Hyper-V

March 12, 2010 | 40 comments

The majority of Windows crashes are caused by third-party device drivers. See how Hyper-V reliability is compromised due to its dependence on a general-purpose OS.

March 1, 2010 | 4 comments

Yo Dawg! I heard you like to virtualize, but there is no truth to the rumor that Xzibit influenced the Hyper-V design.

February 17, 2010 | 20 comments

Microsoft has broken through numerous technological barriers, enabling Windows/Hyper-V to directly execute Linux applications.

February 10, 2010 | 8 comments

Humorous take on a reference to small footprint hypervisor advantages -- not from VMware.

February 1, 2010 | 15 comments

With Hyper-V R2 out the door, leaked screenshots from a post-RTM build of Windows Server 2008 R2 suggest a Dynamic Memory feature is coming in a successor.

January 21, 2010 | 25 comments

Microsoft Virtualization publishes an embarrassing guest post refuting vSphere advantages, doing more harm than good.

January 13, 2010 | 35 comments

Learn about Microsoft's attempt to implement memory overcommit in Hyper-V.

December 17, 2009 | 3 comments

In an InformationWeek article, Elias Khnaser does an excellent job of articulating several of the key advantages that VMware vSphere has over Hyper-V -- memory overcommit, hypervisor footprint, maturity, and more.

December 3, 2009 | 14 comments

While Microsoft marketing material claims Hyper-V and SCVMM can transfer large virtual machine files and templates over a SAN, the truth is that all VM transfers are done over the network. Only VMware ESX leverages high-speed storage area networking for VM migration.

November 18, 2009 | 11 comments

VMware vSphere 4 offers multiple options for expanding virtual machine storage with zero downtime, including the ability to grow a running virtual disk. Hyper-V marketing literature makes a similar claim, but is limited to simply adding another virtual disk.

November 10, 2009 | 19 comments

According to Microsoft's own documentation, integrating SCOM with SCVMM adds high complexity and additional cost to your virtualization environment.

November 3, 2009 | 38 comments

Microsoft stretches the truth when claiming that VMware adds an additional layer to your architecture. The fact is, Hyper-V relies on its own instance of Windows and requires more instances for running apps.

October 15, 2009 | 5 comments

When a Hyper-V virtual machine console is connected and a live migration is initiated -- automatically with PRO Tips or manually -- the remote client disconnects. The situation must be resolved manually by the administrator, unlike VMware ESX, which seamlessly migrates remote console connections during VMotion.

October 12, 2009 | 10 comments

Hyper-V CSV LUNs have no human-friendly labels, making it difficult for administrators to easily identify volumes. Instead, cryptic GUIDs are shown when monitoring from System Center Operations Manager 2007.

September 18, 2009 | 97 comments

In Windows Server 2008 R2, Cluster Shared Volumes enable multiple hosts to access a single shared LUN. However, administrators may not manipulate or back up VM files on a CSV.

August 19, 2009 | 9 comments

If your server OEM supports it, you might be able to get the free Hyper-V Server R2 to boot from a flash drive someday. VMware ESXi supports this feature today.

August 10, 2009 | 18 comments

Do not believe the hype from Microsoft execs about System Center single pane of glass management. The loosely integrated tools require administrators to use numerous interfaces.

July 24, 2009 | 5 comments

Windows Server 2008 automatically downloads the non-beta Hyper-V patch after installation. If Microsoft is using this metric for Hyper-V deployments, they are not being honest.

July 21, 2009 | 4 comments

Even with the recent move of offering open source (GPL2) Linux integration components (drivers), Linux guests fall quite short of being first-class virtual citizens on Hyper-V.

June 18, 2009 | 3 comments

Microsoft Virtualization was counting Hyper-V downloads -- requried for every Windows Server 2008 system -- and using that metric to imply Hyper-V adoption.

June 12, 2009 | 9 comments

It is very difficult to cleanly shut down a Linux VM on Hyper-V if it is configured for HA. This is because there is no orderly guest shutdown feature in the integration components.

May 27, 2009 | 4 comments

Now that Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V has released… What’s that? It has not yet released? Sorry about that, I was confused for a moment — all of the key features of Hyper-V that Microsoft Virtualization team has been talking about for months are actually in the R2 product, which is currently just at release candidate [...]

May 20, 2009 | 3 comments

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt — FUD.  The expression may have started with the mainframe generation, but these days most technology pros associate the term with Microsoft tactics.  That’s why I find it more than a little humorous to see the Microsoft Virtualization Team using it on their blog right now in an attempt to defend Hyper-V’s [...]

May 13, 2009 | 6 comments

Hyper-V is often downloaded to Windows Server systems that will never be used to run virtual machines. Making this an irrelevant metric for Hyper-V installed base figures.

April 24, 2009 | 5 comments

One of the greatest things about virtual machines is the ability to take snapshots, which can be used to quickly roll a VM back to a known state. Previously, I have written about some of the shortcomings with Microsoft’s Hyper-V snapshots.  Or were they checkpoints?  I forget… but that’s not important.  The main problem with the [...]

April 23, 2009 | 2 comments

I have given some coverage recently to Linux guest operating system support on Hyper-V, especially the incredible announcement last month of mouse support for Linux guests! Just when you thought it could not get any better, the Microsoft Virtualization gang surprised us again this month.  No, it’s still not orderly guest shutdown support, or OS customization, [...]

April 9, 2009 | 4 comments

The SVVP identifies VMware ESX releases that are supported by Microsoft. Customers are sometimes turned away unnecessarily due to lack of awareness.

April 6, 2009 | 9 comments

Recently, Microsoft published a questionable video dispelling numerous VMware myths.  The only problem, at least for Microsoft, is that they really didn’t do a very convincing job.  In fact, the video is so sorry that I don’t mind promoting it here on VCritical — check it out! Mythbusters Busted Gabe’s Virtual World has an excellent rebuttal of [...]

March 25, 2009 | 11 comments

The Citrix/Microsoft partnership continues to bear fruit.  Just yesterday they announced an awesome new capability for Linux virtual machines running on Hyper-V.  Have you heard? No, it’s not P2V and it’s not guest customization.  No, it’s not orderly guest shutdown.  It’s not time sync either. You must have seen it — the news is everywhere!  It’s mouse [...]

March 12, 2009 | 1 comment

Question When is it okay to disregard the EULA clause on publishing hypervisor performance benchmarks? Answer Never.

March 10, 2009 | 7 comments

Yesterday I wrote a summary of the hazards of using SCVMM to manage VI3 — highlighting previously published VCritical articles as well as linking to a new series of videos on Why Choose VMware.  Looks like VMware may have hit a nerve, as the Microsoft virtualization team scrambled to issue a barrage of rebuttals. My work [...]

March 9, 2009 | 6 comments

Features found in VMware ESX are unnecessarily neutered when attempting to manage by using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.

March 5, 2009 | No comments

Long live the Management Operating System! In an effort to clarify the overly complex concept of “parent partition,” Microsoft changed the terminology before things really got out of hand.  Surely you’ve heard the one about the Hyper-V administrator that called into Microsoft product support asking why he had to give a portion of his new system [...]

February 19, 2009 | 3 comments

Hyper-V Linux guests (SUSE) do not yet have integration components or customization capabilities. Nor can you P2V a Linux system to Hyper-V.

February 17, 2009 | 4 comments

Encapsulation is one of the four key benefits of VMware virtual machines.  On the surface it may seem like this is a common feature across all virtualization platforms — but it’s not. If you are a VMware ESX administrator, you know that a VMware virtual machine consists of several files,  normally contained in a single directory.  [...]

February 6, 2009 | 10 comments

Unlike Hyper-V, VMware ESX ships with complete network interface (NIC) teaming capabilities, a critical feature for hypervisors.

January 22, 2009 | 1 comment

Although SLES 10 is supposedly supported by SCVMM 2008, administrators must look elsewhere for a Linux guest customization solution.

January 9, 2009 | 2 comments

By design, System Center Virtual Machine Manager copies ISO CD/DVD images to managed hosts instead of sharing. For VMware ESX it uses SFTP. For ESXi, it fails.

January 6, 2009 | No comments

Unlike VMware ESX, when administrators delete snapshots on Hyper-V, the disks are not merged until the VM is powered off -- potentially filling up disks.

December 23, 2008 | 1 comment

Users that wish to implement Hyper-V CPU reservations and limits are forced to open another tool, Hyper-V Manager, instead of configure these with SCVMM.

December 19, 2008 | 1 comment

Virtual machine snapshots are a quick way to recover from unexpected incompatibilities you may encounter when patching guest operating systems.  In fact, VMware Update Manager even provides an option to automatically snapshot a VM before applying updates and then delete the snapshot after a specified amount of time. Even if you are not using VMware Update [...]

December 18, 2008 | 1 comment

Although the Hyper-V Manager and SCVMM allow removing snapshots from running VMs, they are not actually merged until the VM is powered off.

December 15, 2008 | No comments

This article is part of a series on Incoming Google Traffic (IGT). Want to know what happens if your virtualization platform uses native OS clustering technologies to provide highly-available virtual machines?  You become an unwitting cluster administrator.  I’m referring to MSCS-style clustering, now known as Failover Clustering.  You know, one VM per LUN stuff. Take a look [...]

December 5, 2008 | No comments

When managing a virtual environment, there are two layers of patching that need to be considered.  Guest operating systems and applications inside the virtual machines need regular updates — patch Tuesday for Windows.  And the hypervisor platforms themselves, like any other software, also need to be patched. What happens to the virtual machines when the hypervisor [...]

December 3, 2008 | 1 comment

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: What’s the difference between a checkpoint and a snapshot?

December 1, 2008 | No comments

This article is the first in a series on Incoming Google Traffic (IGT). When I saw this one, I immediately recognized what the frustrated web searcher was seeking: “hyper-v” manage from windows xp Looks like a new Hyper-V user that is not all in with Microsoft.  Time for an upgrade.  You see, besides being available on the Hyper-V [...]

November 5, 2008 | 8 comments

Initially, Hyper-V Server was sort of a mystery.  Some kind of “bare metal hypervisor” that “is not Windows” sounded peculiar.  Details were scarce.  Some thought it would be like ESXi, a small-footprint design that can be embedded in a server via flash memory.  As you know, it turned out to be nothing more than Windows [...]

October 23, 2008 | 4 comments

If you have been using VMware ESX, then you might be a little spoiled by VMFS, VMware’s clustered filesystem. I have a hunch that many of us just take it for granted: create large LUNs, add to multiple ESX servers, create your virtual machines and be done with it. And, oh, migrate the [...]

October 17, 2008 | 4 comments

Microsoft Hyper-V Server is finally out.  We sure heard a lot about the new Windows-less hypervisor this year and how it was definitely not Windows.  Well, that turned out to be a bunch of marketing spin.  Not only is it just Windows, it even requires you to install some Internet Explorer security patches.  Huh? It would [...]

October 10, 2008 | No comments

There are quite a few articles these days comparing VMware virtualization with Microsoft Hyper-V, which is to be expected since the press knows this topic is in the foreground for many IT managers right now. A typical, albeit incorrect, comparison goes something like this: Both products are bare metal hypervisors VMware has lots of great features, like VMotion [...]