Question

Your manager has just informed you that your company has decided to invest in Server virtualization. But before the board approves the budget, your team will need to brief them on some details of Server virtualization. Your manager has asked you to draft a Memo to be circulated to all board members, the CEO, and all department heads. Your Memo must be written in words "non-techies" can understand, and must contain/use the following information:

• What a Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisor is
• Your personal recommendations on which type should be used
• Pros and Cons of each type (including costs)
• Using examples/analogies to drive you points
• Proper Memo format required!

Answer 1

DATE:06.10.2020

TO: [Board of Members]

FROM: [Name]

SUBJECT: Agenda for Investment in Server Virtualization

Server virtualization is a process that allowed you to “break up” your physical server into multiple unique and isolated virtual servers by means of a software application. So that each virtual server can run its own separate operating system.

The key benefits of server virtualization are higher server availability, Eliminate server complexity, increase application performance and cheaper operating cost.

A virtualization software needs to set up for creating a virtual server instance. This is called a hypervizor. It creates a virtualization layer that separates CPU / Processors, RAM and other physical resources from the virtual instances.

There are two types of hypervisors are used to create virtual environments:

· Type 1 hypervisor (native/bare metal hypervisor)

Type 1 hypervisor are installed directly on the physical hardware of the host machine. It provides a layer between the hardware and an OS. On top of this layer, many virtual machines can be installed. It is highly secure since it doesn’t have an attack surface of an underlying operating system (host). Also, it controls and assigns the resources allocated to each virtual machine based on its usage and thus it avoids wasting of resources.

Examples of type 1 hypervisors are VMware ESXi, KVM, Oracle VM, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and others.

· Type 2 hypervisor (hosted hypervisor)

A type 2 hypervisor is installed on top of an existing operating system. It allows users to utilize their personal computer or server as a host for virtual machines. Therefore, it has an underlying hardware, an operating system serving as a host, a hypervisor and a guest operating system. Although a VM is isolated, the primary OS is directly connected to the hardware. This makes type 2 hypervisor less secure than type 1 hypervisor. In environments where security is of supreme importance, this type of hypervisor may not suit.

Type 2 hypervisor allows more than one instance of an operating system to be installed. However, over-allocation may result in your host machine crashing.

Examples of type 2 hypervisors are VMware Workstation, KVM, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Microsoft Virtual PC, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and others.

After taking into consideration the pros and cons of server virtualization, type 1 hypervisors setup is right for the business, because Type 1 hypervisors are more common in production due to the low overhead.