What is Hypervisor in Cloud Computing and its types?

Hypervisors are virtual machine monitor (VMM) that enables numerous virtual operating systems to simultaneously run on a computer system. These virtual machines are also referred as guest machines and they all share the hardware of the physical machine like memory, processor, storage and other related resources. This improves and enhances the utilization of the underlying resources.

The hypervisor isolates the operating systems from the primary host machine. The job of a hypervisor is to cater to the needs of a guest operating system and to manage it efficiently. Each virtual machine is independent and do not interfere with each another although they run on the same host machine. They are no way connected to one another. Even at times one of the virtual machines crashes or faces any issues, the other machines continue to perform normally.

Hypervisor Types:

In a nutshell, hypervisors are divided into two types:

Type one is the bare-metal hypervisor that are deployed directly over the host's system hardware without any underlying operating systems or software. Some examples of the type 1 hypervisors are Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor, VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer.

Type two is a hosted hypervisor that runs as a software layer within a physical operating system. The hypervisor runs as a separate second layer over the hardware while the operating system runs as a third layer. The hosted hypervisors include Parallels Desktop and VMware Player.

The Actual Usage of Hypervisors:

After learning about what hypervisors are, let's delve into their actual usage. Adding up a crucial layer of management along with controlling over the data counts up as the main functions of the hypervisors. For this, the staff members need to know about the virtual machine configuration, migration, and snapshots.

The role of hypervisors in cloud computing is not just limited to controlling over the data center, they are also now used as "Storage Hypervisors". The function of storage hypervisors is used for creating a centralized storage pool by using virtual storage resources. This reduces the concern regarding the physical location of the storage.

By the implementation of the hypervisors the ability of the host system to run multiple guest VMs by virtualizing the server is greatly enhanced. Meanwhile, they are running on the same physical system but with independent operating systems by using more of the resources of the system than usual. Hypervisor makes VM self-governing and independent from the elementary server hardware.

Role of Hypervisor in Cloud Computing

Hypervisor is the single, most advanced technology that is able to handle all the resources effectively in cloud computing. The use of hypervisors in cloud emerges from the fact that it is able to meticulously dole out CPU resources from one cloud account to another.

In layman's terms, all the cloud terminals are but virtual machines. When you opt for a cloud server, you are allocated resource from the giant resource pool. Now, since all the cloud servers are to be independent of each other, the resources are to be distributed in a discreet manner.

Despite being in the same pool, the cloud servers are never aware of each other's existence. Or, even if they are, they never seem to interfere with their neighbors.

Examples of hypervisors are VMware, Oracle Virtual Box, Solaris zones etc.

Benefits of hypervisor in cloud computing

VMs being located on the same physical server are still completely separated. Thus if any other VM crashes it will not affect your own VM. Such malware attacks or errors are very common happening with the VMs. With the help of a hypervisor, all the VMs stay protected from external attacks as well as from the internal attacks from other VMs.

Hypervisor in cloud computing is so mobile as there is no such physical attachment with the underlying hardware. It was so tough to migrate conventional applications as they were tied to the physical hardware. Whereas what is hypervisor in cloud computing? It is a floating virtual machine that can be easily migrated.

The Type 2 hypervisors that are also called hosted hypervisors is the real answer to define hypervisor in cloud computing. A Type 2 hypervisor separates the guest OS from the host OS.

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