It is the abstraction of computing resources from the software that uses cloud resources. It involves embedding virtual machine software into the server’s hardware components. That software is called the hypervisor. The hypervisor manages the shared physical hardware resources between the guest OS & the host OS. The abstracted hardware is represented as actual hardware. Virtualization means abstraction & hardware virtualization is achieved by abstracting the physical hardware part using Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) or hypervisor. Hypervisors rely on command set extensions in the processors to accelerate common virtualization activities for boosting the performance. The term hardware virtualization is used when VMM or virtual machine software or any hypervisor gets directly installed on the hardware system. The primary task of the hypervisor is to process monitoring, memory & hardware controlling. After hardware virtualization is done, different operating systems can be installed, and various applications can run on it. Hardware virtualization, when done for server platforms, is also called server virtualization.
Advantages of Hardware Virtualization
The benefits of hardware virtualization decrease the overall cost of cloud users and increase the flexibility.
- Lower Cost: Because of server consolidation, the cost decreases; now it is possible for multiple OS to exist together in a single hardware. This minimizes the quantity of rack space, reduces the number of servers and eventually drops the power consumption.
- Efficient resource utilization: Physical resources can be shared among virtual machines. The unused resources allocated by one virtual machine can be used by another virtual machine in case of any need.
- Increase IT flexibility: The quick development of hardware resources became possible became possible using virtualization, and the resources can be managed consistently also.
- Advanced Hardware Virtualization features: With the advancement of modern hypervisors highly complex operations maximize the abstraction of hardware & ensure maximum uptime, and this technique helps to migrate an ongoing virtual machine from one host to another host dynamically.
Types of Hardware Virtualization
Hardware virtualization is of three kinds.
- Full Virtualization: Here the hardware architecture is completely simulated. Guest software doesn’t need any modification to run any applications.
- Emulation Virtualization: Here the virtual machine simulates the hardware & is independent. Furthermore, the guest OS doesn’t require any modification.
- Para-Virtualization: Here, the hardware is not simulated; instead the guest software runs its isolated system.
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