Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including but not limited to a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources.^[1] This lesson covers virtualization and cloud computing.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for the virtualization portion of IT Fundamentals certification include:^[2]

• Identify the following alternative technologies and their purpose
  • Virtualization
    • Physical machine vs. virtual machine
  • Cloud Computing
    • Streaming media (audio/video)

Readings

1. Wikipedia: Virtualization
2. Wikipedia: Virtual memory
3. Wikipedia: Cloud computing
4. Wikipedia: Streaming media

Multimedia

1. YouTube: A Simple Explanation of Virtualization
2. YouTube: Virtualization as Fast as Possible
3. YouTube: How to Use VMware Player
4. YouTube: Virtual Memory – Part 1
5. YouTube: Cloud Computing (in Plain English)
6. YouTube: What is Streaming Video
7. YouTube: Understanding Video Streaming
8. YouTube: What is Cloud Computing & Some Advantages & Drawbacks

Activities

1. View virtual memory settings for your system.
   • Windows 7: Review Microsoft: Change the size of virtual memory.
   • Windows 10: Review Adjust Virtual Memory on Windows 10.
   • OS X: Review OS X Daily: Mac Virtual Memory.
   • Linux: Review Techie Buzz: Ubuntu Linux: How to Enable or Disable Swap Partition.
2. Download and install virtualization software for your system:
   • Windows: Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VirtualBox, or VMware Player.
     • Microsoft: Enable Hyper-V
     • The Geek Stuff: How to install Oracle VirtualBox and Create a Virtual Machine
     • VMware: Downloading and Installing VMware Player and VMware Workstation Player
   • OS X: Oracle VirtualBox, Parallels, or VMware Fusion.
     • The Geek Stuff: How to install Oracle VirtualBox and Create a Virtual Machine
   • Linux: Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Player.
     • The Geek Stuff: How to install Oracle VirtualBox and Create a Virtual Machine
     • VMware: Downloading and Installing VMware Player and VMware Workstation Player
3. Search the Internet for a browser appliance for your virtualization environment. Download the appliance and follow the instructions to open the virtual machine and test the software.
4. Review Wikipedia: Physical-to-Virtual. Download and test a physical-to-virtual conversion tool for your virtualization environment. Open the converted virtual machine and test the software.
5. Research popular cloud storage providers. Compare prices and plans available.
6. Research popular audio and video streaming media providers. Compare prices and plans available.

Lesson Summary

• Virtualization is the simulation of a hardware platform, operating system, storage device, or network resources using software.^[3]
• In hardware virtualization, the host machine is the actual machine on which the virtualization takes place, and the guest machine is the virtual machine.^[4]
• The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called a hypervisor or virtual machine manager.^[5]
• Virtual machines running proprietary operating systems require licensing, regardless of the host machine’s operating system.^[6]
• Virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels that allows the operating system to use secondary storage as virtual memory address space and move memory pages between physical memory and virtual storage as needed.^[7]
• Cloud computing involves groups of remote servers and software networks that allow centralized data storage and online access to computer services or resources.^[8]
• Clouds can be classified as public, private or hybrid.^[9]
• Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider.^[10]

Key Terms

Boot Camp

A multi boot utility included with Apple Inc.’s OS X that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows operating systems on Intel-based Macintosh computers.^[11]

dual boot

Another name for multi-boot.^[12]

guest machine

A virtual computer which is run by a host machine.^[13]

host machine

A physical computer on which virtualization takes place.^[14]

Hyper-V

Microsoft’s hypervisor, available as a free stand-alone product called Hyper-V Server, and an installable role in Windows Server 2008 and later as well as the x64 edition of Windows 8 Pro.^[15]

hypervisor

A piece of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines.^[16]

multi-boot

The act of installing multiple operating systems on a computer, and being able to choose which one to boot when starting the computer.^[17]

Parallels

Software providing hardware virtualization for Macintosh computers with Intel processors.^[18]

ReadyBoost

A disk caching software component of Windows Vista and later Microsoft operating systems that allows any compatible mass storage device to be used as a hard-drive memory cache for the purpose of increasing random read access speed to the hard drive.^[19]

snapshot

The state of a system at a particular point in time.^[20]

thin client

A computer or computer program which depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its computational roles.^[21]

thin provisioning

Using virtualization technology to give the appearance of having more physical resources than are actually available.^[22]

virtual machine (VM)

A software implemented abstraction of the underlying hardware which is presented to the application layer of the system.^[23]

virtual machine monitor (VMM)

Another name for hypervisor.^[24]

VirtualBox

A virtualization software package for x86 and AMD64/Intel64-based computers distributed by Oracle.^[25]

VMware Fusion

A software hypervisor developed by VMware for computers running OS X with Intel processors.^[26]

VMware Player

A virtualization software package for computers running Windows or Linux, supplied free of charge for personal non-commercial use by VMware, Inc.^[27]

Review Questions

1. Virtualization is _____.

   Show Answer

   Virtualization is the simulation of a hardware platform, operating system, storage device, or network resources using software.
2. In hardware virtualization, the host machine is _____, and the guest machine is _____.

   Show Answer

   In hardware virtualization, the host machine is the actual machine on which the virtualization takes place, and the guest machine is the virtual machine.
3. The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called _____ or _____.

   Show Answer

   The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called a hypervisor or virtual machine manager.
4. Virtual machines running proprietary operating systems require _____.

   Show Answer

   Virtual machines running proprietary operating systems require licensing, regardless of the host machine’s operating system.
5. Virtual memory is _____ that allows the operating system to _____.

   Show Answer

   Virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels that allows the operating system to use secondary storage as virtual memory address space and move memory pages between physical memory and virtual storage as needed./hidden-answer]
6. Cloud computing involves _____ that allow _____.

   Show Answer

   Cloud computing involves groups of remote servers and software networks that allow centralized data storage and online access to computer services or resources.