Operating System Services

OS as a service provider via system calls & commands (typically for the programmer). Program execution system capability to load a program into memory and to run it - address mapping and translation a key issue. I/O operations since user programs cannot execute I/O operations directly, the operating system must provide some means to perform I/O - system calls . File-system manipulation program capability to read, write, create, and delete files

Operating System Services.

Communications exchange of information between processes executing either on the same computer or on different systems tied together by a network. Implemented via shared memory or message passing. Error detection ensure correct computing by detecting errors in the CPU and memory hardware, in I/O devices, or in user programs ex:parity errors, arithmetic errors, out of memory, out of disk space, program not found, Memory management

Additional Operating System Functions

Additional functions exist not for helping the user, but rather for ensuring efficient system operations.

Resource allocation allocating resources to

multiple users or multiple jobs running at the same time avoiding Deadlock. Accounting keep track of and record which users use how much and what kinds of computer resources for account billing or for accumulating usage statistics. Protection ensuring that all access to system resources is controlled, ex: firewalls, passwords, file etc.

Question ?
Can a small operating system simulate the hardware of some machine so that
Another operating system can run in that simulated hardware? More than one instance of that operating system run on the same hardware at the same time? More than one different operating system can share the same hardware at the same time?

Answer: Yes

Solution : Virtual machine

A virtual machine provides interface identical to underlying bare hardware
I.e., all devices, interrupts, memory, page tables, etc.

Virtual Machine Operating System creates illusion of multiple processors

Each capable of executing independently No sharing, except via network protocols

Virtual Machine
In a Virtual Machine - each process "seems" to execute on its own processor with its own memory, devices, etc. The resources of the physical machine are shared. Virtual devices are sliced out of the physical ones. Virtual disks are subsets of physical ones. Useful for running different OS simultaneously on the same machine. Protection is excellent, but no sharing possible. Virtual privileged instructions are trapped.

Virtual machine
Virtual User

Physical User
Virtual Machine Monitor Mode

Physical Machine

Virtual Machine
(OS Structure)

Virtual Machine
(OS Structures)

Virtual Machine
Defination:A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine. A virtual machine was originally defined by Popek and Goldberg as "an efficient, isolated duplicate of a real machine". Current use includes virtual machines which have no direct correspondence to any real hardware. Virtual machines are separated into two major categories, based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine. A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform which supports the execution of a complete operating system (OS). In contrast, a process virtual machine is designed to run a single program, which means that it supports a single process. An essential characteristic of a virtual machine is that the software running inside is limited to the resources and abstractions provided by the virtual machine.

System virtual machine

System virtual machines (sometimes called hardware virtual machines) allow the sharing of the underlying physical machine resources between different virtual machines, each running its own operating system.

The main advantages of system VMs are:

multiple OS environments can co-exist on the same computer, in strong isolation from each other the virtual machine can provide an instruction set architecture (ISA) that is somewhat different from that of the real machine Application maintenance, high availability and disaster recovery

The main disadvantages of system VMs are:

a virtual machine is less efficient than a real machine when it accesses the hardware indirectly when multiple VMs are concurrently running on the same physical host, each VM may exhibit a varying and unstable performance, which highly depends on the workload imposed on the system by other VMs, unless proper techniques are used .