Virtualization and Types of

Virtualization
 Outline
• Virtualization
• Virtualization Structure Tools and Mechanisms
• Virtualization of CPU, Memory and IO
• Importance of Virtualization in Cloud
• Disadvantages of Virtualization
 Virtualization
• Virtualization -- the abstraction of computer resources.
• Virtualization hides the physical characteristics of computing
resources from their users, applications, or end users.
• This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an
operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to
function as multiple virtual resources;
resources it can also include making
multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear
as a single virtual resource.
resource
• In computing, a process of creating a illusion of something like
computer hardware, operating system (OS), storage device, or
computer network resources is Virtualization.
Virtualization Layers
Privilege Rings
Virtual Machines and Virtualization Middleware
 Types of Virtualization
• We mainly focus on Platform virtualization which is mostly related to
cloud-computing [1]

Full virtualization with Binary translation

–Full
Para-
Para-Virtualization with Compiler support
–Para
Hardware-
Hardware-assisted virtualization
–Hardware
OS-
OS-level virtualization
–OS
 Virtualization Structure Tools and
Mechanisms

• Full Virtualization with Binary Translation

• Para-Virtualization with Compiler Support
 Binary translation
• Binary translation is one specific approach to implementing
full virtualization

• It involves examining the executable code of the virtual

guest for “unsafe
unsafe”
unsafe instructions, translating these into “safe
safe”
safe
equivalents, and then executing the translated code.
code [3]

• An unsafe instruction is one that for example tries to

access or modify the memory of another guest.
guest
Trap and Emulate
 Binary translation
• Trap & Emulate : Executable code from the guest is
allowed to execute directly on the host CPU by the
hypervisor
• A Trap is an exceptional condition that transfers control
back to the hypervisor.
• Once the hypervisor has received a trap,
trap it will inspect the
offending instruction,
instruction Emulate it in a safe way,
and continue execution after the instruction
• Disadvantage:
Disadvantage It is time-consuming and degrades the
performance.
 Binary Translator

Guest
Code

Translator

CPU
TC Translation Callouts Emulation
Index Cache Routines
 Direct Execution
• This is a mode that can be combined with binary
translation.
• With direct execution,
execution most code is executed directly on
the CPU, and only the code that needs to be translated is
actually translated
Virtualization Techniques
 Full Virtualization / Host-based
Virtualization
• Full Virtualization provides complete simulation of the
underlying hardware.
hardware
• Simulate all computing elements such as instruction set, set main
memory,
memory interrupts,
interrupts exceptions,
exceptions and device access.
access
• The result is a system in which all software (including all OS’s)
capable of execution on the raw hardware can be run in the virtual
machine
• The combination of binary translation and direct execution provides
Full Virtualization as the guest OS is fully abstracted (completely
decoupled) from the underlying hardware by the virtualization layer.
• The guest OS is not aware it is being virtualized and requires no
modification.
 Full Virtualization
• The hypervisor translates all operating system instructions on the fly
and caches the results for future use, while user level instructions run
unmodified at native speed.
• Full Virtualization is done at run time.
• Examples
– VMware
– Microsoft Virtual Server
• Full virtualization has proven highly successful
– Sharing a computer system among multiple users
– Isolating users from each other (and from the control program)
and
– Emulating new hardware to achieve improved reliability, security
and productivity.
productivity.
Full Virtualization with
Binary translation

VMM: Virtual Machine Monitor

Full Virtualization
 Full Virtualization
• Advantages:
Advantages
– It is flexible
– Guest OS is decoupled from Hardware and unaware that it
is virtualized.
virtualized
• Disadvantages:
Disadvantages
– It may be slow.
– Binary Translation incurs time which affects performance.
performance
– Full Virtualization of I/O intensive applications is a big
challenge.
challenge
 Full Virtualization
• Full Virtualization can be done in two forms
– 1. Bare- Metal Virtual Machine (Native VM)
– 2. Hosted Virtual Machine (Host
Host-
Host-Based Virtualization)
Virtualization
Types of Hypervisor – Bare-Metal VM
Types of Hypervisor- Hosted VM
Host-Based Virtualization
 Types of Hypervisor- Hosted VM
Host-based Virtualization
• Advantages:
Advantages
– User installs VM architecture without modifying Host OS.
– More Flexible
– Host Based Virtualization appeals to many host machine
configuration.
• Disadvantages:
Disadvantages
– It may be slow.
– Accessing hardware involves four layer mapping which
degrades performance.
– Requires Binary Translation when ISA of guest is different
from ISA of host.
 OS assisted (Para-virtualization)
• Para-
Para-virtualization – via an modified OS kernel as guest OS
– To overcome the problem of degraded performance, Guest OS
kernel is modified.
modified.
– Para-virtualization is assisted with intelligent compiler to replace
non-
non-virtualizable instructions with hypercalls that communicate
directly with the virtualization layer or hypervisor.
hypervisor
– Para-virtualization is different from full virtualization,
virtualization where the
unmodified OS does not know it is virtualized and sensitive OS
calls are trapped using binary translation.
– Para-Virtualization is done at Compile time.
time
• Example:
– Xen -- modified Linux kernel and a version of Windows XP
– KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and VMware ESX
OS assisted (Para-virtualization)

VMM: Virtual Machine Monitor

OS assisted (Para-virtualization)
 OS assisted (Para-virtualization)
• Advantages
– It eliminates Binary Translation
– It is relatively easy and more practical.
practical
• Disadvantages
– Para-virtualization cannot support unmodified OS
– Compatibility and portability is doubt.
– Maintaining Para-Virtualization is high as it required
deep OS kernel modification.
modification
VMware ESX Server : Para-virtualization)
 Hardware Assisted Virtualization
• Processor run multiple processes. All instructions from process will access
hardware directly.
• Processors have two modes. Supervisor and User modes.
• Instructions running in supervisor mode are privileged instructions.
Others are unprivileged instructions.
• Processor such as x86 employ a special running mode called root mode.
mode.
• VMM and Guest OS run in different modes.
modes
• All sensitive instructions of guest OS and its applications are trapped in
VMM.
VMM
Hardware Assisted Virtualization

VMM: Virtual Machine Monitor

 Hardware Assisted Virtualization
• This is also known as Accelerated Virtualization,
Virtualization hardware virtual
machine (Xen), native virtualization (Virtual iron).
• Hardware switch supported by CPU,CPU e.g.
– Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)
– AMD’s AMD-V
• Intel and AMD add an additional mode to x86 processor.
• OS run in Ring 0 and Hypervisor run below Ring 0.
• Target privileged instructions with a new CPU execution mode
feature allows the VMM to run in a new root mode below Ring 0.
• Privileged and sensitive calls are set to automatically trap to the
hypervisor,
hypervisor removing the need for either Binary Translation or OS
modification (Para-
(Para-Virtualization)
Hardware Assisted Virtualization
 Hardware Assisted Virtualization
• KVM (Kernel-
Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a Linux kernel
virtualization infrastructure.
• KVM can support hardware-
hardware-assisted virtualization and para-
para-
virtualization by using the Intel VT-
VT-x or AMD-AMD-v and
VirtIO framework, respectively.
• The VirtIO framework includes a para- para-virtual Ethernet
card, a disk I/O controller,
controller a balloon device for adjusting
guest memory usage.
• VGA graphics interface using VMware drivers.
drivers
 Hardware Assisted Virtualization
• Advantages
– Removes difficulty of Binary Translation of Full
Virtualization and lets the OS to run VMs without
modification.
modification
• Disadvantages
– Transition from Hypervisor to Guest OS incurs high
overhead switches between processor modes.
modes
• Virtualization such as VMware uses hybrid approach
– Few tasks are offloaded to hardware and others are done with
software.
software
– Para-
Para-Virtualization and hardware-
hardware-assisted virtualization can
be combined together to improve performance
 Virtualization of CPU, Memory & IO

• CPU Virtualization
• Memory Virtualization
• IO Virtualization
 CPU Virtualization
• A VM is a duplicate of an existing computer system
• Majority of the VM instructions are executed on the host
processor in native mode.
• Unprivileged instructions of VMs run directly on the host
machine for higher efficiency.
• Other critical instructions should be handled carefully for
correctness and stability.
• Critical Instructions are divided as privileged instructions,
control-sensitive instructions, and behavior-
control- behavior-sensitive
instructions.
 CPU Virtualization
Critical Instructions:
• Privileged instructions execute in a privileged mode
mod and will
be trapped if executed outside this mode.
mode
• Control-
Control-sensitive instructions attempt to change the
configuration of resources used.
• Behavior-
Behavior-sensitive instructions have different behaviors
depending on the configuration of resources,
resources including the
load and store operations over the virtual memory.
 CPU Virtualization
• VM’s privileged and unprivileged instructions run in the CPU’s user mode
while the VMM runs in supervisor mode.
mod
• When the privileged instructions including control- and behavior-sensitive
instructions of a VM are executed, they are trapped in the VMM.
VMM
• Not all CPU architectures are virtualizable. RISC CPU architectures can be
naturally virtualized because all control and behavior-sensitive instructions
are considered privileged instructions.
instructions
• On the contrary,, x86 CPU architectures are not primarily designed to
support virtualization.
instructions such as SGDT and SMSW,
• This is because about 10 sensitive instructions,
are not privileged instructions. They modify the global memory segments.
• When these instructions execute in virtualization, they cannot be trapped in
the VMM.
• Binary Translation need to be implemented. (Full Virtualization)
 CPU Virtualization
Solution:
Solution: Hardware-
Hardware-Assisted CPU Virtualization
• Intel and AMD add an additional mode called privilege mode level
(some people call it Ring-1) to x86 processors.
processors
• Therefore, operating systems can still run at Ring 0 and the hypervisor
hyperviso
can run at Ring -1.
• All the privileged and sensitive instructions are trapped in the hypervisor
automatically.
• This technique removes the difficulty of implementing binary
translation of full virtualization.
virtualization.
• It also lets the operating system run in VMs without modification.
modification
 CPU Virtualization
Solution:
Solution: Hardware-
Hardware-Assisted CPU Virtualization
 Memory Virtualization
• To run multiple virtual machines on a
single system,
system another level of memory
virtualization is required.

• This involves sharing the physical

system memory and dynamically
allocating it to virtual machines.
machines
• Not only virtual memory
• Hardware support
– e.g., x86 MMU and TLB
 Memory Virtualization
• The guest OS continues to control the mapping of virtual
addresses to the guest memory physical addresses using Page
Table
• The guest OS cannot have direct access to the actual machine
memory.
• The VMM is responsible for mapping guest physical memory
to the actual machine memory,
memory and it uses shadow page tables
to accelerate the mappings.
• VMM uses TLB hardware to map the virtual memory directly
to the machine memory to avoid the two levels of translation
on every access. (as indicated by red line in next slide fig)
 Memory Virtualization
• When the guest OS changes the virtual memory to physical
memory mapping, the VMM updates the shadow page tables to
enable a direct lookup.
• The shadow page table controls which pages of machine memory
are assigned to a given VM

VM1 VM2

Process 1 Process 2 Process 1 Process 2 Virtual memory

Guest OS ,
Page Table
Physical memory
VMM TLB
Shadow Page
Table
Machine memory
 Device and I/O Virtualization
• VMM supports all device/IO drivers
• Physically/virtually existed

Source: VMware white paper, “Understanding Full Virtualization, Paravirtualization, and Hardware Assist”
Device and I/O Virtualization
 Device and I/O Virtualization
Para-
Para- Virtualized I/O:
I/O Full Device emulation:
emulation Direct I/O:
I/O
Frontend driver manages I/O from Replication of all devices VM access device
Guest OS. Backend driver manages real is done in a software. directly. It is challenging
I/O devices S/w is located in VMM task
 Conclusions on CPU, Memory
and I/O Virtualization
• CPU virtualization demands hardware-
hardware-assisted traps of sensitive
instructions by the VMM

• Memory virtualization demands special hardware support (shadow

page tables by VMWare or extended page table by Intel) to help
translate virtual address into physical address and machine memory in
two stages.

• I/O virtualization is the most difficult one to realize due to the

complexity of I/O service routines and the emulation needed
between the guest OS and host OS
 Conclusions on Full , Para and Hardware –
assisted Virtualization
• Full virtualization at the hardware level has the
disadvantages of slow performance and low density
• Need for Para-
Para-Virtualization is to modify the guest
OS.
OS
• To reduce the performance overhead of hardware level
virtualization,
virtualization even hardware modification is needed
• OS-
OS-level virtualization provides a feasible solution for
these hardware-
hardware-level virtualization issues
 OS-Level Virtualization
OS--level virtualization
• OS
• Operating system level
virtualization inserts a OS-Level Virtualization
virtualization layer inside an
OS OS OS
operating system to partition a Container 1 Container 2 Container 3
machine’s physical resources.
• It enables multiple isolated VMs OS virtualization
layer
within a single operating system
Standard
kernel. Host OS
• This kind of VM is often called
Hardware
a Virtual execution Environment
(VE), Virtual Private System
(VPS), or simply container
 OS-Level Virtualization
OS--level virtualization
• OS
• An OS-level virtualization
approach doesn't use a OS-Level Virtualization
hypervisor at all.
OS OS OS
• Instead, the virtualization Container 1 Container 2 Container 3
capability is part of the host OS,
OS
which performs all the functions OS virtualization
layer
of a fully virtualized hypervisor.
Standard
Host OS

Hardware
 OS-Level Virtualization
OS--level virtualization
• OS
• From the user’s point of view,
VEs look like real servers.
servers OS-Level Virtualization
• This means a VE has its own set
of processes, file system, user OS OS OS
Container 1 Container 2 Container 3
accounts, network interfaces with
IP addresses, routing tables, OS virtualization
layer
firewall rules, and other personal
settings. Standard
Host OS
• Although VEs can be customized
customiz
for different people,
people they share the Hardware
same operating system kernel.
kernel
• Therefore, OS-level virtualization
is also called single-
single-OS image
virtualization..
 OS-Level Virtualization
OS-
OS-level virtualization
• The biggest limitation of this
approach is that all the guest OS-Level Virtualization
servers must run the same OS.
OS
OS OS OS
• Each virtual server remains Container 1 Container 2 Container 3

independent from all the others,

others
OS virtualization
but you can't mix and match layer

operating systems among them. Standard

• Because all the guest operating Host OS
systems must be the same, this is Hardware
called a homogeneous
environment.
 Confusion…
• OS-
OS-Level Virtualization.
Virtualization. A type of server virtualization technology
which works at the OS layer.
layer The physical server and single instance of
the operating system is virtualized into multiple isolated partitions,
where each partition replicates a real server. The OS kernel will run a
single operating system and provide that operating system
functionality to each of the partitions.

• Operating system virtualization refers to the use of software to allow

system hardware to run multiple instances of different operating
systems concurrently, allowing you to run different applications
requiring different operating systems on one computer system. The
operating systems do not interfere with each other or the various
applications.
 Summary of Virtualization Types
• Binary translation is the most established technology for
full virtualization
• Hardware assist is the future of virtualization,
virtualization but it still
has a long way to go
• Para-
Para-Virtualization delivers performance benefits with
maintenance costs
– Xen
– VMWare
Types of Virtualization
Virtualization Taxonomy
 Techniques for X86 virtualization
Full Virtualization with Binary Hardware Assisted OS Assisted Virtualization /
Translation Virtualization Paravirtualization
Technique Binary Translation and Direct Exit to Root Mode on Hypercalls
Execution Privileged Instructions
Guest Unmodified Guest OS Unmodified Guest OS Guest OS modified to issue
Modification / Excellent compatibility Excellent compatibility Hypercalls . So it can't run on
Compatibility Native Hardware or other
Hypervisors Poor
compatibility;
Not available on Windows
OSes
Performance Good Fair Current performance lags Better in certain cases
Binary Translation
virtualization on various
workloads but will improve
over time
Used By VMware, Microsoft, Parallels VMware, Microsoft, Parallels, VMware, Xen
Xen
Guest OS yes yes XenLinux runs only on Xen
Hypervisor Hypervisor
Independent? VMI-Linux is Hypervisor
agnostic

Source: VMware white paper, “Understanding Full Virtualization, Paravirtualization, and Hardware Assist”
 Importance of Virtualization in Cloud
• Cloud can exist without Virtualization,
Virtualization although it will be difficult
and inefficient.
• Cloud makes notion of ”Pay Pay for what you use”
use and ”infinite
infinite
availability-
availability- use as much as you want”.
want
• These notions are practical only if we have
– lot of flexibility.
flexibility.
– efficiency in the back-
back-end.
end
• This efficiency is readily available in Virtualized Environments and
Machines.
• Virtualization is not necessary to create a cloud environment,
environment but it
enables rapid scaling of resources in a way that non-virtualized
environments find hard to achieve.
 Disadvantages of Virtualization
• Specific hardware requirements
• Upfront cost
• Some programs don’t take Virtualization
• VMs need lot of power
• You still need those old desktops
• You will need fast network
• Computing is virtual, peripherals are real.
real.
• Some hardware architectures or features are impossible to virtualize such as:
– Certain registers or state not exposed
– Clocks, time, and real-time behavior
• Virtualization may not work well for :
– Resource-
Resource-intensive applications
–VMs may have RAM/CPU limitations
– Performance testing
– Hardware compatibility testing
 Multi-Core Virtualization:
VCPU vs. traditional CPU

Figure 3.16 Four VCPUs are exposed to the software, only three cores are actually
present. VCPUs V0, V1, and V3 have been transparently migrated, while VCPU V2
has been transparently suspended. (Courtesy of Wells, et al., “Dynamic Heterogeneity
and the Need for Multicore Virtualization”, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems
Review, ACM Press, 2009 [68] )
Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1 - 60
 Virtual Cores vs. Physical Processor Cores
Physical cores Virtual cores

The actual physical cores present in There can be more virtual cores
the processor. visible to a single OS than there are
physical cores.
More burden on the software to Design of software becomes easier
write applications which can run as the hardware assists the software
directly on the cores. in dynamic resource utilization.
Hardware provides no assistance to Hardware provides assistance to
the software and is hence simpler. the software and is hence more
complex.
Poor resource management. Better resource management.
The lowest level of system software The lowest level of system
has to be modified. Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Inc. Allsoftware
rights reserved.need not be modified. 1 - 61
CMP Server consolidation by Space-sharing of
VMs
(Courtesy of Marty and Hill, 2007)
Virtual Clusters in Many Cores
Space Sharing of VMs -- Virtual Hierarchy

(Courtesy of Marty and Hill, 2007)

Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1 - 63
Major VMM and Hypervisor Providers

Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1 - 64

 Summary
• Virtualization
• Virtualization Structure Tools and Mechanisms
• Virtualization of CPU Memory and IO
• Importance of Virtualization in Cloud
• Disadvantages of Virtualization
 References
1. “Understanding Full, Para and Hardware Assisted Virtualization,”
www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware paravirtualization.pdf.
2. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2551154/virtualization/emula
tion-or-virtualization-.html
3. http://www.ravellosystems.com/blog/nested-virtualization-with-binary-
translation/
4. “OVA-open-virtualization-alliance,”
https://openvirtualizationalliance.org/.
5. http://www.xen.org/
6. “Open Virtualization Format for Virtual Machines”, available at
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/getting-started/learn/ovf.html
7. M. Marty, M. Hill, Virtual hierarchies to support server consolidation, in:
Proceedings of the 34th Annual International Symposium on Computer
Architecture (ISCA), 2007.
Primitive Operations in Virtual Machines
 Implementation Levels of
Virtualization
• Levels of Virtualization Implementation
• VMM Design Requirements and Providers
• Virtualization Support at the OS Level
– OS-Level Virtualization
• Middleware Support for Virtualization
– CUDA & vCUDA
 Virtualization Structures/Tools and
Mechanisms
• Hypervisor and Xen Architecture
• Binary Translation with Full Virtualization
• Para-Virtualization with Compiler Support
 Virtualization of CPU, Memory, and I/O
Devices
• Hardware Support for Virtualization
• CPU Virtualization
• Memory Virtualization
• I/O Virtualization
• Virtualization in Multi-Core Processors
 Thank You

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