The phrases “bare metal server” and “hypervisor” represent two important parts of the virtualization world.
It is important to understand what these terms represent. physical entity ( bare metal server)and software layer ( hypervisor).
In this article, we’ll review what bare metal servers and hypervisors are, and then explain how the two can work together.
The term “bare metal” refers to a physical server with tangible components such as RAM, CPU, and network cards. In this configuration, the operating system communicates directly with these hardware elements to optimize performance and resource utilization.
When you look at a bare metal server, understand that it is a physical server with tangible components such as RAM, hard drives, and Intel processors/cores.
performance:
Bare metal servers with the virtualization layer removed offer superior performance out of the box. Direct access to components such as RAM and CPU makes it ideal for high-performance applications such as databases and real-time analytics.
safety:
Bare metal servers are recommended in security-sensitive environments because there is no middle layer between the hardware components and the operating system, thereby reducing the attack surface.
For more information about bare metal servers, see What is a bare metal server? article.
Hypervisor: Software layer
A hypervisor, on the other hand, is not a physical thing. These are software layers that separate hardware components and operating systems. This separation allows you to create and manage multiple virtual machines, each running its own operating system.
Flexibility and isolation:
Hypervisors provide flexibility by allowing the simultaneous operation of multiple virtual machines with different operating systems. This is useful when testing environments or scenarios that require isolation between workloads.
Sharing resources:
Unlike bare metal servers, hypervisors can share resources among multiple virtual machines, providing a cost-effective solution that prioritizes resource efficiency over actual performance.
Ease of management:
Hypervisors provide a user-friendly interface for managing virtual machines, making them suitable for development, testing, and environments that require rapid deployment and scalability.
For more information about hypervisors, see What is a hypervisor? article.
Bare metal servers are essentially powerful physical machines, but adding a hypervisor gives them more flexibility. A hypervisor acts like a manager and allows a bare metal server to host multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines operate independently, each running its own operating system and applications. The benefit of this collaboration is that it combines the raw performance of bare metal servers with the efficiency and adaptability of virtualization.
In practical terms, this means that organizations can leverage the full potential of their hardware. Bare metal servers handle resource-intensive tasks directly, while hypervisors efficiently allocate resources and manage virtual machines based on different workloads. This dynamic duo enables the creation of a cloud-like environment where virtual machines can be easily spun up or down as needed.
