Hardware Virtualization

Previously, there was "one to one relationship" between physical servers and operating system. Low capacity of CPU, memory, and networking requirements were available. So, by using this model, the costs of doing business increased. The physical space, amount of power, and hardware required meant that costs were adding up.

The hypervisor manages shared the physical resources of the hardware between the guest operating systems and host operating system. The physical resources become abstracted versions in standard formats regardless of the hardware platform. The abstracted hardware is represented as actual hardware. Then the virtualized operating system looks into these resources as they are physical entities.

Virtualization means abstraction. Hardware virtualization is accomplished by abstracting the physical hardware layer by use of a hypervisor or VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor).

When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) or hypervisor software is directly installed on the hardware system is known as hardware virtualization.

The main job of hypervisor is to control and monitoring the processor, memory and other hardware resources.

After virtualization of hardware system we can install different operating system on it and run different applications on those OS.

Usage of Hardware Virtualization

Hardware virtualization is mainly done for the server platforms, because controlling virtual machines is much easier than controlling a physical server.

Advantages of Hardware Virtualization

The main benefits of hardware virtualization are more efficient resource utilization, lower overall costs as well as increased uptime and IT flexibility.

1) More Efficient Resource Utilization:

Physical resources can be shared among virtual machines. Although the unused resources can be allocated to a virtual machine and that can be used by other virtual machines if the need exists.

2) Lower Overall Costs Because Of Server Consolidation:

Now it is possible for multiple operating systems can co-exist on a single hardware platform, so that the number of servers, rack space, and power consumption drops significantly.

3) Increased Uptime Because Of Advanced Hardware Virtualization Features:

The modern hypervisors provide highly orchestrated operations that maximize the abstraction of the hardware and help to ensure the maximum uptime. These functions help to migrate a running virtual machine from one host to another dynamically, as well as maintain a running copy of virtual machine on another physical host in case the primary host fails.

4) Increased IT Flexibility:

Hardware virtualization helps for quick deployment of server resources in a managed and consistent ways. That results in IT being able to adapt quickly and provide the business with resources needed in good time.