Hardware Virtualization: What It Is and Why Your Legacy Systems Need It

What is Hardware Virtualization?

Legacy Hardware Virtualization, often known as just virtualization, is the process of abstracting computer resources from the software that uses them. Put simply, a single physical machine is divided to act like multiple virtual machines (VM).

Virtual machines function independently, each with its own OS and applications. They behave like standalone computers.

This single host system can support multiple virtual environments, each functioning independently while sharing the same architecture. As a result, businesses can run various applications or even different operating systems on one server seamlessly. This is achieved through software called Hypervisor.

How Does Legacy Hardware Virtualization Works?

Getting the hang of virtualization can be pretty easy. Let’s break it down for you:

• Hypervisor: A software program that acts as an intermediary between the physical hardware and the guest operating systems.
• Guest OS Installation: You install an operating system like Windows or Linux, within the virtual environment. The guest OS mimics the process on physical hardware.
• Resource Sharing: Multiple virtual hardware share the CPU, memory, and storage of one physical machine. The hypervisor manages this sharing seamlessly.
• File Access: When your guest OS requests a file, the process is seamless. The hypervisor steps in, fetches the file from its virtual hard drive and delivers it to the guest OS efficiently.

Understanding Hypervisor and Its Types

A hypervisor is the underlying technology that decouples hardware from software. It allows multiple VMs to operate on a single physical server – each with its own operating system and resources. This setup lets you install software on these VMs just as you would on any standard computer.

Here is how a hypervisor works:

The hypervisor serves as a bridge. It connects virtual machines to the physical hardware and manages resources efficiently. The physical server is the host, and the virtual environments are guests.

Once installed on a server, the hypervisor efficiently handles virtual machines by loading their images. It directs requests for processing power, memory, and storage to the host using API calls. This ensures smooth data exchange between applications.

Hypervisors are categorized into two types:

• Type 1 Hypervisors: It offers superior performance and efficiency.
• Type 2 Hypervisors: Meanwhile, type 2 is hosted on an operating system and it’s easier to set up but may not match the performance of its counterpart.

Understanding the differences between these two helps in choosing the right solution for your infrastructure needs.

Why Do You Need Legacy Hardware Virtualization?

It’s no secret that keeping an outdated thing is costly and risky. Legacy hardware is no exception. Let’s explore the reasons that make hardware virtualization evident.

Efficient Resource Utilization

• Instead of running one OS on a physical machine, you can run multiple VMs on a single physical machine

Enhanced Flexibility and Scalability

• VMs can be created, configured, and deployed in minutes to handle changing workloads
• You can dynamically allocate resources like CPU, memory, and storage to VMs as needed

Cost-Effective Approach

• According to G2, companies can save 50% on hardware and maintenance costs by consolidating applications onto one server

Better Management of Legacy Workloads

• For legacy data centers, the aging hardware is prone to downtime and can fail anytime soon
• Each year, sourcing spare parts and finding skilled professionals becomes increasingly difficult
• System failure not only costs businesses a lot but also hampers the company’s reputation
• In the case of legacy set up, using old hardware is expensive due to costly spare parts, higher energy bills, etc.
• If your business applications are running on Legacy hardware – critical workloads are at higher risk
• Addressing these risks head-on is essential to maintain business continuity
• Spending your IT budget on a legacy infrastructure limits your scope for spending on modern technologies that contribute to growth and innovation

Cloud Adoption

• Virtualization makes it easier to integrate with cloud and leverage its benefits
• Availing cloud improves data security

Types of Legacy Hardware Virtualizations

The methods vary in approach and abstraction levels, but they share common goals. Here’s a breakdown of the most popular techniques:

1. Full Virtualization

This method completely virtualizes the physical server and creates virtual environments that behave like standalone servers. Applications and operating systems run unchanged in this setup, as if on dedicated hardware.

Key Features:

• Consolidates older systems onto newer hardware for improved efficiency
• Reduces maintenance costs tied to aging systems
• Maximizes hardware use while saving physical space and boosting performance

2. Paravirtualization

This technique uses modified operating systems that are aware of the virtualized environment. Unlike full virtualization, no hardware simulation takes place. Instead, it uses an application programming interface (API) to bridge the interaction between the guest OS and the hypervisor.

The guest OS is modified to include custom instructions, called hypercalls, that work with the hypervisor through APIs. These hypercalls manage key tasks like memory operations, and the OS is rebuilt to run in the para-virtualized setup.

Key Features:

• Improves performance by reducing unnecessary VMM calls
• Supports multiple operating systems on a single server
• Boosts efficiency per server without requiring a host OS

3. Hardware-Assisted Virtualization

This technique leverages a computer’s hardware to support and manage fully virtualized virtual machines (VMs). Introduced by IBM in 1972 with the System/370, it addressed the inefficiencies of software-based virtualization.

It uses processor extensions like Intel VT and AMD-V to optimize virtualization tasks. The hypervisor communicates directly with the hardware, which handles the complex processes of VM creation and management.

Key Features:

• Reduces system overhead by offloading tasks to the hardware
• Increases the number of VMs a host system can support
• Enhances performance, even for resource-intensive workloads
• Widely used due to its efficiency and reliability

4. Operating System-Level Virtualization

This approach isolates multiple applications and OS instances on the same server. It ensures security and seamless resource sharing across environments.

Key Features:

• Outperforms other techniques in speed and scalability
• Simplifies management through centralized control on the host system

Advantages of Hardware Virtualization

Legacy Hardware virtualization offers many advantages. Understanding these can clarify how it benefits your organization, especially if you are dealing with legacy systems.

Optimized Resource Utilization

• By consolidating multiple workloads on a single server, enterprises can maximize hardware uses
• For legacy data centers, it optimizes the use of power and space

Reduced Hardware Cost

• Eliminates the need for legacy hardware
• Lower power consumption and cooling cost
• Decreases power consumption
• Overall, a much lower maintenance cost

Improved Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

• Downtime is rare, even if it happens, you will see a much faster recovery
• Hardware virtualization reduces the risk of data loss
• Ultimately, it creates an environment that offer seamless business continuity

Seamless Management

• Move VMs between physical servers without interrupting workloads
• Use snapshots to capture a VM’s state, allowing quick recovery from faults or disasters
• Manage all VMs from a single interface, making it easier to deploy patches or updates while reducing errors.

Use Cases of Legacy Hardware Virtualization

The real-world use cases of legacy hardware virtualization are as follows:

• Powering mission-critical legacy applications to run without the need for old hardware
• Efficiently optimizing hardware by combining different environments
• Harnessing the power of cloud computing and achieving an efficient and powerful infrastructure
• Effectively managing disaster management and recovery
• As VMs provide isolated environments. And the legacy hardware virtualization is used in software development and testing

How Stromasys Combines Hardware Emulation and Virtualization

Having said that hardware virtualization has a multitude of use cases – it’s relevance in optimizing mission-critical workloads is more than you can imagine.

Being a pioneer in hardware emulation, Stromasys combines it with virtualization, prolonging the lifespan of legacy software. We have meticulously engineered our Charon emulation software that not only eliminates the risk but also extends the lifespan of your business applications – more reliably than ever before.

Your Legacy Data Center Needs Hardware Virtualization

Having said that hardware virtualization has a multitude of use cases – it’s relevance in optimizing mission-critical workloads is more than you can imagine.

Being a pioneer in Legacy hardware virtualization, Stromasys makes this journey easier. We have meticulously engineered our Charon emulation software that not only eliminates the risk but also extends the lifespan of your business applications – more reliably than ever before.

Here is how we combine emulation and virtualization and create a seamless environment that run critical workloads efficiently:

1) Physical hardware: your physical computer runs a hypervisor such as VMware ESXi. This is the virtualization host system.

2) Virtualization: you configure a virtual machine with sufficient resources to run an emulator. On this virtual machine you install an operating system supported by the desired emulator software (e.g., Red Hat Linux or Rocky Linux). This virtual hardware is your emulator host system.

3) Emulation: you install and configure the desired emulator software on the emulator host. The emulated legacy hardware is the emulator guest system.

4) Migration: operating system and applications are migrated from the legacy physical hardware into the emulator guest system.

5) Outcome: The legacy OS and applications in the emulator run as they normally would. The instructions they use are translated by the emulator to the instructions of the Linux emulator host system. The actions of the Linux system are mapped by the hypervisor to the actual resources of the physical hardware.