HP DL360 Server virtualization technologies for x86-based HP BladeSystem and H - Page 3

Figure 1. HP technologies for machine abstraction include Virtual Connect, integrated hypervisors, and integrated management. Software-layer abstraction: virtual machines In a virtual machine environment, a software layer abstracts the physical server hardware and creates one or more virtual machine instances, each with its own virtual drives, virtual network interface controllers (NICs), virtual storage controllers, virtual processors, OS, and application(s). The software abstraction layer is typically referred to as a hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor. An OS that runs in the virtual machine instance is called a guest OS. On a single physical platform, the software abstraction layer can create one or more virtual machines. These virtual machines share the physical resources (Figure 2). In today's data centers, servers often run single workload instances and are sometime under-utilized in off peak hours. By moving these workloads onto virtual machines, administrators can consolidate under-utilized hardware, and better utilize the server hardware while still maintaining OS and application isolation. 3