Anyone have anything that compares Zen and ESX?

[sbeaver]

Quick points for anyone that has something that I can use to present to my execs before they sign an Enterprise agreement

[tlyczko]

I would be interested to know, too, what people have to say, particularly from the point of view of SMB vs. Big Companies.

Things I think are important:

1. VMware is a much bigger company then XenSource, much more support, much more third party products, it's been around for 10 years or so, just much more everything.

2. Xen is newer, what is the level of support one gets (most important question), third party products, what will Citrix/Microsoft do with it, etc. This will all come with time, but how long??

3. Xen \_requires_ a new Intel/AMD chip/mobo/BIOS with VT and such included in the BIOS, ESX I think will run on older hardware that doesn't have this kind of thing, correct me if I am wrong.

Hard to go wrong with ESX except for the money!! The most expensive virtualization product of all, the most expensive management software, most other companies don't charge for the management software, etc. Xen costs about hafl as much as ESX, but I think support and forums (the best on the Net!!) and blogs etc. presently tilt things in ESX's side.

Nevertheless I do think VMware has to rethink the VirtualCenter pricing, why is $5,000 for VC plus more $$$ for Windows and SQL licenses worth it for only 3-4 servers?? At least port VC to Linux/mySQL.

Hope to see more comments,

Tom

[MattG]

\- ESX is the market leader.

\- VMWare is loaded with cash now due to IPO, which should lead to even bigger push deeper into Data Centers.

\- Xen - Isn't MS allowing Xen to access the enlightenment code in MS OSs'? If so, VM won't be able to have enlightened access to the MS OS?

-MattG

[tlyczko]

What are enlightenment code and enlightened access??

Some sort of new path to virtual nirvana??

Thank you, Tom

[oreeh]

Massimo has a comparison matrix on his website http://www.it20.info/misc/virtualizationscomparison.htm

[MattG]

Enlightened OS = Paravirtualization.

-MattG

[tlyczko]

This chart is awesome, and so is his blog.

Massimo IS The King of VMware!!

Tom

[oreeh]

Two other things come to mind:

\- support (from the manufacturer and from other vendors)

\- better management interfaces and tools

[RDPetruska]

>Anyone have anything that compares Zen and ESX?

Yes. Zen is a portable media player manufactured by Creative Labs, while ESX is a virtualization platform manufactured by VMware.

[kingneutron]

LOL

+1 Insightful

[buckethead · Accepted solution]

We are also wrapping up an Enterprise agreement. We have a very large opensource group so we have a lot of people familiar with Xen and the other players.

Tom (tlyczko ) hit a lot of the points that we need. We also made them aware of the recent investments by Intel and Cisco in VMware. There is a lot of speculation on what those relationships will lead to.

VMware also provides more operating system support than the other players. If you have the need to virtualize older legacy OS's then VI3 is the option to go.

I had a copy of a Garnter paper from earlier in the year that analyzed the major players in the field that I gave our management team as they love Gartner.

Here is some of the info that I pulled out of my presentation. Also, I put this info together a few weeks ago and XENEnterprise 4.0 had not been announced yet. The link on Massimo's site is a great resource also.

At this time VMware is the market leader and is currently a few years ahead of the other players in the field. Both Xen and Microsoft are working hard to narrow the gap.

VMWare has larger OS support than the other players and has been the innovator in the technology for several years.

XEN players require hardware based on either the Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).

VMware has also just went into large deals with Intel and Cisco.

VMware Features[/b]

Live Migration: VMotion

Clustered File System: vmfs

Resource Mgt & Load Balancing: DRS

Disaster Recovery: HA

Xen[/b] Unless using Virtual Iron or XenSource

Clustered File System: Requires Veritas

Resource Mgt & Load Balancing: Not yet

Disaster Recovery: Not Yet

Microsoft Viridian (late 2008)[/b]

Live Migration: Quick Migration (still requires a few seconds of down time)

Resource Mgt & Load Balancing: Will not be included

Disaster Recovery: Will not be included

[tlyczko]

Regarding the Gartner report you mention, is there any way an ordinary person can get a copy??

PM me??

Thank you, Tom

[oreeh]

I'm interested too !

[sbeaver]

Any chance of getting a copy of your stuff to use?

[buckethead]

Steve,

Let me clean up some of the costs and that info and I will PM it to you. Is later today okay or do you need it sooner?

[tlyczko]

I would be interested too.

Anytime that is convenient for you is fine, I realize you are doing everyone a favor.

If you are cleaning something out like costs, perhaps you can include a sentence or two explaining what costs you calculated and how you calculated them.

Thank you, Tom

[oreeh]

Me too please.

[sbeaver]

When ever you have the time would be great and thanks