**NOTE: All of the command line entries in this article are performed in PowerShell. To differentiate between the PowerShell cmdlets and Command Line Interpreter commands, the PowerShell cmdlets are in blue, and the Commands are in black.
Configuring a lab environment on Hyper-V in Windows 10 is pretty simple, as long as you know what you need to do. The environment can get pretty complicated, but to get up and running can be as simple as you want it to be.
Setting Your Defaults
1. Storage
If you are working in a laptop and you are always on the go, you might want to store everything on your local hard drive. By default, Hyper-V uses two different folders for storage:
1. Virtual Machine files are stored in “c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines”
2. Virtual Hard Disk files are stored in “c:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks”
Okay, that is fine. I have never really understood why these so interconnected files are stored separately, but whatever. If you are running a single virtual machine, that might not be too bad… running on the system drive and all. However, there are two reasons I like to change the default locations:
- Keeping the files together (organization); and
- Separating running virtual machines off the system drive (performance).
While my lab machine was originally purchased (in 2013) for power and portability, it was (even then) heavy and bulky for a laptop, and is now essentially a full-time resident of its docking station, and has not been removed from the dock in a very long time. Unlike most laptops, it has two separate hard drives, which makes it easy to split the spindles. If you only have a single internal hard drive, you might want to invest in an external hard drive… preferably an external SSD.
To change the default file paths for your VMs and VHDX files, run the following cmdlets in an elevated PowerShell window:
Set-VMHost –VirtualMachinePath “D:\Hyper-V\VMs”
Set-VMHost -VirtualHardDiskPath “d:\HyperV\Virtual Hard Disks”
I should mention that even if you are working with the single hard drive, you might want to change the default directories for the sake of simplicity (and organization).
2. Networking
When you enable Hyper-V in Windows 10, it creates a default virtual switch called (predictably) Default Switch. Assuming you have a single network interface card (NIC) on your host computer, it will be configured for that NIC. If you have multiple NICs (many machines will have a physical Ethernet port in addition to the Wi-Fi adapter), then it will pair to the physical NIC. You cannot modify this default switch, so assuming I want to connect my virtual machines to my wireless NIC, I will perform the following (as always, in an elevated PowerShell window:
Get-NetAdapter (I found an adapter called Wi-Fi)
New-VMSwitch -Name BehikeWiFi -NetAdapterName Wi-Fi -AllowManagementOS $true
So we have created a new virtual switch called BehikeWiFi. It is connected to my Wi-Fi NIC. In my Hyper-V Virtual Switch Manager I will see the following:
In my Network Connections window I will now see a new adapter that looks like this:
Alrighty then! I am ready to build my virtual machines. However, before I do that, there is one last configuration item I like to set.
3. Bonus: Enhanced Session Mode
Enhanced Session Mode allows me to redirect some of my resources of the local devices to my VM, such as sound and enhanced graphics… but it includes the ever important and sought after Clipboard. It is a simple check box, but if you do not set it as a global default, then you will have to modify the configuration of every virtual machine as you go.
Set-VMHost –EnableEnhancedSessionMode $true
I told you that was easy!
In my next article, we will build our first virtual machine, and you will be off to the races!
**Thanks again to my colleague Leslie Falor for proof reading and reminding me that people love the clipboard!
]]>**NOTE: All of the command line entries in this article are performed in PowerShell. To differentiate between the PowerShell cmdlets and Command Line Interpreter commands, the PowerShell cmdlets are in blue, and the Commands are in black.
I have worn several hats throughout my career in IT, which has allowed me to become proficient (and occasionally expert) in many different technologies. For many years, my primary focus was Hyper-V. I remember saying to an audience that while I earned a good living as a Hyper-V trainer/evangelist/guru for several years, there would come a time when the advancement of technology would make me obsolete.
Please do not misunderstand me. Hyper-V is still a viable and robust technology with incredible versatility. It is just in what we do. Datacenters either use Hyper-V or VMware, and the newest generation of server and datacenter administrators grew up with virtualization, unlike those of us who started before it was a thing.
Of course, Hyper-V is no longer confined to the datacenter. It is included in Windows 10, and can be used to build local labs and demo machines… without the need to get approval from the Server Team.
Installing Hyper-V in Windows 10 is simple enough. Let’s cover that today, and tomorrow we will configure our environment so that we can start playing with it and building VMs.
Method 1: PowerShell
If you are still most comfortable with the GUI, we will cover that in a minute. First, let’s use PowerShell to install… or rather, to turn on the Windows Feature.
- Open a PowerShell console as Administrator.
- Run the following cmdlet:
Install-WindowsOptionalFeature –Online –FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All
Once it is finished, you will be prompted to reboot your computer. Click Y. When your computer comes back up, you will be ready to rock the Hyper-V.
Method 2: Command Line
Before the world went completely PowerShell, there was the trusty old Command Line. You can still use this method to install Hyper-V, and it is just as easy.
- Open a Command Prompt with Administrator rights. If you are unsure how to do this, follow these simple steps:
- Click on the Start menu.
- Type cmd but do not press Enter.
- Command Prompt will appear as an option at the top of your Start Menu. Right-click it, and click Run as administrator.
- Run the following command:
dism /online /enable-feature /all /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V
Once it is finished, you will be prompted to reboot your computer. Click Y. When your computer comes back up, you will be ready to rock the Hyper-V.
Method 3: Graphical User Interface
Of course, some people still prefer to use the mouse to do their work, and that is fine. It is a little more work, but let’s do it.
1. In the Search bar type Turn Windows and the following should appear in your Start Menu. Click Turn Windows features on or off.
2. In the Turn Windows features on or off window that appears, click the check box next to Hyper-V. Make sure that the both the Hyper-V Platform and the Hyper-V Management Tools select, and click OK.
You will be prompted to reboot. Again, when your computer comes back up, you will be ready to rock the Hyper-V.
Conclusion
Hyper-V in Windows 10 is a great tool to build lab environments with virtual machines. Installing it is the easy part. In my next article, I will show you how to configure it and to start building out your lab. In the meantime, Let’s get virtual!
]]>Who won? The listener of course! The one-hour discussion of the two systems was very informative and was not meant to dismiss the fact that both products are excellent, and that both products are (according to Gartner.com) leaders in the field of x86 virtualization technology.
I invite you to watch all three videos and comment (either there or here). I still believe that Microsoft’s virtualization is superior and hope that comes through, but in the end it is important to know what is out there, and that includes the competition!
You can watch all three videos by visiting the Webinars page of VMTraining’s website at http://www.vmtraining.net/technical-webinars/.
]]> |
VERSUS |
 |
As many of you know I used to (and occasionally still do) teach for a company called VMTraining. They are a training and consulting firm out of the US, and they have a great courseware series called the Ultimate Bootcamps. They are a knowledgeable and passionate group, and over the years I have had more than a few debates with some of the other trainers in the group over the competing technologies.
With that being said, none of the guys I debate with are anti-Microsoft, they are just heavily invested in VMware. In fact when the owners started to see a lot of Hyper-V adoption they approached me to design and eventually write a Microsoft Virtualization Ultimate Bootcamp (which will be coming soon!). It is great to be able to separate the religion from the technology.
Of course, they are still passionate about what they do (as am I). Earlier this year Shawn MacArthur recorded a webinar entitled ‘Is vSphere the best Hypervisor out there?’ which can be seen here. I immediately responded and did a webinar in May entitled ‘Is Hyper-V the best Hypervisor out there?’ which can be seen here.
Shawn has been at this a very long time, and he is very good at what he does. So when we were both invited back by Duane Anderson (Executive Vice President International Operations, as well as the facilitator of these webinars) invited us both back for a head to head debate I jumped at the opportunity.
Before you get excited, I want you to know that Shawn and I are very friendly, and have great respect for one another. We also both respect both platforms, even though we feel what we do. Do not expect this to be a no holds barred smack-down event. It will be passionate, but it will be professional and respectful.
Nonetheless, we look forward to taking each other on, and hope you will listen in! You can register now on-line by clicking here and bring your questions… we hope to answer them all!
Date: August 8, 2013
Time: 2:00pm (Eastern Time)
Where: Get your front row seat right here!
Recently I recorded this webinar for VMTraining, a training and consulting company that I have worked with in the past. While it is still not on their website, I am glad that the video is now available online. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think!
For the past couple of years I have been talking about the advancements that Microsoft has made with regard to virtualization with Hyper-V and the associated technologies, not only from a technological standpoint, but also with regard to market share. A lot of people have told me that I am dead wrong,and that I am living a fantasy if I think that Microsoft could ever make a dent in VMware’s market share.
That is one of the reasons I am so happy to read an article posted yesterday in NetworkWorld (www.networkworld.com) called VMware, the bell tolls for thee, and Microsoft is ringing it. The writer (Zeus Kerravala) writes about a survey conducted recently at VMworld, which for those of you unfamiliar is VMware’s large yearly event, equivalent to Microsoft’s TechEd events.
NetworkWorld surveyed attendees about their Hyper-V usage, and got some very encouraging (for Microsoft) answers. Read what he has to say here, and feel free to start a local discussion here… I would love to know (especially from traditionally VMware shops) if you are running Hyper-V – in test? production? Are you discussing it? Let me know! -M
]]>André Andriolli, a former VMware field engineer and now a Systems Engineer Manager with VMware in Brazil, responded very well. One of the first points he made was:
we should start by comparing what’s in the market TODAY with what’s in the market today: I mean vSphere 5 versus Hyper-V 2, or vSphere 5.1 with Hyper-V 3. Since vSphere 5.1 news are not in the street yet, we should go with the first. Comparing a future MSFT release with what VMware customers are running for over 1 year now is simply not fair, to me at least.
While I did not entirely agree with this at the time, I accept that it is a valid point. I am looking forward to hearing comments in the next few weeks though… as Windows Server 2012 (with Hyper-V 3.0) becomes generally available on September 4th, and vSphere 5.1 becomes available on September 11th.
My opinion is simple… VMware still makes a great product, but so does Microsoft; the benefits of the former, in my opinion (and that of many VMware customers I have spoken with), simply are not worth the the difference in cost over the latter. While it will be a relief that VMware is abandoning their Virtual Memory Entitlements (commonly referred to as the Memory Tax), I think the last year will have left a sour note with a lot of their customers, and given them an opportunity to see for themselves just how good Hyper-V really is.
I do like the fact that both platforms are being released at the same time though; I once made a comment that I regretted right away that of course one would always be ahead of the other because one would come out with a new feature, and the other would take that feature and include it in their next release, along with whatever else they were planning, and that would continue on. For the next year the two will be compared as equals.
Now, this is one place where VMware has a slight advantage… insofar as they have a one-year product cycle, and Windows Server has a 3-year product cycle. This was adjusted last year when they took the rare step of adding new (and major) functionality into Service Pack 1 of Windows Server 2008 R2. For now, frankly I am not sure that pound for pound Hyper-V (with System Center) is not already the better product. I guess we will find out what the market says though…
If you are in Toronto, we would love for you to join us for the Windows Server 2012 Launch Event on September 5th, or if you are in another city across Canada, later in the month. Check out Ruth Morton’s blog to see the dates, and to click to register. We hope to see you there!
Related articles
- A Response to VMware’s ‘Get the Facts’ page comparing vSphere to Hyper-V & System Center (garvis.ca)
- Is it true? The Memory Tax is gone! (garvis.ca)
- Windows Fever… Catch It! (garvis.ca)
With the launch of Windows 8 with the client-side Hyper-V, they made a Layer 1 hypervisor available to the masses. True, there have been free Layer 1 hypervisors for years (Hyper-V Server, ESXi and others), but they required another machine to manage them, and those machines had to be properly networked. There are people out there who do not have multiple systems to play with. When it comes to doing demos outside of your office environment not only would you need two systems, but they would both have to be portable. For most of us, this was unmanageable.
Of course, Windows 7 did have Virtual PC, and even Windows XP Mode. These were great solutions for what they were, but Virtual PC never supported 64-bit guests, which meant that in order to run a x64 OS (such as Windows Server 2008 R2) you needed a third-party virtualization platform. It also meant that, as an MCT, if you wanted to run the Microsoft Official Curriculum courses on your system you needed to be running Windows Server 2008 as the base OS.
Alas, in Windows 8, Windows XP Mode is no more; however that doesn’t mean that if you need to run Windows XP you cannot simply build a Hyper-V machine running that OS. Same is true for Windows 7, which I run in a VM for two distinct reasons: so that I can answer questions for the vast majority of people who are still running that platform, and because Windows 8 no longer supports desktop gadgets. (If this second reason sounds a bit peculiar, then you should know my secret: I use the Windows XP End of Support countdown gadget to keep you all informed as to the number of days left until #EndOfDaysXP 
).
In my professional capacity I have needed Hyper-V on my laptop for several years; I have used one of three methods of achieving this need: Dual Boot, Boot from VHD, and occasionally Native Boot. All of this because I also needed the Windows client on my laptop. Now, however, I can run my virtual machines (32-bit or 64-bit) from Hyper-V in Windows 8, and I don’t have to decide how I am going to boot my laptop each time I start up.
In addition to installing Hyper-V in the Native Boot Windows 8, you can also install it in a Boot from VHD environment, as well as on a Windows To Go (WTG) key. However on those you should be even more aware of where you are storing your VMs, because storage space will be more scarce.
In addition to the native hypervisor, you might also want to install the Hyper-V Management Tools (either GUI or PowerShell, or both) on your client. By doing this you can now manage remote Hyper-V servers from your desktop (in the same way that you could do in Windows 7 by installing the Remote Server Administration Toolkit).
To install these features, simply open the Windows Features screen, and select the desired features (Hyper-V Platform, Hyper-V Management Tools).
- From the Windows 8 Start Screen type Features. Ensure that Search is in the Settings context.
- Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
- The Windows Features window will appear (pictures at left). scroll to the Hyper-V context.
- Expand Hyper-V, and select the desired features.
Just as is needed in Server, Windows will install Hyper-V, and then will need to reboot twice (See the article Layer 1 or Layer 2 Hypervisor? A common misconception and a brief explanation of the Parent Partition).
Once the reboots are complete, you will be able to create and start virtual machines, just as you would in Windows Server. You can import and export them, pause, save, and snapshot them… just like you would in Windows Server!
Now it is important to remember that the same hardware requirements for Hyper-V apply to the client. Your CPU needs to support hardware virtualization, and it must be enabled in the BIOS. For that reason I don’t expect that MacBook users will be taking advantage of this option. You also need to have Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). However if you bought your PC within the last five or six years (and it doesn’t have an ATOM processor) then I expect you will be fine.
By the way, while I was writing this article I was made aware of a similar one in Windows IT Pro Magazine. Check out Orin Thomas’ article on the Hyperbole, Embellishment, and Systems Administration Blog called Windows 8’s “Killer Feature” for Microsoft Certified Trainers.
Good luck, and may the virtual force be with you!
Related articles
- Hyper-V on the Client: How to install the hypervisor on Windows 8 (garvis.ca)
- Windows Fever… Catch It! (garvis.ca)
According to the article (http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/240005840/vmware-kills-vram-licensing-will-focus-on-vsphere-cloud-bundles.htm?cid=nl_alert) VMware is trying to regain its competitive edge over Microsoft’s Hyper-V, which has over the past couple of years soared to nearly 30% market share, making it the fastest growing virtualization platform in the industry.
This is the first time I can remember that VMware is showing any signs that they are trying to compete against the scrappy and powerful competitor. I heard from a source at VMware that they have heard from a great many clients that they are either testing Hyper-V out on a few servers or, in some cases, switching completely. This comes as no surprise in a year when VMware introduced the hated Virtual Memory Requirements, and when Microsoft has made such incredible strides to make Hyper-V 3 as good or better than its larger competitor.
It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that I was shocked by the Memory Tax, and predicted a year ago it would badly hurt VMware’s market share. In a day and age when competition is getting better, giving their hypervisor away with the operating system, and bundling the management tools with the System Center suite (which the vast majority of companies already own) it simply made no sense for VMware to make virtualization more expensive than they already had.
VMware will be launching vSphere 5.1 at VMworld next week, and the worst of times will be over for their fans. I wonder however if they can turn the ship around… you cannot unring a bell, and the companies who have tried Hyper-V for the first time in the past year have seen what their alternatives are. IT managers have to consider costs, and if the less expensive product is just as good (and is supported by the largest software company in the world) then it will be interesting to see how many of them make the switch over the first twelve months of Hyper-V 3.0 with Server 2012, which RTMed August first and is set to become publically available in early September.
In other News:
Several VMware customers have told me they have received an e-mail that looks like this one:
“… I am your renewals representative from VMware. I wanted to reach out to you regarding a Renewals promotion that we are running through September 30, 2012.
VMware is making an extended effort this year to bring current any expired customers to allow for reinstated SnS and the ability to upgrade to the newest version of vSphere (VS5). Throughout this one-time promotion, we will be offering two separate options with 100% waiver of reinstatement on your expired licenses and up to 100% waiver of your back-dated maintenance; saving you at least 20% on your renewal cost.
By reinstating your support via this promotion, you could save thousands of dollars and regain access to technical support and the most current releases. While supported, you will be eligible for upgrades and updates as well as technical support, both online and via our Customer Support Technicians.
I would be happy to discuss the promotion and answer any questions you may have. Again, this offer is only valid through September 30, 2012; therefore, please let me know if you would like to see pricing options and I will have those generated. If you have further questions about this promotion, please feel free to contact me directly at the information below, or contact [email protected]
If you are interested in quotes to see how much getting your products back on support would be please let me know and I am happy to get these for you.”
I am not surprised. For the first time in its history VMware will have seen decreased sales in the past year, especially when it comes to renewing SnS contracts. When they launched vSphere 5 (and the hated Memory Tax) they gave existing clients a ridiculously short window to make the commitment to upgrading their licenses… something like 30 days. A great many companies decided to either stick with vSphere 4.1, which meant that they would avoid the Memory Tax, or better yet, begin the process of migrating their existing vSphere servers onto Hyper-V.
It does not surprise me at all that the company is now looking for ways to get that lost business back, even taking the unprecedented steps of lowering the costs AND waiving the penalties. Unfortunately for them, as I wrote earlier in this article, you cannot unring a bell. For the die-hard fans who stayed with vSphere 4.1 this might be enticing, but for companies that dipped their toes into the waters of Hyper-V, and were anxiously awaiting the public release of Hyper-V 3.0, there is no going back.
I have been and will continue to teach those professionals and companies how to best leverage their Microsoft virtualization platform… Welcome aboard!
Related articles
]]>Of course, we all know how to install Hyper-V in Windows Server… just use the Add Roles Wizard. As that is not an option in the client, it is slightly different. Here you go, step by step:
You need to open the Windows Features screen. There are two ways to do that. The first is from the Control Panel, click on Programs and then Turn Windows features on or off. For those of us who like to use the direct commands you can click Windows Key-R to open the Run box, and then type appwiz.cpl. This will open the Programs and Features window. the option to Turn Windows features on or off is in the navigation pane.
In previous versions of Windows you could manage remote Hyper-V instances by downloading the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) from Microsoft. Since Hyper-V is now included in the operating system, so are the management tools. From this screen we see that we have the option to simply install the Hyper-V Management Tools and you are off to the races – nothing has changed. (the two sub-options are Hyper-V GUI Management Tools and Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell)
- Once you select the Hyper-V Platform Windows will check to make sure your system supports it – of course, it is a 64-bit only option, and virtualization has to be enabled in the BIOS – and then installs the role. It only takes a few seconds, and then you will get the screen asking you to reboot.
As it is in Server, installing Hyper-V requires multiple reboots (see my article titled ‘Layer 1 or Layer 2 Hypervisor? A common misconception of Hyper-V, and a brief explanation of the Parent Partition’) but because of the greatly improved boot time of Windows 8 that takes less than a minute (even in my Multi-OS, Boot-to-VHD system). Once you are back in, the Metro Start screen has two new tiles:
As you see, the Hyper-V Manager and the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection tool are there and ready to go. You can start creating and booting up VMs, as well as connecting to VMs both locally and remotely.
Remember, if you are going to manage or connect to remote systems, you will have a much better experience with domain-joined clients. The security is still managed by certificates.
Now that we’ve got Hyper-V in the client, what are you waiting for people? Virtualize!
]]>Here is the text of the e-mail, along with the link:
]]>It is HERE! Veeam Backup Free Edition for VMware and Hyper-V
This exciting new free product includes the functionality from FastSCP—the essential tool for managing VM and host files, plus:
- VeeamZIP
: Ad-hoc backup of a live VM
- Instant File-Level Recovery: Restore individual guest files directly from a backup
- Quick Migration for VMware: Migrate a live VM to any host or datastore
The hypervisor is the virtualization layer – the platform on which the virtual servers are hosted. Because all operating systems require resources (some more than others) it is axiomatic that the Layer 1 Hypervisors – those that are themselves thin operating systems – are going to be more efficient than the Layer 2 Hypervisors, which have to first allow the parent operating system to take the resources that it requires, and then meter our the available resources to its applications and services as it sees fit.
It used to be easy enough to know which virtualization platforms were which, based on how you installed them. So when Microsoft released Hyper-V as a role on Windows Server 2008 (and all subsequent versions) it was an easy mistake to make that it, as was its predecessors, a Layer 2 Hypervisor. However that assumption is wrong.
As with all other Roles on Windows Server, Hyper-V is installed by first installing the operating system, then adding the role. it requires a total of 10 clicks, two reboots, and it is done.
Two reboots… that is a bit unusual, isn’t it? Usually Roles either do not require a reboot, or occasionally a single reboot. Only when you install multiple roles would you need to reboot multiple times, and even then only occasionally. So why does Hyper-V require two?
The following is going to feel, for a couple of paragraphs, as if I accidentally cut and pasted a completely irrelevant article below. Please read on, I will tie it all together in a few paragraphs!
If you have ever been to downtown Montreal you may have seen Christ Church Cathedral. According to the church’s website the building was completed in 1859, and consecrated in 1867 (not sure why the 8 year lag… but then, I am not entirely sure why a building needs to be consecrated). In other words, it recently celebrated its 150th birthday… and despite the efforts of the best architects (Frank Wills, Thomas S. Scott) and masons, older buildings tend to require a certain level of care to maintain. They may have built them well back then, but ask any Egyptologist to confirm that the pyramids are crumbling… slowly.
Now, the following story is my interpretation of a historical discussion that I have no insight into. The facts are there, but the story behind it is simply pure guesswork. In the mid-1980s the church (which it should be mentioned is also the home of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal) evaluated its resources and holdings and determined that financially they were lacking. Their most prominent holding – the plot of land on which the church was built – was worth millions (at the heart of downtown Montreal, in the booming building economy of the 1980s), and they needed a way to leverage that if they were to remain (or return to) financially healthy.
The board called for ideas of how to leverage the property… remember, this was before Matt Groening gave us the idea to commercialize the church. Some of the ideas were certainly money-makers, but unrealistic.
- They could tear down the church and build a commercial property. Unfortunately, this would essentially eliminate the point of the church… couldn’t do that!
- They could build OVER the church… however there were several issues with that, not the least of which that building over an architectural wonder like the cathedral would mean masking its true beauty. However from a more practical standpoint, building onto a building that old would have all sorts of concerns, some of them involve the scary words ‘building could fall down.’
- The strangest idea is what they actually ended up doing… they dug under the church, essentially putting the building on stilts, and built an underground shopping mall, which today is known as Promenades de la Cathedrale. It is a multi-level mall with over fifty stores and a food court, along with underground parking. It is an architectural feat that must have taken a year to design and longer to plan. The steeple of the cathedral, however, is no higher than it was in 1867, and the project was executed successfully with movements never exceeding 3/16” inch.
Hyper-V installs in much the same way. It lifts the base operating system up off the bare-metal, injects the thin-layer hypervisor onto the bare-metal hardware, and instead of placing the original back where it was, it condenses it into what I call a para-virtual machine, and creates the Parent Partition, which is a concept unique to Microsoft. The Parent Partition is the ‘first among equals’ which controls the drivers, and allows the administrator to use the console rather than remoting into the system. It does not use a .vhd (virtual hard drive) for storage, but rather writes directly to the hard drive. There is no way to differentiate it from a non-virtual machine… except that the system boots to Hyper-V and then loads the Parent Partition.
The hypervisor loads in Ring –1… there are no hooks into it for any external code – it is purely written by Microsoft and read-only. However on top of that the virtual machines (or Child Partitions) are all created equally… or at least three of the four types have equal access to the distribution of resources, with the fourth type (the Parent Partition) being the only partition that can reserve its own resources off the top – by default 20% of the CPU and 2GB of memory, but those numbers are adjustable.
One primary difference between the Parent Partition and the Child partitions is seen in the following graphics. In the first graphic (Image1) we see the Device Manager for the Parent Partition. The expanded information is what you would expect – HP LOGICAL VOLUME denotes the HP RAID Array, the Display Adapter is ATI, there are two HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit NICs, and the iLO Management Controller driver. The second graphic (Image2) is a similar screenshot from an operating system running in a Child Partition on the same physical box. It is the same ACPI x64-based PC… and it even has the same Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processor 8220 SE CPUs… it just has fewer of them (while Hyper-V allows us to assign up to four virtual CPUs to a VM, this one only has two). Where the Parent Partition has HP LOGICAN VOLUMES, ATI ES1000 video, and HP NC371i network adapters, the corresponding drivers for the Child Partition are MSFT Virtual Disk Devices, Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Video Device, and Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network Adapters. While they have similar performance to the physical, the virtual partition has virtual hardware, unlike the para-virtual machine, which has physical hardware… sort of.
Because the actual drivers for the physical hardware run in the Parent Partition, it also has a feature called the ‘Virtual Service Provider (VSP).’ The VSP communicates with the feature in the Child Partitions called the ‘Virtual Service Client (VSC).’ This is how the virtual machines can perform as well as their virtual counterparts, with the limitations of their virtual hardware only being how many of the resources are allocated to (or shared with) the VM.
Because of how the hypervisors differ, ESX (and ESXi) does not have a Parent Partition… their ‘operating system’ is their hypervisor. With Microsoft Windows the hypervisor kernel is still Windows, so it works differently. However, benchmark performance tests of both prove that there is slight to no difference in performance between ESX and Hyper-V**, whether testing against the full installation of Windows Server, Server Core, or Hyper-V Server.
Incidentally, I mentioned earlier that there are three types of Child Partitions… while this is true, the only differentiator is the operating system installed in the Child Partition… so the three types are:
- Child Partition with Hyper-V supported OS
- Child Partition with a non-supported (Legacy) version of Windows (or non-supported x86 OS)
- Child Partition with a supported Xen-Enabled Linux Kernel (SLES, RHEL, CentOS)
Where VMware claims to support many more versions of many more operating systems than Hyper-V does, Microsoft is more realistic. For example, Microsoft wrote Windows NT, but stopped supporting it years ago. It, like any other x86 operating system, will install in a Hyper-V virtual machine, it will not have Integration Components. You could will not be able to fully leverage the gigabit Ethernet adapter or high resolution video… but if you are still running NT chances are you didn’t have that anyways. Microsoft also recognizes that it would be impossible to support many Linux builds, especially the ones that are primarily supported by community. On the other hand, the three kernels that are supported account for well over 90% of Linux in professional datacenters. Chances are there will be more kernels supported in the future… but the majority are covered currently.
If your operating system of choice is Linux, then vSphere may be your best bet. However, if you run a Windows-centric datacenter, but happen to have a number of Linux machines that you need to run, then Hyper-V with System Center is definitely for you… especially since you now understand why Hyper-V is really a Layer 1 Hypervisor, despite what some may claim!
—
**Although I have performed these tests, the End User License Agreement of vSphere 4.0, 4.1, and 5.0 all prohibit the publication of these benchmarks, and I would be stripped of my VMware certifications and subject myself to legal action if I did. Solution… build them for yourself 
For the past ten months I have (in an official capacity) espoused the benefits of Hyper-V and the Microsoft Server Virtualization Solutions. I have visited over thirty partners and given a dozen or more presentations to user groups; I have taught at least five full classes of 10215A to partners and end users alike, and I continually hear the same question from IT Pros and users alike: ‘What you are telling us and showing us is nice, but can Microsoft really compete head to head with VMware for market dominance? Are they really a legitimate player in the virtualization space that has for so many years been dominated by a single player?
My answer has been yes every time, and each time Microsoft releases new versions of Hyper-V – first 2008 R2, then this past winter Service Pack 1 – they come closer to technological parity. The closer they come to being an equivalent technology (and they are now closer than ever!) the more the deciding factor is going to start coming down to price… and man, does Microsoft ever win in that category!
Of course it is easy to see me as biased, but I’m sure we all agree that Gartner is unbiased. According to their latest (June 30, 2011) Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, Microsoft has firmly taken a position in the Leaders square. For years VMware alone occupied that coveted position (based on rankings along the X-axis of completeness of vision, and the Y-axis of ability to execute). VMware (who it should be noted are still the leaders) has Microsoft and then Citrix nipping at its heels.
According to the report:
Citrix and Microsoft have joined VMware in the Leaders Quadrant by increasing vision and execution respectively. Although market share leader VMware continues to set the standard in products and the pace in terms of strategy, Microsoft has increased its market share (especially among midmarket customers new to virtualization), and Citrix is leveraging its desktop virtualization strengths and its free XenServer offering to expand its server virtualization share. The road map from virtualization to cloud computing is rapidly evolving, and executing will be very important during the next year as this market continues to rapidly evolve and grow.
Interestingly one of the factors that many of the companies I have spoken to with regard to this choice – price, and the ability to make a profit off the solution – is called out in the report as both a key strength and a weakness ‘…when it comes to influencing the channel to promote its product, rather than its competition.’ Because Hyper-V is a free product (or, more accurately, is a component of a product that the client is already buying), there is nothing more to sell… the partners cannot mark up another product.
One of the points listed in the Gartner report under ‘Cautions’ is the ‘Hypervisor dependence on a running copy of Windows as a parent operating system’ can also be viewed as a strength, because of the sheer amount of different hardware types supported, ranging from high-end server farms used in the enterprise to laptops and white-boxes that IT Pros, enthusiasts, and students may have in their basement as learning platforms. For a recent presentation I was forced to downgrade my VMware hypervisor to an older version simply because ESX 4.1 was not supported and would not even install on my demo box. To quote the report:
The most significant hypervisor difference continues to be Microsoft’s reliance on a parent operating system on each virtualization host — which carries the benefit of a proven driver architecture, but the burden of potentially more planned downtime for patching and maintenance (however, Microsoft’s patch record to date for its parent operating system has been good).
All in all, I think it is going to be hard for VMware to remain the industry leader for long. Let me be clear: they make great products. Whatever my beef may be with the company, I don’t have a bad word to say against their server virtualization technology. However with Microsoft catching up as fast as they are (System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 is currently in beta) it is hard to see VMware remaining the industry leader for too much longer without coming up with something so dramatically new and unique as to vault them once again ahead of all other players.
I look forward to seeing vSphere 5 (possibly being released as early as July 12th); from what I have read mostly through unsanctioned sites it will be VERY interesting to see. However I still don’t see it being worth the price difference.
One thing’s for sure… it will be an interesting couple of years in the virtualization space!
]]>