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VMware vSphere 5.5 with Operations Management Features
and Benets Compared to Microsoft Windows Server 2012
R2 Hyper-V and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.3
VMware vSphere The best platform for building private, public, and hybrid cloud infrastructures
1. Virtualization Platform
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
VMware, the industry's leading virtualization and cloud management platform
Bare-metal Architecture VMware ESXi inserts a robust virtualization layer directly on the server hardware for near-native
virtual machine performance, reliability, and scalability. Less than 200 MB, ESXi is a fraction of the size of a general purpose
operating system, ofering unparalleled security and reliability
3
Hyper-V requires components of
Windows. Hyper-V with Server Core
has a 5 GB footprint
RHEV Hypervisor excludes some
Linux OS components
Direct Driver Model VMware ESXi uses a direct driver model that locates the device drivers that link virtual machines to
physical devices directly in the hypervisor. This results in optimal performance as a result of a shorter I/O path
3
No No
Server Integration VMware ESXi is available integrated into servers from leading OEM vendors for a simplied boot and
deployment experience
3
Limited, OEM vendors can preinstall
Windows Server 2012 R2, but
additional conguration needed to
enable Hyper-V role
No
Guest Operating Systems Support VMware vSphere 5.5 supports 88 diferent guest operating systems, including Windows,
Linux, Solaris, MAC OS X, and more 3
Limited, supports only 35 guest OSs.
Gen 2 VMs are only supported with
Windows 2012/8
Limited, only 30 guest OSs supported.
Several guest OSs dont support Spice
Linux and Unix Operating System Support VMware vSphere 5.5 provides industry-leading support for Linux, supporting 34
diferent Linux guest operating systems. Included only with VMware is a software subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
3
Microsoft only supports 13 Linux guest
operating systems, with no Unix
support. Requires use of legacy Gen 1
virtual hardware
No Unix support, limited Linux
support
Software Virtual Appliances Run over 1000 available production software applications from hundreds of software vendors
as easy-to-deploy virtual appliances, including the entire vSphere with Operations Management suite 3
There are only a handful of appliances
available with no momentum toward
a marketplace like VMwares
No virtual appliance download center
Software Applications Over 1400 ISV partners support over 5000 applications on vSphere
3
No requirements for ISVs to certify
applications on Hyper-V
Not published
Support for Microsoft Clustering Services Cluster virtual machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system across
physical hosts
3
Yes No
Storage VMware vSphere 5.5 is rigorously tested and certied on over 900 storage arrays. This includes a wide range of
storage systems from Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NEC, NetApp, StorageTek, Sun
Microsystems , Pillar, Xiotech, and others
3
Supports arrays qualied for Windows
Server 2012 R2
Supports limited subset of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux certied storage
arrays
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
VMware vShield Endpoint Hypervisor layer anti-virus ofoad lets administrators manage anti-virus and anti-malware
policies through the same management interfaces used to secure the physical infrastructure, without the need for in-guest
agents.. Use industry leading anti-virus solutions or leverage REST APIs for customized integration
3
No No
Conguring USB Device Passthrough from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine Virtual machines can use USB devices
connected to an ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if the virtual machine
migrates using vMotion
3
No No
ESXi Firewall The ESXi management interface is protected by a service-oriented and stateless rewall, which you can
congure using the VMware vSphere Web Client or the command line
3
Windows Firewall iptables
Advanced Memory Protection
Memory Fault Isolation On supported platforms, ESXi detects and quarantines physical memory regions that exhibit frequent
correctable errors. This preemptive action reduces the risk of uncorrectable errors that result in virtual machine or host downtime
3
No No
Reliable Memory Technology Optimized placement of the VMkernel and other critical components to guard against memory
errors that could afect system stability and availability
3
No No
Advanced CPU Capabilities
CPU Capacity Prioritization CPU capacity on a host is assigned to virtual machines on a fair share basis, and CPU resource
controls also allow an absolute minimum level of CPU capacity to be provided to critical virtual machines. View CPU assigned
resource controls centrally and leverage resource pools to guarantee resources to the most critical resources
3
Limited, Hyper-V lacks resource pools
and top-level management of resources
Limited CPU shares capability,
disabled by default
Virtualized CPU Counters Performance counters for debugging, tuning, and troubleshooting 3 No No
Advanced Memory Management
Transparent Page Sharing Utilize available memory more efciently by storing memory pages identical across multiple
virtual machines only once. For example, if several virtual machines are running the same operating system, they may have
many identical memory pages. Transparent page sharing consolidates those identical pages into a single memory location
3
No Limited, Linux Kernel Samepage
Merging allows limited overcommitment
and is disabled by default
Memory Ballooning Shift memory dynamically from idle virtual machines to active ones. Memory ballooning articially
induces memory pressure within idle virtual machines, forcing them to use their own paging areas and release memory for
active virtual machines
3
Dynamic Memory support is limited
to specic guest operating systems
and service pack levels http://
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/
library/hh831766.aspx
Limited, ballooning is possible with
Virtio but can interfere with KSM
Memory Compression ESXi will selectively compress memory pages to delay the need to swap to disk when under memory
pressure. Compression operates signicantly faster than swapping, so virtual machine performance is maintained longer
3
No No
Hypervisor Paging When more memory is needed than can be provided by the above methods or an instant response is
needed, ESXi will swap memory pages to disk
3
Limited, Hyper-V Smart Paging acts
only when a VM is restarted and
memory can be reclaimed from other
VMs on the same host
Yes
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Guest Memory Resource Shares Prioritize memory allocations to virtual machines by assignable shares. Leverage resource
pools for comprehensive resource conguration management. Ensures critical virtual machines get memory needed to meet
service level agreements
3
Limited, Hyper-Vs memory weight
feature is simplistic and lacks
enforcement. Its difcult to manage
due to a lack of a logical resource pool
management object
No, quotas only allow for limits to be
placed on resources
Swap to Host Cache The VMkernel scheduler is modied to allow ESXi swap to extend to local or network SSD devices, which
enables memory overcommitment and minimizes performance impact. The VMkernel automatically recognizes and tags SSD
devices that are local to ESXi or are on the network
3
Limited w/Hyper-V Smart Paging No
Hot Add virtual devices without downtime
Memory Add virtual memory
3
Requires explicit guest operating
support for Dynamic Memory. Note
that you cannot enable dynamic
memory, increase minimum RAM, or
decrease maximum RAM while online
No
Hard Disk Add or remove virtual storage
Hot-add virtual disks 3 Only possible for SCSI attached drives Yes
Hot-extend virtual disks 3
No ability to hot extend boot volumes
for Gen 1 VMs
Yes
CPU Add or remove virtual processors 3 No No
NIC Add or remove virtual networking devices 3 No Yes
Enhanced virtual machine support
Software Support for 3D Graphics ESXi supports non-hardware accelerated 3D graphics to run Windows Aero and Basic 3D
applications in virtual machines
3
Requires use of RemoteFX No
Hardware Support for 3D Graphics vGPU Graphic Ofoad provides support for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics inside a
virtual machine. Ofoad can be congured so that hardware-acceleration will continue after a VMware vSphere vMotion
operation is requested if available
3
Requires use of RemoteFX No
UEFI virtual BIOS Virtual machines running on ESXi 5.5 can boot from and use the Unied Extended Firmware Interface (UEFI) 3 Only with Generation 2 Virtual Machines No
Linux Guest Graphic Acceleration VMware has developed and provided a guest driver that accelerates the entire Graphics
Stack for modern distributions, with VMware contributing 100 percent of the code back to open-source community
3
No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
2. Centralized Administration and Management
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Top Level Management and Integration
Centralized Control and Visibility VMware vCenter Server is a platform that provides centralized control and visibility for your
virtual infrastructure. Through VMware vCenter, administrators can perform infrastructure upgrades and view operational
metrics, alerts, and infrastructure diagrams
3
Administrative experience is
inconsistent. In some cases multiple
tools are required to perform
operations or retrieve information. In
other cases it is possible to perform
operations with one of several tools,
making auditing and reporting difcult
Limited capabilities that require
separate portals for users,
administrators, and reporting
VMware vCenter Server Appliance Quickly deploy vCenter Server and manage vSphere using a Linux-based virtual appliance
3
SCVMM requires a full Windows install
and conguration of SCVMM
No, requires a RHEL host OS and
manual addition of software through
Red Hat Network
Fine-grained Access Control Secure the environment with congurable, tiered group denitions and ne-grained permissions
3
SCVMM roles require dening and
management of separate SCVMM
private clouds
Limited capabilities set permissions to
a subset of hosts or VMs
Consistent Experience for Administrators VMwares UI design provides for a consistent administrative experience, whether it
be from an individual host or via a vCenter Server
3
No, administrators will be required to
use one of several tools, which are
often inconsistent in their capabilities
and UI design
Limited, requires extensive command
line conguration and Linux
knowledge for administration
Centralized Licensing Administer and manage all license keys centrally within vCenter Server. License Reporting Manager
generates reports on license keys and usage
3
No No
Session Management Discover and, if necessary, terminate vCenter Server user sessions 3 No No
Comprehensive Inventory Model Manage the complete inventory of virtual machines, applications, resource pools, and
physical servers with greater visibility into object relationships. The inventory model provides the exibility to organize objects
into folders and create two separate hierarchical views
3
SCVMM provides limited insight into
object relationships from its various
views. SCOM is required for
additional visibility
No
Interactive Topology Maps Visualize the relationships between physical servers, virtual machines, networks, and storage.
Topology maps allow admins to easily verify correct conguration for distributed services such as vMotion, VMware vSphere
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and VMware vSphere High Availability (HA)
3
SCVMM topology maps are limited to
basic network topologies only. SCOM
is required for additional maps
No
VMware vSphere Distributed Switch Centralized network provisioning, administration, and monitoring using data center-
wide network aggregation. Congure settings for uplinks or port groups with the choice to inherit congurations or override
congurations for more granular control
3
Logical Networking in SCVMM is
complex to congure and manage.
Lacks inheritance and override
capabilities like those provided by
port groups in vSphere
No
VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions Deploy and manage Hadoop clusters via the vSphere Web Client, allowing the
creation and management of Hadoop clusters for multiple tenants
3
No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Prole Driven Storage
Storage Proles Classify datastores based on the service levels and required performance characteristics
3
Basic storage classications with no
array intelligence
No
Datastore Clusters A collection of datastores with shared resources and management that leverage VMware vSphere Storage
DRS capabilities
3
No No
vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) Gain deep insight into storage characteristics through integration with the
vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness 3
Limited, storage provisioning
capabilities are provided through
SCVMM but lack storage I/O intelligence
No
Storage Prole Compliance A single pane of glass to check compliance of all virtual machines and the associated virtual
disks, ensuring that even administrators who dont necessarily have access to all the diferent layers can validate compliance
3
No No
View Storage Resources Holistically Browse various levels of the infrastructure hierarchy and view statistics for datastore
usage and virtual machine disk allocation and usage 3
Limited storage views in SCVMM
lack comprehensive management
capabilities
Very limited
Manage available host resources through the creation of elastic resource pools
Flexible Hierarchical Organization Organize resource pools hierarchically to match available IT resources to the business
organization. DRS ensures that resource utilization is maximized while business units retain control and autonomy of their
infrastructure. Resource pools can be exibly added, removed, or reorganized as business needs or organization change
3
Lacks hierarchical resource pools or
controls and the ability to guarantee
resources among tenants
Lacks hierarchical resource pools or
controls and the ability to guarantee
memory and disk resources among
tenants
Guarantee Resources and Isolation between Resource Pools and Tenants Make allocation changes within a resource pool
without impacting other unrelated resource pools. For example, any allocation changes in the resource pool dedicated to a
given business unit do not impact other resource pools
3
Lacks the ability to guarantee
resources among tenants due to lack
of hierarchical resource pools
Lacks the ability to guarantee
resources among tenants due to
lack of hierarchical resource pools
Automated Resource Monitoring and Alignment
Align Computing Resources with Business Goals Ensure exibility and efcient utilization of hardware resources. VMware
DRS continuously monitors utilization across resource pools and intelligently allocates available resources among virtual
machines based on pre-dened rules and policies. VMware DRS dynamically responds to changing virtual machine
requirements using VMware vMotion to move virtual machines non-disruptively between servers
3
Limited, Hyper-V doesnt have
resource pools
Limited capabilities provided by
scheduler
DRS Virtual Machine Host Afnity and Anti-Afnity Rules Set constraints that restrict placement of a virtual machine to a
subset of hosts in a cluster and keep virtual machines paired or separated. This feature is useful for enforcing host-based ISV
licensing or keeping sets of virtual machines on diferent racks or systems for availability reasons
3
Anti-afnity support only.
Afnity rules limited to pinning VMs
to specic hosts, not VM pairing.
Requires both SCVMM and Failover
Cluster Manager
Limited, only host-based afnity rules
exist, and there are no settings to
keep virtual machines together,
separate, or host anti-afnity rules
Virtual Disk Afnity and Anti-Afnity Rules Restrict placement of virtual machine disks with afnity/anti-afnity rules for VMDKs 3 No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Optimized Power Consumption Easily congure vSpheres Distributed Power Management feature at the cluster and host
level. Compare historical demand to place and bring hosts out of standby mode to meet the needs of the infrastructure while
allowing for reduced power consumption and costs
3
Power Management requires a
minimum cluster size of ve due to
reliance on Windows Failover Clustering
Power management with RHEV is
complex and must be congured at
the host level
Storage DRS Automated load balancing uses storage characteristics to determine the best place for a given virtual machines
data to reside both when it is created and when it is used over time based on both storage space and storage I/O resources 3
No capabilities to balance storage
workloads unless using SMB3/SCOFS/
Storage Spaces
No
Intelligent Initial Placement Initially place workloads based on known storage environmental factors such as storage capacity
and storage I/O utilization 3
No, VMM Intelligent Placement only
considers free space when making
placement decisions
No
VMware vSphere Storage I/O Control Provides QoS capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are
enforced across all virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on and the type of
storage used. Use Storage I/O Control to ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in
times of congestion
3
No, Hyper-V allows for conguration
of virtual disk limits, but lacks
comprehensive management of
storage I/O. Disk limits only protect
resources on the same host and lack
storage awareness
No
VMware vSphere Network I/O Control Leverage network I/O control to dene priority access to network resources according
to established business rules. Network I/O Control monitors the network for congestion and automatically shifts resources to
your highest-priority applications
3
Limited, no built-in detection of
known network types such as those in
VMwares Network Resource Pools
No, individual vNIC proles can be
congured for limits and bandwidth, and
Scheduler can move entire workloads to
other hosts, but no methods exist for
automated and policy-based network
resource management
Provisioning
Host Proles and VMware vSphere Auto Deploy Gain the advantage of rapid server deployment with centralized image
management. Eliminate conguration drift by applying host proles and centrally manage compliance through vCenter Server 3
Bare-metal deployments through
SCVMM lack prole compliance and the
ability to address conguration drift
No
Provision Stateless vSphere hosts in Memory 3 No No
Stateless Caching Ensure availability in stateless environments 3 No No
Stateful Install Mode Leverage Auto Deploys infrastructure to deploy vSphere to non-stateless instances 3 No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Automated Infrastructure Upgrades and Updates
Simple Upgrades Without Downtime Maintain system uptime and leverage the capabilities of vMotion and support for
mixed cluster congurations to upgrade between versions without the need for downtime or the purchase and conguration of
hardware for a new cluster
3
No, upgrade involves requirement for
additional servers due to lack of
support for mixed version nodes in
the same cluster
Upgrades to RHEV-M remove high
availability and live migration from the
environment. Must ensure the storage
pool manager role properly transfers
over to another host in the cluster
Virtual Hardware Management Upgrade virtual hardware and tools with a single click or orchestrate and schedule upgrades
via vCenter Update Manager
3
No, lacks automation for integration
service upgrades. Further, System
Center doesnt support upgrading gen
1 to modern gen 2 virtual machines
N/A, RHEV only has one type of
virtual machine
Host Patch Management
Integration with VMware DRS Enable zero downtime ESXi host patching with maintenance mode, leveraging vMotion and
DRS to move running workloads to other hosts in the cluster
3
Possible with multiple tools including
SCVMM, SCCM, and Cluster-Aware
Updating. Multiple tools make auditing
and reporting difcult to manage
No
Recalled Patch Management View a list of recalled patches through Update Manager and set up automated email
notications for recalled patches. Update Manager will mark hosts with recalled patches as non-compliant and delete the
patches from its repository to prevent any future installation. Upon release of xed updates, Update Manager will notify the
users of new patches and provide details on resolving potential issues from recalled patches
3
No built-in capabilities to notify and
automatically remove recalled
patches. Software removal package
must be created and targeted for
deployment to systems with bad
patch via SCCM
No
Patch Compliance Get a data center-wide actionable patch compliance dashboard in vCenter that enables compliance to
baselines through automated scanning and patching. Patching is available for hosts, virtual appliances, virtual hardware, and
VMware tools
3
Possible through setup of WSUS and
integration with SCVMM or SCCM
No, limited views exist only in certain
parts of RHEV Manager
Virtual Machine Management
vSphere Web Client Use a single web-based console to access vCenter Server and manage the entire infrastructure,
including hosts, virtual machines, resource pools, and more. Enable IT administrators and application owners to manage the
essential functions of vSphere from Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer with full support for Mac OS X
3
No, multiple clients required to
administer the environment, for example,
Hyper-V Manager, Failover Cluster
Manager, SCVMM, SCOM. Web-based
management possible with App
Controller in conjunction with Silverlight,
but only supported for Windows
No, separate portals exist for users,
administrators, and reporting. RHEV
Manager provides limited capabilities
and requires setup and use of SPICE/
VNC/RDP integrations and plugins
Remote devices Install software in a virtual machine running on a server from the CD-ROM of a desktop without leaving your desk
3
No No, VMs can only mount ISOs in an
NFS directory
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
USB 3.0 support ESXi features support for USB 3.0 devices in virtual machines with Linux guest operating systems. USB 3.0
devices attached to the client computer running the vSphere Web Client can be connected to a virtual machine and accessed in it 3
No Linux support. Requires RemoteFX No, only supported for virtual
desktops
Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network Redirect virtual machine serial ports over a standard network link in
vSphere 5 natively
3
No, requires setup of named pipes
mapped to physical serial ports
No
Virtual Machine Templates Establish and ensure compliance with corporate conguration standards through virtual machine
templates. Save virtual machines as templates that can be instantiated in minutes
3
Yes VMs from templates are linked clones
by default unsuitable for server VMs
Integrated Physical to Virtual Machine Conversion Manage multiple simultaneous conversions to virtual machines. Convert
running physical machines to virtual machines.
3
No Very limited guest OS support
3. Operations Management
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Comprehensive Visibility Central point of operational visibility through vCenter Server with integrated badges and detailed
metrics from VMware vCenter Operations Manager. View deep operational insights into the health, risk, and efciency of your
infrastructure and applications with operational badges and sub-badges to quickly show current and future risks to your
environment
3
Limited capabilities from a central
administration point in SCVMM.
Requires separate management and
extensive conguration and
customization of SCOM
Very limited capabilities from central
administration point in RHEV
Manager. RHEV Reporting, a separate
component based on open source
reporting tools, adds limited historical
reporting and dashboards
Object relationships In vCenter easily navigate and explore object relationships for virtual machines, with hosts, storage, and
networking. Integrated topology maps provide a visual representation of relationships 3
Requires SCOM, SCVMM provides
limited insight into object
relationships from many of its views
No
Topology Maps Integrated topology maps provide a visual representation of relationships
3
Requires SCOM, SCVMM is limited to
network relationships only
No
Intelligent Operations Groups Create custom intelligent operations groups based on business needs, applications, service
levels, location, or departments. Automatically add new members with Dynamic Membership
3
Dynamic groups involving
applications and systems running
Linux or Unix require management
pack authoring
No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Proactive Smart Alerts Instead of simple monitoring based on static performance thresholds, proactively identify
performance problems in your environment dynamically. Uses patented analytical algorithms to learn behavior of the
environment and dynamically create thresholds
3
SCOMs self-tuning thresholds are
difcult to administer. They are awed
with an architecture that allows for a
reset of the learning period whenever
the health service is started. This
results in a reset of historical analytics
and the repetition of unnecessary
alarms. Administrators will often resort
to using static thresholds instead
No
Performance Monitoring Charts with Real-Time and Historical Data Troubleshoot performance issues and view
comprehensive real-time data for multiple objects in vCenter Server.
Monitor and analyze virtual machines, resource pools, and server utilization and availability with detailed performance graphs
Performance metrics can be dened with several levels of granularity and can be viewed in real time, or across a specied
time interval through the same interface
Aggregated charts show high-level summaries of resource distribution which are useful for identifying the top consumers,
with the ability to drill-down to more granular data
Thumbnail views of hosts, resource pools, clusters, and datastores allow for easy navigation to the individual charts
3
SCVMM lacks comprehensive real-
time monitoring. Administrators
seeking the same capabilities
provided in vCenter will need to use a
combination of Microsoft tools with
no centralized dashboard and limited
built-in metrics
RHEV Reporting is a separate
component and only includes basis
historical performance monitoring
and lacks real-time data collection
Root Cause Analysis Automated root-cause analysis and recommended remediation actions help you identify and eliminate
potential bottlenecks. Automated remediation through orchestration workows
3
Requires extensive setup and
customization in SCOM
No
Capacity Optimization and Forecasting Identify capacity shortfalls and over-provisioning. Reclaim resources from powered-
of and idle virtual machines so you can right-size virtual machines and increase consolidation ratios 3
Requires extensive setup and
customization of views and reports
in SCOM
No
Reporting Built-in reports allow for easy setup and notication of common operational issues. Schedule and run on-demand
reports that can be easily congured with email notications to individuals or groups at a specied interval. Easily export data
from vCenter to HTML and Excel formats for quick detailed performance and conguration metrics
3
There is no ability to easily export
data from SCVMM. Reporting requires
extensive setup and customization of
views and reports in SCOM
RHEV Reporting, a separate
component based on open source
reporting tools, adds limited historical
reporting and dashboards
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
4. Availability and Business Continuity
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
High Availability Minimize downtime resulting from server and operating system failures
Simple HA Conguration Availability solutions tied to operating systems or applications require complex setup and
conguration. In contrast, congure HA with a single click from within vCenter 3
No, Microsoft implements HA through
Setup of Windows Failover Clustering.
Enabled per-VM
No, requires the setup of power
management for each host and
per-VM congurations for HA
No Single Point of Failure or External Dependencies VMware HA ensures virtual machines restart even if vCenter Server is
unavailable, without a dependency on DNS 3
Yes, but requires that cluster
members are members of active
directory domain
No, VMs wont restart if RHEV
Manager is down
Resource Checks Ensure that capacity is always available in order to restart all virtual machines afected by server failure. HA
continuously monitors capacity utilization and reserves spare capacity to be able to restart virtual machines
3
Limited, cluster reserve state will
suggest placement not occur, but
wont prevent administrators from
manually overriding a placement
recommendation
No
Virtual Machine Restart Priority Ensure the most critical virtual machines are restarted rst by setting virtual machine restart
priorities. Easily select multiple virtual machines to establish resources priorities for an entire cluster
3
Requires per-VM configuration.
Implementing high-priority restart
policy can impact availability of VMs
with default restart policy, putting
them into save state if enough
resources arent available in the cluster
Must be congured at the virtual
machine level for each and every VM
Virtual Machine HA Protect against guest operating system failures with virtual machine failure monitoring in VMware HA 3 Yes Yes
VMware HA Health Check and Cluster Operational Status View a dashboard in the vSphere Web Client that displays the
current VMware HA operational status, including the specic status and errors for each host in the VMware HA cluster
3
Limited, requires Windows Failover
Clustering for full operational status
No
Application High Availability Minimize downtime from application failures through policy-based application monitoring and
remediation. Application HA allows for the restart of applications or entire guest virtual machines
3
Lacks integration with SCVMM,
requiring use of Windows Failover
Clustering and per-VM conguration for
each service. Requires Windows Guest
OS for domain joined. No Linux support
No
VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) Provide zero downtime, zero-data-loss continuous availability against physical server
failures through a seamless stateful failover. Single-click conguration, with automatic secondary virtual machine creation in
the event of a failure, ensuring continuous protection. vSphere Fault Tolerance is compatible with all types of shared storage,
without any dependency on the guest operating system
3
No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Snapshots and Data Protection
Virtual Machine Snapshots Increase application availability while reducing backup windows using virtual machine snapshots.
Create a point-in-time copy of virtual machine data that can be used for testing, backup, and recovery operations
3
Yes No, Cannot delete snapshots of
powered-on virtual machines
VMware vSphere Data Protection Enable quick, simple, and complete data protection and deduplication for virtual
machines
3
Limited, DPM lacks ability to
deduplicate data. Limited Linux
guest OS support and no capabilities
for le level restore with Linux guests
No
Deduplication Based on EMCs Avamar technology, vSphere Data Protection can provide the industrys highest average rates
of deduplication, 99 percent for le systems and 96 percent for databases
3
No No
Appliance-Based Deployment Deploy the vSphere Data Protection virtual appliance to quickly protect your environment
before a restore is needed
3
No No
Agentless Virtual Machine Backup 3 No No
vSphere Replication, the only hypervisor-based replication solution that operates at the individual virtual machine disk level
Per Virtual Disk Granularity Congure replication at the virtual machine disk level, allowing the specication of custom RPOs
for individual disks
3
Limited, RPO can only be set per
virtual machine
No
Inter- and Intra-Cluster Replication Replicate to a cluster in a remote data center or locally within the same cluster 3 No intra-cluster replication No
Granular RPO Settings Adjustable RPO allows you to easily choose a value between 15 minutes and 24 hours 3 No, only 3 options for RPO No
Multiple Point-in-Time Restore 3 Yes No
Centralized Management Manage and congure replication centrally from vCenter Server 3
No, SCVMM cannot manage Hyper-V
Replication
No
vMotion and VMware vSphere Storage vMotion
Zero Downtime Migrations Live migrate running virtual machine server and storage locations simultaneously, without the
need for shared storage
3
Yes Yes
Concurrent vMotion Support- Support for four to eight simultaneous vMotion migrations per host, depending on the vMotion
network adapter 3
Unlimited based on your architecture,
with no guidance from Microsoft on
sizing recommendations
Live migrations are limited to 30 MBps
each, 5 max per host, and cannot be
separated from management trafc
Scheduled Migrations Specify predened times for migrations 3 No No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility Automatically congure servers whose CPUs feature Intel FlexMigration and AMD-V
Extended Migration technologies to be vMotion-compatible with servers that use older CPUs 3
Limited, Hyper-V CPU Compatibility
Mode must be congured for every
VM in a mixed CPU infrastructure
Yes, but difcult to make changes to
compatibility mode without virtual
machine downtime
Metro vMotion Ability to use vMotion to move a running virtual machine when the source and destination VMware ESX hosts are
more than 5ms round-trip time latency apart. The maximum supported round-trip time latency between the two hosts is now 10ms
3
undocumented undocumented
5. Storage
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Leverage VMware APIs for integrated storage capabilities that provide advanced storage intelligence and performance improvements with storage-assisted ofoad
Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) ESXi can ofoad specic storage operations to compliant storage hardware. With
storage hardware assistance, ESXi performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth 3
Limited, ODX is a limited subset of
VAAI thats comparable to the VAAI
Copy Primitive only
No
VMware API for Storage Awareness (VASA) Allow storage arrays to integrate with vCenter for management functionality via
server-side plug-ins or vendor providers. Allows a vCenter administrator to be aware of the topology, capabilities, and state of
the physical storage devices available to the cluster
3
Possible through SCVMM and limited
third-party plugins
Very limited ecosystem and
availability of third-party plugins
vSphere APIs for Multi-pathing Support for third-party multi-pathing plug-in extension modules from vendors such as EMC,
Dell/Equallogic, and others to enhance high availability and load balancing for critical applications 3
Vendor support for only a subset of
the vendors plugins when compared
to VMware
No
Deep Storage Intelligence
Storage I/O Control Provides QoS capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are enforced across all
virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on and the type of storage used. Use Storage
I/O Control to ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in times of congestion
3
No, Hyper-V allows for conguration
of virtual disk limits, but lacks
comprehensive management of
storage I/O. Disk limits only protect
resources on the same host and lack
storage awareness
No
Intelligent Initial Placement Initially place workloads based on known storage environmental factors such as storage
capacity and storage I/O utilization 3
No, VMM Intelligent Placement only
considers free space when making
placement decisions
No
Storage DRS Automated load balancing uses storage characteristics to determine the best place for a given virtual machines
data to reside based on both storage space and storage I/O resources. Also includes afnity/anti-afnity rules for virtual
machines and VMDKs
3
No capabilities to balance storage unless
using SMB3/SCOFS/Storage Spaces
No
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Comprehensive conguration, management, and reporting management of storage with ability to specify granular controls
LUN Discovery and Management Discover LUNs in the shared storage and map those LUNs to a VMFSvolume
3
Yes Limited, only one storage protocol
allowed per cluster
Unied Hierarchical Namespace Manage all available physical disks, logical volumes, and VMFS volumes with a consistent
namespace that eliminates potential conicts
3
No No
Customizable Reports and Topology Maps Increase visibility into vSphere storage space utilization with per-virtual machine,
per-datastore, and other reports. Resolve conguration-related issues with storage-specic topology maps
3
No No
Centralized Datastore Management Create, congure, organize and secure datastores centrally for more granular control
over storage in vSphere environments
3 No No
Consumption-Based Monitoring and Alerting Set alerts to notify administrators when they need to procure more storage or
rebalance virtual machines across the available storage with vSphere Storage vMotion
3
No monitoring tools for thin disks No monitoring tools for thin disks
Virtual Disk Files Simplify virtual machine storage management. Virtual machines see their own private virtual disk les.
However, outside the virtual machine, the virtual disks are simply large les that can be copied, moved, archived, and backed
up as easily as any other le
3
Yes Each virtual disk or snapshot is a
logical volume on a volume group
Boot from SAN Run multiple instances of VMware ESXi on diskless servers by booting from FC, FCoE (software and
hardware) or iSCSI SANs. Simplify backups and disaster recovery by eliminating the need to separately back up local attached
server disks
3
Yes, but booting from software FCoE
is not supported
Yes, but limited to FC only
Extended le and volume size limits Run even the most data-intensive production applications such as databases, ERP, and
CRM in virtual machines
3
Yes Unlimited le
8 TB block
Integrated Software FCoE 3 No No
VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache Pool multiple SSD devices into a single consumable vSphere Flash resource for virtual
machines with VMware-based technology that is built into the core hypervisor. A software-dened solution that allows
conguration at the virtual-disk level, regardless of the type of physical storage used
3
No, CSV Cache allows the use of
memory as a read cache but lacks
hypervisor integration and granular
conguration
No, FS-Cache is limited to use with
network-based storage protocols and
lacks hypervisor integration and
granular conguration
VMware Virtual SAN Virtual SAN is an easy-to-manage, hypervisor-integrated, and software-dened solution that pools
compute and direct-attached storage to provide a scale-out architecture. Virtual SAN uses SSD as a read-cache and write
bufer to dramatically improve performance of virtual machines. (Note: Virtual SAN is purchased separately from VMware
vSphere with Operations Management 5.5)
3
No, Storage Spaces is a SAN
replacement add-on requiring
dedicated infrastructure and complex
management using Windows Servers
as the storage processors
No, GlusterFS is more complex and
lacks hypervisor-level integration
COMPARI S ON GUI DE
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VMware vSphere 5 with Operations Management
Key Features and Benefits Comparison
6. Networking
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Distributed virtual networking with centralized provisioning, administration, and monitoring using data center-wide network aggregation
Centralized Virtual Network Management Simplify provisioning and administration of virtual networking through a centralized
interface. Create and manage a single distributed switch with distributed virtual port groups that span the hosts of a data center
3
SCVMM provides a central point of
management for logical networking;
however, setup is a complex and
lengthy series of steps that must be
done sequentially
No, RHEV does not support
distributed or third-party network
virtual switches
Network Health Check Easily back up and restore distributed networking congurations with rollback and recovery options 3 No No
Third-Party Distributed Virtual Switches Enable monitoring and control of your virtual networking environments through
the familiar interfaces of third-party networking tools, with the capability to plug in third-party software virtual switches such
as the Cisco Nexus 1000V (Note: Third-party virtual switches are purchased separately)
3
Yes No
Support for Private VLANs Segment network trafc easily in shared environments 3 Yes No
Consistent Management Experience Whether managing networking on a host directly or via vCenter Server, administrators
experience a consistent management experience
3
No No
Expanded port conguration policies Simplify port conguration by utilizing Port Groups that allow for the inheritance of
congurations and settings from the vSwitch or override inheritance to specify specic settings or NIC teaming policies for a
given port group
3
No, port proles dont ofer the same
capabilities for inheritance and
overriding of inheritance for settings
Logical Networks have very limited
capabilities and dont ofer same
capabilities for inheritance and
overriding of inheritance for settings
IPv6 Support IPv6 across both VMware ESXi hosts and guest operating systems 3 Yes No, guest OS only
NIC Teaming
Enhanced NIC Teaming Give each virtual machine built-in NIC failover and load balancing, enabling greater hardware
availability and fault tolerance. Load-based teaming allows dynamic balancing of the load across physical adapters on the
vSphere Distributed Switch
3
Limited inbox Windows Server NIC
teaming can only be congured at the
uplink level, without the ability to
override port prole settings
Limited with only basic congurable
options
NIC Teaming Policies Allow users to congure multiple active and standby adapters. Alternate active and standby adapters
among multiple port groups to decrease required host port count while maintaining high levels of availability 3
Standby adapters must be dedicated
requiring additional physical NICs and
network port count
No
Granular Conguration Teaming conguration may vary per port group on the same virtual switch and uplinks 3 No No
VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
Copyright 2014 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of
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Key Features and Benefits Comparison
05/14
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFI TS VMWARE VSPHERE
WI TH OPERATI ONS
MANAGEMENT 5. 5
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
SERVER 2012 R2 HYPER-V
AND SYSTEM CENTER 2012 R2
RED HAT ENTERPRI SE
VI RTUALI ZATI ON 3. 3
Automated Network Resource Management with Network I/O Control Dene priority access to network resources according to established business rules
Network Shares Set network resource priorities through the use of shares 3 Yes No
Network Resource Pools Built-in resource pools are appropriately congured out-of-the-box to guarantee a minimal level of
protection for virtual machine resources in the event of contention 3
SCVMM port proles are not directly
associated to known trafc types,
requiring extensive conguration
No
Automatic Trafc Type Detection Network Resource Pools automatically detect known trafc types, such as Management,
vSphere vMotion, Virtual Machine, Fault Tolerance, vSphere Replication, NFS, iSCSI, and Virtual SAN
3
No No
Network Resource Management View network pools through the vCenter graphical user interface to see the current state and
impact of potential changes across your environment for various trafc types. Apply QoS tagging to network resource pools
3
No No
Network Policy and Quality of Service
Bidirectional Network Trafc Shaper Enhance virtual machine trafc prioritization and management and allow conguration
for ltering ingress and egress trafc
3
No, egress only No
QoS Tagging Apply QoS Tagging to network resource pools or DVS Port Groups for proper handling of outbound packets by
the physical network
3
No No
Apply 802.1P Class of Service (COS) tagging for layer 2 Ethernet packets 3 No No
Diferentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) tagging for layer 3 IP packets 3 No No
Troubleshooting and Network Trafc Collection
Cisco Discovery Protocol Support Discover and advertise physical and virtual network congurations for better debugging
and monitoring of Cisco-based environments from vSphere or vCenter Server
3
No No
Port Mirroring (SPAN) Capture and send trafc among virtual machines on the same host when troubleshooting network
issues. With the distributed switch, port mirroring can be congured with a destination that is either a virtual machine, vmknic,
or an uplink port
3
Limited, only supported when virtual
machines reside on the same host
Limited, only supported when virtual
machines reside on the same host
Remote Span (RSPAN) Capture and send trafc to a remote analyzer using a dedicated VLAN 3 No No
Encapsulated Remote Span (ERSPAN) Remote port mirroring independent of network location utilizing generic routing
encapsulation
3
No No
Netow vSphere Distributed Switch natively collects IP trafc information as records and sends them to third-party
collectors. Helps measure application performance and monitor I/O network resources.
3
No No
Enhanced Host-Level Packet Capture Available through host CLI, packets can be captured at the uplink, vSwitch, or vNIC
level, including the capability to capture dropped packets and trace with time stamp details. Trafc can be captured for both
the VDS or VSS.
3
Limited to switch level granularity Linux utility tcpdump