The architecture of ESXi
Chapter 1, An Introduction to Server Virtualization using VMware, introduced you to the architecture of a type-1 hypervisor and the differences between ESX Classic (no longer developed) and ESXi, in terms of their architecture.
The ESXi hypervisor is made up of the VMkernel, the User World layer and the Virtual Machine Monitors. What these components provide is the foundation for other processes to enable core functionalities.
The VMkernel layer
VMkernel is a Posix-like operating system which is primarily responsible for resource scheduling. In an effort to allocate a fair share of the hardware resources between all the hosted virtual machines, it creates a level of abstraction so that the guest operating systems on the virtual machines can consume resources like they would do on a physical machine, without interfering in the operations of the guest operating systems running on other virtual machines. VMkernel includes a storage stack which supports the use of a proprietary...
