Hyper-V

Content
Virtualization and types

Virtual Machines

Significance of Hyper-V
“Server consolidation is the most obvious, long-standing use case, but
virtualization is like a Swiss army knife. You can use it in a number of
different situations.”
Virtualization
In computing, virtualization means to create a virtual version of a device or
resource, such as a server, storage device, network or even an operating system
where the framework divides the resource into one or more execution
environments.

The advantages of switching to a virtual environment are plentiful, saving you

money and time while providing much greater business continuity and ability to
recover from disaster. Reduced spending. Virtualizing requires fewer servers and
extends the lifespan of existing hardware.
What is server virtualization?

We can define Virtualization as a technology that provides the capability to

logically separate the physical resources of a server and use them as different
isolated machines, called Virtual Machines. The CPU becomes many virtual
CPUs, and same becomes true for RAMs and Hard Disks.

Previously, there were computers that ran an Operating System (OS) and
application on top of the OS, but now, with the help of virtualization software like
Hypervisor, one can create multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single computer
and install OS on them and run all of them at the same time.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of virtualization?

There are many benefits of Virtualization, like it optimizes hardware resource

utilization, saves energy and costs and makes it possible to run multiple
applications and various operating systems on the same SERVER at the same
time. It increases the utilization, efficiency and flexibility of existing computer
hardware.

● Provides ability to manage resources effectively.

● Increases efficiency of IT operations.
● Provides for easier backup and disaster recovery.
● Increases cost savings with reduced hardware expenditure.
Disadvantages of virtualization are almost negligible when compared to the
multiple advantages it offers.

● Software licensing costs.

● Necessity to train IT staff in virtualization.
Types
Hardware/Server Virtualization
The basic idea is to combine many small physical servers into one large physical
server, so that the processor can be used more effectively. The operating system
that is running on a physical server gets converted into a well-defined OS that runs
on the virtual machine.

The hypervisor controls the processor, memory, and other components by

allowing different OS to run on the same machine without the need for a source
code.
Hardware virtualization is further subdivided into the following types:

● Full Virtualization – In it, the complete simulation of the actual hardware

takes place to allow software to run an unmodified guest OS.
● Para Virtualization – In this type of virtualization, software unmodified
runs in modified OS as a separate system.
● Partial Virtualization – In this type of hardware virtualization, the
software may need modification to run.
Network Virtualization
It refers to the management and monitoring of a computer network as a single
managerial entity from a single software-based administrator’s console. It is
intended to allow network optimization of data transfer rates, scalability, reliability,
flexibility, and security. It also automates many network administrative tasks.
Network virtualization is specifically useful for networks that experience a huge,
rapid, and unpredictable traffic increase. The intended result of network
virtualization provides improved network productivity and efficiency.

Two categories:

● Internal: Provide network like functionality to a single system.

● External: Combine many networks, or parts of networks into a virtual unit.
Storage Virtualization

In this type of virtualization, multiple network storage resources are present as a

single storage device for easier and more efficient management of these
resources. It provides various advantages as follows:

● Improved storage management in a heterogeneous IT environment

● Easy updates, better availability
● Reduced downtime
● Better storage utilization
● Automated management
In general, there are two types of storage virtualization:

● Block- It works before the file system exists. It replaces

controllers and takes over at the disk level.
● File- The server that uses the storage must have
software installed on it in order to enable file-level
usage.
Memory Virtualization

It introduces a way to decouple memory from the server to provide a shared,

distributed or networked function. It enhances performance by providing greater
memory capacity without any addition to the main memory. That’s why a portion of
the disk drive serves as an extension of the main memory.
Application-level integration – Applications running on connected computers
directly connect to the memory pool through an API or the file system.
Operating System Level Integration – The operating system first connects to the
memory pool, and makes that pooled memory available to applications.
Software Virtualization

It provides the ability to the main computer to run and create one or more virtual
environments. It is used to enable a complete computer system in order to allow a
guest OS to run. For instance letting Linux to run as a guest that is natively
running a Microsoft Windows OS (or vice versa, running Windows as a guest on
Linux).

Types:

● Operating system
● Application virtualization
● Service virtualization
Data Virtualization

Without any technical details, you can easily manipulate data and know how it is
formatted or where it is physically located. It decreases the data errors and
workload.

Desktop virtualization

It provides the work convenience and security. As one can access remotely, you
are able to work from any location and on any PC. It provides a lot of flexibility for
employees to work from home or on the go. It also protects confidential data from
being lost or stolen by keeping it safe on central servers.
Conclusion

Virtualization in cloud provides an easy way to set up new virtual servers, so you
don’t have to manage a lot of them. Keeping track of where is everything – and
how your physical resources are used for virtual resources – is vital, so shop for
solutions that have easy-to-use tools that help you measure and monitor usage.

Virtualization isn’t a magic bullet for all. But in most cases, the productivity,
efficiency, security and cost advantages outweigh any issues, and thus,
virtualization is continuously gaining popularity.
What is a virtual machine?
A virtual machine is a computer file, typically called an image, which behaves like
an actual computer. In other words, creating a computer within a computer. It runs
in a window, much like any other programme, giving the end user the same
experience on a virtual machine as they would have on the host operating system
itself. The virtual machine is sandboxed from the rest of the system, meaning that
the software inside a virtual machine cannot escape or tamper with the computer
itself. This produces an ideal environment for testing other operating systems
including beta releases, accessing virus-infected data, creating operating system
backups and running software or applications on operating systems for which they
were not originally intended.
Multiple virtual machines can run simultaneously on the same physical computer.
For servers, the multiple operating systems run side-by-side with a piece of
software called a hypervisor to manage them, while desktop computers typically
employ one operating system to run the other operating systems within its
programme windows. Each virtual machine provides its own virtual hardware,
including CPUs, memory, hard drives, network interfaces and other devices. The
virtual hardware is then mapped to the real hardware on the physical machine
which saves costs by reducing the need for physical hardware systems along with
the associated maintenance costs that go with it, plus reduces power and cooling
demand.
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V is a server virtualization product developed by Microsoft
Corporation, which provides virtualization services through hypervisor-based
emulations.
Microsoft Hyper-V is a server hypervisor that enables consolidation of a single
physical server into many virtual servers, all sharing the hardware resources of the
host server and powered by Hyper-V. Hyper-V operates both as a standalone
solution and as an addition to Windows Server 2008 R2 and was built to improve
server utilization and reduce capital costs for buying an in-house physical server.
Hyper-V is a key addition to Microsoft's cloud computing and virtualization product
offerings and provides the complete end-to-end functionality for an
enterprise-grade virtualization product. Hyper-V provides the basic functionality to
create a virtualization layer over the physical layer of the host server machine and
enables guest operating systems to be installed and managed through an
integrated management console.
Hyper-V isolates part of a physical machine into child partitions and allocates them
to different guest operating systems, with Windows Server 2008 acting as the
primary host/parent. Hyper-V also assigns appropriate hardware and software
resources for each of the guest operating system its hosting because they don’t
have direct access to the raw compute hardware resources and rely on Hyper-V.
Architecture
Hyper-V Manager
All Hyper-V management operations are available from Hyper-V Manager
Since Hyper-V role is also integrated into the Server Manager tool, you can find
some useful information there by viewing the events and services related to
Hyper-V and see recommended configurations, tasks, best practices, and online
resources.
With Hyper-V Manager, you can create, change and delete VMs; tune virtual
networking and perform additional dependent operations. Let’s make one simple
operation and create a test VM right now.