Virtual machines (VMs) are an increasingly ubiquitous feature of modern computing, yet the interested student or professional has limited resources to learn how VMs work. In particular, there is a lack of "hands-on" exercises in constructing a virtual machine monitor (VMM, or hypervisor), which are both simple enough to understand completely but realistic enough to capture the practical challenges in using this technology. This paper describes a set of assignments to extend a small, pedagogical operating system (OS) to form a hypervisor and host itself. This pedagogical hypervisor, called HOSS, adds roughly 1,000 lines of code to the MIT JOS source, and includes a set of guided exercises. Initial results with HOSS in an upper-level virtualization course indicate that students enjoyed the assignments and were able to apply what they learned to solve different virtualizationrelated problems. HOSS is publicly available.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.