Understanding Hypervisors
The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), also known as Hypervisor, is the software application responsible for running multiple VMs on a single system. It is also responsible for creation, preservation, division, system access, and VM management running on the Hypervisor layer.
The various types of Hypervisors are listed as follows:
- VMM Type 2
- VMM Hybrid
- VMM Type 1
VMM Type 2
This type runs Hypervisor on top of the OS. We have the hardware at the bottom, the OS, and then the Hypervisor running on top, as shown in the following diagram:
Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware Workstation are examples of software that use VMM Type 2.
VMs pass hardware requests to the Hypervisor, from there to the host OS and it then finally reaches the hardware. This leads to performance and management limitation imposed by the host OS.
Type 2 is common for test environments—VMs with hardware restrictions—to run on software applications that are installed in the host OS.
VMM Hybrid
When...