Question $3(15$ Marks$)$

One recent trend in operating systems research has been on virtualization, particularly in the management

and operation of large$-$scale systems, such as enterprise computing systems, data centers, high$-$

performance computing clusters, or cloud computing facilities,

a$)$ Describe what a virtual machine is and how it would be useful for those who manage large$-$scale

computing systems. $(5$ Marks$)$

b$)$ Describe what a virtual file system is and how the concept would especially be useful for those

who manage large$-$scale computing systems $(5$ Marks$)$

c$)$ What are other additional technical issues that the managers of large$-$scale computing systems

must consider? Are there virtualization strategies that might be appropriate for these issues, or

not? What other solutions would you recommend? $(5$ Marks$)$