paravirtualization or virtualization over os

[wyssen]

hello everyone,

I am confused about VMware ESX. Is this a

-paravirtualization

-virtualization over os

-hypervisor virtualization

-virtualization over hardware

It seems that it is both paravirtualization, becuase you can activate this option for a virtual machine but also hypervisor virtualization, because it is a "bare-metal" hypervisor.

What I need is a virtualization that has like a small Linux on it for running a daemon (I think this is what the administration console of esx is) from within I can start, manage and access virtual machines on the same host. Is ESX the solution for me?

Thanks for your answer.

[mcowger]

ESX is hypervisor virtualization. It has some extensions in various OSs to support some improved performance with paravirtualization ideas, but those are being deprecated.

However, ESX does not allow you to access or manage VMs from the same machine executing them. you need something else (Xen, VMware Server, etc).

--Matt

VCP, vExpert, Unix Geek, Storage Nerd

[AWo · Accepted solution]

ESX is

- a hypervisor

- uses paravirtualization or binary translation for the CPU

- can use paravirtualized drivers

If you mean hosted virtualization by "virtualization over OS", no, ESX is a bare metal virtualization, what you maybe called "virtualization over hardware". VMware Server or VMware Workstation are hosted virtualization products. The difference is that the hypervisor of the latter ones need a regular OS underneath wheras with ESX(i) the hypervisor runs directly on the bare hardware,

AWo

VCP 3 & 4

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[Varunsh]

paravirtualization settings are available for virtual machines

paravirtualization means that virtual machine or hardware knows that it is running in virtual enviornment.

Some features are available for paravirtualize machine in vsphere , hot addition of hardware like CPU, Memory, disk etc...

[AWo]

paravirtualization means that virtual machine or hardware knows that it is running in virtual enviornment.

Not exactly....paravirtualization means that the guest OS knows that it is running on a hypervisor. So it doesn't issue harmful commands, like "shut down CPU".

AWo

VCP 3 & 4

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[Basheer09]

Please go through paravirtualization white paper. It has all the details you need.

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/paravirtualization.html

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_pvscsi_perf.pdf

Kindly consider awarding point if this info is useful.