Virtualization infrastructure and docker

Efficient Resource Utilization: OS virtualization enables efficient utilization of system resources.

Containers share the host's operating system and kernel, resulting in lower overhead compared to traditional
virtualization techniques. This allows for higher consolidation ratios, meaning more containers can run on a
single host, maximizing resource utilization.
Improved Performance: Since containers share the host's kernel, they bypass the need for hardware
emulation or running a separate guest operating system. This leads to improved performance as there is
minimal performance overhead introduced by the virtualization layer. Containers can start up quickly and
have low latency, providing near-native performance.
Reduced Downtime: Virtualization can significantly reduce system downtime. Features like live migration
allow virtual machines to be moved from one physical server to another without interruption, facilitating
hardware maintenance and upgrades.
Better Disaster Recovery: Virtualization simplifies disaster recovery. Entire VMs, including the operating
system, applications, and data, can be backed up and restored quickly and easily. This allows businesses to
recover from disasters more swiftly than they could with physical servers.
Improved IT Productivity: By abstracting hardware complexities, virtualization simplifies many IT tasks.
System provisioning, configuration, and maintenance can be done more quickly and easily, freeing IT staff
to focus on more strategic tasks.
Increased Application Availability: Features like fault tolerance and distributed resource scheduling
ensure that critical applications remain available and perform well. If a physical server fails, the VMs
running on it can be automatically restarted on another server. Similarly, if a VM needs more resources to
perform optimally, they can be automatically allocated to it.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker
Enhanced Security and Compliance : Virtualization provides a layered defense strategy, which is very
beneficial in managing security and compliance. Each virtual machine provides a secure and isolated
environment, which can be controlled and monitored independently. This makes it easier to implement
security policies and manage compliance.
Facts About OS Virtualization
It's Not a New Concept: While operating system virtualization might seem like a relatively recent
innovation, the concept has been around for quite some time. IBM was experimenting with virtualization as
early as the 1960s to maximize the use of large, expensive mainframe systems.
Containerization is Lightweight: Container-based virtualization, like Docker, is generally more
lightweight than full machine virtualization. This is because containers share the host system's OS kernel,
reducing the overhead of running full OS instances.
Hypervisors Rule: At the heart of operating system virtualization is the hypervisor, a piece of software,
firmware, or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1
(native or bare-metal) hypervisors run directly on the host's hardware, while Type 2 (hosted) hypervisors
run as a software layer on an operating system like VMware Player or VMware Workstation.
A Power-Saver: Virtualization can help save energy. By consolidating several physical servers into virtual
machines on a single physical server, businesses can reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Live Migration is a Thing: One of the more impressive aspects of OS virtualization is live migration – the
ability to move a running VM from one physical server to another without any downtime.
Security in Isolation: While sharing resources, every VM is isolated from the others. This means that even
if one VM encounters a security issue, it doesn't affect the others. This is beneficial from a security
standpoint as it contains potential threats.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker
What is application virtualization? https://youtu.be/_o7dbblRGnI?si=GhC7GREI4YmvVFEr

• Application virtualization is the ability to run applications in a different environment than the one they
were developed.
• Application Virtualization allows IT administrators to install applications on a server and then remotely
deliver the apps to users’ computers.
• The experience of a virtualized application is the same as using the installed application on a physical
machine.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker
How does application virtualization work?
• In this age of cloud computing and server-based virtualization, the most common way to virtualize
applications is to use a server-based approach.
• This means that an IT administrator installs applications for users in an organization’s data center or by
using a hosting service.
• An IT admin then uses application virtualization software to deliver applications to users’ desktops or
other connected devices.
• The user can then access and use the application as if it were locally installed on their machine, and the
user’s actions are conveyed back to the server to be executed.
What are the top three benefits of application virtualization?
The three most significant benefits of virtualized applications are:
• Simplified management: Application virtualization makes it much easier for IT to manage and
maintain applications.
• Applications you want to deliver and deploy are installed on a single server. They are not installed on
user devices.
• App virtualization does not allow you to do this because it provides applications from a server to the
user.
• This simplifies installing and updating software and patches, but it also requires a single server to
perform these operations.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker
Scalability:
• Application virtualization lets IT admins deploy virtual applications to all connected devices, no matter
what devices have their operating systems or how much storage space they offer.
• As a result, the organization spends less on computer hardware because employees only require basic
computers to access the applications they need for work.
• A virtual machine, or AppVM for short, is software that allows users to run applications on a remote
computer without having to install them on their device.
Security:
• Application virtualization technology allows IT administrators to manage which users can access what
applications centrally.
• First, your IT admin must change your organization’s app permissions. Then, it’s easier to revoke
licenses from any user who no longer needs them.
• With application virtualization, the IT admin doesn’t need to uninstall an app from a user’s device since
it remains resident but is only accessible by the app’s container.
• This central control of app access is essential if a user’s device is lost or stolen.
• It gives IT admins complete control over app access and means that sensitive data can no longer be
accessed remotely.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker

• Better control over access – IT has better control over who can access which applications because they
can simply deny access permissions to users who are no longer authorized or have left the company -
without having to uninstall actual software from the user’s device.
• Fast, easy access to critical apps on the go – Remote users can get immediate access to the apps they
need to do their jobs. No waiting for installation or long load times.
Drawbacks of app virtualization
• Application virtualization does have its challenges, however. Not all applications are suited to
virtualization. Graphics-intensive applications, for example, can get bogged down in the rendering
process. In addition, users require a steady and reliable connection to the server to use the applications.
• The use of peripheral devices can get more complicated with app virtualization, especially when it
comes to printing. System monitoring products can also have trouble with virtualized applications,
making it difficult to troubleshoot and isolate performance issues.
Who benefits from app virtualization?
• End users
• IT admins
• Developers
• Organizations
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker
VIRTUAL CLUSTERS AND RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT distributed parallelism, fault tolerance, and disaster
recovery
• A physical cluster is a collection of servers
• The size (number of nodes) of a virtual cluster
interconnected by a physical network such as
a LAN can grow or shrink dynamically
• whereas virtual clusters have VMs that are • The failure of any physical nodes may disable
interconnected logically by a virtual network some VMs installed on the failing nodes. But
across several physical networks. the failure of VMs will not pull down the host
system.
Three critical design issues of virtual clusters:
live migration of VMs, memory and file
migrations, and dynamic deployment of virtual
clusters.
VMs in virtual cluster have the following
interesting properties:
• The virtual cluster nodes can be either
physical or virtual machines
• The purpose of using VMs is to consolidate
multiple functionalities on the same server
• VMs can be colonized (replicated) in multiple
servers for the purpose of promoting
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker

• Since system virtualization has been widely used, it is necessary to effectively manage VMs running on
a mass of physical computing nodes (also called virtual clusters) and consequently build a high-
performance virtualized computing environment.
• This involves virtual cluster deployment, monitoring and management over large-scale clusters, as well
as resource scheduling, load balancing, server consolidation, fault tolerance, and other techniques.
• In a virtual cluster system, it is quite important to store the large number of VM images efficiently.
 Virtualization infrastructure and docker

• The above figure shows the concept of a virtual cluster based on application partitioning or customi-
zation. The different colors in the figure represent the nodes in different virtual clusters.
• As a large number of VM images might be present, the most important thing is to determine how to
store those images in the system efficiently.
• There are common installations for most users or applications, such as operating systems or user-level
programming libraries.
• These software packages can be preinstalled as templates (called template VMs).
• With these templates, users can build their own software stacks.
• New OS instances can be copied from the template VM.
• User-specific components such as programming libraries and applications can be installed to those
instances.

• Three physical clusters are shown . Four virtual clusters are created on the right, over the physical
clusters. The physical machines are also called host systems.
• In contrast, the VMs are guest systems.
• The host and guest systems may run with different operating
• systems. Each VM can be installed on a remote server or replicated on multiple servers belonging to the
same or different physical clusters.
• The boundary of a virtual cluster can change as VM nodes are added, removed, or migrated dynamically
over time.
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Fast Deployment and Effective Scheduling Deployment means two things:

• To construct and distribute software stacks (OS, libraries, applications) to a physical node inside clusters
as fast as possible, and to quickly switch runtime environments from one user’s virtual cluster to another
user’s virtual cluster.
• If one user finishes using his system, the corresponding virtual cluster should shut down or suspend
quickly to save the resources to run other VMs for other users.
High-Performance Virtual Storage
Basically, there are four steps to deploy a group of VMs onto a target cluster:
• preparing the disk image, configuring the VMs, choosing the destination nodes, and executing the VM
deployment command on every host.
• Many systems use templates to simplify the disk image preparation process.
• A template is a disk image that includes a preinstalled operating system with or without certain
application software.
• Templates could implement the COW (Copy on rite) format. A new COW backup file is very small and
easy to create and transfer.
Live VM Migration Steps and Performance Effects
• In a cluster built with mixed nodes of host and guest systems, the normal method of operation is to run
everything on the physical machine.
• When a VM fails, its role could be replaced by another VM on a different node, as long as they both run
with the same guest OS. In other words, a physical node can fail over to a VM on another host.