What is a virtual machine, uses and advantages that provides us PART 1

What is a virtual machine, uses and advantages that provides us PART 1

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL MACHINE?

A virtual machine is software that we install on our computer.This software allows us to install and use other operating systems simultaneously on our operating system.So in this way, as you can see in the screenshot, on the same computer I can be using Windows, Kali Linux and Debian simultaneously without any problem. Therefore after viewing the screenshot we can say that a virtual machine is a software that will allow us to run several operating systems simultaneously on the same hardware. The operating systems that the virtual machine runs are called virtualized operating systems. These virtualized operating systems can run programs and perform all the tasks that we could perform in a real operating system.

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DOES A VIRTUAL MACHINE HAVE? 

Once we have defined what a virtual machine is, we can comment on the characteristics that most of the virtual machines that currently exist have:

1. The vast majority of virtual machines, such as Virtualbox or VMWare, allow installing virtually any operating system such as Linux, Android, Mac OS X, Windows, Chrome OS, etc. However, there are other virtual machines, such as Virtual PC, Hiper-V or Parallels, which are mainly intended to virtualize Windows.
2. Each of the operating systems that we virtualize is completely independent of the other operating systems.In this way, in the case that one of the virtual machines stops working, the rest will continue working without any type of problem. 
3. Once an operating system is installed in the virtual machine, we have to use the virtualized operating system in the same way that we would use it if we had installed it in our computer. 
4. A virtual machine has all the elements available to a real computer.It has a hard disk, RAM, CD-ROM drive, network card, video card, etc., but unlike a real computer, these elements, instead of being physical, are virtual. 
5. All the elements of a virtual machine are encapsulated in a set of files.This allows us to copy a virtual operating system from one computer to another or we can make backup copies without any problem and very easily and very quickly. 

HOW DOES A VIRTUAL MACHINE WORK?

Explaining the detailed operation of a virtual machine is very complicated and that few people have the necessary knowledge to do it.However roughly we can say that a virtual machine is a software that through a layer of virtualization communicates with the hardware that we have available in our computer thus getting emulate all the components of a real computer.In this way, the virtual machine will be able to emulate a hard disk, a RAM memory, a network card, a processor, etc.

Once we know this when we open a virtual machine, such as Virtualbox, we have a graphical environment that will allow us to configure and assign resources to each of the physical components that the virtual machine emulates.So for example in virtually all virtual machines we must define details of the following type: 

1. Space that we want to assign to our hard drive.
2. RAM memory that we want to assign to the virtual machine.
3. The memory of our graphic card. 
4. The network configuration that we want. 

Once these parameters are configured, we will have created a virtual machine to install an operating system.In this way we will only have to open the virtual machine that has just been created and install the operating system as if it were a real normal computer.

In the future I will write a post detailing step by step the points to follow for the installation and use of an operating system in the virtual machine. 

WHAT UTILITIES ARE PROVIDED BY VIRTUAL MACHINES?

The utilities and benefits that we can obtain from a virtual machine are numerous.

Some of the uses we can give to virtual machines are the following:

1. To test operating systems. If all your life you have used Windows and want to try another operating system, such as Linux Mint, you can do it through a virtual machine. Also the process of an installation in the virtual machine is extremely easy since we will not have to worry about creating additional partitions in our hard disk, etc.
2. To use software that is not available in our operating system. So for example if we are Linux users and we want to use Photoshop, we can do it through a virtual machine.
3. Sometimes we have to use software that can only be run on operating systems that are obsolete. So therefore if we have a program that can only be used in Windows 98, we can create a virtual machine with Windows 98 and run and use the software without any problem.
4. We can experiment in the operating system that runs inside the virtual machine doing things that we would not dare to do with our operating system, such as applying a software update, surfing safely on a web page that we consider suspicious, etc.
5. we can use virtual machines as a sandbox in order to, for example, execute malicious applications or open suspicious emails in a controlled and secure environment.
6. We can create / simulate a computer network with just one computer. We can use this network of virtualized computers for training purposes and in this way acquire knowledge about network administration.
7. If you are a software developer you can test if the program you are developing works correctly in several operating systems.
8. To test alpha, Beta and Release candidate versions of certain programs and operating systems.
9. To mount a web server, a VPN server, a mail server or any other type of server. 
10. To test a multitude of programs on Windows and to prevent the registry from becoming dirty through installations and Uninstallations of programs.

WHAT ADVANTAGES DO VIRTUAL MACHINES PROVIDE?

Some of the advantages that virtual machines and virtualization provide are the following:

1. If a server or a virtualized operating system is unconfigured, it is extremely easy to restore if compared to a real machine. If we take the necessary precautions we can restore the state that had a virtualized operating system, or a server, very easily and very quickly. 
2. If we talk about the business environment, the virtualization of operating systems and servers supposes an economic saving and considerable space. Through the use of virtualization, we avoid investing in a multitude of physical equipment, saving money and space.
3. As we have just seen, the use of virtual machines implies having less physical equipment. Therefore, the fact of virtualizing servers or operating systems can mean significant savings in maintenance and energy consumption.
4. Through virtualization and dynamic balancing we can increase the service rates of a server in the following way. If we have a web server we can assign additional resources to the server, such as RAM and CPU, in the load peaks to prevent the server from falling and thus increase the service rate. Once the peak load is finished, we can divert the resources applied to the web server to another need that we have. Therefore, apart from improving the service rate, resources can be optimized better.
5. If we are using a virtual machine in a production environment, we can expand the resources of an operating system or server in a very simple way. We just have to access the virtualization software and assign more resources in a very simple way.
6. It is extremely easy to create an environment for testing of all kinds. In this way we will easily obtain a test environment completely isolated from the rest of the systems.
7. Virtual machines and virtualization allow to use a single service per virtualized server easily and simply. In this way, even if one of the virtualized servers is dropped, the other will continue to work. 

In the second part of the post I will talk about the types of virtual machines that we need to use a virtual machine and the disadvantages of virtualizing an operating system. I hope you enjoy it a lot says goodbye so great friend kross fox