In the official Huawei HCIA-Cloud Computing curriculum, the OS is described as the bridge between hardware and software, with the kernel serving as its most critical component. The statement is TRUE because the kernel acts as the core manager of all physical resources, including the CPU, memory, and I/O devices. When an upper-layer application needs to perform a task—such as reading a file from a disk or sending data over a network—it cannot access the hardware directly. Instead, it must send a request to the kernel through a System Call Interface.
The kernel operates in a protected "Kernel Mode," while applications run in "User Mode." This separation ensures system stability and security. By managing resource scheduling, the kernel ensures that multiple applications can run concurrently without interfering with each other's memory space or crashing the entire system. In a virtualization context, the role of the kernel becomes even more significant. For instance, in Huawei’s KVM-based virtualization, the Linux kernel itself is transformed into a Hypervisor. The kernel's ability to manage CPU and memory is extended to create virtualized versions of these resources for Virtual Machines (VMs).
The Huawei training documentation highlights that the efficiency of the kernel directly impacts the performance of the cloud platform. Because the kernel handles process management, memory allocation, and the file system, any optimization at the kernel level results in better VM density and lower latency for cloud services. Therefore, understanding the kernel's role as both a resource manager and a provider of the system call interface is fundamental for any ICT associate working with Huawei FusionCompute or FusionAccess solutions.
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