Operating system virtualization allows a single system to function as multiple systems, with separate commands and resources for each user. It is commonly used in hosting environments and server consolidation to allow multiple users to use the same system without interacting with each other.
Operating system virtualization is a method of altering a standard operating system so that it can handle multiple users at the same time. These individual users would have no interaction with each other. Their information would also remain separate, even if they use the same system. While this technology has several uses, the most common uses are in hosting situations and server consolidation.
With operating system virtualization, a single system is configured to function as several single systems. The virtualized system is configured to exclude commands from different users simultaneously. These commands remain separate from each other; the results and impact of a given command have no effect on the commands of others. This division of resources should be transparent to the user, who shouldn’t be able to tell if they are on a virtual system or not.
A common example of this process is the logout command. On a normal computer system, logging out of the operating system suspends user input until either the system prompts you to log out or the user logs back in. On a system using OS virtualization, when a user logs off, the OS logs off only that user, but the rest of the users are unaffected.
There are two common circumstances where operating system virtualization is used, hosting environments and server consolidation. Web hosting companies, email archiving systems, and other account-based hosting systems often use virtual systems. Since users of these types of systems require very few resources, it is possible for many people to log in at the same time without overloading the system. Each user operates within their own environment without interacting with, or seeing the resources of, other users.
The second common area where a user may encounter operating system virtualization is on an established server. As computer systems increase in power, one new server may be able to do the work of several older servers. In this case, you can combine all server resources on the new machine. Since the old servers were separate, it is often necessary to maintain the isolation used by the original systems.
In both of these areas, multiple users who have no relationship to each other must use the same server. This is one of the most common aspects of operating system virtualization. If users were part of the same group, they could coexist and share resources. The only reason to keep them separate is when users have no relationship to each other and have no reason to combine systems.
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