Difference between revisions of "Hypervisor"

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(examples of Type 1 vs Type 2 hypervisors + diagram)
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* Type 2 - 'hosted' hypervisors, which are [[application]]s which run under a general-purpose OS.
 
* Type 2 - 'hosted' hypervisors, which are [[application]]s which run under a general-purpose OS.
  
The Type 2 hypervisors, for example VMware Workstation or Oracle VirtualBox, run as an application within the host operating system, ex: as a Linux or Windows program. To minimize overhead, Type 1 hypervisors avoid the need for the host to run another operating system, and they instead run directly on the bare-metal hardware. Examples of Type 1 hypervisors include VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM.
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The Type 2 hypervisors, for example [[VMware Workstation]] or Oracle [[VirtualBox]], run as an application within the host operating system, ex: as a [[Linux]] or [[Windows]] program. To minimize overhead, Type 1 hypervisors avoid the need for the host to run another operating system, and they instead run directly on the bare-metal hardware. Examples of Type 1 hypervisors include [[VMware ESXi]], Microsoft [[Hyper-V]], and [[KVM]].
  
 
[[File:Hypervisor-type1vs2.png]]
 
[[File:Hypervisor-type1vs2.png]]
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Early hypervisors were created by IBM, including [[CP_operating_system|CP/CPS]] and [[VM/370]], which allowed for creating VMs of different operating systems on the [[mainframe]].
  
 
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[[Category: OS Concepts]]
 
[[Category: OS Concepts]]

Latest revision as of 14:11, 13 January 2024

A hypervisor is a software package which provides virtual machines.

There are two main types of hypervisors, classified by their level of abstraction from the physical hardware:

  • Type 1 - 'native' hypervisors, which are operating systems which run directly on the bare machine
  • Type 2 - 'hosted' hypervisors, which are applications which run under a general-purpose OS.

The Type 2 hypervisors, for example VMware Workstation or Oracle VirtualBox, run as an application within the host operating system, ex: as a Linux or Windows program. To minimize overhead, Type 1 hypervisors avoid the need for the host to run another operating system, and they instead run directly on the bare-metal hardware. Examples of Type 1 hypervisors include VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM.

Hypervisor-type1vs2.png

Early hypervisors were created by IBM, including CP/CPS and VM/370, which allowed for creating VMs of different operating systems on the mainframe.