In the computer world “virtual” technology abounds enabling a number of users to simultaneously share a single resource, each believing he or she has total control. These resources can range from chip components to processors to I/O devices to groups of systems. While virtualization is used at all levels, the current industry focus is on system level virtualization (servers and desktops). System virtualization allows one single system to host a number of “virtual machines” each running a unique operating system image.

This course provides a general overview of virtualization at all levels and a detailed look at system virtualization techniques, including benefits and limitations. It serves as an introduction that provides a solid foundation on how and where virtualization can be used with class examples using commercial system virtualization technology. The use of virtualization to solve actual data center problems is discussed. This course also serves as introductory background for Dashcourses’ I/O Virtualization courses, which drill deeper into the new techniques defined by the I/O virtualization specifications, such as PCIe (PCI Express) Virtual I/O Enhancements.

Course Prerequisites:

• An understanding of processor architecture and operating systems (Dashcourses’ PC Architecture Overview course or equivalent)
• A basic understanding of virtualization (Dashcourses’ Foundation in Virtualization course or equivalent)

Who Should Attend?

This course is designed for Engineers, Application Designers, Programmers, Managers, Technical Sales personnel and anyone looking for a solid introduction to Virtualization.

Companion Text

In addition to the lecture materials, this course includes the companion text Virtual Machines Companion by Ted Simpson (Thomson Course Technology), which will provide both classroom examples and exercises for students outside of the classroom. It discusses the details of system virtualization concepts and provides an overview of installation and use of several of the most popular virtual machine software products with practical, hands-on exercises.

System Virtualization Concepts

• Definition of terms
  • General Terms to Know
  • Key Virtualization Terms to Know
  • Review of Operating System Concepts
• Parallelism
  • Need for Parallelism
  • How Parallelism Drives Virtualization
    • Thread-Internal
    • Core-Internal
    • Multi-Core
    • Multi-System
• Virtualization Categories
  • System Virtualization
  • I/O Virtualization
  • Network Virtualization
  • Storage Virtualization
• System Virtualization Techniques
  • Full Virtualization
  • Paravirtualization
  • Hosted Virtualization
  • Emulation and Translation
  • Hardware Assisted Virtualization
  • Partitioning
  • Application Virtualization
  • Migration
• Virtualization Implementations for Systems
  • VMware
  • Microsoft
  • IBM
  • XenSource
  • Virtual Iron
  • Sun
  • Hewlett-Packard
  • Parallels
  • Others

Exploring Virtualization by Objective

• Keys to virtualization
  • Understanding the problem
  • Picking the right solution
• Save Money
  • Consolidation
  • Sharing resources
• Save Time
  • Provisioning
  • Scheduling
• Save Effort
  • Conversion Avoidance
  • Management Simplification
• Save Conflicts
  • Isolation
  • Conflict Avoidance
• Save Outages
  • Availability
  • Migration
  • Reserved Capacity