Hypervisors

5 minutes 5 Questions

A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM), is a software layer responsible for managing and allocating resources among virtual machines. It enables multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host, allocating resources such as memory, storage, and processing power to each VM. There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 or bare-metal hypervisors run directly on the hardware, providing better performance and isolation between VMs, while Type 2 or hosted hypervisors run on top of an existing operating system, allowing for greater flexibility and easier management. Hypervisors are critical components in virtualization and cloud computing environments.

Guide to Understanding Hypervisors

What is Hypervisor?
A Hypervisor, also known as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), is a piece of software, firmware, or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. It separates the operating system and applications from the physical hardware, enabling high utilization and flexibility of hardware.

Why is it important?
The importance of Hypervisors lies in their ability to manage virtual environments, allowing for multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical host. This makes server deployments more efficient and cost-effective. They also enhance compute resources usage, infrastructure flexibility, and workload mobility.

How does it work?
A Hypervisor operates by assigning physical hardware resources such as CPU time, memory space, network bandwidth, and disk storage to each virtual machine. There are two types of Hypervisors: Type 1 (or bare-metal) and Type 2 (or hosted). Type 1 Hypervisors run directly on the system hardware, while Type 2 Hypervisors run as software on an operating system.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Hypervisors
1. Understand the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisors.
2. Be able to explain how a Hypervisor optimizes resource usage.
3. Know the pros and cons of using Hypervisors for virtualization.
4. Understand how Hypervisors work in cloud environments for various applications and services.
5. Be aware of the security considerations when using Hypervisor-based virtualization.

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Question 1

A company wants to implement virtualization to consolidate their infrastructure. They require a hypervisor that can take advantage of hardware-level virtualization functions. What type of hypervisor should they choose?

Type 2 Hypervisor Type 1 Hypervisor Bare-metal Hypervisor Virtualization software

Correct Answer: Type 1 Hypervisor

A Type 1 hypervisor, also known as a bare-metal hypervisor, runs directly on the host's hardware to manage guest operating systems. It has direct access to the hardware resources, which allows it to take full advantage of the hardware-level virtualization functions provided by the host system. Type 2 hypervisors run on top of an existing operating system, adding an extra layer of overhead. Bare-metal is another term for Type 1 hypervisors. Virtualization software is a broad term that could refer to any type of hypervisor or virtualization solution, but does not specifically indicate a hypervisor that can leverage hardware-level virtualization.

Question 2

A company is expanding its virtualized environment and wants to ensure compatibility with a variety of operating systems and platforms. Which hypervisor feature should they prioritize?

Live migration Dynamic load balancing Resource throttling Broad guest OS support

Correct Answer: Broad guest OS support

Broad guest OS support ensures compatibility with a variety of operating systems and platforms, making it easier to virtualize different types of workloads. The other options, while important features, do not directly address compatibility with various platforms.

Question 3

A company needs to set up a virtual environment with test and production environments on separate physical hosts. Which feature can be used to move a virtual machine between hosts without any downtime during maintenance or migration?

Snapshots Live migration Clustering Cold migration

Correct Answer: Live migration

The feature that can be used to move a virtual machine between hosts without any downtime during maintenance or migration is 'Live migration'. This allows the transition of a virtual machine from one physical host to another while the VM remains active. Live migration maintains continuous service availability and doesn't require stopping the VM, thus ensuring there's no service downtime. 'Snapshots' are used to save the current state of a VM but they do not provide the capability to move VMs between hosts without downtime. 'Clustering' is a technique used to provide high availability of services by using multiple servers, but it doesn't inherently facilitate moving VMs between hosts. 'Cold Migration' involves moving VMs when they are powered off or suspended, thus it would incur downtime.

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