Unsolved How to find out which Hypervisor is being used from a VM ?

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How to find out which Hypervisor is being used from a VM ?
Like type1(host hypervisor) or type2(bare metal hypervisor) ?

@shivakumar-mutyala ,

I do not believe you'll find that from within a guest VM. The type 1 and 2 two is transparent within them. This is a host decision level when you pick which Hypervisor you choose to run.

If this doesn't make sense please let me know. Glad you're a member!

How you loaded it would answer your question. My Blades in the data center and HP Server at home have an SD card directly on them with VMware 6 U 3 loaded. It is the only OS that boots that device.

Hello @Shivakumar-Mutyala,

I will assume you did not start the VM, otherwise you would know what hypervisor was being used, and that you want to find out the hypervisor being used for a VM that you are remotely connected to.

Earlier operating systems were unaware that they were running in a virtual machine. Windows Server 2012 and later, Windows 7 (I think) and later are aware of being virtualized.

Where to look to determine what hypervisor is being used for a VM will depend on what operating system the VM is running.

For Windows Server 2012 and 2016, you can look at the local server page of Server Manager. In the bottom left corner you will see hardware information, which for a VM will be the hypervisor being used.

For Windows 10, you'll have to open System Information (msinfo32). On the System Summary page, many times the BIOS version will indicate what hypervisor is being used. You can also look at some component information in System Information. The video adapter might be something like VMWare SVGA 3D, indicating VMWare is the hypervisor. Another one to check is under storage, then select disks. The disk model might indicate the hypervisor being used, like VMWare Virtual SCSI Disk.

In Linux (I'm using Kali) open your settings window. On the details page, select About. There you will see Virtualization, and it reports the vendor of the hypervisor. For example, my Kali VM is running in VirtualBox. The hypervisor is listed as Oracle.

Even on older OS's that don't know they are being virtualized, there are usually clues, if you know where to look. Driver information and device information can sometimes be used to determine what virtualization is being used.

Hope this helps!

Shivakumar, Great question ! I am going to come at this from a slightly different angle than my other colleagues that have already offered you some guidance.

Your question is about the type (type 1 or 2) hypervisor that a VM is running against/on. The answer to that is actually fairly simple and straightforward.

Type 1 Hypervisors are what we commonly refer to as Bare Metal or embedded hypervisors. They run as part of the native functionality of the O/S that is used to enable them. VMware's type 1 hypervisor is provided by their VSphere ESXi O/S for example; Microsoft's is provided by the HyperV role via the Windows Server O/S.

Type 2 hypervisors are what we commonly call "Hosted" hypervisors, and are installed as an "add-on" that runs on-top of an O/S in the form of an application, such as VirtualBox.

So, the easy and simple answer to your question is that it would depend on how you are running the VM in the first place. If you are using a Type 1 Hypervisor to host and run the VM, it would be one of the following three most likely:

1. VMware VSphere ESXi
2. Microsoft Hyper-V
3. Citrix Xen Server

If you are using a Type 2 Hypervisor, you would be running the VM locally on a workstation or laptop inside of an application such as VirtualBox.

Check out this url for a little more info:

http://www.golinuxhub.com/2014/07/comparison-type-1-vs-type-2-hypervisor.html

Hope that helps.

Adam