In the virtualization market
VMware vs Hyper-V is a hot topic, because currently more than half of the server load is virtualized in the world. The process continues. It is expected that this year this figure will reach 86%. Therefore, it is important to understand how
VMware and Microsoft offer exactly the same
. In the
previous article, we already compared popular server virtualization systems. Now let's try to compare the commercial products of two leading virtualization software providers.
VMware remains the market leader and launches new virtualization products that meet specific IT requirements. Microsoft is gradually increasing its market share and continues to improve its solution. The table below will help you better understand the similarities and differences between
VMware vSphere 6.0 and
Microsoft Hyper-v 2012 R2 - VMware and Microsoft products, two leading developers of virtualization software for
VPS servers , including scalability, hypervisor functionality, clustering, networking and storage support data.
So
VMware vSphere- A leading server virtualization platform with virtualized data center management features. This product is characterized by powerful server virtualization tools, robust automated management, high availability features and intelligent operations analysis functions. Customizable templates help automate load balancing and optimize resource allocation.
Microsoft Hyper-V allows you to create and manage a virtualized computing environment, and this virtualization technology
VPS hostingeffectively integrated into Windows Server. When creating roles for Hyper-V in the OS, the necessary components are installed and, optionally, management tools. Components include the Windows hypervisor, Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service, VItualization WMI Provider, and other components such as the VMbus, VSP (virtualization service provider), and the VID (virtual infrastructure driver).
The similarities and differences between VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus and Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter will help to understand the following table, for convenience, divided into five sections.
1. Hypervisors
| VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus
| Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter
|
Hypervisor Name
| VMware ESXi 6.0
| Hyper-V 2012 R2
|
Max. number of concurrent VMs
| 1024
| 1024
|
Max. Host CPU
| 480
| 320
|
Max. CPU cores
| Not limited
| Not limited
|
Virtual processors per host
| 4096
| 2048
|
Max. memory per host
| 6 TB
| 4 TB
|
Memory subscription
| Yes (Memory Balooning)
| Yes (Dynamic Memory)
|
Common Page Sharing
| Yes (Transparent Page Sharing)
| Not
|
Large Page Support
| Yes
| Yes
|
2. Management
| VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus
| Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter
|
Centralized management
| Yes (vCenter Server + vSphere Advanced Web Client, vCenter Server Appliance, SSO
| Yes (System Center 2012 R2 VMM) (SCVMM)
|
Active Directory Integration
| Yes (vCenter and ESXi hosts), Advanced SSO
| Yes (SCVNN)
|
Browser management
| Yes (vSphere Advanced Web Client with Advanced SSO and BDE Plugin (Big Data Extension)
| Unlimited through the Self Service Portal (SSP)
|
Hypervisor Update
| Yes (via VMware Update Manager, CLI and AutoDeploy)
| Yes (Cluster Aware Update, Fabric Update, Management Server)
|
Cross platform management
| Free Add-on Multi-Hypervisor Manager
| SCVMM Can Manage VMware and Citrix Virtual Environments
|
VM update
| Yes (Update Manager and vCenter Configuration Manager (vCM)
| Yes (milestones), includes live exports
|
Maintenance Mode Support
| Yes (automatic migration of VMs using vMotion to another host in the DRS cluster
| Yes
|
Power management tool
| Yes, with power distribution
| Yes, with power optimization
|
API for integration with backup systems
| Yes (vStorage API Data Protection)
| Yes (VSS API)
|
VM Templates
| Yes, with a multisite content library
| Yes, including Gen2 templates
|
Host profiles
| Yes (host profiles enhanced for automatic deployment)
| Yes (physical computer profiles)
|
P2V, V2V
| Yes (VMware Converter)
| No (no longer supported, but legacy VMMs can be used)
|
Live VM migration
| Yes (vMotion via vSwitch, vCenter Server and without shared storage resources, remote vMotion with RTT up to 100 ms)
| Yes (unlimited simultaneous, without shared resources - Shared Nothing; new options - compression and SMB3)
|
Storage Migration
| Yes (Live Storage vMotion, including replicated VMs), optional storage location for each VM disk
| Yes (Live and Shared Nothing)
|
Storage Profiles
| Yes (storage management by policy)
| Yes (storage classification)
|
VM Lockstep Protection
| Yes (Fault Tolerance), 4 vCPUs supported without disc type restrictions
| Not
|
3. VM scalability
| VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus
| Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter
|
Max. vCPU on VM
| 128
| 64
|
Max. RAM on VM
| 4 TB
| 1 TB
|
Serial ports
| 32 ports
| Only connected to Named Pipes
|
USB support
| Yes (USB 1.x-3.0), up to 20 USB devices per VM
| No (except Enhanced Session Mode)
|
Hot Plug Support
| Yes (CPU, memory, disk, network card, PCIe SSD)
| Only disk and memory, hot add memory in Dynamic configuration
|
Virtual Network Cards (NIC) on VM
| 10 (any combination of supported NICs)
| 8 types of "network adapter" and 4 - "legacy adapter"
|
Virtual Disk IDE on VM
| 4
| 4
|
Virtual hard disk capacity
| 62 TB
| 64 TB (VHDX format on Windows Server 2012)
|
Guest OS Support
| Complete list of operating systems including FreeBSD 10.0 and Asianux 4 SP3
| Fewer guest OS compared to vSphere 6
|
4. High Availability (HA) and Resource Management
| VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus
| Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter
|
Nodes per cluster
| 64
| 64
|
VM per cluster
| 8000
| 8000
|
HA (VM restart on failure)
| VMware HA
| Yes (clustering and heartbeat)
|
Fault Tolerance
| Yes (100% availability for business critical VM applications), even with a hardware failure
| Not
|
Replication
| Native (vSpare Replication)
| Hyper-V Replica
|
Auto Resource Management
| Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Scheduler for Load Balancing
| Dynamic optimization
|
Resource pools
| Yes
| Yes (Host Group)
|
Migration compatibility
| Yes (improved vMotion compatibility); EVC in DRS Settings
| Yes (for processors)
|
5. Data and network storage
| VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus
| Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter
|
Supported Storage Systems
| DAS, NFS, FC, iSCSI, FCoE (hardware and software), vFRC, SDDC
| SMB3, virtual FC, SAS, SATD, iSCSI, FC, FCoE, shared vhdx
|
File system (shared)
| Virtual Machine File System (VMFS v5)
| Cluster Shared Volume (CSV)
|
SAN boot support
| Yes (FC, iSCSI, FCoE and software FCoE)
| Yes (iSCIS Diskless FC)
|
USB boot
| Yes
| not
|
Virtual san
| VSAN 6.0 with Flash Array Support (AFA)
| Advanced (Storage Spaces), tiered storage
|
QoS for storage
| Yes (Storage IO Control), including NFS
| Yes
|
NPIV Support
| Yes (with RDM)
| Yes (virtual FC)
|
Thin provisioning
| Yes (including SE Spare Disk)
| Yes (Dynamic Disk)
|
SAN Multipathing
| Yes (Advanced APD and PDL), PDL Auto Remove
| Yes (DSM and SMB Multichannel)
|
Caching
| Yes (vSphare Flash Read Cache)
| Yes (CSV Cache)
|
Storage Integration API
| Yes (VASA, VAAI and VAMP)
| Yes (SMI-S / SMP, ODX, Trim)
|
NIC Teaming
| Yes (up to 32 NIC)
| Yes
|
Private VLAN Support
| Yes
| Yes
|
Jumbo Frames Support
| Yes
| Yes
|
QoS for the network
| Yes (Network IO Control, DSCP)
| Yes
|
IPv6 Support
| Yes
| Yes
|
Traffic monitoring
| Yes (Port Mirroring)
| Yes (Port Mirroring)
|
We hope that this table, which, of course, is far from complete, contains useful information for comparing VMware vSphere 6.0 Enterprise Plus and Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter.
September 12, 2016 at 17:01