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What is a virtual server?
I've been doing some research on storage systems and servers and I still don't really understand what a virtual server is. What are the benefits of having a virtual server? What are they generally used for? Can anyone give me a definition that is easy to understand?
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5 Answers
The term 'virtual server' is ambigous by itself because it can refer to many types of processes, however, it is most commonly used to mean a 'virtual machine' that functions as a hardware server. A virtual machine is a soft process that emulates a piece of hardware; typically it performs a soft representation of the microprocessor (and it's instruction set), I/O process and disk storage process. Usually the virtual machine is 'packaged' with an operating system such as Windows 2008 or Linux.
Advantages of using virtual servers come in the form of sharing resources with other business entities in a hosting environment and recovery. Disadvantage can be in form of high process traffic and the need for speed. Information Assurance/security can be more easily performed in a virtual environment versus a dedicated private server environment.
There are many seminars and online helps (http://www.articlealley.com/article_587857_2.html)to get you started. Just as the previous answers to this answer shed a little light - good luck going virtual if going virtual is right for you.
A server is traditionally a term that refers to a physical piece of hardware that is accessed for a service. Virtual technology gives the ability to take a single piece of hardware and logically break it into multiple smaller pieces that can emulate multiple servers. A virtual server would be an operating system running on a piece of hardware that has been “virtualized”. There may be several servers running on the same hardware sharing the processor, memory, and storage resources.
The advantages are many but the main advantage is that it allows you to more efficiently use your hardware to use the resources closer to 100%. Virtual servers also have advantages in the portability of the server image as well as disaster recovery and fault tolerance features. Many people virtualize their server infrastructure as a “green” initiative to save power. One physical server with 4 virtual servers running on it will use much less power than 4 physical servers. This also produces a cost savings at a scale. There is generally no cost savings of virtualizing just a few servers, but once you start to virtualize multiple machines a cost savings in hardware will be realized.
Virtual servers can be used for almost any application that a physical server performs. Depending on the hard drive storage it may not be a good fit for a database or email application and they are also not a great fit for web servers that are active/active load balanced. A virtual server can be a good fit for most other applications other than the few instances I have previously stated. For any software you plan to load you would need to verify with the software vendor that it is supported in a virtual environment.
A virtual server that shares computer resources with other virtual servers. In this context, the virtual part simply means that it is not part of a dedicated server. That is, the entire computer is not dedicated to running the server software.
In short look at it this way. It’s a way to put multiple users onto one system. It cuts down on the number of servers in a data center. Which cuts down on power, floor space, and the number of techs needed to support the systems. This all falls under cloud computing which the next big thing that is coming around.
Take a look at this explanation (pictures included ;):
http://www.atum.com/what_is_vps_hosting.php
Here's a really good (short and sweet) animation explaining VPS and Virtual servers -
http://youtu.be/7MZhPtUFw5E
Hope it's also helpful!
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