Windows 7 / Networking

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Understanding Virtualization

Server virtualization gives an organization the ability to run multiple operating systems, called virtual machines, on a single machine. The ability to run multiple operating systems on a single machine will help an organization reduce their hardware costs and allow an organization to reduce their IT department overhead.

Many organizations have started to move their servers over to virtualized servers. But you do not need to just use virtualization for your servers. You can also use virtualization for client operating systems like Windows 7. In this section, we look at the two of the most common ways to use Microsoft products to virtually set up Windows 7. We also examine Microsoft's Virtual PC and Hyper-V. Microsoft has just released a new version of virtualization, called Hyper-V, with the Windows Server 2008 operating system and that's where we'll start.

Understanding Microsoft's Hyper-V Technology

Hyper-V is not Microsoft's first attempt at virtualization. Microsoft has been doing virtualization for years. There were two versions of virtualization that IT teams have used in the past. The two Microsoft virtualization products that you might have used before are Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005.

Microsoft Hyper-V is the next-generation hypervisor-based virtualization technology. The Windows hypervisor is a thin layer of software that sits between the hardware and the Windows Server 2008 operating system. This thin layer allows one physical machine to run multiple operating systems in different Hyper-V virtual machines all at the same time. The hypervisor is the mechanism that is responsible for maintaining isolation between the different Hyper-V partitions.

With the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has now incorporated server virtualization into the operating system with the release of Hyper-V. This gives an organization the ability to take full advantage of the next generation of 64-bit server hardware.

Let's imagine an IT department for any size organization. You come in one morning before everyone else (common in our field) and see that one of your servers has crashed. The first thing that's going to happen is your heart drops into your stomach. After that, you start trying to fix the error and you might need to even rebuild the machine. Now your heart is racing and your blood pressure is going through the roof because you need to get this server up and running before anyone else comes into work. We have all been there before.

Now let's imagine the same situation but all of our servers are running Hyper-V. When you come in and see your crash, you know you can relax. All you need to do is move the Hyper-V virtual machine to another machine and you are back up and running. This is what Hyper-V can do for you. Hyper-v is a role-based feature that allows an organization to have multiple virtual machines (multiple operating systems, including Windows 7) on a single Windows Server 2008 machine.

A virtual machine (VM) is an implementation of an operating system that runs in its own virtualization window. The advantage to using virtual machines is that you can have multiple VMs on the same Windows Server 2008 machine. Each VM can have its own unique resources running on its operating system. An administrator can now run multiple operating systems (including non-Windows-based systems) or run multiple server roles in their own virtual machines, thus allowing an organization more flexibility without the need for more servers.

One of the greatest advantages of Hyper-V technology is that you have the ability to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications within the virtual environment. Let's take a look at some more benefits of running Hyper-V.