Doc103 Red Hat Comparison Whitepaper
- 1. RED HAT ENTERPRISE VIRTUALIZATION FOR SERVERS: COMPETITIVE FEATURES RED HAT ENTERPRISE VIRTUALIZATION FOR Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor: A modern SERVERS hypervisor based on KVM which can deployed either as: Server virtualization offers tremendous benefits for • the included standalone, small footprint, high enterprise IT organizations – server consolidation, hardware performance, secure hypervisor based on the Red abstraction, and internal clouds deliver a high degree of Hat Enterprise Linux kernel. operational efficiency. However, today, server virtualization is not used pervasively in the production enterprise Or datacenter. Some of the barriers preventing wide-spread • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4: The latest Red Hat adoption of existing proprietary virtualization solutions are Enterprise Linux platform release (purchased performance, scalability, security, cost, and ecosystem separately) that integrates KVM hypervisor challenges. technology, allowing customers to increase their Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers is an end-to- operational and capital efficiency by leveraging the end virtualization solution that is designed to overcome same hosts to run both native Red Hat Enterprise these challenges, enable pervasive datacenter virtualization, Linux applications and virtual machines running and unlock unprecedented capital and operational efficiency. supported guest operating systems. The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio builds upon FEATURES & BENEFITS the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform that is trusted by When you are choosing a virtualization platform for your millions of organizations around the world for their most datacenter, your architecture and capabilities may be limited mission-critical workloads. Combined with KVM, the latest by the features offered by each product. This document generation of virtualization technology, Red Hat Enterprise details the features and benefits of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers delivers a secure, robust Virtualization for Servers product in comparison with virtualization platform with unmatched performance and VMware® vSphere® 4 (currently shipping as of the date of scalability for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows publication), Microsoft® Hyper-V® 2008 R2 (expected to guests. ship in the second half of 2009), and VMware Virtual The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers product Infrastructure® 3.5 (widely deployed in existing virtualized consists of the following components: environments). Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers: A This document is designed to give you information about feature-rich server virtualization management system that Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers, and to allow provides advanced management capabilities for hosts and you to compare features and benefits across multiple guests, including high availability, live migration, storage virtualization platforms. management, system scheduler, and more.
- 2. FEATURE Red Hat VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Virutal Enterprise 4.0 2008 R2 Infrastructure 3 Virtualization for Servers Hypervisor Features Bare Metal Hypervisor: A bare metal X X NO. Server Core X hypervisor is one that installs directly on and Hyper-V the server hardware without requiring a Server 2008R2 full operating system. Red Hat installations are Enterprise Virtualization leverages the minimum 3GB disk modularity of Red Hat Enterprise Linux space. to provide hypervisor functionality without requiring a monolithic operating system to reside on. Small Footprint: The Red Hat X X NO X Enterprise Virtualization hypervisor is <100MB, suitable for installation on local flash storage, boot from SAN, or PXE booting for diskless hosts. Security: Only Red Hat Enterprise X NO NO NO Virtualization leverages open source, enterprise grade security developed in partnership with government agencies for high security. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization uses the SELinux standard for security, and is backed by Red Hat Network for security updates. Resource Virtualization CPU Virtualization: Red Hat Enterprise Maximum 256 Maximum 512 Maximum 64 Maximum 192 Virtualization-H is able to virtualize up to vCPUs per host. vCPUs per host. 64 vCPUs per host. 64 vCPUs per host. 32 256 logical CPUs (combination of cores 256 logical CPUs logical CPUs per logical CPUs per logical CPUs per and hyperthreading) on each host for per host. host. host. host. presentation to virtual machines. Each VM can use up to 16 vCPUs for 16 vCPUs per VM. 8 vCPUs per VM 8 vCPUs per VM 4 vCPUs per VM maximum efficiency. Memory Management Memory Overcommitment: Red Hat X X NO X Enterprise Virtualization can allocate more virtual memory to its VMs than the host has physical memory. Page Sharing: Memory page sharing X X NO X allows VMs with like operating systems to share physical memory to store redundant memory pages. Processor Hardware Memory Assist: X X NO NO Reduces the time required to exchange memory resources between the host and the virtual machine using the latest x86 processors.
- 3. FEATURE Red Hat VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Virutal Enterprise 4.0 2008 R2 Infrastructure 3 Virtualization for Servers Networking Virtual NICs: The hypervisor can 8 per guest 10 per guest Max of 8 “internal” 4 per guest present to each virtual machine multiple NICS for VM to VM virtual network interface cards, each of traffic, 4 “external” which can map to different virtual NICS for networks and physical NICs on the host connection to rest machine. of network vLANs: Support for virtual LANs on the X X Requires Host OS X virtual NICs inside the virtual and VM OS infrastructure. configuration Network Offload: Reduces CPU X X X X resources needed to process virtual networking and network IO by offloading to compatible NIC hardware. Jumbo Frames X X R2 only X Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Ecosystem Server Hardware: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization is certified on all hardware currently certified for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, including systems from Cisco®, Dell®, Fujistu®, Fujitsu Siemens®, Hewlett Packard®, Hitachi®, IBM®, Intel®, Lenovo®, NEC®, SGI®, Sun Microsystems®, Tyan®, Unisys®, and others. Storage: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization is supported on all storage hardware certified for RHEL 5. Networking: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization includes support for network hardware and interfaces certified for RHEL 5. Guest Operating Systems Red Hat supports Support for most Windows 2003, Support for most Windows 2003, x86 operating 2008 (certain SPs x86 operating 2008, XP and systems, including only), RHEL 5+ systems, including RHEL 3,4,5+. Windows, Linux, only Windows, Linux, UNIX UNIX Management Features High Availability Intelligent Failover: Red Hat Enterprise X Requires Requires Windows Requires Standard Virtualization high availability ensures Advanced or higher Clustering or Enterprise that high priority virtual machines are automatically restarted on failure of the VM itself or the host on which it resides.
- 4. FEATURE Red Hat VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Virutal Enterprise 4.0 2008 R2 Infrastructure 3 Virtualization for Servers Maintenance Mode: Red Hat X X NO X Enterprise Virtualization hosts undergoing maintenance automatically have their guest VMs migrated to other available hosts and are removed as targets for migration until maintenance is complete. Migration Live Migration Red Hat Enterprise X Requires Yes in R2, requires Requires Virtualization can automatically or Advanced or higher Windows Enterprise manually migrate running virtual Clustering machines from one host to another without downtime when the virtual disk files reside on a shared storage substrate. System Scheduler Shared Resource Pools: Pools of X X NO X resources such as CPU, memory, and storage are aggregated and managed at the datacenter or cluster level rather than machine-by-machine. Cluster Resource Policies: Red Hat X Enterprise and NO Enterprise only Enterprise Virtualization allows Enterprise Plus (DRS) administrators to set cluster policies for only (DRS) resource smoothing. Image Management Thin Provisioning: Allows the creation X X X NO of virtual machines with virtual disks that do not take up all of their allowed space upon creation. This allows better use of storage resources as needed. Templates: Virtual machines can be X X X X deployed from master installations. This saves time and disk space, as template- driven virtual machines can be stored with only the differences between the template and the VM on disk. Control, Monitoring and Reporting Central Control and Visibility: Red Hat X X Requires multiple X Enterprise Virtualization Manager is your products to fully single-view management GUI for your manage entire enterprise virtualization infrastructure. Host and VM Management: Red Hat X X X X
- 5. FEATURE Red Hat VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Virutal Enterprise 4.0 2008 R2 Infrastructure 3 Virtualization for Servers Enterprise Virtualization Manager provides host and VM management System Monitoring: System status can X X Requires SCOM X be monitored from Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager. Alerts and Notifications: Red Hat X X X X Enterprise Virtualization Manager can report errors and warnings to administrators via email Remote Console: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization Manager allows console access to virtual machines using secure VNC or desktop-optimized SPICE® remote desktop technology. Access Control: Administrative and X X X X user access to your virtual datacenter can be controlled and managed from Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager Active Directory Integration: Red Hat X X X X Enterprise Virtualization Manager interfaces with your existing Microsoft Active Directory for user access and authentication. Roles and Permissions: Users and X X X X administrators can be assigned granular security access to your datacenter from the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager interface. PXE Boot Support: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization Manager supports PXE boot for network installation of virtual machines. Logging: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization Manager provides extensive logging for troubleshooting and research. Application Programming Interface X X X X (API) Virtual Storage Storage Virtualization: Red Hat X X X X Enterprise Virtualization aggregates and distributes storage resources to maximize flexibility and utilization.
- 6. FEATURE Red Hat VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Virutal Enterprise 4.0 2008 R2 Infrastructure 3 Virtualization for Servers Virtual Disk Files: Virtual disks are X X X X stored as disk files on the various storage domains. Shared Storage: Red Hat Enterprise X X Limited X Virtualization can use NFS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel shared storage for the storage of virtual machines. Storage Multipathing X X X X Recovery VM snapshots: Red Hat Enterprise X X X X Virtualization virtual machine snapshots allow administrators to apply patches and upgrades in a transactional way, and roll back to a known good snapshot if the patch runs into an issue. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION of October, 2009 with no warranty as to its accuracy. Please All information in this document concerning Red Hat check manufacturers' websites for the latest information and Enterprise Virtualization for Servers was accurate as of specification on their products. October, 2009. There may be changes in the current release WHAT NEXT? —please reference the release notes for your installed version. All information concerning products from other For more information, please go to http://www.redhat.com/ manufacturers was taken from publicly available materials as rhev or contact your local Red Hat reseller. Copyright © 2009 Red Hat, Inc. “Red Hat,” Red Hat Linux, the Red Hat “Shadowman” logo, and the products listed are www.redhat.com trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. All other names and marks may be trademarks of their respective companies. RHEVS103R2-20091030 October 30, 2009