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Virtualization varieties, variants are vetted

Virtual-machine schemes come in two varieties, but each variety comes with its own variants
By Tom Henderson , Network World , 09/17/2007
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1. Native virtualization

The first variety -- sometimes referred to as native virtualization -- occurs when a hypervisor (also called a microkernel) directly virtualizes all host resources to multiple guest operating systems. That translates instructions that need systems resources on the fly via direct hardware-virtualization/system-instruction translation.

Direct translation presents a discrete virtual-machine appearance to each guest operating system and the applications riding on top of it.

Guest operating systems in this scheme don't need to be modified or be aware of the virtualized representation state of the hardware platform, because their resource needs are managed by the microkernel. VMware's ESX platform is a prime example of a direct hardware-virtualization system.

1a. Client direct-processor emulation

A variant of native virtualization is a process called client direct-processor emulation, where applications of another operating system are given operating-system resource-emulation capability. This scheme lets applications native to Windows XP work on Apple's Macintosh OS 10.4 using products from Parallels or Microsoft.

This is a scheme typically associated with desktop virtualization.

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RE: VM management tools from Microsoft, VMware, XenSource leaveBy Anonymous on November 19, 2007, 4:42 pmA majority of these vendors have lost focus on what’s a necessity in managing this virtual connection information. Its fine to have all of the bells and whistles...

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Creative ways to manage VMwareBy Micronet on September 21, 2007, 2:34 pmSee Microsoft Subnet for more Microsoft-related news, blogs, security alerts, technical group. This is a little bit off topic from the test, but still interesting...

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RE: VM management tools from Microsoft, VMware, XenSource leave room for improvementBy SUMj on September 17, 2007, 4:37 pmWe want to hear from YOU! Weigh in on these VM management tools, share your experiences or just let us know what you thought of the test results.

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