KaOS hypervisor platform

The KaOS hypervisor is a bare-metal open source virtualization platform.

KaOS is a high-speed, enterprise ready hypervisor based on Linux KVM technology.

 

The hypervisor enables multiple virtual servers to run concurrently on a single physical server. This capability is called hardware virtualization. The hypervisor provides a virtual hardware platform that the guest operating system thinks is real physical hardware. The hypervisor controls how many virtual CPUs, virtual memory, virtual disks and virtual network devices are available to each virtual server.  

 

 

Reducing Idle Time

The hypervisor enables virtualization and it is virtualization that provides organizations with many cost savings benefits. Making better use of existing resources by reducing the amount of idle time on physical servers is a key benefit of virtualization. Most physical servers are under utilized, by migrating those workloads to virtual servers and then consolidating them on a single physical server, the utilization level is drastically improved.  

 

Virtualization makes better continous use of the physical server. Instead of four physical servers with 20% utilization, and 80% idle capacity, there is now a single physical server with 80% utilization. Now there are three spare physical servers. Virtualization enables IT professionals to make better use of existing resources, and as a result, the ability to do a lot more with less.  

 

Rapid Provisioning

Provisioning servers for a new application, service or project would traditionally involve purchasing, racking and installing an operating system on new hardware. Virtualization can provide an almost instant virtual server in many cases and can reduce the risk of costly mistakes. Should a project under or over estimate its hardware requirements, the virtual server can be easily adjusted to provide more or less resources. With a physical system, it might be necessary to order a completely different system due to a lack of available CPU or memory sockets.  

 

Reducing Duplication

The KaOS hypervisor further reduces duplication by centralizing time keeping (NTP), scheduled tasks (cron) and logging (syslog) on the hypervisor itself. The KaOS / vKaOS platform uses the rtc and kvm-clock devices to keep the virtual guests in sync without needing to run separate NTP servers or clients on each guest. Management, monitoring and file system tasks are performed on the hypervisor which has access to the virtual disks used for each virtual guest. This eliminates the need to manage scheduled tasks on each virtual guest. The KaOS hypervisor centralizes the logging on the hypervisor, reducing the number of logs and locations a system administrator needs to inspect to see the big picture.  

 

 

Virtual Networking

The KaOS hypervisor has advanced virtual networking capabilities. The platform automatically secures the hypervisor and virtual guests, and intelligently configures the firewall to allow only the necessary traffic through the hypervisor. The hypervisor utilizes zone and application configuration grouping to make management and maintenance of the firewall easier. Virtual IP address management and Virtual MAC address management are handled automatically by the hypervisor.  

 

 

Hardware Assisted Virtualization

The hypervisor utilizes CPUs that provide hardware assisted virtualization technology. The KaOS hypervisor currently supports both the AMD-V (svm) and Intel-VT (vmx) technologies. The KaOS Hypervisor will advise the user if the technology is present during the initial login.  

 

 

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