Server Virtualization
Server virtualization is the masking of server resources, including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems, from server users.
The server administrator who is applying server virtualisation uses a software application to separate one physical server into multiple isolated virtual environments. Virtualization is a term that is often applied to a wide range of technologies. Essentially, virtualizing a technology decouples the software used in that realm from the hardware. In the area of server virtualization, this means that multiple server environments (Windows, Linux etc) can be housed on a single piece of physical hardware.
In this way, two Linux servers and a Windows server running on three separate machines could be virtualized and run on a single blade server box. The use of such a server has an advantage of cutting the cost of adding extra hardware which has similar characteristics as the server virtualization programs include. Additional advantages of server virtualization generally include:
- Provision a new server in minutes without investing in new hardware
- Run Windows and Linux operating systems and applications on the same physical server
- Increase the utilization of a physical server
- Move virtual machines from one physical host to another without re-configuration
- Easily migrate virtual machines to VMware Infrastructure
- Access enterprise-class support organization
- Efficiently provision, monitor and manage infrastructure with VirtualCenter add-on
- Capture state of an entire virtual machine and roll back to that state with the click of a button