It is very common to ignore hypervisors, but what many do not know is that this technology is the closest thing to virtualization, although you cannot enjoy its benefits if you do not know for sure what a hypervisor is in relationship with a computer system.
But what is a hypervisor? Well, in simple words, a hypervisor is a process that completely separates the operation of a computer and the existing applications on the physical hardware.
It is usually done with software, although sometimes integrated hypervisors are created for smart devices such as phones and tablets.
Thanks to the hypervisor, different users operate a physical machine through different virtual machines as guests, to maximize memory use, CPU cycles, and bandwidth. Advantages of hypervisors
Hypervisors bring many benefits, but to begin with, it is important to know that although Virtual Machines or VMs can run without problem on the same physical hardware, they are still separated from each other.
In other words, if, for example, a VM were to experience an error, a malicious virus attack, or a crash, only this one would bear the consequences and not the others.
On the other hand, one of the great benefits of hypervisors is that VMs are mobile, so they can be migrated or simply moved to other servers, since they are independent of the hardware this can be done much easier than traditional applications that are tied to physical hardware.
hypervisors
Types of hypervisors
There are currently 2 types of hypervisors: type 1 and type 2.
Type 1, also known as native or bare metal, runs directly on the host hardware to control the main hardware and manage the guest VMs.
The most modern being those that include Oracle VM Server for x86, Oracle VM Server for SPARC, Xen, VMware ESX / ESXi, and Microsoft Hyper-V.
On the other hand, type 2 hypervisors, also known as a host, are executed conventionally, as other applications do the system.
With this type of hypervisor, the guest operating system operates through a host. The best known are VirtualBox, VMware Player, and Workstation and Parallels Desktop for Mac among others.
The best free and paid hypervisors
This is perhaps one of the most important points in this entire article. Next, we will leave you a list of the most used free hypervisors.
VMware vSphere Enterprise
This is by far one of the most important companies when it comes to virtualization and hypervisors.
Its systems serve both computers and server systems. It is possibly the most widely used system in the world.
Citrix XenServer Free Edition
This is another company of great importance when it comes to this topic. It currently has two versions, one paid and one free.
It is based on the free software modality and is generally used by small and medium-sized companies.
Xen Hypervisor
This is an open-source project, but little by little it has reached the top positions, to the point of being used by many companies. Its creators always manage and keep the system in constant evolution.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server
These giants could not be left behind, which is why within their range of options they also have their virtualization system.
It is a system that is constantly evolving and is capable of virtualizing Microsoft systems and Linux systems such as Ubuntu, Suse, RedHat, CentOS, and Fedora. The users that use it the most are small and medium-sized companies.
Proxmox
This virtualization system has a free and a paid version and its characteristics are very similar to those of other systems mentioned above.
It is widely used by many large and medium-sized companies, although its use is also intended for individuals.
It has great performance and makes the most of the hardware. The paid version has exceptional support for businesses.
