Virtualization Technologies
In the recent, virtualization of organizational activities and cloud computing have received immense attention, especially in the last two decades. Many organizations have showed great interest in moving their operation to the cloud platform by leveraging the available technologies and opportunities that online platform offers such as big data management, information management, and data backups. The increasing demand for cloud computing services has raised the standards in the information and communication technology service provision. Today, firms have myriad server virtualization technology options to consider when thinking about improving their existing online server management. However, before discussing these options, this paper will first define the term ‘server virtualization’. In computer and information science, the term server virtualization refers to process of operating several virtual servers on one virtual machine (In Das, & In Deka, 2018). This practice has received massive attention in the recent past and has different options that firms could consider.
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"Server Virtualization Options".
Broadly, logical partitioning and physical partitioning are the major server virtualization technologies used in the world today (In Das, & In Deka, 2018). Logical partitioning refers to the act of separating the execution areas in a computer system using software-implemented logic. On the other hand, physical virtualization involves separating the execution areas by physical separation of hardware devices (Alapati, 2018). However, within the two broad categories of server virtualization, firms could choose other branded server virtualization technologies. For example, some server virtualization technologies are built specifically to work with certain servers from specific manufacturers. A good example of server-specific virtualization is the KVM or Kernel-based Virtual Machine. This is an open source server virtualization technology that is built into Linux; it is part of the server. Another example of Linux virtualization technology is the LXC or Linux containers (UpGuard.com, 2017). This technology allows for creation of separate virtual environment on one control host. It leverages Linux’s cgroups functionalities in version 2.6.24.
Types of Linux Servers and Compatible Virtualization Technologies
Linux servers come in different versions. This paper will only discuss two versions, 2.6.24, and 2.6.20, as well as compatible virtualization technologies. Version 2.6.20 and 2.6.24 are among the oldest versions of Linux servers, but they will offer good examples to work with for the purposes of this paper. Kernel-based Virtual Machine or KVM is highly compatible with version 2.6.20. It is an inbuilt open source server virtualization technology for version 2.6.20 of Linux servers (Red Hat.com, 2018). Even though this technology first came into existence with the introduction of version 2.6.20 of Linux servers, one could still find it in the latest versions. This virtualization technology is present in all Linux servers produced after 2006. Implementation of Kernel-based Virtual Machine is easy. One only needs to run a Linux server version released from 2007 to date and install it on X86 hardware that is compatible with virtualization capabilities (Red Hat.com, 2018).
LinuX containers (LXC) is another important open source level server virtualization technology for version 2.6.24 of Linux servers. This virtualization technology allows one to create and run multiple isolated virtual environments on one control host. The isolation levels are also known as the containers; they can be used to either completely emulate a new host or sandbox specific applications. As mentioned above, this virtualization technology leverages Linux’s cgroups functionalities in version 2.6.24 (UpGuard.com, 2017). The disadvantage of using this virtualization technology is that it does not allow one to use other operating systems. Otherwise it has better quality releases, offers isolation for applications, easier and efficient scalability of applications, and shorter development periods. It is one of the best OS-level virtualization technologies in the market today (UpGuard.com, 2017). Many firms that use Linux operating systems and servers have it implemented into their systems.
