those boring pizza boxes (the term stems from the
resemblance that 1U rack-mount servers have to the box that
pizzas are delivered in, although we tend to believe that it’s
more reflective of the fact that pizza and technology are inextricably
intertwined in the lives of true geeks), in fact a computer
combines a number of different resources to enable the
automated processing of data.
Four of these resources are crucial to virtualization:
Processor: The central processing unit (CPU) is what
turns random information into organized data. CPUs
manipulate strings of characters, add and subtract numbers,
and arrange for information to flow in and out of
the system. As you’ll remember, virtualization enables a single physical computer to
support multiple virtual guest systems. The ability to
coordinate processor access by the separate guest systems
is one of the main challenges of virtualization, particularly
since the x86 processor was never really
designed to support multiple guests.
Memory: A computer contains physical memory to store
the data that the processor manipulates. Similar to the
processor, memory must be carefully managed to enable
multiple guests to share a single set of physical memory
without allowing separate guest systems to overwrite
one another’s data. And, as you might have guessed, x86
memory was not designed with multiple guest access in
mind.
the data that the processor manipulates. Similar to the
processor, memory must be carefully managed to enable
multiple guests to share a single set of physical memory
without allowing separate guest systems to overwrite
one another’s data. And, as you might have guessed, x86
memory was not designed with multiple guest access in
mind.
Network: Today’s computers are, by default, social; they
communicate with one another as well as sending and
receiving data from the great cloud that is the Internet.
While data flows back and forth on the physical network
card within a virtualized system, it’s critical to ensure
that each virtual system receives the appropriate network
traffic.
communicate with one another as well as sending and
receiving data from the great cloud that is the Internet.
While data flows back and forth on the physical network
card within a virtualized system, it’s critical to ensure
that each virtual system receives the appropriate network
traffic.
Storage: The fourth critical resource that is affected by
virtualization is storage — data residing in a place that it
can be retrieved from. If you’ve ever installed a hard
drive in your own computer, you’ve managed storage! To
repeat the refrain, each virtual guest system must have
its own data storage and the virtualization software must
keep each guest system’s storage isolated.
virtualization is storage — data residing in a place that it
can be retrieved from. If you’ve ever installed a hard
drive in your own computer, you’ve managed storage! To
repeat the refrain, each virtual guest system must have
its own data storage and the virtualization software must
keep each guest system’s storage isolated.
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