In 1852 Karl Marx published “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon”. In his book, Karl Marx quotes “that history repeats itself, “the first as tragedy, then as farce”, referring respectively to Napoleon I and to his nephew Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III).
Here I am not talking about Karl Marx, I am not a specialist on this matter. I am a computer geek. So Why I am refer to Karl Marx? I believe above remarks can be connected to a history between Microsoft and Novell.
In my past blog I compared VMware and Hyper-v:
http://microsoftguru.com.au/2013/09/14/vsphere-5-5-is-catching-up-with-hyper-v-2012-r2/
http://microsoftguru.com.au/2013/04/07/is-vmwares-fate-heading-towards-novell/
I found some similar articles echoed by other commentator:
http://virtualizedgeek.com/2012/12/04/is-vmware-headed-the-slow-painful-death-of-novell/
Here is Gartner Inc.’s verdict:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1GJA88J&ct=130628&st=sb
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1LV8IX1&ct=131016&st=sb
So the question is; can Microsoft defeat VMware? Can Microsoft make history again? Here is why I believe Microsoft will make history once again regardless what VMware fan boy think. Let start….
What’s New in Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V
Microsoft has traditionally put out point releases to its server operating systems about every two years. Windows Server operating systems is no longer a traditional operating systems. This is cloud OS in true terms and uses. Let’s see what’s new in Windows Server 2012 R2 in terms of virtualization.
· New Generation 2 Virtual Machines
· Automatic Server OS Activation inside VMs
· Upgrade and Live Migration Improvements in Windows Server 2012 R2
· Online VHDX Virtual Disk Resize
· Live VM Export and Clone
· Linux Guest V Enhancements
· Storage Quality of Service ( QoS )
· Guest Clustering with Shared VHDXs
· Hyper-V Replica Site-to-Site Replication Enhancements
Generation 2 VMs
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 supports the concept of a totally new architecture based on modern hardware with no emulated devices. This makes it possible to add a number of new features, such as secure boot for VMs and booting off of virtual SCSI or virtual network adapters.
VM Direct Connect
In Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V with the addition of VM Direct Connect allows a direct remote desktop connection to any running VM over what’s now called the VM bus. It’s also integrated into the Hyper-V management experience.
Extend replication to a third site
Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 is currently limited to a single replication target. This makes it difficult to support scenarios like a service provider wanting to act both as a target for a customer to replicate and a source to replicate to another offsite facility. Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V now provide a tertiary replication capability to support just such a scenario. By the same token, enterprises can now save one replica in-house and push a second replica off-site.
Compression for faster migration
Two new options in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V help improve the performance of live migrations. The first is the ability to enable compression on the data to reduce the total number of bytes transmitted over the wire. The obvious caveat is that tapping CPU resources for data compression could potentially impact other operations, so you’ll need to take that into consideration. The second option, SMB Direct, requires network adapters that support RDMA. Microsoft’s advice: If you have 10 GB available, use RDMA (10x improvement); otherwise, use compression (2x improvement). Compression is the default choice and it works for the large majority of use cases.
Online VM exporting and cloning
It’s now possible to export or clone a running VM from System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 with a few mouse clicks. As with pretty much anything related to managing Windows Server 2012, you can accomplish the same task using Windows PowerShell.
Online VHDX resizing
In Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, it is not possible to resize a virtual hard disk attached to a running VM. Windows Server 2012 R2 removes this restriction, making it possible to not only expand but even reduce the size of the virtual disk (VHDX format only) without stopping the running VM.
Storage QoS
Windows Server 2012 R2 includes the ability to limit individual VMs to a specific level of I/O throughput. The IOPS are measured by monitoring the actual disk rate to and from the attached virtual hard drives. If you have applications capable of consuming large amounts of I/O, you’ll want to consider this setting to ensure that a single I/O-hungry VM won’t starve neighbor VMs or take down the entire host.
Dynamic Memory support for Linux
In the Windows Server 2012 R2 release, Hyper-V gains the ability to dynamically expand the amount of memory available to a running VM. This capability is especially handy for any Linux workload (notably Web servers) where the amount of memory needed by the VM changes over time. Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V also brings Windows Server backups to Linux guests.
Shared VHDX
With Windows Server R2 Hyper-V, Windows guest clusters (think traditional Windows Server failover clustering but using a pair of VMs) no longer require an iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN, but can be configured using commodity storage: namely a shared VHDX file stored on a Cluster Shared Volume. Note that while the clustered VMs can be live migrated as per usual, a live storage migration of the VHDX file requires one of the cluster nodes to be taken offline.
Bigger Bang for the Buck: Licensing Windows Server 2012 R2
The Windows Server 2012 R2 product is streamlined and simple, making it easy for customers to choose the edition that is right for their needs.
Datacenter edition – Unlimited Windows Server 2012 R2 virtualization license.
Standard edition 2 virtualized server license or lightly virtualized environments.
Essentials edition for small businesses with up to 25 users running on servers with up to two processors.
Foundation edition for small businesses with up to 15 users running on single processor servers.
|
Edition |
Feature comparison |
Licensing model |
Server Pricing* |
|
Datacenter |
Unlimited virtual OSE All features |
Processor + CAL |
$6,155 |
|
Standard |
Two virtual OSE All features |
Processor + CAL |
$882 |
|
Essentials |
2 processor One OSE Limited features |
Server 25 user limit |
$501 |
|
Foundation |
1 processor Limited features |
Server 15 user limit |
OEM Only |
Client Access Licenses (CALs) will continue to be required for access to Windows Server 2012 R2 servers and management access licenses continue to be required for endpoints being managed by System Center. You need Windows Server 2012 CAL to access Windows Server 2012. You also need CAL to access Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS).
What’s New SCVMM 2012 R2
· Public Cloud for Service Provider using Windows Azure
· Private Cloud with System Center 2012 R2 VMM
· Any storage approach- Use any kind of Storage: DAS, SAN, NAS, Windows Server 2012 File Server, Scale-out File Server Cluster
· Networking – Management of physical network switches via OMI as well as virtual network infrastructure ( PVLANs, NV-GRE Virtualized Networks, NV-GRE Gateways )
· Virtualization host agnostic – Intel/AMD/OEM Hardware running Windows Server 2012/R2/2008 R2 Hyper-V, VMware or Citrix XenServer
· Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch
· Bootstrapping a repeatable architecture
· Bare-Metal Provisioning Scale-Out File Server Cluster and Storage Spaces
· Provisioning Synthetic Fibre Channel in Guest VMs using VMM
· Guest Clustering with Shared VHDXs
· VMM Integration with IP Address Management ( IPAM )
· Hybrid Networking with Windows Azure Pack and System Center 2012 R2 VMM
· Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager
· Delegating Access Per Private Cloud
· OM Dashboard for VMM Fabric Monitoring
Fire Power of System Center: Licensing System Center 2012 R2
System Center 2012 R2 has two version: Data Center and Standard. Both version is comprised with the following components
· Operations Manager
· Configuration Manager
· Data Protection Manager
· Service Manager
· Virtual Machine Manager
· Endpoint Protection
· Orchestrator
· App Controller
System Center license is per processor based license. Cost of System Center 2012 R2 data center is USD 3607 and cost of System Center 2012 R2 Standard is USD1323. System Center license comes with a SQL Server standard edition license. This SQL server can only be used for System Center purpose. You can virtualized unlimited number of VMs in SC 2012 R2 data center edition.
Comparing Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012 R2 in terms of virtualization.
Hyper-v is not the same as you knew in Windows Server 2008. To clear fog of your mind about Hyper-v, the following table shows the improvement Microsoft has made over the years.
Comparing VMware with Windows Server 2012 R2
While VMware still number one in Hypervisor markets but the Redmond giant can also leverage on almost a billion Windows OS user globally, as well as its expertise in software and a robust range of services (including Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, Skype and many more). A new battle ground is ready between Microsoft and VMware would make 2014 a pivotal hybrid cloud year. The hybrid cloud could indeed give Microsoft the chance to prevail in ways that it couldn’t with the launch of Hyper-V; Hyper-V’s market share has been gradually increasing since early 2011. According to Gartner, Microsoft gained 28% Hypervisor market share last year.
Let’s dig deeper into comparison….
The following comparison is based on Windows Server 2012 R2 Data Center edition and System Center 2012 R2 Data Center edition Vs vSphere 5.5 Enterprise Plus and vCenter Server 5.5.
Licensing:
Virtualization Scalability:
VM Portability, High Availability and Disaster Recovery:
Storage:
|
Features |
Microsoft |
VMware |
|
Maximum # Virtual SCSI Hard Disks per VM |
256 |
60 ( PVSCSI ) |
|
Maximum Size per Virtual Hard Disk |
64TB |
62TB |
|
Yes |
No |
|
|
Boot VM from Virtual SCSI disks |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Hot-Add Virtual SCSI VM Storage for running VMs |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Hot-Expand Virtual SCSI Hard Disks for running VMs |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Hot-Shrink Virtual SCSI Hard Disks for running VMs |
Yes |
No |
|
Storage Quality of Service |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Virtual Fibre Channel to VMs |
Yes |
Yes. |
|
Live Migrate Virtual Storage for running VMs |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Flash-based Read Cache |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Flash-based Write-back Cache |
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
|
|
Automated Tiered Storage between SSD and HDD using commodity hard disks. |
Yes |
No |
|
Can consume storage via iSCSI, NFS, Fibre Channel and SMB 3.0. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Can present storage via iSCSI, NFS and SMB 3.0. |
Yes |
No |
|
Storage Multipathing |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SAN Offload Capability |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Thin Provisioning and Trim Storage |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Storage Encryption |
Yes |
No |
|
Deduplication of storage used by running VMs |
Yes |
No |
|
Provision VM Storage based on Storage Classifications |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Dynamically balance and re-balance storage load based on demands |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Integrated Provisioning and Management of Shared Storage |
Yes |
No |
Networking:
|
Features |
Microsoft |
VMware |
|
Distributed Switches across Hosts |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Extensible Virtual Switches |
Yes |
Replaceable, not extensible |
|
NIC Teaming |
Yes |
Yes |
|
No of NICs |
32 |
32 |
|
Private VLANs (PVLAN) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ARP Spoofing Protection |
Yes |
No |
|
DHCP Snooping Protection |
Yes |
No |
|
Router Advertisement Guard Protection |
Yes |
No |
|
Virtual Port ACLs |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Trunk Mode to VMs |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Port Monitoring |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Port Mirroring |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Dynamic Virtual Machine Queue |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IPsec Task Offload |
Yes |
No |
|
Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Virtual Receive Side Scaling ( Virtual RSS ) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Network Quality of Service |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
No |
|
|
Integrated Network Management of both Virtual and Physical Network components |
Yes |
No |
Virtualized Operating Systems Support:
|
Operating Systems |
Microsoft |
VMware |
|
Windows Server 2012 R2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows 8.1 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2012 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows 8 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2008 R2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows 7 with SP1 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows 7 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2008 SP2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Home Server 2011 |
Yes |
No |
|
Windows Small Business Server 2011 |
Yes |
No |
|
Windows Vista with SP2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Server 2003 SP2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows XP with SP3 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows XP x64 with SP2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
CentOS 5.7, 5.8, 6.0 – 6.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
CentOS Desktop 5.7, 5.8, 6.0 – 6.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7, 5.8, 6.0 – 6.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5.7, 5.8, 6.0 – 6.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 & SP3 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SUS Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP2 & SP3 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
OpenSUSE 12.1 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.10 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Ubuntu Desktop 12.04, 12.10, 13.10 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Oracle Linux 6.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Mac OS X 10.7.x & 10.8.x |
No |
Yes |
|
Sun Solaris 10 |
No |
Yes |
Windows Azure:
Here are a special factors that put Microsoft ahead of VMware: Microsoft Azure for on-premises and service provider cloud.
Windows Azure Pack is shipping with Windows Server 2012 R2. The Azure code will enable high-scale hosting and management of web and virtual machines.
Microsoft is leveraging its service provider expertise and footprint for Azure development while extending Azure into data centers on Windows servers. That gives Microsoft access to most if not all of the world’s data centers. It could become a powerhouse in months instead of years. Widespread adoption of Microsoft Azure platform gives Microsoft a winning age against competitor like VMware.
On premises client install Windows Azure pack to manage their system center 2012 R2 and use Azure as self-service and administration portal for IT department and department within organization. To gain similar functionality in VMware you have to buy vCloud Director, Chargeback and vShield separately.
Conclusion:
This is a clash of titanic proportion in between Microsoft and VMware. Ultimately end user and customer will be the winner. Both companies are thriving for new innovation in Hypervisor and virtualization market place. End user will enjoy new technology and business will gain from price battle between Microsoft and VMware. These two key components could significantly increase the adoption of hybrid cloud operating models. Microsoft has another term cards for cloud service provider which is Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013. Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013 are already widely used for Software as a Service (SaaS). VMware has nothing to offer in Messaging and collaboration platform. Microsoft could become for the cloud what it became for the PC. It could enforce consistency across clouds to an extent that perhaps no other player could. As the cloud shifts from infrastructure to apps, Microsoft could be in an increasingly powerful position and increase Hyper-v share even further by adding SaaS to its product line. History will repeat once again when Microsoft defeat VMware as Microsoft defeated Novell eDirectory, Corel WordPerfect and IBM Notes.
References:
http://www.datacentertcotool.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/solutions/virtualization.aspx#fbid=xrWmRt7RXCi
http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/VMware_vs_Microsoft:_It%27s_time_to_stop_the_madness
http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/7-ways-windows-server-2012-pays-itself-205092
Supported Server and Client Guest Operating Systems on Hyper-V
Compatibility Guide for Guest Operating Systems Supported on VMware vSphere
Blog by Raihan Al-Beruni 