Unit 3 VIRTUALIZATION BASICS

Virtual Machine and its architecture–VM primitive operations- Virtual Infrastructures- Data
Center Virtualization for Cloud Computing–Levels of Virtualization Implementation – VMM
Design Requirements, Virtualization Support at the OS Level, Physical versus Virtual Clusters.
Live VM Migration Steps

Virtual Machine and its architecture

Virtual machine (VM) architecture is a framework that allows multiple VMs to run
on a single physical machine. The architecture includes a hypervisor, guest
operating systems, and virtual hardware.
Components of VM architecture
●​ Hypervisor: The software layer that separates VMs from the physical hardware. It
allocates resources to VMs as needed.
●​ Guest OS: Each VM has its own operating system, which can be different from
other operating systems running on the same physical machine.
●​ Virtual hardware: The virtual version of a computer on a physical machine.
Benefits of VM architecture
●​ Flexibility: VMs support diverse applications and software requirements.
●​ Efficiency: VMs can be dynamically allocated resources as needed.
●​ Portability: VMs can be moved between hypervisors on different machines.
●​ Interoperability: VMs enhance software interoperability.
History of VM architecture
IBM invented the concept of the virtual machine to share expensive mainframe
hardware.
VM architecture examples Transmeta Crusoe and IBM AS/400 (now the iSeries).
 Virtual machine (VM) primitive operations in cloud computing include creation,
deployment, and management. These operations are performed using virtualization
technology, which creates a virtual environment using a hypervisor.
VM primitive operations
●​ Creation
Create a virtual computer that can run programs, store data, and connect to
networks
●​ Deployment
Deploy VMs to the cloud to build and test applications, or to run different
operating systems
●​ Management
Manage VMs using a hypervisor, which allocates resources like memory, storage,
and CPU to each VM
●​ Provisioning
Automate the process of deploying new VMs on physical servers
VM use cases
●​ Application development: Test applications on different operating systems
●​ Server consolidation: Package multiple physical servers into fewer machines
●​ Disaster recovery: Copy and archive VMs at different sites to recover quickly
from hardware failure
●​ Hybrid cloud: Create hybrid cloud environments that combine on-premises,
private cloud, and public cloud environments
VM platforms
Some VM platforms include VMware vSphere, Citrix Hypervisor, Microsoft
Hyper-V, and Red Hat Virtualization.
Virtual infrastructure (VI) in cloud computing is a software-defined environment
that provides IT services. It's made up of virtual machines (VMs) that run on
virtual servers in the cloud.
Benefits of virtual infrastructure
●​ Cost savings: Reduces the need for physical hardware, which can save money on
electricity, cooling, and security
●​ Scalability: Can quickly scale up or down to meet changing demands
●​ Flexibility: Can support multiple operating systems and configurations
●​ Disaster recovery: Can recover from disasters more quickly than physical
infrastructure
●​ Security: Can protect sensitive data by running it from secure datacenters
How virtual infrastructure works
●​ A hypervisor application creates a virtual environment that abstracts the physical
hardware
●​ The hypervisor allocates physical resources like CPU, memory, and storage to
multiple VMs
●​ A virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) manages the virtualized servers
Virtual infrastructure use cases
●​ Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) allows users to access company systems from
their own devices
●​ Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow users to access networks from anywhere
●​ Virtual local area networks (VLANs) group devices together into domains
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========== Data center virtualization is the process of creating a virtual data center
using a cloud software platform. This allows users to access applications and
information remotely.
How does data center virtualization work?
●​ Virtualization creates virtual servers from physical servers.
●​ It allows users to create virtual networks and allocate network resources at the
application level.
 ●​ It combines multiple physical storage devices into a single virtual storage
repository.
Benefits of data center virtualization
●​ Scalability
It allows organizations to quickly create, modify, and delete virtual networks.
●​ Flexibility
It allows for easy scaling up or down of resources as needed.
●​ Security
It allows organizations to create individual network segments for different
applications or customer environments.
●​ Improved hardware resources
It allows organizations to create a virtual server pool on the same computer
system.
Types of virtualization Hardware virtualization, Storage virtualization, Application
virtualization, Network virtualization, and Desktop virtualization.

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1.1 Instruction Set Architecture Level

At the ISA level, virtualization is performed by emulating a given ISA by the

ISA of the host machine. For example, MIPS binary code can run on an
x86-based host machine with the help of ISA emulation. With this approach, it
is possible to run a large amount of legacy binary code writ-ten for various
processors on any given new hardware host machine. Instruction set emulation
leads to virtual ISAs created on any hardware machine.

1.2 Hardware Abstraction Level

Hardware-level virtualization is performed right on top of the bare hardware.

On the one hand, this approach generates a virtual hardware environment for a
VM. On the other hand, the process manages the underlying hardware through
virtualization. The idea is to virtualize a computer’s resources, such as its
processors, memory, and I/O devices. The intention is to upgrade the hardware
utilization rate by multiple users concurrently. The idea was implemented in the
IBM VM/370 in the 1960s. More recently, the Xen hypervisor has been applied
to virtualize x86-based machines to run Linux or other guest OS applications.
1.3 Operating System Level
This refers to an abstraction layer between traditional OS and user applications.
OS-level virtualiza-tion creates isolated containers on a single physical server
and the OS instances to utilize the hard-ware and software in data centers. The
containers behave like real servers. OS-level virtualization is commonly used in
creating virtual hosting environments to allocate hardware resources among a
large number of mutually distrusting users. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in
consolidating server hardware by moving services on separate hosts into
containers or VMs on one server.
1.4 Library Support Level

Most applications use APIs exported by user-level libraries rather than using
lengthy system calls by the OS. Since most systems provide well-documented
APIs, such an interface becomes another candidate for virtualization.
Virtualization with library interfaces is possible by controlling the
communication link between applications and the rest of a system through API
hooks. The software tool WINE has implemented this approach to support
Windows applications on top of UNIX hosts. Another example is the vCUDA
which allows applications executing within VMs to leverage GPU hardware
acceleration.
1.5 User-Application Level
Virtualization at the application level virtualizes an application as a VM. On a
traditional OS, an application often runs as a process.
Therefore, application-level virtualization is also known as process-level
virtualization. The most popular approach is to deploy high level language
(HLL)

VMs. In this scenario, the virtualization layer sits as an application program on

top of the operating system, and the layer exports an abstraction of a VM that
can run programs written and compiled to a particular abstract machine
 definition. Any program written in the HLL and compiled for this VM will be
able to run on it. The Microsoft .NET CLR and Java Virtual Machine
(JVM) are two good examples of this class of VM.

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) design requirements include hardware,

scalability, and resource allocation.
Hardware
●​ Processor: The recommended processor for a VMM server is 16-core,
2.66 GHz.
●​ RAM: The minimum RAM for a VMM server is 4 GB, and the
recommended RAM is 16 GB.
●​ Hard drive: The minimum hard drive space for a VMM server is 4 GB.
Scalability
●​ A virtualization platform should be able to accommodate more virtual
instances as demand increases.
●​ Elasticity is a feature that automatically adjusts resources in response to
workload changes.
Resource allocation
●​ A VMM can monitor, pool, and allocate resources like CPU, memory, and
storage across multiple virtual machines.
●​ Resource pools are logical groups of virtual machines that share a set of
resources.
Full virtualization
●​ Full virtualization replicates the underlying hardware stack so that virtual
machines run as if they are on a dedicated physical machine.
●​ Full virtualization requires that every important hardware feature is reflected
into one of the virtual machines.
A VMM is virtualization software that creates and manages multiple virtual
machines from a single physical host machine.
A physical cluster is a group of physical servers that are connected by a
network, while a virtual cluster is a group of virtual machines (VMs) that are
connected by a network.
Physical cluster Virtual cluster

Components Physical servers Virtualized servers (VMs)

 Vulnerability Can fail if any one server fails Can be more flexible and scalable

Cost Can be expensive to establish Can be more cost-efficient

Management Can be difficult to monitor and maintain Can be more efficient to manage

How do physical and virtual clusters work?

●​ Physical clusters
Physical servers are standalone hardware units that run an operating
system and host applications.
●​ Virtual clusters
VMs are software-based instances of servers that run on a physical host
machine.
Benefits of virtual clusters
●​ Virtual clusters can be more lightweight and spin up faster than physical
clusters.
●​ Virtual clusters can be more efficient in using computing resources.
●​ Virtual clusters can be more flexible and scalable.

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 Live VM migration involves moving a running virtual machine (VM) from
one server to another. This can be done to improve performance, balance
load, and save energy.
Steps for live VM migration
1.​ Choose the cluster node from which you want to migrate.
2.​ Choose the running VM you want to migrate.
3.​ Select Migrate Virtual Machine to start the wizard.
4.​ Choose a node on a different cluster.
5.​ Select Next.
6.​ Select Move in the Summary section.
7.​ Open the Jobs workspace to track the job status.
8.​ Check the VMs list on the destination node to confirm the VM is running.
Other VM migration methods
●​ Stop-and-copy
The VM stops on the host machine server, and then starts on the
destination computer.
●​ Export to templates
VMs can be exported to templates, and then imported to create a VM on
another host. This is a cold VM migration method that works for VMs that
are powered off.
VM migration benefits
Live VM migration is a useful management technique in multi-VM
environments. It can be cost effective, and it can help with load balancing
and energy saving.