Server Virtualization
Server virtualization technology is the hot topic among the data related industry like IT where effective resource utilization is needed. Server virtualization products are supplied by different vendors in the data market to avail the server virtualization benefits. Virtualization will introduce hyper-v virtualization functionalities like live migration, enhanced networking support, dynamic virtual storage support, enhanced processor support and cluster Shared Volumes. Hardware can be selected and placed in the virtualization server. Then fault tolerance is applied after several calculations of workload mapping and determination of buffer limits. Workloads from MS Virtual Server can be converted to Windows Server virtualization workloads by Virtual Server migration.
Architecture of Windows Server Virtualization
Important partitions of windows server virtualization are :
Parent partitions
Child Partitions
User Mode
Kernel Mode
Root Partition
Virtualization Stack is the heart of this partition which is sub-divided into VM Services, WMI Provider and VM Worker Processes. Root partition/parent user mode partition is highly protected due to the fact that important applications like Microsoft Office, SQL Server are being run here. If there is a crash in any application, it will stop and there is no crash to the server in which the application is running.
Kernel Mode Partition
Two important modules in kernel mode partition are Server Core and VSPs. Windows kernel is included in Server core includes. IHV Drivers sit on both sides of Server core and Virtualization Service Providers (VSPs). Parent partition is also known as root partition. Kernel mode partition is highly protected area because it is here the kernel is running. The heart of windows server 2008 is its kernel. It is highly protected because device drivers using buffers run here and if there is any crash then there is risk to server crash.
User Mode Partitions
Most important Applications run in this partition. Child partition 1 includes Hyper-V Aware Windows Client such as Windows Vista and child partition 2 can inclue Hyper-V aware which can be a non-windows OS client like Linux with MS/XenSource. Every child partition encloses Kernel that uses Device Drivers, Virtualization service client VSC like LINUX VSC for Linux machine and Hypercall Adapter in addition to HyperCall API. VMBus connects all these child partition with Hyper-V Aware Windows Server like Windows Server 2008. Here windows server has the kernel which has Device drivers and Virtualization service provider VSP in addition to HyperCall API.
Hyper-V stands for Viridian which is previously known as Windows Server Virtualization. This is a virtualization system that is based on Hypervisor for x86-64 bit system.
Virtualization Supported guest operating Systems
Guest operating systems that can opt the server virtualization configurations are as follows :
Windows Server 2003 x86/x64 SP2 & R2 SP2
Windows Server 2008 x86/x64 SP1/SP2 & R2
Windows HPC Server 2008 which is a windows server 2008 hpc edition
Windows 2000 Server SP4 and Advanced Server SP4
Windows Vista SP1/SP2 (except Home editions)
Windows XP Professional SP2/SP3 & x64 SP2
Windows 7 (except Home editions)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1/SP2 & 11
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2/5.3/5.4 x86/x64
Hyper-V provides only basic virtualization support on linux system. But paravirtualization can be enabled by using Satori Input VSC drivers and installing Linux Integration Component.
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