Binary translation is a technique used in full virtualization to translate the instructions of the guest

operating system (guest OS) into instructions that can be executed by the host processor. This translation
is performed on the fly, as the guest OS executes its code. Binary translation is necessary in full
virtualization because the guest OS is not aware of the virtualized environment and is not designed to run on
the host processor. By translating the
guest OS instructions, the hypervisor, which is the software layer that manages VMs, can allow the guest
OS to execute its code without making any changes to the guest OS itself. Binary translation is a powerful
tool that can be used to virtualize a wide range of guest OSes. It is a key technology for full virtualization, and
it is being used in a variety of cloud computing and server virtualization solutions.
There are two main approaches to binary translation:
1.Static binary translation: In static binary translation, the entire guest OS is translated before it is executed.
This can be done offline, or it can be done at boot time. Static binary translation can be very efficient, but
it can also be time-consuming.
2.Dynamic binary translation: In dynamic binary translation, the guest OS instructions are translated as they
are executed. This can be less efficient than static binary translation, but it is also less time-consuming.
Advantages of Binary Translation –

1. This kind of virtualization delivers the best isolation and security for Virtual
Machine.
2. Truly isolated numerous guest OS can execute concurrently on the same
hardware.
3. It is only implementation that needs no hardware assist or operating system
assist to virtualize sensitive instruction as well as privileged instruction.

Disadvantages of Binary Translation –

1. It is time consuming at run-time.

2. It acquires a large performance overhead.
3. It employs a code cache to stock the translated most used instructions to
enhance the performance, but it increases memory utilization along with the
hardware cost.
4. The performance of full virtualization on the x86 architecture is 80 to 95
percent that of the host machine.

Interpretation: Interpretation involves executing software directly be

translating each instruction from the source architecture to the target
architecture at run time. It interprets and executes source code one instruction
at a time.
Full Virtualization: Full Virtualization was introduced by IBM in the year 1966. It is
the first software solution for server virtualization and uses binary translation and direct
approach techniques. In full virtualization, guest OS is completely isolated by the
virtual machine from the virtualization layer and hardware. Microsoft and Parallels
systems are examples of full virtualization.

2. Paravirtualization: Paravirtualization is the category of CPU virtualization which

uses hypercalls for operations to handle instructions at compile time. In
paravirtualization, guest OS is not completely isolated but it is partially isolated by the
virtual machine from the virtualization layer and hardware. VMware and Xen are some
examples of paravirtualization.
The difference between Full Virtualization and Paravirtualization are as follows:
S.No
. Full Virtualization Paravirtualization

In Full virtualization, virtual

In paravirtualization, a virtual machine
machines permit the execution of
does not implement full isolation of OS but
the instructions with the running of
rather provides a different API which is
unmodified OS in an entirely
utilized when OS is subjected to alteration.
1. isolated way.

While the Paravirtualization is more secure

Full Virtualization is less secure.
2. than the Full Virtualization.

3. Full Virtualization uses binary While Paravirtualization uses hypercalls at

translation and a direct approach as compile time for operations.
S.No
. Full Virtualization Paravirtualization

a technique for operations.

Full Virtualization is slow than Paravirtualization is faster in operation as

4. paravirtualization in operation. compared to full virtualization.

Full Virtualization is more portable Paravirtualization is less portable and

5. and compatible. compatible.

Examples of full virtualization are Examples of paravirtualization are

6. Microsoft and Parallels systems. Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen, etc.

The guest operating system has to be

It supports all guest operating
modified and only a few operating systems
systems without modification.
7. support it.

Using the drivers, the guest operating

The guest operating system will
system will directly communicate with the
issue hardware calls.
8. hypervisor.

It is less streamlined compared to

It is more streamlined.
9. para-virtualization.

It provides less isolation compared to full

It provides the best isolation.
10. virtualization.

High Level Language Virtual Machine:

HLL VMs are an important technology in cloud computing that enable
the running of high-level programming languages in a virtualized
environment, providing a layer of abstraction between the application
and the underlying hardware, and allowing for portability and
scalability of applications.
Hypervisor:

A hypervisor is a process or a function to help admins isolate operating systems and

applications from the underlying hardware.

Cloud computing uses it the most as it allows multiple guest operating systems (also
known as virtual machines or VMs) to run simultaneously on a single host system.
Administrators can use the resources efficiently by dividing computing resources (RAM,
CPU, etc.) between multiple VMs.

A hypervisor is a key element in virtualization, which has helped organizations achieve

higher cost savings, improve their provisioning and deployment speeds, and ensure
higher resilience with reduced downtimes.

What are the different Types of Hypervisors?

Type 1 Hypervisors (Bare Metal or Native Hypervisors): Type 1 hypervisors are
deployed directly over the host hardware. Direct access to the hardware without any
underlying OS or device drivers makes such hypervisors highly efficient for enterprise
computing. The implementation is also inherently secure against OS-level vulnerabilities.
VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VM, and Xen are examples of type 1
hypervisors.
Type 2 Hypervisors (Hosted Hypervisor): Type 2 hypervisors run as an application
over a traditional OS. Developers, security professionals, or users who need to access
applications only available on select OS versions often rely on type 2 hypervisors for
their operations. KVM, VMware Server and Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, Oracle VM
VirtualBox, and QEMU are popular type 2 hypervisors.

VMware: VMware is a desktop virtualization software platform that is developed by

VMware. It is hypervisor software that is placed on a physical server that allows us to
run multiple operating systems on a single server. All the resources used by the physical
server are used by all servers.
Some features of VMware:
 It offers products comprising virtualization, software storage, and networking
tools.
 Various security options and multiple operating system support.
 It uses the host’s resources to run the functioning of the operating system
installed in a virtual environment.
 For proper functioning, it uses resources in the assigned manner.
VirtualBox: VirtualBox is software that is provided by Oracle to install virtual
machines onto your system. It was introduced in the year 2007 by Innotek Gmbh and
later was developed by Oracle. It is also called a software virtualization package that is
capable to load multiple operating systems.
Some features of VirtualBox:
 It offers a variety of operating systems such as Windows XP, Linux, Ubuntu,
and macOS.
 It is a very rich, robust, and extremely high-performance product offered for
home and enterprise uses.
 It is used by professionals in the form of Open Source Software.
 It is open-source software that provides virtualization and is capable to offer
services on almost every type of host operating system.

Differences between VMware and VirtualBox:

S.No
. VMware VirtualBox

VMware is virtualization software that helps

VirtualBox is an Oracle tool to
you to run multiple operating systems in a
provide host-based virtualization.
1. single host.

2. It is used for enterprise and home purposes. It is used for educational and
S.No
. VMware VirtualBox

private purposes.

Offers virtualization at both

Offers virtualization at the hardware level.
3. hardware and software levels.

The proprietary license can be availed for The proprietary license can be
4. $79.99. availed for $79.99.

It can run on Linux, Windows,

It can run on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
5. Solaris, and macOS.

6. It is not an open-source tool. It is an open-source tool.

It offers Virtual Machine

It offers limited Virtual Machine encryption. encryption with the extension
7. pack.

It supports VDI, VHD, VMDK

It supports VMDK disk format.
8. and HDD disk formats

It offers shared storage support

It does not offer any shared storage support.
9. with NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI.

VirtualBox does not allow ease

VMware offers ease of access to the users. of access as compared to
10. VMware.

It provides a user-friendly
It provides a complicated user interface.
11. interface.

For the functionality of USB

Out-of-the-box USB device support is
2.0/3.0, Extension Pack is
provided.
12. required.
S.No
. VMware VirtualBox

Video memory is limited to 128

Video memory is limited to 2 GB.
13. MB.

3D acceleration needs to be
3D acceleration is default enabled.
14. manually enabled.

15. It is a type 1 Hypervisor. It is a type 2 Hypervisor.

KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine)

The purpose of Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) is to provide the ability of
virtualization to Linux. It is an open-source technology which provides which allows
Linux machines (host) to run different environments called virtual machines. Each
virtual machine represents a different Linux process. Each Virtual Machine has its own
copy of hardware such as memory, processor, and also software this allows to use of
resources to a greater extent causing more reliability.
Hyper V:
Microsoft Hyper-V is Microsoft’s virtualization platform, or ‘hypervisor’, which
enables administrators to make better use of their hardware by virtualizing multiple
operating systems to run off the same physical server simultaneously.
With Microsoft Hyper-V, you can virtualize server operating systems in the data
center or Windows phone environments on your desktop and most everything in
between. It is also a great tool for developers that want a safe sandbox to test software.
What are the Features of using Hyper-V?
Portability
 Features are storage migration, import/export and live migration with any virtual
machine. Deploy it or move it easily to make it portable.
Security
 The boot process is secure and virtual machines are protected from viruses
and unauthorized access to the virtual machine or its data.
A Computing Environment
 Important to know that virtual machine contains all the necessary parts present in your
personal computer, such as CPU, network, storage and memory. Each item has different
options and functions that can be configured as needed. All parts of a virtual machine
can be used in any way.
Remote Connectivity
 Remote login tools are included in VM login on Linux and Windows. This tool gives you
access to the console, which will allow you to see what is happening in the guest before
the operating system starts. This is a unique feature that is better than remote desktop.
Replication and migration
 Another notable feature of Hyper-V is that it copies backup from virtual machines (VMs)
to different locations. Secondly it provides a migration tool that can move virtual
machines from one Hyper-V host to another without much of a downtime.

Pros of Hyper-V
 It doesn’t use many resources.
 Ability to change things like the amount of memory and storage easily.
 Very stable and reliable.
 You can move the virtual machines easily across push servers without any difficulty.
 Great solution in general.

Cons of Hyper-V
 The Hyper-V console can be improved to make this easier.
 Needs more granular approach.
 Various virtual switches could also be improved to make virtual desk management
slightly better.
 Checkpoints or snapshots can be enhanced to be more transparent to the user.
 Disk management needs to improve.
 Replication could be improved slightly.

XEN:
Xen is primarily a bare-metal, type-1 hypervisor that can be directly installed on computer hardware
without the need for a host operating system. Because it’s a type-1 hypervisor, Xen controls, monitors and
manages the hardware, peripheral and I/O resources directly. Guest virtual machines request Xen to
provision any resource and must install Xen virtual device drivers to access hardware components. Xen
supports multiple instances of the same or different operating systems with native support for most
operating systems, including Windows and Linux. Moreover, Xen can be used on x86, IA-32 and ARM
processor architecture.

Pros:
 a) Xen server is developed over open-source Xen hypervisor and it uses a
combination of hardware-based virtualization and paravirtualization. This
tightly coupled collaboration between the operating system and virtualized
platform enables the system to develop lighter and flexible hypervisor that
delivers their functionalities in an optimized manner.
 b) Xen supports balancing of large workload efficiently that capture CPU,
Memory, disk input-output and network input-output of data. It offers two
modes to handle this workload: Performance enhancement, and For handling
data density.
 c) It also comes equipped with a special storage feature that we call Citrix
storage link. Which allows a system administrator to uses the features of
arrays from Giant companies- Hp, Netapp, Dell Equal logic etc.
 d) It also supports multiple processor, Iive migration one machine to another,
physical server to virtual machine or virtual server to virtual machine
conversion tools, centralized multiserver management, real time performance
monitoring over window and linux.
Cons:
 a) Xen is more reliable over linux rather than on window.
 b) Xen relies on 3rd-party component to manage the resources like drivers,
storage, backup, recovery & fault tolerance.
 c) Xen deployment could be a burden some on your Linux kernel system as
time passes.
 d) Xen sometimes may cause increase in load on your resources by high
input-output rate and and may cause starvation of other Vm’s.