What Is A Bare-Metal Hypervisor (Type 1 Hypervisor)?
Search IT Operations, Tuesday, May 28th, 2024
A bare-metal hypervisor, also known as a Type 1 hypervisor, is virtualization software that has been installed directly onto the computing hardware. This type of hypervisor controls not only the hardware but also one or more guest operating systems (guest OSes).
In comparison, a hosted hypervisor, or Type 2 hypervisor, runs on the host OS. The hypervisor communicates with the host OS, which communicates with the underlying hardware. The host OS controls the hardware, not the hypervisor, which adds another layer of abstraction to the software stack, increasing latency in the virtual machines (VMs).
Because bare-metal hypervisors access the hardware directly, their VMs perform better than those running on hosted hypervisors -- an important consideration when deploying mission-critical applications. Bare-metal hypervisors also offer greater scalability, stability and availability, while providing more robust resource management features.