In this chapter, we will discuss the different virtual environment platforms there are to choose from. We will look at most of the main virtual technology platforms that exist. We will discuss the following topics:
Commercial environments
Image conversion
Converting from a physical to virtual environment
One of the most challenging things we have to do is decide on the virtualization software that we want to use. Not only do we have to decide on what we want to do with respect to the software we choose, it is also required that we decide whether we want to build a dedicated virtual platform or run the software on our existing system. In this book, we are going to focus on creating a virtual environment on our existing system. However, it is still important to at least briefly discuss the option of creating a bare metal environment.
When we install a bare metal environment (also known as a type 1 install of a virtual environment), the OS is provided...