Virtualization for Cloud Computing

Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, Ph.D.

2010-14 FIS Distinguished Professor of Computer
Science
School of Computing, UNF
 CLOUD COMPUTING
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• On demand provision of computational resources (Infrastructure,

Platform, Software).
• Requires high availability of resources and optimum use.
• Virtualization is the enabling technology and creates virtual machines
that allows a single machine to act as if it were many machines.
• Benefits of virtualization for cloud computing: Reduces capital expenses
and maintenance costs through server consolidation, reduces physical
space needed in data centers. Resource Management, Migration,
Maintainability, High availability and Fault tolerance are other benefits.
• Virtualization is implemented using hypervisors.

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 VIRTUALIZATION
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

Machine Stack showing

virtualization opportunities
Application
• Creation of a virtual version of hardware
using software.
• Runs several applications at the same time
on a single physical server by hosting each
of them inside their own virtual machine.

Libraries
• By running multiple virtual machines
simultaneously, a physical server can be
utilized efficiently.

Operating Primary approaches to virtualization

System • Platform virtualization Ex : Server
• Resources virtualization Ex : Storage,
Network
Hardware

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 HYPERVISOR
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• Hypervisor plays an important role in the virtualization scenario by virtualization of

hardware. It provides support for running multiple operating systems concurrently
in virtual servers created within a physical server.

• The virtualization layer is the software responsible for hosting and managing all
VMs. The virtualization layer is a hypervisor running directly on the hardware.

• Example: VMWare, Xen, KVM.

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 SERVER WITHOUT VIRTUALIZATION
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• Only one OS can run at a time

within a server.
• Under utilization of resources.
Multiple Software • Inflexible and costly infrastructure.
Applications
• Hardware changes require manual
effort and access to the physical
Operating System server.
Hardware

CPU Memory NIC DISK

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 SERVER WITH VIRTUALIZATION
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• Can run multiple OS

Multiple Software Multiple Software simultaneously.
Applications Applications
• Each OS can have different
Operating System Operating System hardware configuration.
Virtual Server 1 Virtual Server 2 • Efficient utilization of hardware
resources.
Hypervisor • Each virtual machine is
independent.
Hardware
• Save electricity, initial cost to buy
servers, space etc.
• Easy to manage and monitor
CPU Memory NIC DISK virtual machines centrally.

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 HYPERVISOR TYPE
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

Full virtualization
Multiple Software
Applications
Multiple Software
Applications
• Enables hypervisors to run an
unmodified guest operating
Operating System Operating System system (e.g. Windows 2003 or
Virtual Server 1 Virtual Server 2 XP).
• Guest OS is not aware that it is
Hypervisor being virtualized.
• E.g.: VMware uses a
Hardware combination of direct execution
and binary translation techniques
to achieve full virtualization of
CPU Memory NIC DISK server systems.

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 HYPERVISOR TYPE
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

Multiple Software Multiple Software Para virtualization

Applications

Para virtualized
Applications

Para virtualized
• Involves explicitly modifying
Guest Guest guest operating system (e.g.
Operating System Operating System
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Virtual Server 1 Virtual Server 2
11) so that it is aware of being
virtualized to allow near native
Hypervisor / VMM performance.
Hardware • Improves performance.
• Lower overhead.
• E.g.: Xen supports both
Hardware Assisted Virtualization
(HVM) and Para-Virtualization
CPU Memory NIC DISK
(PV).

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 HYPERVISOR IMPLEMENTATION
APPROACHES
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

Bare metal Approach

VM VM VM
• Type I Hypervisor.
• Runs directly on the system hardware.
• May require hardware assisted
virtualization technology support by the
CPU.
Hypervisor • Limited set of hardware drivers
provided by the hypervisor vendor.
Kernel Driver • E.g.: Xen, VMWare ESXi

Hardware

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 HYPERVISOR IMPLEMENTATION
APPROACHES
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

Hosted Approach
VM VM • Type II Hypervisor.
• Runs virtual machines on top of a
Applications host OS (windows, Unix etc.)
Hypervisor
• Relies on host OS for physical
resource management.
• Host operating system provides
drivers for communicating with the
server hardware.
Host Operating System • E.g.: VirtualBox

Hardware

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 VMWARE ESXI
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA
• Bare Metal Approach.

• Full virtualization.

• Proven technology.
VM VM VM
• Used for secure and robust

virtualization solutions for

Hypervisor
virtual data centers and cloud

infrastructures.
Hardware
• Takes advantage of support for

hardware assisted
Architecture of VMWare ESXi virtualization for 64-bit OS on

Intel processors. 11
 CITRIX XEN SERVER
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• Open source; bare metal.

• Offers both Hardware Assisted
Virtualization (HVM) and Para-
Domain
Virtualization (PV)
Zero
Guest
VM VM
• Needs virtualization support in
the CPU for HVM.
• Xen loads an initial OS which
Hypervisor runs as a privileged guest called
“domain 0”.
• The domain 0 OS, typically a
Linux or UNIX variant, can talk
Hardware
directly to the system hardware
(whereas the other guests
cannot) and also talk directly to
the hypervisor itself. It allocates
Architecture of Xen
and maps hardware resources
for other guest domains.
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 UBUNTU KVM
UNF University of
NORTH FLORIDA

• Kernel based virtual machine

(Kernel Based VM)
1. Linux Applications
2. KVM Management • Open source.
Console VM VM • Kernel-level extension to Linux.
• Full virtualization.
Linux • Supports full virtualization and
KVM hence does not need hardware
Linux Kernel
assisted virtualization support
in the CPU.

Hardware

Architecture of KVM

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