HyperVisor

HyperVisor Virtualization Products

Tables below will help you identify HyperVisor virtualization products which are available today.

What is HyperVisor?

HyperVisor is a virtualization platform which allows you to run multiple virtual machines at same time on a single host. HyperVisor is called VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) and there are two types of HyperVisors:

Standalone VMM or native/bare-metal
OS Hosted VMM or HyperVisor running within a operating system.

On this page I will be focusing on the native/bare-metal HyperVisor. There are dozen of diffrent vendors which devoloped their own HyperVisor implementation but I will mainly focus on Microsoft and VMWare.

Before you install and utilize the HyperVisor from Microsoft you will need to have 64-bit capable hardware with Intel VT or AMD-V technology enabled in the BIOS. VMWare ESX can be installed on a 32-bit hardware but without having the VMM CPU extensions binary translation is required which degrades the performance of the virtual machines.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter) with Hyper-V

Description:Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next generation of networks, applications, and Web services. With Windows Server 2008 you can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a highly secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within your organization.
Server virtualization, also known as hardware virtualization, is a hot topic in the IT world because of the potential for serious economic benefits. Server virtualization enables multiple operating systems to run on a single physical machine as virtual machines (VMs). With server virtualization, you can consolidate workloads across multiple underutilized server machines onto a smaller number of machines. Fewer physical machines can lead to reduced costs through lower hardware, energy, and management overhead, plus the creation of a more dynamic IT infrastructure.

Version: Windows Server 2008

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv.aspx

Virtual machine supported operating systems: Win32/Win64 (Windows XP Professional-SP3, Windows Server 2003-SP2, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008).
For complete list of server and client guest operating systems that are supported on a Hyper-V virtual machine click here.

Virtual machine capabilities:

32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machines

Up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine

Total memory of all running virtual machines supported up to 31 GB

License: Windows Server 2008 Standard - $999, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise $3999; click here for the Microsoft’s prcing lists if you want more details and information.

VMWare ESX

Virtualize Your Servers, Storage and Networking Resources

Description:VMware ESX is the foundation for the dynamic, self-optimizing IT infrastructure. VMware ESX is a robust, production-proven virtualization layer that abstracts processor, memory, storage and networking resources into multiple virtual machines.
VMware ESX delivers the highest levels of performance, scalability and robustness required for enterprise IT environments.

Version: VMWare ESX 3.5

Link: http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/esx/

Virtual machine supported operatings ystems: Win32/Win64 (Windows XP Professional-SP3, Windows Server 2003-SP2, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008), Solaris 10, Ubuntu, etc.

Virtual machine capabilities:

32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machine

Up to 4 virtual processors/virtual SMP per virtual machine

64GB RAM for virtual machine

License: Foundation for 2 processors + Gold 1 year - $1540, Standard for 2 processors + Gold 1 Year - $3624; click here for the VMWare’s prcing lists if you want more details and information.

2008 was very excited after VMWare released ESX3.5i server for free; Microsoft soon followed and released their core version of Hyper-V Server 2008 for free to public. Both “free” HyperVisors are very suitable for test and development, server consolidation and branch office consolidation scenarios.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Description: 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.

Version: Hyper-V Server 2008

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server

Virtual machine capabilities:

32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machines

Up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine

Total memory of all running virtual machines supported up to 31 GB

License: Free

VMWare ESXi

Increase IT Efficiency and Reliability with Hardware-Integrated, Thin Hypervisor

Description:VMware ESXi 3.5 is the next generation, OS-independent hypervisor that makes virtualization easy to deploy. Requiring minimal configuration, users can be up and running in minutes with a production class hypervisor
that scales to run the most resource intensive applications.
Also available embedded in server hardware, VMware ESXi enables the plug-and-play data center with greater security, reliability and manageability.
Building on the legacy of the market-leading VMware ESX, a production proven, stable and mature hypervisor, VMware ESXi is the culmination of almost a decade of research into hypervisor design.
VMware ESXi offers the same great performance and scalability in a compact, 32-MB package.

Version: VMWare ESX 3.5i

Link: http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

Virtual machine supported operatings ystems: Win32/Win64 (Windows XP Professional-SP3, Windows Server 2003-SP2, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008), Solaris 10, Ubuntu, etc.

Virtual machine capabilities:

32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machine

Up to 4 virtual processors/virtual SMP per virtual machine

64GB RAM for virtual machine

License: Free (registration required to obtain serial number)

Which “free” HyperVisor should I choose?

There is no simple answer. The choice which HyperVisor you should choose depends on the organization, personal preference or requirements. I found two videos thanks to ICT-Freak.nl to help decide which one you may evualuate and install.