Server Virtualization Technology for Mission-critical Systems
SekiguchiIn regards to the world of mainframes, virtualization technology has been used for many years as technology for supporting the basic components of computers. In recent times, virtualization technology has also been gaining a lot of attention as it has become applicable to PC servers. Right from the start, there has been a need to keep using systems running on old computers without having to modify them in any way. Although such systems are dependent on these old computers, virtualization technology, for example, can create an "old computer" virtually on a new computer, so the system running up till that time can run in exactly the same manner as before. Use of systems in this way, namely, "legacy migration", gained attention, and virtualization technology suddenly took off.
SekiguchiVirtualization technology is a way of creating virtual computers by spatially and temporally separating and combining, and vice versa, physical resources such as CPUs, memories, network interfaces, and disk drives. For example, by using a single CPU and executing multiple processes in parallel on a time-sharing basis, it is possible to create the impression virtually that there are multiple CPUs. Moreover, by combining memories and disks, virtualization can express the physical quantity of that memory. Server virtualization technology applies these methods, allocates various physical resources flexibly on request, forms multiple "logical servers" on a single physical server, and can thereby operate multiple OSs.
Figure 1: What is server virtualization technology?
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