Virtualization (III)

Server Virtualization

Out of all three of the different types of virtualization discussed in this blog, I believe that server virtualization is the type of virtualization everybody is most familiar with. When people say "virtualization", they are usually referring to server virtualization because this is the main area of virtualization, whereby a number of “virtual machines” are created on one server meaning that multiple tasks can then be assigned to the one server, saving on processing power, cost and space.

Server virtualization inserts a layer of abstraction between the physical server hardware and the software that runs on the server allowing us to run multiple guest computers on a single host computer with those guest computers believing they are running on their own hardware. The physical machine is translated into one or more virtual machines (VMs). Each VM runs its own operating system and applications, and each utilizes some allocated portion of the server's processing resources such as CPU, memory, network access and storage I/O. This means that any network tasks that are happening on the server still appear to be on a separate space, so that any errors can be diagnosed and fixed quickly.



By doing this, we gain all the benefits of any type of virtualization: portability of guest virtual machines, reduced operating costs, reduced administrative overhead, server consolidation, testing & training, disaster recovery benefits, and more.

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