Virtualization Interview Questions and Answers

> What is Virtualization ?

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an
operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources.

You probably know a little about virtualization if you have ever divided your hard drive into
different partitions. A partition is the logical division of a hard disk drive to create, in effect, two
separate hard drives.

Operating system virtualization is the use of software to allow a piece of hardware to run
multiple operating system images at the same time. The technology got its start on mainframes
decades ago, allowing administrators to avoid wasting expensive processing power.

In 2005, virtualization software was adopted faster than anyone imagined, including the
experts. There are three areas of IT where virtualization is making headroads, network
virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization.

>What are the benefits of virtualization ?

There are some well accepted and inherit benefits to using Virtualization. Here are some of
them:
*Reduce the number of physical servers
*Reduce the infrastructure needed for your data center (power, cooling, battery backup,
network switch ports, KVM ports and space)
*Reduce administrative overhead because servers can be administered from a single console
*Ability to bring up new servers quickly (it could take days or weeks to put in a new physical
server but it could take just a few minutes to create a new virtual server from a template)
*Hardware Independence of virtual servers – a virtual server can run on any host server,
regardless of the host hardware
*Because of hardware independence, you receive reduce your disaster recovery cost,
complexity, and recovery time
*A “greener” datacenter & server environment due to the consolidation
Overall, lower TCO of servers

>What is a Hypervisor ?

You can think of a Hypervisor as the kernel or the core of a virtualization platform. The
Hypervisor is also called the Virtual Machine Monitor. The Hypervisor has access to the physical
host hardware.
Of the total amount of disk space taken for a virtualization platform (like Hyper-V or VMware
ESX), the Hypervisor is, by far, the smallest part. A Type 1 Hypervisor runs on the bare metal of
the hardware. Examples of a Type 1 Hypervisor are Hyper-V and ESX Server. A Type 2
Hypervisor is hosted by an operating system. Examples of a Type 2 Hypervisor are VMware
Server and Microsoft Virtual Server.
.
>What is ESX Server ?

ESX Server is VMware’s flagship enterprise server virtualization platform. It comes in two
versions – ESX Server and ESXi Server where the latter has no service console and is the
thinnest version available. ESX Server has many optional features like VMotion and VMHA (both
discussed below) and some built-in features like the VMFS file system. Most end users purchase
VMware ESX Server with some set of optional features in a package called VMware
Infrastructure. ESX Server is managed by the VMware Infrastructure Client. Its centralized
management platform is called Virtual Center.

>What is Hyper-V ?

Codenamed "Viridian" but given the the formal name of Hyper-V, it is a hypervisor-based
Windows Server virtualization platform that is included as a role of Windows Server 2008.
Hyper-V enables you to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server using a broad range
of services ranging from resource-intensive services like Microsoft SQL Server to third-party
applications that may run on previous versions of Windows or Linux.

>What are a host, guest, and virtual machine ?

A host system (host operating system) would be the primary & first installed operating
system. If you are using a bare metal Virtualization platform like Hyper-V or ESX, there really
isn’t a host operating system besides the Hypervisor. If you are using a Type-2 Hypervisor like
VMware Server or Virtual Server, the host operating system is whatever operating system those
applications are installed into.

A guest system (guest operating system) is a virtual guest or virtual machine (VM) that is
installed under the host operating system. The guests are the VMs that you run in your
virtualization platform.

Some admins also call the host & guest the parent and child.

>What products are available for Server Virtualization ?

Bare Metal Hypervisor / Native / Type 1:
VMware ESX Server
Microsoft Hyper-V
Citrix/Xen Server
Hosted in an OS / Type 2:
VMware Server
Microsoft Virtual Server
Parallels Server

> What products are available for desktop virtualization ?

Host in an OS / Type 2 / intended for workstations:
VMware Workstation
Microsoft Virtual PC
Parallels Workstation
VMware Fusion for Mac OS
Parallels Desktop for Mac OS

>What is the difference between ESX Server and VMware Server ?

While both ESX Server and VMware Server are server virtualization products, the difference is
that VMware ESX installs and runs on the bare metal of a physical server where as VMware
Server needs a base operating system. In other words, VMware ESX has a type 1 hypervisor
where as VMware Server has a type 2 hypervisor.

You will obtain must better performance from ESX Server as it has much less overhead. ESX
Server also has many features available such as VMFS, VMotion, VMHA, and DRS. On the other
hand, ESX Server is also a commercial product that must be purchased where as VMware Server
is a free product. VMware Server is an excellent option to choose to slowly migrate to server
consolidation at a low cost. VMware Server is also an excellent way to learn about virtualization
as well as a way to run multiple operating systems on your desktop PC, at no cost.

>What is the difference between Hyper-V and Virtual Server ?

Like the difference between ESX Server and VMware Server, Hyper-V and Virtual server have
similar differences. Hyper-V is a type-1 hypervisor where Virtual Server is a type 2 hypervisor.
Virtual Server requires that you first host a Windows operating system to load it.

Hyper-V is meant to be a higher performance commercial virtualization platform with a

centralized management platform and 3rd party add-ons. Virtual Server, on the other hand, is a
free virtualization platform meant for the desktop or for small-scale server virtualization
solutions.
.
>What is the difference between emulation, native virtualization, and paravirtualization ?

Emulation is where software is used to simulate hardware for a guest operating system to run
in. This has been used in the past but is difficult to do and offers low performance.

Native virtualization (or full virtualization) is where a type-2 hypervisor is used to partially allow
access to the hardware and partially to simulate hardware in order to allow you to load a full
operating system. This is used by emulation packages like VMware Server, Workstation, Virtual
PC, and Virtual Server.

Para virtualization is where the guest operating systems run on the hypervisor, allowing for
higher performance and efficiency. For more technical information and videos on this topic,
visit VMware’s Technology Preview for Transparent Virtualization. Examples of Para
virtualization are Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESX Server.

>What are the different types of virtualization ?

Server Virtualization – consolidating multiple physical servers into virtual servers that run on a
single physical server.
Application Virtualization – an application runs on another host from where it is installed in a
variety of ways. It could be done by application streaming, desktop virtualization or VDI, or a
VM package (like VMware ACE creates with a player). Microsoft Softgrid is an example of
Application virtualization.
Presentation Virtualization – This is what Citrix Met frame (and the ICA protocol) as well as
Microsoft Terminal Services (and RDP) are able to create. With presentation virtualization, an
application actually runs on another host and all that you see on the client is the screen from
where it is run.
Network Virtualization – with network virtualization, the network is “carved up” and can be
used for multiple purposes such as running a protocol analyzer inside an Ethernet switch.
Components of a virtual network could include NICs, switches, VLANs, network storage devices,
virtual network containers, and network media.
Storage Virtualization – with storage virtualization, the disk/data storage for your data is
consolidated to and managed by a virtual storage system. The servers connected to the storage
system aren’t aware of where the data really is. Storage virtualization is sometimes described
as “abstracting the logical storage from the physical storage.

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R.karthikeyan