Virtualization: An In-Depth Explanation
Background Traditionally, a physical server runs a single operating system with applications installed directly on it. This model has limitations such as underutilized hardware, complex management when handling many servers, and difficulty scaling. Virtualization solves these problems by adding a layer of abstraction between physical hardware and the operating system. It allows multiple virtual instances, each running its own OS and applications, to coexist on a single physical server. This technology is foundational in modern data centers and cloud computing. Components of Virtualization 1. Hypervisor (Virtual Machine Monitor): The hypervisor is the software layer that manages the physical hardware and allocates resources to multiple virtual machines (VMs). There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 (Bare-metal): Runs directly on the physical hardware (e.g., Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESXi). Type 2 (Hosted): Runs on top of an existing operating system (e.g., ...