Virtual machine

As explained in Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more

A virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that provides an isolated environment with virtualized hardware for running an operating system and its workloads.

A virtual machine is an isolated software-emulated computer that virtualizes hardware and runs an operating system with its workload. Unlike containers, it requires managing the guest operating system, kernel, init system, logging, security updates, backups, and associated overhead. section 1.2.1

Virtual machines provide stronger separation at a higher management cost:

• A physical machine can run multiple applications in separate VMs, but each VM carries a complete operating system. section 1.2.1
• Containers can be placed inside separate VMs when applications such as a web frontend and a database require additional isolation. section 11.5.2

Figure 1.4 Physical machine running three applications in three VMs

Compare a physical machine hosting three applications in three separate VMs with the corresponding container arrangement. section 1.2.1

How Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more covers it

How deep it goes

Compares complete-OS management and isolation but does not describe hypervisor implementation or virtual hardware internals.

Examples

Uses three applications on one physical machine and a web frontend separated from a credit-card database.

What you can do after

Evaluate when VM isolation justifies managing complete operating systems and additional runtime overhead.

How it connects

Connects virtual machines with containers, Linux namespaces, and security isolation.

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Also explained in

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  Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWSA virtual machine is a software-defined computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated virtualized environment.
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  Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and SecurityA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated environment on physical hardware.
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  Microsoft Azure in ActionA virtual machine is a software-based computer that runs on virtualized physical hardware as an isolated execution environment.
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  Road to KubernetesA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that provides an isolated operating-system environment on physical or virtualized infrastructure.
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  Building Web APIs with ASP.NET CoreA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that provides an isolated operating environment on physical or cloud infrastructure.
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  Grokking AI ApplicationsA virtual machine is a software-defined computer that runs on shared physical infrastructure and provides an isolated environment for operating systems and applications.
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  LLMs in ProductionA virtual machine is a software-defined computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated virtualized environment.
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  Kubernetes in Action, Second EditionA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated environment.
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  100 SQL Server Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemA virtual machine is a software-defined computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated virtualized environment.
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  Azure SecurityA Windows virtual machine is a virtual machine running a Windows operating system.
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  Build and Orchestrator in Go (From Scratch)A software-defined computer that abstracts physical hardware so multiple operating systems can run on one physical machine.
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  Platform Engineering on KubernetesA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated environment on physical infrastructure.
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  Kubernetes for DevelopersA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that provides an application with an isolated operating environment and typically includes a guest operating system.
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  Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches, Second EditionA virtual machine is a software-defined computer that emulates hardware, runs its own operating system, and provides an isolated environment for applications.
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  Starting Data Analytics with Generative AI and PythonA virtual machine is a software-emulated computer that runs its own operating system within an isolated allocation of physical computing resources.

Compare how 16 books explain virtual machine →

Related concepts

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloudincludes · Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is an Amazon Web Services service that provides resizable virtual computing capacity through configurable virtual machine instances.
• Gocontrasts with · Go is a statically typed, compiled, garbage-collected programming language with built-in support for concurrency.
• containercontrasts with · A software container is an isolated execution environment that packages an application and its dependencies while sharing the host operating system kernel.
• cloud computingused by · Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of computing resources and services over a network from remotely managed infrastructure.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Podman in Action: Secure, rootless containers for Kubernetes, microservices, and more. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.