Virtual machines have the potential for adding many beneficial capabilities to c

Question

Virtual machines have the potential for adding many beneficial capabilities to computer systems, for example, resulting in improved total cost of ownership (TCO) or availability. Could VMs be used to provide the following capabilities? If so, how could they facilitate this?

a. Make it easy to consolidate a large number of applications running on many old uniprocessor servers onto a single higher-performance CMP-based server? b. [10] <5.4> Limit damage caused by computer viruses, worms, or spyware?

c. Higher performance in memory-intensive applications with large memory footprints?

d. Dynamically provision extra capacity for peak application loads? e. [10] <5.4> Run a legacy application on old operating systems on modern machines?

Explanation / Answer

In simple Virtual machines operate based on the computer architecture and functions of a real or hypothetical computer, and their implementations may involve specialized hardware,software, or a combination of both. Different kinds of virtual machines exist, each with different functions. System virtual machines (also known as full virtualization VMs) provide a complete substitute for the targeted real machine and a level of functionality required for the execution of a complete operating system.

Answer to a

Each application could be run on a virtual machine on the new CMP-based server, providing the illusion it was running on its own machine with the original operating system. Thus higher-performance hardware could host several applications simultaneously on a single server.

Answer to b

If an application was running on a virtual machine, viruses, worms, and spyware should only affect the virtual machine running the application and not the entire host machine.

Answer to c

VMs do not generally provide higher performance, and applications with large memoryusage may have many TLB faults, which incur virtualization overhead.

Answer to d

New virtual machines running the application can be relatively easily created on machinesnot normally used for that application in order to provide extra capacity.

Answer to e

Old versions of the operating system can be hosted on VMs running on modern machines.

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