The main difference between Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors is that Type 1

runs on bare metal and Type 2 runs on top of an OS. Each hypervisor type
also has its own pros and cons and specific use cases.

Virtualization works by abstracting physical hardware and devices from the

applications running on that hardware. The process of virtualization manages
and provisions the system's resources, including processor, memory, storage
and network resources. This enables the system to host more than one
workload simultaneously, making more cost- and energy-efficient use of the
available servers and systems across the organization.

Virtualization requires the use of a hypervisor, which was traditionally called a

virtual machine monitor or VMM. The hypervisor is a software program that
provides the layer of abstraction, handles the translations between physical
and virtual resources -- such as physical vs. virtual CPUs or -- and manages the
and support of virtual machines (VMs).

The physical hardware that a hypervisor runs on is typically referred to as a

host machine, whereas the VMs the hypervisor creates and supports are
collectively called guest machines.

There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors.

Type 1 hypervisors
A Type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the host machine's physical hardware, and it's
referred to as a bare-metal hypervisor; it doesn't have to load an underlying OS first.
With direct access to the underlying hardware and no other software -- such as OSes
and device drivers -- to contend with, Type 1 hypervisors are regarded as the most
efficient and best-performing hypervisors available for enterprise computing.
Hypervisors such as VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V server and open source KVM
are examples of Type 1 hypervisors.
Hypervisors that run directly on physical hardware are also highly secure. The
security flaws and vulnerabilities that are often endemic to OSes are absent from bare-
metal hypervisors because the attack surface of the underlying OS is eliminated. This
ensures the logical isolation of every guest VM against malicious software and
activity.

Type 2 hypervisors include VMware Fusion, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Oracle VM Server for x86,
Oracle Solaris , Parallels and VMware Workstation.

In many cases, the virtualized system hosts at least one VM with an OS and
management software, which enables admins to manage the physical system using
system management tools such as Microsoft System Center.

Type 2 hypervisors
A Type 2 hypervisor is typically installed on top of an existing OS, and it's called a
hosted hypervisor because it relies on the host machine's pre-existing OS to manage
calls to CPU, memory, storage and network resources. Type 2 hypervisors include
VMware Fusion, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Oracle VM Server for x86, Oracle Solaris
Zones, Parallels and VMware Workstation.
 Type 1 and
Type 2 hypervisor differences

Type 2 hypervisors trace their roots back to the early days of x86 virtualization when
existing systems already used OSes and the hypervisor was deployed as a higher
software layer. Although the purpose and goals of Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors are
identical, the presence of an underlying OS with Type 2 hypervisors
introduced unavoidable latency; all of the hypervisor's activities and the work of every
VM had to pass through the host OS. Also, any security flaws or vulnerabilities in the
host OS could potentially compromise all of the VMs running above it.

Consequently, Type 2 hypervisors are generally not used for data center computing
and are reserved for client or end-user systems -- sometimes called client hypervisors
-- where performance and security are lesser concerns. For example, software
developers might use a Type 2 hypervisor to create VMs to test a software product prior
to release.
Hardware support for Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors
Hardware acceleration technologies are almost universally available to accelerate the
tasks involved with virtualization. Such technologies include Intel Virtualization
Technology extensions for Intel processors and AMD Virtualization extensions for
AMD processors. There are numerous other virtualization-based extensions and
features, including second-level address translation and support for nested
virtualization.

Hardware acceleration technologies perform many of the process-intensive tasks

needed to create and manage virtual resources on a computer. Without hardware
acceleration, the hypervisor would be solely responsible for handling all of the
intensive tasks needed for virtualization, which would reduce virtualization
performance and limit the practical number of VMs a computer could host.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors use hardware acceleration support, but to varying
degrees. Type 1 hypervisors rely on hardware acceleration technologies and typically
don't function without those technologies available and enabled through the system's
BIOS. Type 2 hypervisors are generally capable of using hardware
acceleration technologies if those hardware features are available, but they can typically
fall back on software emulation if native hardware support isn't available on the
computer.