What is virtualization? server and network virtualization

Virtualization means creation of a virtual and multiple resource to run concurrently on a single computer hardware, such as a server, desktop, operating system, file, storage, network virtualization and etc virtualization.

By virtualization, can be reduce the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective), which is the most major advantages of the virtualization.

History -

The concept of virtualization is generally believed to have its origins in the mainframe days in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when IBM invested a lot of time and effort in developing robust time-sharing solutions. The cost of providing computing capability dropped considerably and it became possible for organizations, and even individuals, to use a computer without actually owning one. Can see the full Virtualization development details at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_virtualization_development

Hypervisor - The hypervisor is a hardware virtualization technique that allows multiple guest operating systems (OS) to

run on a single host system at the same time. The guest OS shares the hardware of the host computer, such that each

OS appears to have its own processor, memory and other hardware resources.

A hypervisor is also known as a virtual machine manager (VMM) include in Microsoft SCCM Server 2012.

There are three major areas of IT where using virtualization :-

Network virtualization -

network virtualization is the process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity, a virtual network. using network virtualization solutions, network resources can be deployed and managed as logical services, rather than physical resources.

Storage virtualization -

Storage virtualization is the process of grouping the physical storage from multiple network storage devices, So that can be created a storage pool or virtual hard disk. Its usually used in storage area networks (SANs). Storage virtualization generally helps automate the expansion of storage capacity, reducing the need for manual provisioning.

Storage virtualization can be structured in three ways:- Host based, Storage device based, Network based.

Server virtualization -

In server virtualization the resources of the physical server itself divide  into multiple isolated virtual environments by software including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems, from server users.

 

What is the Benefits/Advantages of virtualization -

The idea behind the virtualize your servers/storage/network/physical hardware to gain efficiencies and capabilities that aren't possible within a physical hardware/machine. You can also virtualize the part of hardware resource like CPU and its core, RAM, Network, Disk and more individually.

Following are the most advantages for virtualization .-

  1. Improved Utilization

  2. Flexibility

  3. Responsiveness

  4. Workload Mobility

  5. Disaster Recovery

  6. Dynamic Load Balancing

  7. Virtual Desktop (VDI)

  8. Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)

  9. Faster server provisioning

  10. Reduce RTO and RPO

  11. High application availability

  12. Licensing benefit

It can be use on X86 or X64 machine both, Its depend on which software are using. currently many software or virtualization OS is available in the market , in which following are the most popular-

  • VMware - VMware is a virtualization and cloud computing software provider for x86-compatible computers by VMware Inc. VMware virtualization is based on the ESX/ESXi hypervisor supporting virtual machines.

  • Microsoft's Hyper-V - Microsoft introduced Hyper-V as a virtualization platform in 2008 as a Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 provides software infrastructure and basic management tools that you can use to create and manage a virtualized server computing environment.

  • Oracle Virtual Box - VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Its is a general-purpose full virtualizer for hardware, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use. Virtual box software is provided by Oracle Corporation.

Citrix XenServer - XenServer is the leading open source virtualization platform, powered by the Xen hypervisor. XenServer is the best server virtualization platform for public and private clouds, powering 4 of the 5 largest hosting provider clouds.