Hyper-V is a hardware virtualization product developed by Microsoft. Hyper-V can create and run virtual machines, each virtual machine acts like a complete computer.
– Virtual machines give you more flexibility, help save time and money, and are a more efficient way to use hardware than just running one operating system on physical hardware.
– Server Virtualization can create separate virtual machines and run them concurrently on a single server that is running Hyper-V. These virtual machines are guests, while the computer that is running Hyper-V is the virtualization server.
– Hyper-V is a Type-2 hypervisor, that runs inside the Windows operating system, The type-2 hypervisor runs inside an operating system of a physical host machine.
– Checkpoints are static images of the data on a virtual machine at a given moment. Checkpoints are not a replacement for backups. Checkpoints are stored on the same volume as the virtual hard disks.
Virtual Machine
– A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications.
– Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same functionality as physical hardware but are more portable, more secure, and easier to manage.
– A VM contains its own virtual (software-based) CPU, RAM, hard disk, and NIC.
Virtual Hard Disk
– A virtual hard disk is a file that represents a hard disk drive that can configure as a virtual hard disk with partitions and an operating system.
– Dynamically expanding virtual hard disks use only the space that it needs and it grows as and when data is added to them.
Virtual Switches
– Virtual switches are a virtual version of a network switch, Hyper-V has three types external, internal, and private.
External Virtual Switch: This type of Virtual Switch maps a network to a specific network adapter.
Internal Virtual Switch: This type of Virtual switch communicate between multiple virtual machines on the Virtualization server and between the Virtual machines and the virtualization server.
Private Virtual Switch: Private Virtual Switches communicate between multiple virtual machines on the Virtualization server. Private Virtual switches can’t communicate between the Virtual machines and the virtualization server.
Type-1 & Type-2 Hypervisor
A hypervisor is the basic abstraction layer of software. The hypervisor performs low-level tasks such as CPU scheduling and is responsible for memory isolation for resident VMs. The hypervisor abstracts the hardware for the VMs.
– Type-1 Hypervisor (Native or bare-metal hypervisors): These hypervisors run directly on the host’s hardware to control the hardware and manage guest operating systems.
– Type-2 Hypervisor (Hosted hypervisors): These hypervisors run on a conventional operating system, like computer programs.