Article Topic: Virtual Systems
Location Transparency using virtual systems
Through virtual machines location transparency can be achieved. This can be appear to be the case by among other things by configuring a server to be located through a static name or IP address and then have that virtual server stored somewhere. At this point a virtual machine can be brought up in one place and then brought down and brought up again in another all without clients needing to know where the machine is physically hosted at any given time.
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1049544.html
http://blog.sharevm.com/2009/02/04/database-virtualization-location-transparency-old-wine-in-a-new-bottle/
http://www.ryerson.ca/~dgrimsha/courses/cps720/location.html
http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/soa/0,3800011296,39117564,00.htm
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-10878-0.html?forumID=10&threadID=146863&messageID=1576328
Performance impacts of virtual distributed systems
Through the use of virtual hardware can have impacts on distributed systems. These impacts can be caused by things such as improper loading of hardware causing various virtual machines to complete for resources, not enough resources being allocated to a virtual machine causing it to be starved of resources or not properly sizing the number of machines that are dedicated to providing service for a specified system.
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~mef/research/vserver/paper.pdf
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/news/interview/0,289202,sid1_gci900136,00.html
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Tuning-Virtual-PC-Performance.html
http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/11/29/physical-vs-virtual-servers/
http://www.petri.co.il/improve-virtual-machine-performance.htm
Benefits of virtual systems
Virtual systems provide a host of benefits in an environment set up to take advantage of them. They provide more ecconomical use of the resources that exist as well and providing a greater utalization of those resources allowing fewer resources to fufill the needs of a larger number of individuals.
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,289625,sid94_gci1212590,00.html
http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2006/apr-jun/virtualization.html
http://www.devx.com/vmspecialreport/Article/30383
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Pros-Cons-Virtual-Server.html
http://p3net.mvps.org/Topics/Basics/VirtualMachines.aspx
Problems with virtual systems
http://www.continuitycentral.com/virtualserversrealproblems.pdf
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/01/11/problems-with-virtual-server-and-automatically-restarting-virtual-machines.aspx
http://www.nemertes.com/virtual_servers_may_be_too_easy_to_deploy
http://members.infinibandta.org/old_content/events/IBTATechForum08_/IBTA_TechForum_08_Agenda/2_Gartner_keynote_presentation.pdf
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,289625,sid94_gci1212590,00.html
Security concerns with virtual systems
Security and secured systems is a major issue for virtualized systems since they are a software representation of the hardware that exists in a normal distributed system setup. Since this is the case a virtual system still has all of the security vulerabilities of the normal system since it strives to look like an non-virtual system to any external viewer but also introduces any number of possible problems in the development of the software runs the hosts.
http://eprints.eemcs.utwente.nl/15485/01/Security_Implications_of_Virtualization.pdf
http://www.cio.com/article/154950/How_to_Find_and_Fix_10_Real_Security_Threats_on_Your_Virtual_Servers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/15/virtual_server_security/
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/articles/33747-Enthusiasm-for-virtualisation-creates-security-problems