The hypervisor manages the virtual hardware assigned to the VMs that it runs.

For example, the ESXi host ensures that each VM receives all the resources that it requires.

Step 5: You install a guest OS inside the VM in the same way that you install an OS on a physical
computer:

For example, you run the Ubuntu installer media and follow the instructions for installing the guest
OS.

When the OS starts up, it consumes the virtual hardware that you assign to the VM.

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