Timeline of virtualization technologies: Difference between revisions

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The following is a '''timeline of virtualization development'''. In computing, [[virtualization]] is the use of a computer to simulate another computer. Through virtualization, a ''host'' simulates a ''guest'' by exposing virtual hardware devices, which may be done through software or by allowing access to a physical device connected to the machine.

In computing, [[virtualization]] is the use of a computer to simulate another computer. The following is a chronological list of virtualization technologies.

== Timeline ==

'''Note:''' This timeline is missing data for important historical systems, including: Atlas Computer (Manchester), GE 645, Burroughs B5000.

=== 1960s ===

{{Main|IBM CP-40|CP/CMS|History of CP/CMS|IBM System/360 Model 67}}

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;1991

* IBM introducedintroduces OS/2 Virtual DOS machine (VDM) with support for x86 virtual 8086 mode, being capable of virtualizing DOS/Windows and other 16 bitsbit operating systems, like CP/M-86 [https://archive.org/download/OS2WarpCertificationHandbookSG24486900/OS2_Warp_Certification_Handbook-SG24-4869-00.pdf]

;1994

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;1998

*June 15, 1998,: [[Simics]]/sun4m is presented at [[USENIX]]'98, demonstrating [[Computer architecture simulator|full system simulation]] booting Linux 2.0.30 and Solaris 2.6 unmodified from [[dd (Unix)|dd]]'ed disks. [https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/usenix98/full_papers/magnusson/magnusson.pdf].

* October 26, 1998,: [[VMware]] files for a patent on their techniques, which was granted as U.S. Patent 6,397,242 [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6,397,242]

;1999

{{Main|x86 virtualization}}

On* February 8, 1999,: VMware introduces the first [[x86 virtualization]] product for the Intel IA-32 architecture, known as ''VMware Virtual Platform'', based on earlier research by its founders at [[Stanford University]]. VMware Virtual Platform is based on software emulation with a guest/host OS design that required all guest environments be stored as files under the host OS filesystem.

VMware Virtual Platform is based on software emulation with a guest/host OS design that required all guest environments be stored as files under the host OS filesystem.

=== 2000s ===

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* June, Connectix launches its first version of Virtual PC for Windows.[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/30/BU186669.DTL&type=business]

* July, VMware creates the first [[x86]] server virtualization product.[https://web.archive.org/web/20060827064533/http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/gsx_win_release.html]

* Egenera, Inc. launches their Processor Area Network (PAN Manager) software and BladeFrame chassis which provide hardware virtualization of processing blade's (pBlade) internal disk, network interface cards, and serial console.[http://www.egenera.com/company-overview.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714172919/http://www.egenera.com/company-overview.htm |date=July 14, 2011 }}

* [[Virtuozzo_(company)|Virtuozzo]]The (earlierfirst namedversion SWsoft<ref>{{cite web |title=Virtuozzo Company History Timeline |date=August 27, 2020 |url=https://www.zippia.com/virtuozzo-careers-1581135/history/ |accessdate=January 7, 2023 |publisher=zippia}}</ref>) had developed was later being calledof [[OS-level_virtualization|ContainersVirtuozzo]] for Linux since 1999<ref>{{cite web |last=Kolyshkin |first=Kir |date=December 26, 2014based |title=Virtuozzoon Company History Timeline |url=https://openvz.livejournal.com/49158.html |accessdate=January 7OpenVZ, 2023 |publisher=LiveJournal}}</ref> andis released a first version in 2001.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hochstätter |first= Christoph H. |date=March 14, 2007 |title=Virtuozzo Company History Timeline |url=https://www.zdnet.de/39152346/virtuozzo-starke-performance-von-virtuellen-linux-servern/ |accessdate=January 7, 2023 |publisher=zdnet}}</ref>

;2003

*First release of first open-source [[x86]] hypervisor, [[Xen]]. [http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/gabeknuth/archive/2007/08/16/a-brief-history-of-xen-and-xensource.aspx]

* February 18, 2003,: [[Microsoft]] acquiredacquires virtualization technologies (Virtual PC and unreleased product called "Virtual Server") from Connectix Corporation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061229081901/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Feb03/02-19PartitionPR.mspx]

* February 18: Development begins on [[QEMU]], a free and open-source hardware emulator.<ref>{{cite web |title=Standard project directories initialized by cvs2svn. (e63c3dc7) · Commits · QEMU / QEMU · GitLab |date=February 18, 2003 |url=https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/e63c3dc74bfb90e4522d075d0d5a7600c5145745 |accessdate=July 23, 2024}}</ref>

* In late 2003, EMC acquires VMware for $635 million.

* In lateLate 2003,: VERITASEMC acquires EjascentVMware for $59 635&nbsp;million.

* In lateLate 2003,: EMCVERITAS acquires VMwareEjascent for $635 59&nbsp;million.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060922064827/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/nov03/11-10VPC2004RTMPR.mspx November 10, 2003] [[Microsoft]] releases [[Microsoft Virtual PC]], which is a machine-level virtualization technology.

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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061104033953/http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/player_beta.html October 24, 2005] VMware releases [[VMware Player]], a free player for virtual machines.

* Sun releases [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] 10, including [[Solaris Zones]], for both x86/x64 and SPARC systems.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20200220100525/https://libvirt.org/news-2005.html December 19, 2005] First release of the open-source platform virtualisation manager, [[libvirt]].

;2006

*June 15, 2006

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061004161218/http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/server.html July 12, 2006] VMware releases [[VMware Server]], a free machine-level virtualization product for the server market.

* Microsoft Virtual PC 2006 is released as a free program, also in July.

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* [http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/News January 15, 2007] InnoTek releases [[VirtualBox]] Open Source Edition (OSE), the first professional PC virtualization solution released as open source under the GNU General Public License ([[GPL]]). It includes some code from the [[QEMU]] project.

* Sun releases [[Solaris Containers#Branded zones|Solaris 8 Containers]] to enable migration of a Solaris 8 computer into a Solaris Container on a Solaris 10 system – for SPARC only.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090511144617/http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2007/09/24/windows-server-2008-rc0-released.aspx September 24, 2007] [[Microsoft]] releases the first public build of its hypervisor, [[Hyper-V]], codenamed "Viridian".

;2008

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*[http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/thinstall.html January 15, 2008] VMware, Inc. announces it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Thinstall, a privately held [[application virtualization]] software company.

* [http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-02/sunflash.20080212.1.xml February 12, 2008] [[Sun Microsystems]] announces that it had entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire InnoTek, makers of [[VirtualBox]].

* In April,: [[VMware]] releases [[VMware Workstation]] 6.5 beta, the first program for Windows and Linux to enable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics on Windows XP guests [http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/ws/releasenotes_ws65_beta.html].

* August 6: LXC, an OS-level virtualization method for Linux, is released.

=== 2010s ===

;2011

* The first stable version of QEMU is released.<ref>{{cite web |title=QEMU 1.0 released [LWN.net] |date=December 2, 2011 |website=[[LWN.net]] |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/470341 |accessdate=July 23, 2024}}</ref>

;2013

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* The first public build of [[Kubernetes]] is released on September 8, 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=Release Kubernetes v0.2 |website=[[GitHub]] |url=https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/commit/a0abb3815755d6a77eed2d07bb0aa7d255e4e769}}</ref> When Kubernetes debuted, it offered a number of advantages over Docker, the most popular containerization platform at the time. The purpose of Kubernetes was to make it simple for users to deploy containerized applications across a sizable cluster of container hosts. In order to offer more features and functionality for managing containerized applications at scale, Kubernetes was created to complement Docker rather than to completely replace it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Red Hat and Google collaborate on Kubernetes to manage Docker containers at scale |url=https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-and-google-collaborate-kubernetes-manage-docker-containers-scale |publisher=Red hat}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Buhr |first1=Martin |title=Everything you wanted to know about Kubernetes but were afraid to ask |url=https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2015/01/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-Kubernetes-but-were-afraid-to-ask.html |access-date=22 December 2022 |publisher=Google}}</ref>

== Overview of Virtualization ==

=== As an overview, there are three levels of virtualization ===

* At the [[Comparison of platform virtualization software|hardware level]], the VMs can run multiple guest OSes. This is best used for testing and training that require networking interoperability between more than one OSes, since not only can the [[guest OS]]es be different from the [[host OS]], there can be as many guest OS as VMs, as long as there is enough [[Central processing unit|CPU]], [[Random-access memory|RAM]] and [[Storage virtualization|storage]] space. [[IBM]] introduced this around 1990 under the name [[logical partitioning]] (LPAR), at first only in the mainframe field.

* At the [[Operating system-level virtualization|operating system level]], it can only virtualize one OS: the guest OS is the host OS. This is similar to having many [[Terminal Services|terminal server]] sessions without locking down the desktop. Thus, this is the best of both worlds, having the speed of a [[Terminal Services|TS]] session with the benefit of full access to the desktop as a virtual machine, where the user can still control the '''quotas''' for CPU, RAM and HDD. Similar to the hardware level, this is still considered a '''Server Virtualization''' where each guest OS has its own [[IP address]], so it can be used for networking applications such as [[VPS ISP|web hosting]].

* At the [[Comparison of Application Virtual Machines|application level]], it is running on the Host OS directly, without any guest OS, which can be in a locked down desktop, including in a [[Terminal Services|terminal server]] session. This is called Application Virtualization or Desktop Virtualization, which virtualizes the front end, whereas Server Virtualization virtualizes the back end. Now, Application Streaming refers to delivering applications directly onto the desktop and running them locally. Traditionally in [[terminal server]] computing, the applications are running on the server, not locally, and streaming the screenshots onto the desktop.

==== Application virtualization ====

[[Application virtualization]] solutions such as [[VMware ThinApp]], [[Softricity]], and Trigence attempt to separate application-specific files and settings from the host operating system, thus allowing them to run in more-or-less isolated sandboxes without installation and without the memory and disk overhead of full machine virtualization. Application virtualization is tightly tied to the host OS and thus does not translate to other operating systems or hardware. VMware ThinApp and Softricity are Intel Windows centric, while Trigence supports [[Linux]] and [[Solaris network virtualization and resource control|Solaris]]. Unlike machine virtualization, Application virtualization does not use code emulation or translation so CPU-related benchmarks run with no changes, though filesystem benchmarks may experience some performance degradation. On Windows, VMware ThinApp and Softricity essentially work by intercepting filesystem and registry requests by an application and redirecting those requests to a preinstalled isolated sandbox, thus allowing the application to run without installation or changes to the local PC. Though VMware ThinApp and Softricity both began independent development around 1998, behind the scenes VMware ThinApp and Softricity are implemented using different techniques:

* VMware ThinApp works by packaging an application into a single "packaged" EXE which includes the runtime plus the application data files and registry. VMware ThinApp's runtime is loaded by Windows as a normal Windows application, from there the runtime replaces the Windows loader, filesystem, and registry for the target application and presents a merged image of the host PC as if the application had been previously installed. VMware ThinApp replaces all related API functions for the host application, for example the ReadFile API supplied to the application must pass through VMware ThinApp before it reaches the operating system. If the application is reading a virtual file, VMware ThinApp handles the request itself otherwise the request will be passed on to the operating system. Because VMware ThinApp is implemented in user-mode without device drivers and it does not have a client that is preinstalled, applications can run directly from USB Flash or network shares without previously needing elevated security privileges.

* Softricity (acquired by Microsoft) operates on a similar principle using device drivers to intercept file requests in ring0 at a level closer to the operating system. Softricity installs a client in Administrator mode which can then be accessed by restricted users on the machine. An advantage of virtualizing at the kernel level is the Windows Loader (responsible for loading [[.exe|EXE]] and [[Dynamic-link library|DLL]] files) does not need to be re-implemented and greater application compatibility can be achieved with less work (Softricity claims to support most major applications). A disadvantage of ring0 implementation is that it requires elevated security privileges to be installed and crashes or security defects can occur system-wide rather than being isolated to a specific application.

Because Application Virtualization runs all application code natively, it can only provide security guarantees as strong as the host OS is able to provide. Unlike full machine virtualization, Application virtualization solutions currently do not work with device drivers and other code that runs at [[Protection ring|ring0]] such as virus scanners. These special applications must be installed normally on the host PC to function.

==== Managed runtimes ====

Another technique sometimes referred to as virtualization, is portable byte code execution using a standard portable native runtime (aka Managed Runtimes). The two most popular solutions today include [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and [[.NET Framework|.NET]]. These solutions both use a process called [[Just-in-time compilation|JIT]] (Just in time) compilation to translate code from a virtual portable [[Machine Language]] into the local processor's native code. This allows applications to be compiled for a single architecture and then run on many different machines. Beyond machine portable applications, an additional advantage to this technique includes strong security guarantees. Because all native application code is generated by the controlling environment, it can be checked for correctness (possible security exploits) prior to execution. Programs must be originally designed for the environment in question or manually rewritten and recompiled to work for these new environments. For example, one cannot automatically convert or run a Windows / Linux native app on .NET or Java. Because portable runtimes try to present a common [[API]] for applications for a wide variety of hardware, applications are less able to take advantage of OS-specific features. Portable application environments also have higher memory and CPU overheads than optimized native applications, but these overheads are much smaller compared with [[full machine virtualization]]. Portable Byte Code environments such as Java have become very popular on the server where a wide variety of hardware exists and the set of OS-specific APIs required is standard across most Unix and Windows flavors. Another popular feature among managed runtimes is garbage collection, which automatically detects unused data in memory and reclaims the memory without the developer having to explicitly invoke "free" operations.

==== Neutral view of application virtualization ====

Given the industry bias of the past, to be more neutral, there are also two other ways to look at the Application Level:

* The first type is application packagers (VMware ThinApp, Softricity) whereas the other is application compilers (Java and .NET). Because it is a packager, it can be used to stream applications without modifying the source code, whereas the latter can only be used to compile the source code.

* Another way to look at it is from the [[Hypervisor]] point of view. The first one is "hypervisor" in user mode, whereas the other is "hypervisor" in runtime mode. The hypervisor was put in quotation, because both of them have similar behavior in that they intercept system calls in a different mode: user mode; and runtime mode. The user mode intercepts the system calls from the runtime mode before going to kernel mode. The real hypervisor only needs to intercept the system call using hypercall in kernel mode. Hopefully, once Windows has a [[Hypervisor]], [[Virtual machine monitor]], there may even be no need for [[Java Runtime Environment|JRE]] and CLR. Moreover, in the case of Linux, maybe the JRE can be modified to run on top of the Hypervisor as a [[loadable kernel module]] running in [[Linux kernel|kernel]] mode, instead of having slow legacy runtime in user mode. Now, if it were running on top of the [[Linux Hypervisor]] directly, then it should be called [[Java OS]], not just another runtime mode [[Just-in-time compilation|JIT]].

* [[Mendel Rosenblum]]<ref>[http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=168 The Reincarnation of Virtual Machines] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040815054433/http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=168 |date=August 15, 2004 }} ACM Queue vol. 2, no. 5 – July/August 2004 – by Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford University and VMWare</ref> called the runtime mode a High-level language virtual machine in August 2004. However, at that time, the first type, intercepting system calls in user mode, was irresponsible and unthinkable, so he didn't mention it in his article. Hence, [[Application Streaming]] was still mysterious in 2004.<ref>[http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/software/0,39044822,39175522,00.htm Application streaming anyone?]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928020251/http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/software/0,39044822,39175522,00.htm |date=September 28, 2007}}

By Brien M. Posey MCSE, Special to ZDNet Asia Wednesday, 14 April 2004 03:55&nbsp;pm.</ref> Now, when the [[JVM]], no longer High-level language virtual machines, becomes [[Java OS]] running on [[Linux Hypervisor]], then Java Applications will have a new level of playing field, just as Windows Applications already has with [[Softricity]].

* In summary, the first one is virtualizing the [[Binary Code]] so that it can be installed once and run anywhere, whereas the other is virtualizing the [[source code]] using [[Byte code]] or [[Managed code]] so that it can be written once and run anywhere. Both of them are actually partial solutions to the twin portability problems of: application portability; and source code portability. Maybe it is time to combine the two problems into one complete solution at the [[hypervisor]] level in the [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]] mode.

== See also ==

* [[Comparison of platform virtualization software]]

* [[Comparison of application virtualization software]]

* [[Emulator]]

* [[Hypervisor]]

* [[IBM SAN Volume Controller]]

* [[Hardware virtualization]]

* [[OS-level virtualization]]

* [[Application virtualization]]

* [[Physical-to-Virtual]]

* [[Virtual tape library]]

== References ==

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*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927033011/http://networkcomputing.com/article/printFullArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=UIMHZ2V1NMPRKQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=192202544 Application Virtualization: Streamlining Distribution] August 31, 2006—By James Drews

* [http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/virtual/default.mspx Windows Virtualization] from Microsoft

* [http://www.vmware.com/pdf/virtualization.pdf#search=%22hypervisor%20VMware%20virtualization%20layer%22 Virtualization Overview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230354/http://www.vmware.com/pdf/virtualization.pdf#search=%22hypervisor%20VMware%20virtualization%20layer%22 |date=March 3, 2016 }} from VMware

* [http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/virtualization/ An introduction to Virtualization] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504153848/http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/virtualization/ |date=May 4, 2020 }}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060504192215/http://rentzsch.com/notes/virtualizationAsAnAntivirus Weblog post] on the how virtualization can be used to implement [[Mandatory Access Control]].

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{{Timelines of computing}}

[[Category:TechnologyComputing timelines|Virtualization]]

[[Category:Virtualization]]