full virtualization

This article touched on a two virtualization mechanisms: full virtualization and paravirtualization.

In full virtualization, the guest operating system runs on top of a hypervisor that sits on the bare metal.

KVM is a full virtualization solution that is unique in that it turns a Linux kernel into a hypervisor using a kernel module.

Full virtualization is faster than hardware emulation, but performance is less than bare hardware because of the hypervisor mediation.

With full virtualization, a layer exists between the virtualized operating systems and the hardware as a way to arbitrate access.

Two of the most common approaches to virtualization are full virtualization and para-virtualization.

Because NOVA implements full virtualization, unmodified guest operating systems are supported.

VMware is a commercial solution for full virtualization.

VMware is a popular commercial full-virtualization solution that can virtualize unmodified operating systems.

As a result, an operating system running in full virtualization mode runs slower.

The biggest advantage of full virtualization is that an operating system can run unmodified.

Because most users want to run an unmodified kernel, full virtualization solutions (such as KVM) are preferred.

Hardware support for full virtualization and paravirtualization