Hyper-V & vSphere comparison

[Rockapot]

Hi,

Does anyone have any comparisson's between vSphere (Ent Plus) and Hyper-V R2.

I realise R2 is still in RC however I need to compare these two product versions.

Information online via Google is a bit here are there so just wondering if anyone has already compiled something usefull and is willing to share this?

Any details on a fair price comparisson would be great.

PS: I am not trying to start a "Hyper-v is crap debate"

Carl

[mreferre]

http://www.it20.info/misc/virtualizationscomparison.htm

Massimo.

[Rockapot]

Additionally, is it definately true that Hyper-V R2 in terms of Windows 2003 guest 's support requires that the guest OS is SP2 or higher with a max of 2 vCPUs as stated in the attached PDF?

Carl

[AWo]

The "Burton Group" (http://www.burtongroup.com) finished a project with the goal to identify a production class hypervisor. They defined criteria with different weight (required, preferred, optional) and grouped them together. A production class hypervisor should meet these features as good as possible. The more they meet the requirement the more score they got.

The bottom line is: hypervisors that do not meet Burton Group's noted feature requirements are not ready for production.

The criteria were defined within these groups:

- High Availability

- Live Migration

- Memory Management

- Networking

- Storage

- Security

- Compute

- Paravirtualization

- Management

- Power

- Licensing

- Support

The compared hypervisors:

- VMware VI3

- MS Hyper-V

- Virtual Iron

- XenServer

The score:

VMware VI3

Required features: 100%

Preferred features: around 65%

Optional features: around 72%

MS Hyper-V (as fas as I know this is a Xen clone as the Citrix guys pushed the Micorosft developers a lot after Citrix bought XenSource).

Required features: around 82%

Preferred features: around 55%

Optional features: around 55%

XenServer

Required features: around 82%

Preferred features: around 55%

Optional features: around 55%

Virtual Iron

Required features: around 82%

Preferred features: around 38%

Optional features: around 38%
If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" replies. Thanks!!

AWo

VCP / vEXPERT 2009

[Rockapot]

cool thanks for the info so far.

Carl

[mreferre]

That I don't know.

Even if it's true I don't think that it's going to be a HUGE issue. I am not sure you want to be on 2003 RTM/SP1 level and 2 vCPUs (with the latest core technology) would be more than enough for 99% of workloads.

Massimo.

[Rockapot]

Fair comment regarding the latest core technology being capable however a lot of clients do have existing physical servers which are not at SP2.

My concern is that a client with say 1300 servers, 1/3rd of which are not at SP2 level may have concerns going to the Hyper-V route if this limitation exists.

This is not a major concern as I would like the customer to chose the vSphere or ESX 3.5 route however I just wanted to check that this is a true limitation which it seems it is after further digging around.

The typical VM workloads I see dont require more that 2 vCPU however app/product support is a major issue for clients.

Either way, thanks for your input, much appreciated.

Carl

[mikehel]

Compares vSphere, hyper-v and xenserver: http://www.virtualizationmatrix.com/matrix.php

[nava_thulasi39]

Looks good comparison