AiVibeVirtual Machine (VM)
A virtual machine (VM) is a software emulation of a complete computer, with its own operating system, that runs on shared physical hardware under a hypervisor; VMs are the basic building block of infrastructure as a service.
A virtual machine (VM) is a software-defined computer that runs its own operating system and applications on shared physical hardware. A hypervisor allocates CPU, memory, storage and network resources to each VM and isolates them from one another. Type 1 hypervisors, such as VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V and KVM, run directly on the hardware, while type 2 hypervisors run on top of a host operating system and are mostly used on desktops.
Virtual machines are the basic unit of IaaS: cloud instances such as Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines are VMs offered in standard sizes. In factories and data centres, virtualisation consolidates servers, keeps legacy operating systems running on newer hardware and allows snapshots and fast restoration. Industrial software such as SCADA servers and historians is frequently deployed on virtualised hosts where the vendor supports it.
Compared with containers, VMs give stronger isolation because each has its own kernel, but they use more memory and take longer to start. Each guest operating system needs patching, licensing and monitoring. Performance-sensitive workloads may need dedicated hosts, CPU pinning or GPU passthrough, and real-time control applications should only be virtualised where the control vendor explicitly supports it.
Key points
- A hypervisor allocates hardware resources to VMs and isolates them from each other
- Type 1 hypervisors run on bare metal; type 2 hypervisors run on a host operating system
- Each VM has its own kernel, giving stronger isolation than containers
- Every guest operating system still needs patching, licensing and monitoring
Where AiVibe comes in
AiVibe Software Services delivers cloud solutions on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or on-premise, together with cloud security, legacy modernisation, data analytics and AI and machine learning services.
Related terms
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)Cloud & AI Infrastructure
- Software ContainerCloud & AI Infrastructure
- Auto ScalingCloud & AI Infrastructure
- GPU Cloud InstanceCloud & AI Infrastructure
- High Availability (HA)Cloud & AI Infrastructure
- Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)PLC & Industrial Control