Hypervisor

As explained in Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS

Software that creates and manages virtual machines by isolating guests and scheduling their access to physical hardware.

A hypervisor creates and manages virtual machines on a physical host. It isolates guest machines from one another, schedules their requests for physical hardware, and presents each guest with virtual hardware such as CPUs, memory, networking, and storage. section 3.1

Virtualization uses three related roles:

• The host machine supplies the physical hardware. section 3.1
• Each guest is a virtual machine isolated from other guests. section 3.1
• The hypervisor provides the virtual hardware platform and schedules access to the host’s resources. section 3.1

On AWS, Nitro combines a KVM-based hypervisor with customized hardware. Current generations of AWS virtual machines use hardware-assisted virtualization, called a hardware virtual machine (HVM), to provide fully virtualized hardware and fast access to underlying resources. section 3.1.1

Launching an EC2 virtual machine

An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) supplies a read-only filesystem containing an operating system, software, and configuration. When the hypervisor starts a VM from that virtual appliance, repeated launches can produce the same configured state. This supports workloads such as web applications, enterprise applications, and data processing. section 3.1.1 section 3.1

Figure 3.1 Layers of virtualization

Use the virtualization-layer diagram to trace the relationship between physical hardware, the hypervisor, and isolated guest machines. section 3.1

How Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS covers it

How deep it goes

Defines isolation, scheduling, and virtual hardware, then identifies Nitro, KVM, and HVM without detailing hypervisor implementation internals.

Examples

Uses EC2 virtual machines, AMIs, web applications, enterprise applications, and data-processing workloads as concrete examples.

What it assumes

Assumes only the distinction between physical hardware and virtual machines, while defining host, guest, and hypervisor roles.

What you can do after

Apply it via Amazon EC2 by relating an AMI-launched VM to its host, guest isolation, and virtual hardware.

How it connects

Connects hypervisors with virtual machines, host machines, guest systems, Amazon EC2, AMIs, and hardware-assisted virtualization.

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Also explained in

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  Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and SecurityA hypervisor is software or firmware that creates and manages virtual machines while allocating physical hardware resources to them.
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  Kubernetes in Action, Second EditionA hypervisor is software that creates and manages virtual machines by allocating physical hardware resources to them.

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Related concepts

• virtual machineused by · A virtual machine is a software-based environment that emulates or implements an abstract computer system, providing an interface on which an operating system or programs can execute.
• type 1 hypervisorincludes · A type 1 hypervisor is virtualization software that runs directly on physical hardware and manages virtual machines without a general-purpose host operating system.
• type 2 hypervisorincludes · A type 2 hypervisor is virtualization software that runs on top of a host operating system to manage virtual machines.
• hypervisor-based remotingused by · Hypervisor-based remoting is remote command execution that uses a hypervisor or virtualization-management intermediary instead of direct network communication with the guest machine.
• Minikubeused by · Minikube is an open-source tool that runs a local Kubernetes cluster, typically on a single computer, for development, testing, and learning.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.