Supplemental reading for Virtual Machines
Here’s a scientific summary of Virtual Machines, enhanced with emojis in Markdown format to make it more engaging:
🖥️ Virtual Machines (VMs)
📚 Understanding Virtual Machines
Virtualization creates a simulated computer environment known as a Virtual Machine (VM). This allows you to run an entire operating system (OS) within your physical computer's OS, known as the host OS. The OS running inside the VM is referred to as the guest OS.
🔍 How VMs Work
Virtual Environment: VM software provides a virtualized environment that operates like a separate computer system. You interact with the guest OS in a window on your host OS desktop.
Experimentation: VMs allow you to test and compare different operating systems without altering or replacing your host OS. For example, you can run Linux on a Windows machine or use a VM to run macOS software on Linux.
Isolation: VMs are isolated from the host OS and other VMs, providing a safe space to test software without risking your main system.
Resource Efficiency: Running multiple VMs on a single host reduces hardware and electricity costs. Modern hardware is powerful enough to handle multiple VMs simultaneously by allocating virtual resources such as RAM and storage.
🛠️ VM Resource Management
Allocation: When creating a VM, you allocate physical resources like hard drive space and RAM. VM software allows you to adjust these settings later if needed.
Virtual Resources: VM software manages hardware resources by creating virtual equivalents. For example, a VM might use a portion of your computer's physical hard drive as a virtual hard drive.
🖥️ Popular VM Software
VirtualBox: Supports Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris hosts. It is open-source and free. Compatible with various guest OS like Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Hyper-V: Microsoft's virtualization platform, integrated into Windows. Supports Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD VMs, but not macOS.
VMware: Provides desktop virtualization software that works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. VMware Workstation Player is available for non-commercial use.
Red Hat Virtualization (RHV): A business-oriented platform supporting various guest systems. Requires an annual subscription for access, updates, and support.
💡 Key Takeaways
Virtualization allows for running multiple OS environments on a single physical machine.
VM Software creates a virtualized environment that behaves like a separate computer system, allowing experimentation and safe software testing.
Resource Management enables efficient use of hardware by allocating virtual resources.
Various VM Software options are available, each with unique features and support for different host and guest OS.
For detailed instructions on creating a VM with VirtualBox, refer to the VirtualBox manual.
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