A few words about a small baby from Microsoft - Hyper-V
Folks,
Since a long time I was thinking of doing something different. Now this is the time I thought the different that would be best from my side as a versatile attempt is to write something on Microsoft Hyper-V.
So lets look at it how it is making progress and a small intro.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides a simplified, reliable, and optimized virtualization solution, enabling improved server utilization and reduced costs. Since Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead. It easily plugs into customers’ existing IT environments, leveraging their existing patching, provisioning, management, support tools, processes, and skills.
IT Pros can easily to leverage their existing knowledge and skills with Microsoft virtualization products, as well as the collective knowledge of the community, minimizing any learning curve. In addition, with Microsoft providing comprehensive support for Microsoft applications and heterogeneous guest operating systems, customers can virtualize with confidence and peace of mind.
Key Benefits
-
Improved server utilization
-
Small footprint
-
Minimal overhead
When to Use Hyper-V Server 2008
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a great choice for customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:
-
Test and Development
-
Basic Server Consolidation
-
Branch Office Consolidation
-
Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)
Customers who require richer and more robust virtualization features, such as Quick Migration, multi-site clustering, large memory support (greater than 32 GB of RAM), and more than four processors on the host server, should use Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 provides business continuity, disaster recovery, greater scalability for consolidating large workloads, and flexible and cost-effective virtualization rights (one free virtual instance for Standard Edition, four free virtual instances for Enterprise Editions, and unlimited virtual instances for Datacenter Edition with the purchase of a license of Windows Server 2008).
The following table outlines which Hyper-V–enabled product would suit your needs:
| Virtualization Needs | Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 | Windows Server 2008 Standard | Windows Server 2008 Enterprise | Windows Server 2008 Datacenter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server Consolidation |  | | | |
| Test and Development | | | | |
| Mixed OS Virtualization (Linux and Windows) | | | | |
| Local Graphical User Interface | | | | |
| High Availability—Clustering | | | ||
| Quick Migration | | | ||
| Large Memory Support (Host OS) > 32 GB RAM | | | ||
| Support for > 4 Processors (Host OS) | | | ||
| Ability to Add Additional Server Roles | | | | |
| Guest Virtualization Rights Included in Host Server License | None—Each Windows Guest VM Requires a License | 1 Physical + 1 VM* | 1 Physical + 4 VMs* | 1 Physical + Unlimited VMs (Free) |
* Each additional Windows guest VM requires a license.
If you need to acquire and host new server licenses, Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter provide the best value.
Sorry guys I can't be more wise to write more on Hyper-V so calling it a day now. Hope I will find myself again in a good mood to write some more enhanced article about MSFT Hyper-V.
Hopefully after R2 release of Hyper-V.
Now tell me did MS pay u to use/write.
Com'on this is typically BULLSHIT
When to Use Hyper-V Server 2008 ?????????
why i can go and download esx 3i and i can use it without paying a a single paisa , no need to spend restless nights on thinking about security patches which would be must in order to avoid virus torjon etc etc and again to install another patch to patch this patch and the list goes on
Comparing esx with Hyper v is a crime for some one who understands Virtualization and m.r Sarkar u have done it .....
So put a post saying ur sorry asap ....
don't complain about something which you get free with an Operating System.
I know ESXi is free but when we talk about getting those lovely functionalities like cloning, vmotion, HA, DRS.... nothing is covered in the basic ESXi.
So for me this is something like a Marketing illusion.
Now talking about the MSFT Hyper-V it is completely free product and can be manageable through Server Manager which is also an integrated component.
MSFT Hyper-V it is
completely free product
This can really be misleading as for Microsoft Windows Hyper-V you still
have to pay for the host operating system (Windows 2008), which is for some versions almost the equivalent of what you would pay for VMware 3.5. So if your virtual machines are not running windows 2008 and if you don't benefit of the special licensing offered by Microsoft for running several Windows version in a virtualized environment then people should look at the cost of Windows 2008 as the cost of Microsoft Windows Hyper-V. Anyway, if your guest are not Windows then the cost of windows 2008 is obviously only for the hypervisor which does not seems to me being free!!
One can download a striped down unsupported by MS tech support version of Microsoft Hyper-V server for free
but as the MS web site says it is "R2" .
Hyper-V would only work with the latest generation of Intel and AMD server chips that support virtualisation, namely AMD Virtualization (V) and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT).
However, VMWare works on older generations of AMD and Intel server processors, which power many of today's PC servers .
VMware ESXi has been in the market for over two years. It had been pushed by VMware to be used in production & to replace their normal ESX servers in larger installation as its faster & have a lot smaller foot print which highly reduce the attack surface.
In the other hand, although Microsoft Marketing team has been bargaining about their MS Hyper-V Server 2008 & how it has a smaller attack surface & faster speed than their full fledge server they still don't seems to recommend it for primary production use. The below is directly quoted from Microsoft website (http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/default.mspx):
===========Quote Start==============
Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:
Test and Development
Basic Server Consolidation
Branch Office Consolidation
Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)
============Quote End===============
so thr goes ur stability concern
Although MS hyper-V Server 2008 suppose to be the lighter & most secure version of MS Hyper-V offering, unfortunately its still has to implement a Windows 2008 Server Core for it to run. The Windows 2008 Server Core is installed while MS Hyper-V Server 2008 is installed. Though its worthy to mention that Microsoft had hardened & reduced the size of the Windows Server Core integrated into the Hyper-V Server 2008, but it still a general use operating system & not even beating the version of Redhat integrated in the full version of VMware ESX which VMware taking out in their lightened version VMware ESXi.
In the other hand, VMware ESXi has no operating system at all running beside its hypervisor. They had even got rid of their Service Console( A lightened & highly modified Redhat) which should be count as a plus to VMware in this comparison.
Unfortunately Hyper-V Server 2008 still have a larger surface for attack, viruses, & spyware to hit by keeping the Windows 2008 Server core as a part of it
The management tool of ESXi, VI Client has a nice advantage on Hyper-V Manager that you can install it on several operating systems, where Hyper-V Manager can only be install on Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 2008
Supported Guest OS of ESXi
Microsoft WindowsNT4.0
/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Red Hat Enterprise 2.1/3/4
/5
Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1
Redhat Linux 7.2/7.3/8.0
/9.0
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8/9/10
SUSE Linux 8.2/9.0/9.1/9.2
/9.3
FreeBSD 4.9/4.10/4.11
NetWare 6.5/6.0/5.1
Solaris 10 for X86
Vista
Windows 2008
Windows 2003 Standard /Enterprise SP1/SP2/R2
Supported Guest OS of MS Hyper-V Server
MS Windows 2003/2008
MS Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server SP4
Windows XP SP2/SP3
SUSE Enterprise Linux Server
10 SP1/SP2
Its obvious that Hyper-V is still lagging on Linux support, where VMware support running most version of Linux without the need to modify it, Hyper-V still only officially support SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 10 SP1/SP2 at the moment. Other Linux versions that have Paravirtualized Xen Kernal should run at the moment, but still not officially supported. Even with the limited version of Linux being supported by MS Hyper-V it still not that easy to setup. To illustrate the required steps to setup Linux on Hyper-V read below:
Microsoft Hyper-V provides Integration Components for Linux OSes, It would been acceptable if the Integration Component for Linux OSes were straight forward to setup but it require many complicated steps and what worse you have to do the same steps over and over again for every Linux virtual machine including the following:
1- Manual installation of Xen Kernel.
2- Excute a seperate script that modifies the Linux bootloader
configuration to allow the use of Microsoft Hypercall adapter.
3- Run a perl script to install the Integration tools and paravirtualized drivers.
Note: If you want to see a full step by step of how SUSE is install on Hyper-V look at SUSE Installation on Hyper V at Virtualization Team Blog
Its clear that setting up Linux on VMware is way easier and cleaner than Hyper-V at the moment, but Microsoft might change that in future releases.
Further More, Hyper-V still does not support the 2nd generation of Paravirtualization for Linux (paravirt_ops / VMI (Virtual Machine Interface)). Method used to support Paravirtualization with Linux in hyper-V increase the maintenance of Linux OS as the administrators will have to keep up with two kind of kernels for virtualized & Physical servers. In addition, they have to recompile their Linux kernel in order for it to work. In the other hand, VMware are already offering support for paravirtualization .
The performance advantage of VMware is related directly with its smaller foot print than Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. VMware ESXi is totally using 32MB, where MS Hyper-V Server 2008 is larger than 2GB. In addition, memory over-commitment & Memory ballooning help VMware run more virtual machines without sacrificing performance.
do u still need more reasons for my comment that u r bribed ,,, u have sold ur self ........
Where was ur mind when u wrote this
think of the chap who will read ur article after getting a brain dose from MS sales team and get HYPER-V on .....
Hay Bhagwan is nadan admi ka khata maf kardo wo bhul gaya tha ki
"With great power comes great responsibility"
thanx peopl gud info on virtualization by both....
I believe Hyper-V is a new product and eventually going to eat a very big chunck of ESX market share in next few years.