VMWare or Hyper-V
Want to learn virtural software, I wanted to know which one is better VMWare or Hyper-V?
Also if I have Server 2008 standard can I add Hyper-V or do I have to buy Enterprise edition of Server 2008?
Thanks
JC
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I see that I have to install Hyper-V on a 64 bit system, can I install VMWare on a 32 bit ,dual 2. 5 quad CPU, 4 gig of memory Srv 2008 Sstandard?
http://www.vmware.com/products/server/
I would suggest reading VMWare Server's product page. It will answer many of the next million questions.
I would suggest reading VMWare Server's product page. It will answer many of the next million questions.
SInce I have epxerience with all four solutions (ESX and ESXi in production, VMware Server and Hyper-V in test environments) I would consider VMware products in every single scenario.
First, someone said here, VMware is years in front of Microsofts virtualization technology. ESXi and VMware server products are both free. But, don't forget that although ESXi is free of charge, it still requires one VMw's commercial product -Virtual Center which represents the management interface to the ESX and ESXi servers.
The other fact is that VMware offers much wider platform support than MS does, especially if your goal is Unix/Linux virtual machines.
And, if your server doesn't support 64-bit platform, than you can forget about Hyper-V at the start since it requires 64-bit CPU with hardware virtualization support.
Just one correction - the direct competitor to MS Hyper-V is VMware ESXi server and not VMware Server product. You can find that this fact true because both Microsoft and VMware are doing comparisions only between those two products.
So, my recommendation goes to VMware Server which runs on all 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSs. Although sometimes it's management console is not too stable (thanks to the fact that it is Java based), it still has much wider OS support than Hyper-V does.
Also, I would recommend downloading VMware's free product named VMware Converter Standard which is the great product if you want to convert physical machines (Windows based) to virtual machines in just few clicks.
First, someone said here, VMware is years in front of Microsofts virtualization technology. ESXi and VMware server products are both free. But, don't forget that although ESXi is free of charge, it still requires one VMw's commercial product -Virtual Center which represents the management interface to the ESX and ESXi servers.
The other fact is that VMware offers much wider platform support than MS does, especially if your goal is Unix/Linux virtual machines.
And, if your server doesn't support 64-bit platform, than you can forget about Hyper-V at the start since it requires 64-bit CPU with hardware virtualization support.
Just one correction - the direct competitor to MS Hyper-V is VMware ESXi server and not VMware Server product. You can find that this fact true because both Microsoft and VMware are doing comparisions only between those two products.
So, my recommendation goes to VMware Server which runs on all 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSs. Although sometimes it's management console is not too stable (thanks to the fact that it is Java based), it still has much wider OS support than Hyper-V does.
Also, I would recommend downloading VMware's free product named VMware Converter Standard which is the great product if you want to convert physical machines (Windows based) to virtual machines in just few clicks.
ASKER
Thanks for you input
From a theoretical point of view, playing with either solution will at least expose you to the vagaries of virtualisation.