Shaker Mohammadtom

Linux and Virtualization Tech Cafe

M01 - Part 1: Assignment

24/03/21

Hypervisor 1 and 2 Definitions, Uses, and Summaries

Today hypervisors are used in everything from large enterprise networks, ecommerce for

consumer shopping and even on personal laptops. Hypervisors have changed technology and

computing. In his book Virtualization Essentials, Mathew Portnoy explains, “The first virtual

machine monitors were used for the development and debugging of operating systems because

they provided a sandbox for programmers to test rapidly and repeatedly, without using all of

the resources of the hardware. Soon they added the ability to run multiple environments

concurrently, carving the hardware resources into virtual servers that could each run its own

operating system. This model is what evolved into today's hypervisors.” This general

explanation best describes what a hypervisor does in simple terms. Today two versions of

Hyper Visors exist, Type 1 and Type 2. Hypervisor 1 and Hypervisor 2 have different uses,

strengths, and weaknesses based upon the needs of the user.

Hypervisors can run multiple operations on a single server. In her article titled What Is A

Hypervisor? Types of Hypervisors 1 & 2, Sofija Simi states, “A hypervisor is a crucial piece of

software that makes virtualization possible.” This virtualization allows for fewer servers and less

hardware in a data center to do more required operations. This efficiency has changed the way
the internet and business work today. The smaller footprint of current data centers is

shadowed by the large expensive server farms of the past.

A Type 1 hypervisor is installed directly on the server. A bare-metal hypervisor (Type 1) is a

layer of software we install directly on top of a physical server and its underlying hardware

(Simi). A BareMetal hypervisor therefore is more efficient than a type 2. The type 1 Hypervisor

avoids tasking the OS and the server saving two steps of the I/O process. A type 1 simplifies the

process using less memory than the Type 2 enabling higher function of the virtualized server.

Type 1 hypervisors are harder to infect with malware without the Operating system making

them more secure also. Type 1 hypervisors are an OS themselves, a considerably basic one on

top of which you can run virtual machines (Simic) These simple hypervisors are used in

enterprise networks. They also require a licensed management system to connect to the

hypervisor. This can be directly installed software or via the web. These management systems

allow movement of VM’s between servers without interruption. The process can be automated

incase of server failure or backup incase of emergencies or natural disasters. This makes the

Type Hypervisor ideal for enterprise use. Commonly used Type 1 hypervisors are: Microsoft

Hyper-V, Oracle VM, VMWare’s VSXi, and VSphere. One more benefit of a type 1 hypervisor is

that VM’s can be fooled into thinking they have extra memory for use. The VM’s will never

utilize its total allocation of memory since the Hypervisor only allocates what is needed for the

VM.
A Type 2 hypervisor has an extra layer of software. The software is the designated OS such as

Mac OS, Linux, and Windows. The extra layer of software does make the system less efficient as

the type 1 since I/O requires more steps to communicate through the OS. The Type 2 cannot

over allocate memory since it does not manage it like the Type 1. The memory allocation as

explained by Simic, “Bare-metal hypervisors can dynamically allocate available resources

depending on the current needs of a particular VM. A type 2 hypervisor occupies whatever you

allocate to a virtual machine.” For the Type 2 hypervisor overhead memory is required for the

server or the programs will crash. This is a constant with Type 2 hypervisors. Examples of Type 2

Hypervisors are Parallels Desktop for Mac, QEMU, VirtualBox, VMware Player and VMware

Workstation are examples of type-2 hypervisors (Wikipedia). Type 2 hypervisors are mainly

used for smaller projects and individual users. The Type 2 can run on the OS like any

application. It can be manipulated and moved like a file and is user friendly. It does not require

management like the type 1. Type 2 hypervisors are convenient for testing new software and

research projects (Simic.) The two types of hypervisors meet different needs based on

enterprise, smaller network, or an individual’s specific needs. Hypervisors and VM’s are cutting

costs and moving the advancement of technology ahead as they are continuing to be improved

upon and utilized to boost productivity and make systems easier to use.

Works Cited
Portnoy, Matthew. Virtualization Essentials. Sybex, a Wiley Brand, 2016. Simic, Sofija. “What Is

A Hypervisor? Types of Hypervisors 1 & 2.” Knowledge Base by PhoenixNAP, 30 Sept. 2020,

phoenixnap.com/kb/what-is-hypervisor-type-1-2. Wikipedia. “Hypervisor.” Wikipedia,

Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor.