Bringing Virtualization to the x86 Architecture with the Original VMware Workstation

This article describes the historical context, technical challenges, and main implementation techniques used by VMware Workstation to bring virtualization to the x86 architecture in 1999. Although virtual machine monitors (VMMs) had been around for decades, they were traditionally designed as part of monolithic, single-vendor architectures with explicit support for virtualization. In contrast, the x86 architecture lacked virtualization support, and the industry around it had disaggregated into an ecosystem, with different ven- dors controlling the computers, CPUs, peripherals, operating systems, and applications, none of them asking for virtualization. We chose to build our solution independently of these vendors. As a result, VMware Workstation had to deal with new challenges associated with (i) the lack of virtual- ization support in the x86 architecture, (ii) the daunting complexity of the architecture itself, (iii) the need to support a broad combination of peripherals, and (iv) the need to offer a simple user experience within existing environments. These new challenges led us to a novel combination of well-known virtualization techniques, techniques from other domains, and new techniques. VMware Workstation combined a hosted architecture with a VMM. The hosted architecture enabled a simple user experience and offered broad hardware compatibility. Rather than exposing I/O diversity to the virtual machines, VMware Workstation also relied on software emulation of I/O devices. The VMM combined a trap-and-emulate direct execution engine with a system-level dynamic binary translator to ef- ficiently virtualize the x86 architecture and support most commodity operating systems. By relying on x86 hardware segmentation as a protection mechanism, the binary translator could execute translated code at near hardware speeds. The binary translator also relied on partial evaluation and adaptive retranslation to reduce the overall overheads of virtualization. Written with the benefit of hindsight, this article shares the key lessons we learned from building the original system and from its later evolution

Prototipo de un módulo informático para la gestión de incidencias utilizando OTRS para la empresa NET7 PERU S.A.C.

Entre las soluciones para la gestión de incidencias se encuentra OTRS (Open Ticket Request System), que llega a ser un software para la administración de solicitudes de los clientes de una empresa, es Open Source y se encuentra distribuido bajo Licencia Pública General (GPL). Entre las características de este software se tiene la gestión de llamadas o e-mails de los clientes. La empresa NET7 PERÚ S.A.C. proveedora de soluciones de Telecomunicaciones, informática y tecnología, posee una experiencia de 17 años en el campo de Telecomunicaciones, formada por profesionales especialistas en soluciones de redes, telefonía IP, seguridad informática y soluciones de software 2 de ingeniería cuenta con un departamento de servicios técnicos encargados de dar soporte a sus clientes a nivel nacional, el cual recibe quejas por temas de soporte a nivel de hardware y software. Estos inconvenientes han llevado a la empresa a considerar la implementación de un sistema de gestión de tickets llamado OTRS, a través del cual el personal de TI gestionará de forma oportuna y eficiente los requerimientos y solicitudes que envían los clientes, lo que reducirá los costos e incrementará la satisfacción de los mismos

Integrating ncsu virtual computing labs with openstack cloud platform

The thesis presents the concept of virtualization and cloud computing. It focuses on the infrastructure as a service model of cloud computing, which enables customers to set up their own virtualized infrastructure. The thesis takes a closer look at the Virtual Computing Lab, which was developed at the State University of North Carolina in order to provide students and researchers with remote access to computing resources. OpenStack, an open-source software cloud computing platform is also presented. Despite offering a wide array of services, it does not have the option of time-limited computing resource reservations as provided by Virtual Computing Lab. Therefore, the option of integrating the two systems is considered and a module is presented for the Virtual Computing Lab upgrade, which enables users to provide compute resources from a private cloud built on the OpenStack platform

Integrating ncsu virtual computing labs with openstack cloud platform

The thesis presents the concept of virtualization and cloud computing. It focuses on the infrastructure as a service model of cloud computing, which enables customers to set up their own virtualized infrastructure. The thesis takes a closer look at the Virtual Computing Lab, which was developed at the State University of North Carolina in order to provide students and researchers with remote access to computing resources. OpenStack, an open-source software cloud computing platform is also presented. Despite offering a wide array of services, it does not have the option of time-limited computing resource reservations as provided by Virtual Computing Lab. Therefore, the option of integrating the two systems is considered and a module is presented for the Virtual Computing Lab upgrade, which enables users to provide compute resources from a private cloud built on the OpenStack platform

VNToR: Network Virtualization at the Top-of-Rack Switch

Cloud providers typically implement abstractions for net- work virtualization on the server, within the operating sys- tem that hosts the tenant virtual machines or containers. Despite being flexible and convenient, this approach has funda- mental problems: incompatibility with bare-metal support, unnecessary performance overhead, and susceptibility to hypervisor breakouts. To solve these, we propose to offload the implementation of network-virtualization abstractions to the top-of-rack switch (ToR). To show that this is feasible and beneficial, we present VNToR, a ToR that takes over the implementation of the security-group abstraction. Our prototype combines commodity switching hardware with a custom software stack and is integrated in OpenStack Neutron. We show that VNToR can store tens of thousands of access rules, adapts to traffic-pattern changes in less than a millisecond, and significantly outperforms the state of the art

Development of a virtualization systems architecture course for the information sciences and technologies department at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Virtualization is a revolutionary technology that has changed the way computing is performed in data centers. By converting traditionally siloed computing assets to shared pools of resources, virtualization provides a considerable number of advantages such as more efficient use of physical server resources, more efficient use of datacenter space, reduced energy consumption, simplified system administration, simplified backup and disaster recovery, and a host of other advantages. Due to the considerable number of advantages, companies and organizations of various sizes have either migrated their workloads to virtualized environments or are considering virtualization of their workloads. As per Gartner Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure 2013 , roughly two-third of x86 server workloads are virtualized [1]. The need for virtualization solutions by companies and organizations has increased the demand for qualified virtualization professionals for planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining virtualized infrastructure of different scales. Although universities are the main source for educating IT professionals, the field of information technology is so dynamic and changing so rapidly that not all universities can keep pace with the change. As a result, providing the latest technology that is being used in the information technology industry in the curriculums of universities is a big advantage for information technology universities. Taking into consideration the trend toward virtualization in computing environments and the great demand for virtualization professionals in the industry, the faculty of Information Sciences and Technologies department at RIT decided to prepare a graduate course in the master\u27s program in Networking and System Administration entitled Virtualization Systems Architecture , which better prepares students to a find a career in the field of enterprise computing. This research is composed of five chapters. It starts by briefly going through the history of computer virtualization and exploring when and why it came into existence and how it evolved. The second chapter of the research goes through the challenges in virtualization of the x86 platform architecture and the solutions used to overcome the challenges. In the third chapter, various types of hypervisors are discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of each one are discussed. In the fourth chapter, the architecture and features of the two leading virtualization solutions are explored. Then in the final chapter, the research goes through the contents of the Virtualization Systems Architecture course