What is a virtual machine and how to use it

A virtual machine has many advantages. Since a physical computer creates a virtual machine inside itself, it is possible to work with several OS on one device. Each virtual machine will have a separate operating system and the necessary programs for it.

Where is it used?

The popularity of virtual machines is growing in various areas, but first of all it is the environment of IT-industry. Working with a virtual machine is preferred by programmers and those who systematically deal with computers. A virtual machine makes it possible to structure and separate various work processes and make the use of the device more optimized.

Having developed some software, game or application it is necessary to check its performance on different OS, and virtual machine is a very convenient tool for this purpose. Such a machine is also popular with system administrators who can create several types of guest operating systems for different tasks and different groups of users.

For example, the machine will allow one group of employees to work with mail, while another group of employees will work with text editors. The point of such virtualization is to separate some workflows from others, this minimizes confusion and potential errors that can affect the workflow as a whole.

Virtualized type of operating system is often used among gamers in cloud gaming. In addition, MacOS and Linux users have the opportunity to run games and programs that were released only for the Windows platform.

VMs and major designations

1. Hypervisors are necessary software that allows you to create a virtual processor on the basis of a physical one. A virtual processor is referred to as a vCPU.
2. A cluster is a collection of servers where a virtual machine functions and is created.
3. Nodes are the servers in the cluster.
4. Storage can be local or network storage. A file on local storage is stored on the cluster node, and in the case of network storage, an external server is selected for the files.
5. The platform and server is a separate physical or virtual space with special software. It is from here that virtual as well as network resources are managed.

Principle of operation

The virtual machine and its work is due to virtualization, when the real "hardware" is used by the virtual system. Programmers develop a program in a certain language (e.g. Java), after that the source code of the program is compiled and translated into byte-code.

Bytecode is suitable for any PC. Using bytecode the user can already start a process on a virtual machine. With the help of byte-code the user starts to duplicate (or emulate) the operation of a real physical device. The virtual machine automatically translates the byte code into binary (or machine code: 0 and 1), after which this code can be executed by the virtual machine processor.