Build a Simple Virtualization Server with a Low Resource Computer - Part 1

There is certainly a lot of literature about it on Virtualbox to build simple or robust Virtualization Servers, but many times they do not lead us directly to the point in the most practical options with their respective clarifications and possible real use scenarios, that is, we always find a lot of information but not adjusted to the needs of many and especially novices or beginners in the area.

lpi

Anyway, I leave you my experience in this post on the subject:

First I leave you the technical characteristics of the Low-resource computer used:

Hardware:

Note: The ideal is to have a Server with 4GB of RAM for these purposes, however, in this case I practice with a (1) GB of RAM we can for him Physical server y 1 GB of RAM to a Virtual Machine (MV) en VirtualBox (VBox) simulating any GNU / Linux Operating System o MS Windows in versions of Bits 32 It's enough.

Software:

Virtualization platform to use:

First of all, for the few connoisseurs we will briefly delve into the concept of Virtualization:

1.- Introduction to Virtualization:

All Server / Systems / Network Administrator (SysAdmin), Advanced Technology Support Specialists or Technology Enthusiast, especially in the Free Software and GNU / Linux Operating Systems Area should be up to date on changes to the various Operating systems and programs available on the market or in the Community. Especially to be up to date with the techniques and / or procedures necessary on them to improve productivity in the Institutions - Companies (Public / Private) where he performs his duties and to facilitate the execution of his own work.

One of the technologies that facilitates this objective is Operating Systems Virtualization, which basically allows to share on the same Computer / Server (Hardware) several Operating Systems operating completely independently. All this through a Virtualization Software.

Next we will carry out a Detailed analysis of the operation of this technology. Some of the points to be discussed are the advantages and disadvantages using this technology, analysis of the best virtualizers of the moment for users and companies, among others. To realize via results, such as the power of a Virtualized Operating System can be equal to or even higher than that of a Operating system Real.

2.- On the Virtualization of Operating Systems (OS):

As in many other spheres of human knowledge, Information Technology (IT) it increases rapidly, so much so that many times there is no time to assimilate all the new concepts that are presented day by day. And so the model of System Administration for IT administrators is reaching the Users (Media / Advanced) hand in hand Operating Systems Virtualization. Virtualization can mean many things, but related to Operating Systems, basically consists of being able share the same hardware infrastructure for various Operating Systems fully operating independent. That is, having the same Server, with the same Hard Drive or Storage Devices, some) Processor (s) and an installed capacity of RAM (for example, and without mentioning the rest of the Hardware elements that compose it), we can have several installations of Private Operating Systems MS Windows, Appleor Free as GNU / Linux or others, running in parallel, totally independent from each other. If one of them stops (freezes) or has problems, the others do not know and could even reuse the processing speed resources that would be freed.

3.- Advantages and disadvantages of OS Virtualization:

The uses and advantages offered by the OS virtualization 

  • Cost savings
  • Program compatibility
  • Cloning and hot system migration
  • Test environments
  • Isolation and security
  • Flexibility and agility

La OS virtualization It also has some weak points to highlight:

  • Lower performance
  • Hardware Limitations
  • Proliferation of Virtual Machines
  • Waste of resources
  • Centralization of machines on a single server
  • Limited portability between virtualizers

4.- The Hypervisor as a virtualization platform:

The Hypervisor ó Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) is a virtualization platform that allows to use, at the same time, multiple Operating Systems on a Computer (Server).

The Hypervisors They can be classified into two types:

Type 1 (Native, bare-metal): Software that runs directly on the real hardware of the computer to control the Hardware and monitor the virtualized OS. Virtualized Systems run on another level above the Hypervisor.

Selection_001

Conceptual representation diagram of the Type 1 Hypervisor

Some of the Type 1 hypervisors best known are the following:

  1. VMware: ESX / ESXi / ESXi Free.
  2. Xen. 
  3. Citrix Xen Server. 
  4. Microsoft Hyper V Server.

Type 2 (Hosted): Application that runs on a conventional OS (Linux, Windows, Mac OS) to virtualize systems. In this way, virtualization occurs in a layer further away from the Hardware if we compare it with Type 1 Hypervisors. Logically, this makes performance less in Type 2 Hypervisors.

Selection_002

Conceptual representation diagram of the Type 2 Hypervisor

Some of the Type 2 hypervisors most used are the following:

  1. Sun: VirtualBox, VirtualBox OSE.
  2. VMware: Workstation, Server, Player.
  3. Microsoft: Virtual PC, Virtual Server.

Selection_004

Computer with native Operating System (Without Virtualization)

Selection_005

Computer with Operating System and Virtualization with Type 1 Hypervisor

Selection_003

Computer with Operating System and Virtualization with Type 2 Hypervisor

5.- History of the OS virtualization :

Virtualization is not a new topic in computing, in fact it is considered to have existed for approximately four or five decades. At that time and until a few years ago it was applied in exclusive areas, practically only for large computing centers, both banking, military and university.

Over time the technology developed by leaps and bounds and became widespread, causing the use of Supercomputers and Mainframes to decline in favor of the arrival of the compact Business Servers and High Performance Personal Computers that made the concept of access at the same time to the resources of a single supercomputer would disappear, giving the final blow to the bygone golden age of virtualization.

At present, virtualization has once again reached the Server Rooms in a renewed way thanks to the new Hardware and Software Virtualization technologies, and Desktop Computing has arrived, which has efficiently increased its popularity again, causing it to be a one of the most innovative technologies of the moment due to the notable advantages of its application.

There are currently 2 leading technologies in this field:

INTEL: The technology designed and implemented by Intel, and included in its mid- and high-end processors is Intel VT (Virtualization Technology). Intel introduces enhancements to its x86 (VT-x) and Itanium (VT-i) processors.

AMD: For its part, AMD has a technology analogous to that of Intel called AMD-V or AMD-SVM (originally under the name Pacifica) that also includes both mid-range and high-end processors in its processors.

Both standards are practically identical and equivalent in terms of functionality offered to Virtualization Software solutions that want to make use of their characteristics.

6.- Summary:

La virtualization is the effect of abstracting the resources of a computer, that is, providing logical access to physical resourcesTherefore, virtualization logically separates the request for some service and the physical resources that actually provide the service. And depending on the resource that is abstracted, be it an individual resource (Storage Unit, Network Unit) or a platform (Server, PC) and by whom that resource is used, it will correspond to a specific virtualization model.

Therefore, it is important to distinguish them to understand more clearly virtualization between two concepts such as the virtual resource that is abstracted and the entity (application, operating system, machine, among others) that, virtualized, has that resource, since this is what gives us an implemented virtualization model.

With all of this in mind, we can distinguish four main virtualization models:

Platform virtualization

  • Guest Operating Systems
  • Emulation
  • Full virtualization
  • Paravirtualization
  • OS-level virtualization
  • Kernel-level virtualization

Resource virtualization

  • Encapsulation
  • Virtual memory
  • Storage virtualization
  • Network virtualization
  • Bonding Network Interfaces (Ethernet Bonding)
  • Input / Output Virtualization
  • Memory virtualization

Application virtualization

  • Limited application virtualization
  • Full application virtualization

Desktop virtualization

7.- Deepening of the topic on Virtualization of Operating Systems:

And since it is not always enough to read the product data sheets, it is also necessary to be able to perform a test in our «Work environment u Home" To see first-hand how things work about virtualization, in part 2 of this post I will tell you about my personal experience of Installation and configuration of the VirtualBox 5.0.14 Software on DEBIAN 9 on a low-resource computer.


12 comments, leave yours

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  1.   drassill said

    Good article. Very complete and detailed, although I would have also added Proxmox within layer one hypervisors, as it is based on Debian and is a highly recommended solution for those who want to use 100% free technology.

  2.   tabris said

    How that Sun, I respect Oracle (?)

  3.   Jose Albert said

    Dear Tabris, you are right! It was a little brutis slip!

  4.   Jose Albert said

    Certainly, KVM is one of the most important modern and efficient Virtualization solutions for Free Software today!

  5.   Jose Albert said

    For more information on virtualization, updated and from the source, you can see this link: http://planet.virt-tools.org/

  6.   Gonzalo Martinez said

    In reality virtualbox is for other things, like virtualizing something specific, as an alternative to double booting, or for a couple of specific VMs.

    For a production server it has much more performance and KVM stability, incidentally it consumes much less resources, and it is nothing more than installing libvirt, the virt-manager client and giving it (you don't have to do the return of the virtualbox kernel module, for example).

    The pro of virtualbox is that it has a more user-friendly interface, and is designed more to virtualize desktop OS for everyday use, with the guest tools so that the windows and linux that you put are more fluid, copy in the host OS and I paste you in the VM, etc.

    More than once I had to virtualize Windows with KVM, and the mouse seems to be at 20hz of the cut it moves haha, but it is intended for servers and not to be nice for the end user.

  7.   Jose Albert said

    I agree a lot with you! VBox for home tests, techniques and specific problems in low-performance equipment (computing power) and KVM for servers and high-performance equipment!

    However, a simple, friendly and robust platform on VBox is also possible.

  8.   Jose Albert said

    Do not forget Docker and Citrix.

  9.   Pp said

    Good, although your explanation is condensed and simple, it still seems to me it is not clear why and why virtualize. I have a small data server with xp. In my case, should it be virtualized? Should I create two virtual servers to limit user access? Which for now is the most important thing.

  10.   Victor said

    do you have any tutorial with proxmox? especially with the virtualization of win 7

  11.   emerson said

    as the enunciation of a concept is fine, but for that it seems too much of a roll or too much space
    An ignorant like me does not need so much to understand the concept, and what is in the post does not clarify how to implement it or with what, (unless you know the same as the one who wrote it) I believe that these people who are dedicated To tell us what he knows more than to teach us what he knows, he should put himself in the shoes of the one who enters motivated by the title of the post, to read them. If you don't want to, don't explain it to me, but at least tell me where I can investigate it, and if not, don't post. Thanks, same to you