Client Hypervisor

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What Does Client Hypervisor Mean?

A client hypervisor is a host virtualization technique used for the execution of multiple and different OSs and/or parallel virtual machines for remote desktop or disaster recovery solutions. Designed for a client machine, such as a laptop or PC, a client hypervisor allows hardware to support more than one OS on a single platform.

Client hypervisors are included in cloud and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions.

Techopedia Explains Client Hypervisor

While isolating each hosted OS, a client hypervisor also manages the operations of each hosted virtual machine by allocating hardware, computing resources and other critical applications.

There are two types of client hypervisors, as follows:

  • Bare metal: Creates a layer above the hardware layer and allocates system resources to all installed virtual machines.
  • Virtualized: Operates inside the OS as a stand-alone application and invokes the master OS for computing power and other resources.

Client hypervisor examples are Citrix XenClient and VMware View Client with Local Mode.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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