Answered: What is a hypervisor, and how does it…

Database System Concepts

7th Edition

ISBN:9780078022159

Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan

Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan

Chapter1: Introduction

Section: Chapter Questions

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What is a hypervisor, and how does it facilitate virtualization? Describe the different types of hypervisors and their use cases.

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Step 1: Introduction

A hypervisor, also known as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), is a software or hardware component that facilitates virtualization by allowing multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on a single physical host machine. The primary function of a hypervisor is to create and manage these virtual environments, each of which behaves as an isolated and independent system with its own operating system and applications.

Here's how a hypervisor facilitates virtualization:

Abstraction of Physical Resources: The hypervisor abstracts the physical hardware resources of the host machine, such as the CPU, memory, storage, and networking interfaces. It presents these resources as virtualized equivalents to the VMs.
Resource Allocation: It allocates a portion of the physical resources to each VM, ensuring that each VM has access to the resources it needs to function properly.
Isolation: Hypervisors ensure that VMs are isolated from one another, so actions in one VM do not affect other VMs. This isolation is a fundamental characteristic of virtualization, providing security and stability.
Emulation of Virtual Hardware: The hypervisor provides each VM with a set of virtual hardware devices (virtual CPU, virtual memory, virtual disk, etc.). These virtual devices are mapped to the actual physical hardware by the hypervisor, allowing each VM to run its own operating system and applications as if they were running on dedicated physical hardware.
Management and Control: Hypervisors offer management tools and interfaces for creating, configuring, starting, stopping, and monitoring VMs. Administrators can control the VMs, allocate resources, and manage their lifecycles.
Security: Hypervisors enforce security controls and access policies, preventing unauthorized access to the hypervisor and ensuring that VMs are isolated from one another. Security features are essential to protect the host machine and the VMs

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