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VMware with their excellent ESX product seem like an invincible superhero in this area. There have been no serious threats to VMware’s stranglehold on the virtualisation market to date. Even Microsoft with Hyper-V R1 looked nothing more than a wimp in comparison to the superhero that is VMware with ESX and vSphere. It seemed that no one could touch them and if anyone tried they got punched in the face real hard!!

VMware is mature and stable and it has the backing of many enterprise installations singing its praises all over the world. VMware has become the default choice for virtualisation in the same way that IBM was once the default choice in Mainframes.

Microsoft knew that its Hyper-V R1 was not quite ready for a face to face run in with the VMware superhero. So not wanting to be left behind Microsoft put the kid in the gym and fed him a solid diet of steroids. What resulted (in a Rocky Balboa kind of way) is Hyper-V R2!! And this kid means serious business…

Hyper-V R2 flexes its muscle by bringing the following features to the ring to take the fight right to VMware.

Live Migration

This has been the most anticipated feature in Hyper V R2 which allows you to move a running virtual machine between two virtualization host servers without any interruption of service. Hyper-V live migration is integrated with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. This function will allow Data centres with multiple Hyper-V physical hosts to move running VMs to the best physical computer for performance, scaling, or optimal consolidation without affecting user service. This feature is a must for any enterprise class data centre administrator who might be considering using Hyper-V R2 to run their critical service VMs.

Increased Hardware Support for Hyper-V Virtual Machines

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 now supports up to 64 logical processors, 1TB of memory and support for up to 384 running VM’s. This will greatly improve the Hyper-V VM density that VMware is so vocal about Microsoft not having. This is a significant change from the previous version that allows not only greater numbers of VMs to be run per host but also but also gives IT administrators more flexibility in assigning resources to VMs. Another great feature that has been added is the Hyper-V processor compatibility mode for live migration. This allows live migration across different CPU versions within the same processor family (for example, ”Intel Core 2-to-Intel Pentium 4” or “AMD Opteron-to-AMD Athlon”). Which means that live migration can occur over a greater range of hardware without issue.

Cluster Shared Volumes, Cluster node Connectivity Fault Tolerance and Enhanced Cluster Validation Tool

Hyper-V R2 now uses Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) storage to simplify and enhance shared storage usage. CSV enables multiple Windows Servers to access SAN storage using a single namespace for all volumes on all hosts. Multiple hosts can access the same Logical Unit Number (LUN) on SAN storage. CSV enables faster live migration and easier storage management for Hyper-V when used in a cluster configuration. Cluster Shared Volumes are available as part of the Windows Failover Clustering feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. With CSV, there is improved cluster node connectivity fault tolerance that directly affects VMs running on the cluster. The CSV architecture now incorporates “dynamic I/O redirection”, where I/O can be rerouted within the failover cluster based on connection availability.

Windows Server 2008 R2 now includes a Best Practices Analyser (BPA) for all major server roles, including Failover Clustering. This analyser examines the best practices configuration settings for a cluster and cluster nodes and advises you accordingly of anything that may be out of step.

Improved Management of Virtual Data Centers

Even with all the efficiency gained from virtualization, VMs still need to be managed (remember that boring part?). The number of VMs tends to proliferate much faster than physical computers because machines typically do not require a hardware acquisition which results in “virtualization creep”. Therefore the management of virtual data centers is even more imperative than ever before. Hyper-V R2 works in conjunction with SCVMM R2 to provide you with a single point of administration for all your VMs.

Improved Virtual Networking Performance (Jumbos, Chimneys and Queues…a day at the airport??)

“Come fly with me, come fly lets fly away..” I wonder if Frank Sinatra was thinking Jumbo packet sizes for Hyper-V when he was singing that song? Most likely not however Jumbo Packets which were available in non-virtualised environments can now be utilised in Hyper-V R2 to make the data going in and out of your VMs “fly”. What is a Jumbo packet size you may ask? Well essentially it is a packet that can hold up to 9014 bytes of data, if the network it runs over can support it. This reduces the network stack overhead incurred per byte and increases network throughput whilst reducing CPU cycles through the few number of calls made to the network driver by the network stack. In a nutshell more data gets pumped through the network interface to the VMs in a shorter time.

TCP Chimney has a strange name but some great functionality. In essence TCP Chimney allows the offloading of TCP/IP processing to the network hardware. This improves VM performance by allowing the VM to offload network processing to hardware, especially on networks with large data transfer requirements and bandwidth over 1 GB. Keep in mind that these features are only supported in your configuration if you are running one of a handful of supported network cards that have a TCP Offload Engine (TOE). But if you are, then you get the ability to take a lot of those CPU cycles used to process the network load and hand it off to the NIC’s.

The Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) feature allows physical computer network interface cards (NICs) to use direct memory access (DMA) to place the contents of packets directly into VM memory, increasing I/O performance over and above what was offered by Hyper V R1.

Increased Performance and Reduce Power Consumption (Grunt and Green!)

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 adds enhancements that reduce virtual machine power consumption. Hyper-V now supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), which uses new CPU functionality to improve VM performance while reducing processing load on the Windows Hypervisor. In addition to this Hyper-V R2 takes advantage of the new Core Parking feature implemented in Windows Server 2008 R2 this feature enables the OS to rationalise workloads to a particular core so that another core may be freed from processing. If the workloads may be managed on say two of the four cores the OS can “park” the other two cores which in effect reduce the power consumption. It is a bit like “Displacement on Demand” in the automotive world, you only chew up the juice when you need it. Nice!.

VHD performance has also been significantly improved as well with fixed disk VHD’s running at near native disk speed and Dynamic VHD’s running at 95% of native disk speed. This is a major improvement and everyone who is currently running Hyper V will be very happy with the performance increase.

Dynamic VM storage

“Please Sir, I want some more!!” so went the immortal lines of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. The truth of that matter is that just like Oliver Twist we all want “more” and we want “more” often! So with that image of insatiable resource greed in one’s head it is easy to see why Microsoft decided that Hyper V R2 would support hot plug in and removal of storage. This allows the addition or removal of Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) files and pass-through disks while a VM is running, which makes it possible to reconfigure the VMs quickly to meet the moving target of VM workload requirements. This feature allows the addition and removal of both VHD files and pass-through disks to existing SCSI controllers for VMs. More space…more often…pity Oliver wasn’t as lucky!

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V supports hot plug-in and hot removal of storage. By supporting the addition or removal of Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) files and pass-through disks while a VM is running, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V makes it possible to reconfigure VMs quickly to meet changing workload requirements. This feature allows the addition and removal of both VHD files and pass-through disks to existing SCSI controllers for VMs.

So as you can see from the above new features Hyper V R2 is a significant improvement over Hyper V R1 in its flexibility to meet the ever changing needs of corporate environments. But the burning question I am sure everyone is most likely asking is...

“Is it ready for the Enterprise??”

This is a great question and one that needs to approached from an open perspective. To date the majority of enterprise class data centres and corporate infrastructures have been virtualised with VMware. It is important to note here that that Hyper-V and VMware are not equal in their abilities and feature sets; anyone who has done their homework knows this. However, I will say that with R2 they are pretty close and that gap will continue to close now that Microsoft is finally doing a good job of responding to its customers needs.

Recently the Burton Group (www.burtongroup.com) released a 64 page report detailing that Microsoft’s Hyper V lacked three (3) of the twenty seven (27) key features that would classify it as “Enterprise Ready”. According to the Burton Group Hyper-V R2 is missing high availability with assignable virtual machine (VM) restart priority, the computer requirement of at least two virtual CPUs per guest operating system and in the management category it had a lack of fault tolerance. The report is accurate and Hyper V R2 does indeed come short of the mark as measured by the Burton group’s criteria.

But I personally disagree with the Burton group’s final conclusions that Hyper V R2 is not ready for the Enterprise and therefore is not a good investment.

Here is why…

“Reason 1- The Cost”

You can’t beat it. With VMware you will have to invest in vSphere and then purchase any of the extra features that you may require such as vMotion, HA and DRS. Then in addition to that, you will need to purchase all of your Microsoft CALs to run as guests. This exercise can get very expensive very quickly. Microsoft Hyper-V is included with the Windows Server 2008 R2 CAL and depending on the version you implement; it comes with a number of guest licenses as well.

The best option for many enterprises that are planning on implementing a large number of VM’s is in building Windows Server 2008 Datacenter into their design plan. Windows Server 2008 Datacenter edition is priced per processor, but also (and more importantly!) includes an unlimited guest CAL. This means that you can host an unlimited number of virtual machines with no additional licensing cost and that is great incentive for many looking into larger scale data centre implementations on Hyper V.

This Reduction in TCO is an important driver for many data centre managers and Hyper V R2 can provide a significant lever from which to start your TCO reduction as significant savings over the cost of a VMware solution can (and have) been achieved.

“Reason 2- The Feature set”

Surely VMware is better right?

As stated earlier Hyper-V R2 is not as mature in its capabilities as a hypervisor as VMware is, given that is missing features like Memory Overcommit and Storage vMotion. But, these are not necessarily important to all enterprises today. The well thought-out feature set that Hyper-V R2 gives many data centres the “core” functionality that they would require in order to implement and manage Hyper V solution with success.

“Reason 3- The Management Aspect”

With Hyper V R2 you can have the complete integration of the System Center management suite at your disposal. This will include System Center Configuration manager (SCCM), Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM), System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM). This suite will let you have complete visibility of your entire network from a management and monitoring point of view and will allow you to manage not only your virtual systems but your physical systems as well. With SCVMM you can even manage your VMware ESX/Virtual Center and Hyper V R2 hosts all from the one console using the std APIs exposed in VMware. This gives you a “single pane of glass” from which to view and control your environment and that will make a significant contribution to reducing your ongoing management costs.

“But VMware is still better…right??”

At this point in time VMware still has a few more tricks up its sleeve and is the undisputed virtualisation superhero. However the wide gap that once existed between them is now quite narrow and a very good portion of the industry’s data centres and corporate infrastructures could quite successfully run on Hyper V R2 with reduced cost, excellent performance and ease of manageability.

Look out Apollo Creed…..Rocky is coming…and the kid now has serious muscle! ☺

About the Author

John Filippis is certified by Microsoft as an MCT, MCSE, MCTS and MCITP (Enterprise Administrator Server 2008 and Enterprise Support Technician) . He has trained thousands of students over 12 years in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. John has delivered standard and customised courses on Windows Server, Exchange, SBS, IIS, SMS, SCCM and MOM. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering is a member of the Australian Computer Society, Mensa Australia and a Graduate Member of the Institution of Engineers Australia. In the past John was a director of two IT companies for four years in the UK and before that was a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry. He is now the Asia Pacific Training Manager for EXCOM Education.