ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CSE- AIML

Cloud Computing - AL604 (A)

SYLLABUS UNIT III

Virtualization technology: Definition, benefits, sensor virtualization, HVM, study of

hypervisor, logical partitioning- LPAR, Storage virtualization, SAN, NAS, cloud server
virtualization, virtualized data center.

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Virtualization in Cloud Computing

Virtualization is a technique, which allows to share a single physical instance of a resource or an

application among multiple customers and organizations. It does by assigning a logical name to a
physical storage and providing a pointer to that physical resource when demanded.

What is the concept behind the Virtualization?

A Virtual machine provides an environment that is logically separated from the underlying hardware.

The machine on which the virtual machine is going to create is known as Host Machine and that
virtual machine is referred as a Guest Machine

Virtualized Cloud model

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How virtualization works
Hypervisors take the physical resources and separate them so they can be utilized by the virtual
environment. They can sit on top of an OS or they can be directly installed onto the hardware. The
latter is how most enterprises virtualize their systems.

The virtualization process follows the steps listed below:

1. Hypervisors detach the physical resources from their physical environments.

2. Resources are taken and divided, as needed, from the physical environment to the various
virtual environments.
3. System users work with and perform computations within the virtual environment.
4. Once the virtual environment is running, a user or program can send an instruction that
requires extra resources form the physical environment. In response, the hypervisor relays the

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 message to the physical system and stores the changes. This process will happen at an almost native
speed.

Types of hypervisor
The following are the two main types of hypervisors.

Type 1 hypervisors

A type 1 hypervisor—also called a bare-metal hypervisor—runs directly on the computer hardware.

It has some operating system capabilities and is highly efficient because it interacts directly with the
physical resources.

Type 2 hypervisors

A type 2 hypervisor runs as an application on computer hardware with an existing operating system.
Use this type of hypervisor when running multiple operating systems on a single machine.

Advantages/Pros of Virtualization in Cloud Computing :

• Utilization of Hardware Efficiently – With the help of Virtualization Hardware is Efficiently used
by user as well as Cloud Service Provider. In this the need of Physical Hardware System for the User
is decreases and this results in less costly. In Service Provider point of View, they will vitalize the
Hardware using Hardware Virtualization which decrease the Hardware requirement from Vendor
side which are provided to User is decreased. Before Virtualization, Companies and organizations
have to set up their own Server which require extra space for placing them, engineer’s to check its
performance and require extra hardware cost but with the help of Virtualization the all these
limitations are removed by Cloud vendor’s who provide Physical Services without setting up any
Physical Hardware system.

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• Availability increases with Virtualization – One of the main benefit of Virtualization is that it
provides advance features which allow virtual instances to be available all the times. It also has the
capability to move virtual instance from one virtual Server to another Server which is a very tedious
and risky task in a Server Based System. During migration of Data from one server to another it
ensures its safety. Also, we can access information from any location and any time from any device.
• Disaster Recovery is efficient and easy – With the help of virtualization Data Recovery, Backup,
Duplication becomes very easy. In traditional method, if somehow due to some disaster if Server
system Damaged then the surety of Data Recovery is very less. But with the tools of Virtualization
real time data backup recovery and mirroring become easy task and provide surety of zero percent
data loss.
• Virtualization saves Energy - Virtualization will help to save Energy because while moving from
physical Servers to Virtual Server’s, the number of Server’s decreases due to this monthly power and
cooling cost decreases which will Save Money as well. As cooling cost reduces it means carbon
production by devices also decreases which results in Fresh and pollution free environment.
• Quick and Easy Set up – In traditional methods Setting up physical system and servers are very
time-consuming. Firstly, Purchase them in bulk after that wait for shipment. When Shipment is done
then wait for Setting up and after that again spend time in installing required software etc. Which will
consume very time. But with the help of virtualization the entire process is done in very less time
which results in productive setup.
• Cloud Migration becomes easy – Most of the companies those who already have spent a lot in the
server have a doubt of Shifting to Cloud. But it is more cost-effective to shift to cloud services
because all the data that is present in their server’s can be easily migrated into the cloud server and
save something from maintenance charge, power consumption, cooling cost, cost to Server
Maintenance Engineer etc.

Disadvantages/Cons of Virtualization:

• Data can be at Risk – Working on virtual instances on shared resources means that our data is hosted
on third party resource which put’s our data in vulnerable condition. Any hacker can attack on our
data or try to perform unauthorized access. Without Security solution our data is in threaten situation.
• Learning New Infrastructure – As Organization shifted from Servers to Cloud. They required
skilled staff who can work with cloud easily. Either they hire new IT staff with relevant skill or
provide training on that skill which increase the cost of company.
• High Initial Investment – It is true that Virtualization will reduce the cost of companies but also it
is truth that Cloud have high initial investment. It provides numerous services which are not required
and when unskilled organization will try to set up in cloud they purchase unnecessary services which
are not even required to them.

Types of virtualization

There are six areas of IT where virtualization is making headway:

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Server virtualization

Server virtualization is a process that partitions a physical server into multiple virtual servers. It is an
efficient and cost-effective way to use server resources and deploy IT services in an organization.
Without server virtualization, physical servers use only a small amount of their processing capacities,
which leave devices idle.

Storage virtualization

Storage virtualization combines the functions of physical storage devices such as network attached
storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN). You can pool the storage hardware in your data

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center, even if it is from different vendors or of different types. Storage virtualization uses all your
physical data storage and creates a large unit of virtual storage that you can assign and control by
using management software. IT administrators can streamline storage activities, such as archiving,
backup, and recovery, because they can combine multiple network storage devices virtually into a
single storage device.

Network virtualization

Any computer network has hardware elements such as switches, routers, and firewalls. An
organization with offices in multiple geographic locations can have several different network
technologies working together to create its enterprise network. Network virtualization is a process
that combines all of these network resources to centralize administrative tasks. Administrators can
adjust and control these elements virtually without touching the physical components, which greatly
simplifies network management.

The following are two approaches to network virtualization.

Software-defined networking

Software-defined networking (SDN) controls traffic routing by taking over routing management from
data routing in the physical environment. For example, you can program your system to prioritize
your video call traffic over application traffic to ensure consistent call quality in all online meetings.

Network function virtualization

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Network function virtualization technology combines the functions of network appliances, such as
firewalls, load balancers, and traffic analyzers that work together, to improve network performance.

Data virtualization

Modern organizations collect data from several sources and store it in different formats. They might
also store data in different places, such as in a cloud infrastructure and an on-premises data center.
Data virtualization creates a software layer between this data and the applications that need it. Data
virtualization tools process an application’s data request and return results in a suitable format. Thus,
organizations use data virtualization solutions to increase flexibility for data integration and support
cross-functional data analysis.

Application virtualization

Application virtualization pulls out the functions of applications to run on operating systems other
than the operating systems for which they were designed. For example, users can run a Microsoft
Windows application on a Linux machine without changing the machine configuration. To achieve
application virtualization, follow these practices:

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● Application streaming – Users stream the application from a remote server, so it runs only on
the end user's device when needed.
● Server-based application virtualization – Users can access the remote application from their
browser or client interface without installing it.
● Local application virtualization – The application code is shipped with its own environment
to run on all operating systems without changes.

Desktop virtualization

Most organizations have nontechnical staff that use desktop operating systems to run common
business applications. For instance, you might have the following staff:

● A customer service team that requires a desktop computer with Windows 10 and customer-
relationship management software
● A marketing team that requires Windows Vista for sales applications

You can use desktop virtualization to run these different desktop operating systems on virtual
machines, which your teams can access remotely. This type of virtualization makes desktop
management efficient and secure, saving money on desktop hardware. The following are types of
desktop virtualization.

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Virtual desktop infrastructure
Virtual desktop infrastructure runs virtual desktops on a remote server. Your users can access them
by using client devices.

Local desktop virtualization

In local desktop virtualization, you run the hypervisor on a local computer and create a virtual
computer with a different operating system. You can switch between your local and virtual
environment in the same way you can switch between applications.

Storage Virtualization

What is Storage Virtualization in Cloud Computing?

• Storage virtualization in Cloud Computing is nothing but the sharing of physical storage
into multiple storage devices which further appears to be a single storage device.
• In storage virtualization, multiple physical disks are combined into a group and from that
group of physical disks, virtual storage or logical storage blocks are assigned to a server for
use.
• It can be also called as a group of an available storage device which simply manages from a
central console.
• This virtualization will improve the management of the storage.

Types of Storage Virtualization

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Block-level virtualization

• Block-level virtualization is a method that operates at the block device layer, which is the level
that reads and writes the data blocks on a storage device.
• Block-level virtualization allows multiple block devices to be aggregated and presented as a single
logical unit, regardless of their physical characteristics, such as capacity, speed, or vendor.
• This can enhance the performance, availability, and utilization of storage resources, as well as
enable features such as snapshots, replication, and encryption.
• Block-level virtualization also has some challenges, such as
o the complexity of managing the allocation and mapping of blocks,
o the risk of data corruption and fragmentation,
o the dependency on the underlying file system and operating system for compatibility and
functionality.

File-level virtualization

• File-level virtualization is a method that operates at the file system layer, which is the level that
organizes and manages the files and directories on a storage device.
• File-level virtualization allows multiple file systems to be pooled together and accessed as a single
namespace, regardless of their physical location, size, or format.
• This can simplify the administration and migration of files, as well as provide load balancing and
fault tolerance.
• File-level virtualization also has some drawbacks, such as
o the overhead of maintaining the metadata and the mapping of files,
o the potential inconsistency of file attributes and permissions across different file systems,
o the lack of granularity and efficiency for applications that require low-level access to the
data blocks.

Differences between file-level and block-level virtualization

1. File-level virtualization operates at a higher level of abstraction than block-level virtualization,

which means that it has more visibility and control over the file system metadata and structure,
but also more overhead and latency.
2. File-level virtualization is more suitable for applications that need to access and manipulate files
and directories across different storage devices and locations, but less suitable for applications
that need to access and manipulate data blocks directly and efficiently.
3. Block-level virtualization operates at a lower level of abstraction than file-level virtualization,
which means that it has less visibility and control over the file system metadata and structure, but
also less overhead and latency.
4. Block-level virtualization is more suitable for applications that need to access and manipulate
data blocks directly and efficiently, but less suitable for applications that need to access and
manipulate files and directories across different storage devices and locations.

Methods of Virtualization
1. Host-Based Virtualization Approach –
Host-based storage virtualization is software-based and most often seen in HCI systems and cloud
storage. In this type of virtualization, the host, or a hyper-converged system made up of multiple

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 hosts, presents virtual drives of varying capacity to the guest machines, whether they are VMs in
an enterprise environment, physical servers or computers accessing file shares or cloud storage.
2. Array-Based Virtualization Approach –
Storage using arrays. The most popular use of virtualization is when a storage array serves as the
main storage controller and is equipped with virtualization software. This allows the array to share
storage resources with other arrays and present various physical storage types that can be used as
storage tiers.
3. Network-Based Virtualization Approach –
The most popular type of virtualization used by businesses is network-based storage
virtualization. All of the storage devices in an FC or iSCSI SAN are connected to a network
device, such as a smart switch or specially designed server, which displays the network’s storage
as a single virtual pool.

Configurations of Storage Virtualization

1. In-Band Approach (Symmetric) -

In this method, we store the virtual environment configuration in the data path itself as in the data as
well as the control flow. This kind of solution is considered easy/simple to implement as we do not
use any kind of software. We do different levels of abstraction inside the data path. These kinds of
solutions help us to improve our device’s performance majorly and also prolong the useful life of the
devices. One of the examples of an in-band based solution is that IBM’s total storage area network
volume controller.
2. Out-Band Approach (Asymmetric) –
In this approach, the implementation of the virtual environment is done outside of the data path as in
the data flow and the control flow are separated which can be achieved by separating our Metadata
from data and putting them in different places. This kind of virtualization involves in transferring all
the tables to a Metadata controller which has all the Metadata files. By separating both the flows we
achieve the usage of complete bandwidth that is offered by the storage area network.

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Benefits of Storage Virtualization
• Enables dynamic storage utilization and virtual scalability of attached storage resources, both
block and file.
• Avoids downtime during data migration. Virtualization operates in the background to maintain
data’s logical address to preserves access.
• Centralizes a single dashboard to manage multi-vendor storage devices, which saves
management overhead and money.
• Protects existing investments by expanding available storage available to a host or SAN.
• Can add storage intelligence like tiering, caching, replication and a centralized management
interface in a multi-vendor environment.

Server Virtualization
Server virtualization Is the process of dividing a physical server into multiple unique and isolated
servers by means of a software application. Each virtual server can run its own operating system
independently.

Why Server virtualization?

▪ Server virtualization is a cost-effective way to provide web hosting services and effectively
utilise as existing resources in IT infrastructure. without server virtualization, server only use
a small part of their processing power.
▪ This results in servers sitting idle because the workload is distributed to only a portion of
networks servers. data centres become overcrowded with underutilized server, causing a
waste of resources and power.
▪ By having each physical server divided into multiple Virtual servers, server virtualization
allows each virtual server to act as a unique physical device.
▪ Each virtual server can run its own applications and operating system.

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 ▪ This process increases the utilisation of resources by making each virtual server act as a
physical server and increases the capacity of each physical machine.

Key benefits of server virtualization

▪ Higher server ability
▪ Cheaper operating costs
▪ Eliminate server complexity
▪ Increased application performance
▪ Deploy workload quickly

Types of server virtualization

▪ Full virtualization
▪ Para virtualization
▪ OS-level virtualization

Full virtualization
• It uses a hypervisor, that directly communicates with a physical server’s disk space and CPU
• The hypervisor monitors the physical server’s resources and keeps each virtual server.
Independent and unaware of the other Virtual servers.
• It also relays resources from the physical server to the correct virtual server as it runs
applications.
• The biggest limitation of using full virtualization is that hypervisor has its own processing
needs.
• This can slow down applications and impact server performance.

Para Virtualization
• It involves the entire network working together as a cohesive unit.
• Since each operating system in the virtual server is aware of one another, the hypervisor does
not need to use as much processing power to manage the operating system.

OS Level virtualization
• It does not use a hypervisor.
• Virtualization capability which is a part of the physical server operating system, performs all
the task of a hypervisor.
• All the virtual server must run that same OS in this method.

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Data Center Virtualization

• Data center virtualization is the process of designing, developing and deploying a data center on
virtualization and cloud computing technologies.
• It is the process of creating modern data center that is highly scalable, available and secure.
• It is the process of transforming data centers hosted on physical servers to virtual data centers
using cloud computing.
• Data center virtualization is a technology that allows businesses to optimize their data centers by
creating virtual versions of their physical infrastructure.

Need of VDC
Previously, organizations had to deploy multiple servers – email, data and file servers- to keep pace
with the high storage and processing demands. Servers operated at a fraction of their capacity,
creating IT environments with huge inefficiencies and excessive operating costs.
By using a cloud software program, data center virtualization is the transfer of physical data centers
into virtual data centers. Businesses can create virtual versions of physical infrastructure such as
servers, storage devices, and networking equipment. In comparison to on-premise infrastructures,
this allows you to remotely access information and applications.

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With data center virtualization, organizations can run multiple operating systems and applications on
a single server in the cloud, increasing economies of scale and improving efficiency.

How Does Data Center Virtualization Work?

• Data center virtualization is the process of creating a virtual server from traditional, physical
servers.
• This virtual infrastructure is also known as a software defined data center (SDCC).
• To create a virtual server, the process abstracts physical hardware by mimicking its
processors, operating system, and other resources.
• When abstracting the physical hardware, virtualization relies on a hypervisor, which is a
software that creates and manages a virtual machine (VM). This software abstracts the
resources of its host system.
• Resources can range from the CPU, memory, storage space, or network bandwidth.
• Data center virtualization results in one or multiple cloud infrastructures, an interconnected
system of virtualized hardware, and other digital components.

How To Manage Virtual Data Centers?

Virtual data center platforms can be managed from three different types of cloud locations.
Businesses can manage virtualized data from a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud. For on-
site virtualized servers, they are deployed, managed, and protected by private or in-house teams.

1. Public Cloud – Remote Third-party Location; Public clouds deliver resources, such as compute,
storage, network, develop-and-deploy environments, and applications over the internet. This type
of cloud is owned and run by third-party cloud service providers.
2. Private Cloud – Central Physical Location; Private clouds are built, run, and used by a single
organization. While private clouds are typically located on-premises, they provide greater control,
customization, and data security. However, it does come with similar costs and resource
limitations associated with traditional IT environments.
3. Hybrid Cloud – Combination of Private and Public Cloud; Hybrid clouds are computing
environments that mix at least one private computing environment with one or more public
clouds, along with on-premise data centers or edge locations. They allow you to leverage the
resources and services from different computing environments, along with choosing which is the
most optimal for the workloads.

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Benefits of a Virtualized Data Center

1. Scalability – Cloud-based computing environments are designed with scalability in mind.

Compared to a physical server, a virtual data center is easy, quick, and inexpensive to set up. They
can be added in response to rapid rises in demand for processing and other resources, or
downsized when they are no longer necessary.
2. Functionality – Virtualized resources decentralize the modern office. This allows you to access
common tasks, analytics, and data from remote locations/anywhere with a strong internet
connection. Additionally, virtualized resources also enable versatile collaboration and sharing
opportunities through cloud-based applications. These applications can include video
conferencing, word processing, and other content creation tools.
3. Reduce Costs – For businesses that need to reduce costs, virtualized data centers require less
management and maintenance than physical servers. They are consumption-based, which means
that companies are only paying for what they use. This is especially helpful if you want to
effectively budget your financial resources. Virtual servers can also reduce other business
expenses like travel costs, training employees, hardware acquisition, and more.
4. Security – A virtual data center allows businesses to benefit from the enterprise-grade security
and compliance features affiliated to the cloud environment. Virtual machines are separated from
the underlying hardware infrastructure, so the data traffic within the virtual ecosystem remains
secure. This ensures that your data and applications remain protected. Additionally, virtualization
allows for the implementation of advanced security features to prevent cyber threats.
5. Productivity – If there is a loss in productivity, it can impact your business profits. However,
virtualized data centers can help increase the productivity levels of IT administrators and other
employees. Since data center services are outsourced, a cloud service provider needs to maintain
and manage the physical data center. Rather than troubleshooting servers and other network
components, IT administrators only need to manage and monitor the virtual components of the
data center. With centralized tools and interfaces, it allows them to remotely support the virtual
data center remotely in real-time.
6. Reliability – Data center virtualization enhances disaster recovery and business continuity. In the
event of a failure, virtual machines can be easily replicated and moved between physical servers,
which makes it easier to backup and restore data. As a result, this ensures that critical applications
and services will remain available, minimizing downtime and reducing the impact of disruptions.

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Question Bank
Q1. What is the need of virtualization and discuss the architecture of hyper - V and discuss its use in
cloud computing.
Q2. Explain Virtualization Hypervisor management software.
Q3. Explain the functions and types of Hypervisors with examples and enlist its applications.
Q4. Briefly explain the different types of virtualizations.
Q5. Differentiate between SAN and NAS with an example.
Q6. Discuss in detail logical partitioning. Enlist its advantages and disadvantages.
Q7. Write short notes on:
a. HVM
b. Virtual SAN
Q8. Explain in brief about block and file level storage virtualization.
Q9. What do you mean by Server virtualization? Explain using example.
Q10. What types of cloud OS are used in virtualized data centers? Explain.

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