Addon
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custom |
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Unique Feature 1
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Add-On not supported by this product
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Add-On not supported by this product
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Add-On not supported by this product
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General
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- Fully Supported
- Limitation
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- Information Only
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Pros
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=DM12
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WhatMatrix
Content created by WhatMatrix and modified by Romain Serre
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Content created by Virtualizationmatrix; (Contributors: Jon Benedict, Yaniv Dary, Raissa Tona, Larry W. Bailey)
Content created by Virtualizationmatrix
Thanks to Jon Benedict, Yaniv Dary, Raissa Tona, Sean Cohen, and Larry W. Bailey for content contribution and review.
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Assessment |
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vSphere 5.5 Remote Office Branch Office Advanced - Click Here For Overview
Remote site server virtualization offering business continuity and backup with advanced features such as standardization of host configurations - See more at: http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/compare.html#sthash.JVYXhiwy.dpuf
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WS 2019 - Click Here For Overview
General Overview: Windows Server 2019 was released in Oct 2018 with several (less obvious but important) updates to its virtualization and cloud capabilities. Windows Server 2019 provides major improvements for Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct and Network Controller. These features are the fundation of Azure Stack, the Microsoft private cloud offer. Windows Server 2016 comes in 3 editions, Datacenter, Standard, Essential but only Datacenter and Standard enable virtualization capabilities (we will therefore not list the other editions). There is also the free Hyper-V Server edition. Datacenter and Standard provide the equivalent set of capabilities and differ only in their virtualization rights i.e. how many Operating System Environments (OSEs = licensed guests) are included. Datacenter is aimed at: Highly virtualized private and hybrid cloud environments.As in Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 offers Full Server and Server Core installation options. The minimal nature of Server Core creates limitations: There is no Windows shell and very limited GUI functionality. The Server Core interface is a command prompt with PowerShell support. The matrix will focus on the capabilities of the Full Server installation, pointing out limitations where appropriate.
Windows Server 2019 provides a minimalist deployment model called Nano Server. Nano Server doesnt provide Shell, or 32bit legacy support. Moreover Nano Server supports only Cloud Native Application such as Kubernetes or Docker. For further details, please visit this topic: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/get-started/getting-started-with-nano-server
Just before the release of Windows Server 2019, Microsoft delivered Windows Admin Center which is a web-based tool to manage your Windows Server infrastructure. It provides tools to manage hyperconverged infrastructure, Windows Server (event log, firewall etc.) and it supports third party extension to add features. It can be a replacement of MMC.
Microsoft created a new offer called Azure Stack HCI which basically Windows Server 2019 hyperconverged infrastructure managed by Windows Admin Center.
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RHV 4.0 - Click Here For Details
Red Hat Virtualization is Red Hats server and workstation virtualization platform. It consists of the smart management product RHV-M (Red Hat Virtualization Manager) that can manage both RHV-H (Red Hat Virtualization Host), a purpose built image for easy management, and RHEL-H (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Hypervisor). Both hosts types contain KVM based virtualization capabilities. All listed features apply to both RHV-H and RHEL host - unless stated otherwise.
RHV is a complete virtualization management solution for virtualized servers and workstations that aims to provide performance advantages, competitive pricing and a trusted, stable environment. It is built to work best with Linux mission critical and high proformance workloads, including SAP, on x86 and Power. It can also run Windows guests and is Microsoft SVVP (Server Virtualization Validation Program) certified. RHV is co-engineered with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and inherits its characteristics of reliability, performance, security and scalability
RHV is derived from oVirt, the community open virtualization management project and is a strategic virtualization alternative to proprietary virtualization platforms. Red Hat Virtualization is co-engineered with Linux and OpenStack for a smooth transition into Private and Public clouds.
With Red Hat Virtualization, you can:
* Take advantage of existing people skills and investment.
* Decrease TCO and accelerate ROI.
* Automate time-consuming and complicated manual tasks.
* Standardize storage (tech-preview), infrastructure, and networking services on OpenStack .
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=CY14
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Release Dates - W2016 October 2019 (initial Hyper-V: Jun 08)
NEW
Windows Server 2019 and System Center 2019 were released in Oct 2018. Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 were released in October 2016. Windows Server 2012 R2 in concunction with System Center 2012 R2 were released in Oct 2013.Windows Server 2012 released in Sep 2012, System Center 2012: April 2012 but SP1 was required to manage Server 2012 environments (release Jan 2013); The initial Hyper-V code was released as beta version with the GA version of Windows Server 2008 in early 2008, it GA-ed (through Windows Updates) in June followed by the release the management app System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) in Sept and the standalone Hyper-V Server version in October 2008. The R2 release of Hyper-V became available in August 2009. SP1 was finalised in Feb 2011 (after a public beta in H2/2010)
In addition to System Center, now Windows Server is followed by Windows Admin Center which is a new web-based management tool for Windows Server.
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RHV 4.0 released in August 2016
NEW
RHV 4.0 is the 10th major release of Red Hats enterprise virtualization management software based on the KVM hypervisor.
In 2008 Red Hat acquired Qumranet, a technology startup that began the development of KVM. Red Hats first release of RHV was v2.1 in 2009. The v3.0 release in 2012 was a major milestone in porting the RHV-M manager from .NET to Java (and fully open-sourcing). RHV 3.1 removed all requirements of any Windows-based infrastructure, but still support Microsoft Active Directory and guests. Since RHV 3.2, Red Hat has provided many feature enhancements, improvements in scale, enhanced reliability and integration points to other Red Hat offerings based on the cutting edge KVM developement.
Previous releases:
- RHV 3.6 - March 2016
- RHV 3.5 - Feb 2015
- RHV 3.4 - June 2014
- RHV 3.3 - January 2014
- RHV 3.2 - June 2013
- RHV 3.1 - Dec 2012
- RHV 3.0: Jan 2012
- RHV 2.2: Aug 2010
- RHV 2.1 - Nov 2009
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Pricing |
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Pack of 25 Virtual Machines : $4500 + S&S:$945 (B) or $1125 (Prod);
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Standard: $750 for 16 physical cores.
License are per core basis. The license covers up to 16 physical cores (8 packs of two cores). If you have more than 16 physical cores, you need to buy additional license packs. A license pack covers up to two physical cores. If you plan to deploy Nano Server, you need Software Assurance.
Licensing details: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/2/F/A2F54CF2-FD52-4722-8C9A-728617C2AF17/Hybrid_Cloud_Windows_Server_2016_Licensing_Datasheet_EN-GB.pdf
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Included in hypervisor subscription
The RHV-M management component is included in the RHV subscription model (i.e. single part number for both, hypervisor and management).
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=CY17
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System Center 2019 Datacenter: $3,607 or Standard $1,323 per managed endpoint (up to 16 physical cores). Windows Admin Center - NEW (Free), Microsoft Azure
NEW
The System Center 2016 Datacenter license model is like Windows Server 2019. A single licence covers 16 physical cores on a server. If the server has more CPU, you need to buy extra licences packs. The System Center 2019 standard is based on managed endpoint.
For virtualize environment, you just have to buy licenses for the Hyper-V hosts.
Windows Admin Center is a new web-based management tool for Windows Server. It can genuinely replace some MMC console such as firewall, explorer, device manager and so on. Windows Admin Center is built on extensions that add some new capability to the product. Third party vendors can develop extensions for Windows Admin Center.
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Yes, combined RHEL and RHV offering 26% savings
Red Hat offers Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Smart Virtualization (a combined solution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Virtualization) that offers a 26% savings over buying each product separately. Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Smart Virtualization is the ideal platform for virtualized Linux workloads. Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Smart Virtualization enables organization to virtualize mission-critical applications while delivering unparalleled performance, scalability, and security features. See details here: http://red.ht/1Tzr9pq
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Bundle/Kit Pricing
Details
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No
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Windows Server 2019 standard
Windows Server 2019 Datacenter contains all features you need in a single box. Windows Server 2019 Datacenter allows you to run unlimited VMs, the software-defined storage and network layer. Windows Admin Center is free. With this single license, you can run a full Software-Defined Datacenter solution
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RHV: No included (RHEL: 1/4/unlimited)
Customers can buy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Smart Virtualization which includes both RHV and unlimited RHEL guests for use as the guest operating System. http://red.ht/1Tzr9pq
RHV stand alone subscriptions include the RHV-H hypervisor and RHV-Manager, they do not include the rights to use RHEL as the guest operating system in the virtual machines being managed by RHV.
The customer would purchase this separately by buying a RHEL for Virtual Datacenter subscription.
Please note that RHEL hosts generate additional subscription costs that are not included with RHV (see https://www.redhat.com/apps/store/server/ for details). RHEL hosts are priced by sockets (2, 4), number of virtual guests included (1, 4, unlimited) and subscription levels (Standard/Premium).
Or,
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Guest OS Licensing
Details
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=CY19
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yes - up to two virtual OSEs with Standard (Windows Server vms)
This Standard license allows for 2VMs on this host. In place of the licensed version (i.e. Server 2019) , you can run prior (older) versions or lower editions in any of the OSEs of the licensed server. If you have Windows Server 2019 Datacenter edition you will have the right to run the bits of any prior version or lower edition (Datacenter, Standard or Essentials). If you have Windows Server 2019 Standard edition, you will have the right to run the bits of any prior version of Standard or Essentials edition.
The WS2019 standard edition enables to run two OSEs. If you need more OSEs, you have to buy additional licenses.
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Yes (RHV-M)
NEW
RHV-M - the Red Hat Virtualization Manager with a web-driven UI is central management console. It is based entirely on Open Source Software, with no dependencies on proprietary server infrastructures or web browsers. A centralized management system with a search-driven graphical interface supporting up to hundreds of hosts and thousands of virtual machines. The fully featured enterprise management system enables customers to centrally manage their entire virtual environments, which include virtual datacenters, clusters, hosts, guest virtual servers and technical workstations, networking, and storage.
RHV-M is also localized in various languages including: French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and English.
(NEW) The Cockpit Web UI is also available for use as a hypervisor manager, providing deeper insight into resource usage. It also provides console access as well as a means to interact with hypervisor services for troubleshooting purposes.
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VM Mobility and HA
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VM Mobility |
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Live Migration of VMs
Details
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=CY26
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Yes (Unlimited Concurrent, Shared Nothing; new compression & SMB3 options)
(No major change in WS2019) WS 2012R2 made the following enhancements to live migration:1) Improved performance (in addition to the TCP/IP option):- Compression: This is now the default setting since Server 2012 R2 (content of the virtual machine that is being migrated is compressed and then copied to the destination server over TCP/IP)- Live Migration over SMB 3.0 (memory content of the vm is copied to the destination server over a SMB 3.0 connection): SMB Direct is used when the network adapters on the source and destination servers have Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) capabilities enabled; SMB Multichannel automatically detects and uses multiple connections when a proper SMB Multichannel configuration is identified.2) Cross-version migrations: You can live migrate virtual machines from Hyper-V Windows Server 2012 R2 to Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016. With WS 2012 the following enhancements had been made to the live migration capabilities: 1) Faster and concurrent migrations: Unlimited concurrent limitations using up to 10Gbit bandwidth. Comment: Unlimited refers to no hard coded limitation but in reality the amount of transferred data (amount of virtual memory / rate of changes ) as well as the available bandwidth limit the optimal number of concurrent transfers. The allowable number of concurrent live migrations can be configured manually. Attempted concurrent live migrations in excess of the limit will be queued.2) Live Migration outwidth a cluster: Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) are required to migrate virtual machines within a Hyper-V cluster. In Server 2012 virtual machines can now be stored on SMB3 (CIFS) shares. This allows you to perform a live migration between non-clustered servers running Hyper-V (or between different clusters), while the virtual machines storage remains on the central SMB share.3) Shared Nothing Migrations: You can also perform a live migration of a virtual machine between two non-clustered servers running Hyper-V when you are only using local storage for the virtual machine. In this case, the virtual machines storage is mirrored to the destination server over the network, and then the virtual machine is migrated, while it continues to run and provide network services.
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Yes
Each cluster is configured with a minimal CPU type that all hosts in that cluster must support (you specify the CPU type in the RHV-M GUI when creating the cluster). Guests running on hosts within the cluster all run on this CPU type, ensuring that every guest can be live migrated to any host within the cluster. This cannot be changed after creation without significant disruption. All hosts in a cluster must run the same CPU type (Intel or AMD).
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Migration Compatibility
Details
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=CY27
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Yes (Processor Compatibility)
Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V introduced a new capability called “processor compatibility mode for live migration, which enabled live migrations across hosts with differing CPU architectures. This capability is maintained in Server 2019.
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Yes
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=CY28
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Yes
Maintenance mode for a virtual machine allows you to halt a host anytime you need to perform maintenance tasks on the physical host, such as applying security updates or replacing hardware on the physical host computer. If you have not Virtual Machine Manager, you can put the node in pause to trigger the draining mode which move all resources associated to the host. You can trigger the maintenance mode from Failover Cluster MMC, VMM and Windows Admin Center.
The advantage of using VMM is that the maintenance mode is also set in Operations Manager to avoid to raise alerts.
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Yes - Built-in (CPU\Memory) and plugable scheduler
A policy engine determines the specific host on which a virtual machine runs. The policy engine decides which server will host the next virtual machine based on whether load balancing criteria have been defined, and which policy is being used for that cluster. RHV-M will use live migration to move virtual machines around the cluster as required.
A scheduler handles virtual machine placement, allowing users to create new scheduling policies, and also write their own logic in Python and include it in a policy.
- The scheduler serves scheduling requests for running or migrating virtual machines according to a policy.
- The scheduling policy also includes load balancing functionality.
- Scheduling is performed by applying hard constraints and soft constraints to get the optimal host for that request at a given point of time
- The infrastructure allowing users to extend the new scheduler, is based on a service called ovirt-scheduler-proxy. The services purpose is for RHV admins to extend the scheduling process with custom python filters, weight functions and load balancing modules.
- Every cluster has a scheduling policy. Administrators can create their own policies or use the built-in policies which were extended to support new capabilities such as shutting down servers for power saving policy.
The load balancing process runs once every minute for each cluster in a data center. You can disable automatic migration for individual vm or pin them to specific hosts.
You can choose to set the policy as either even distribution or power saving, but NOT both.
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Automated Live Migration
Details
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No
Distributed Resource Scheduler is not included in this edition
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Yes - Dynamic Optimization (CPU, mem, disk I/O, Net I/O) and VM Load Balancing
If you don’t have System Center, a Windows Server 2016 feature called VM Load Balancing enables to balance workloads accross cluster node. You can configure the frequency and the aggressiveness. If the node is in pause or not reachable, the VM Load Balancing doesnt try to live-migrate virtual machines on this node.
A great improvement in SC 2012 is the departure from the cumbersome automated live migration capability in Server 2008R2 and VMM 2008R2 that relied on the Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) function. With System Center 2012, Dynamic Optimization replaces this host load balancing and is performed independently of PRO or SCOM. This is also supported for vSphere and XenServer environments that support live migration.During Dynamic Optimization, VMM migrates virtual machines within a host cluster to improve load balancing among hosts. Dynamic Optimization is typically configured on a host group level, to migrate vims with a specified frequency and aggressiveness. By default, virtual machines are migrated every 10 minutes with medium aggressiveness. If a host group contains stand-alone hosts, host clusters that do not support live migration, or host in maintenance mode, Dynamic Optimization is not performed on those hosts. If a host cluster contains virtual machines that are not highly available, those virtual machines are not migrated during Dynamic Optimization.On demand Dynamic Optimization also is available by using the Optimize Hosts action in the VMs and Services workspace. After Dynamic Optimization is requested for a host cluster, VMM lists the virtual machines that will be migrated for the administrators approval.You can specify Dynamic Optimization settings for the following resources: CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network I/O.
If Dynamic Optimization is enabled, the VM Load-Balancing is automatically disabled in the cluster
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Yes
When Power saving is enabled in a cluster it distributes the load in a way that consolidates virtual machines on a subset of available hosts. This enables surplus hosts that are not in use to be powered down, saving power. You can set the threasholds in the RHV-M GUI to specify the Minimum Service Level a host is permitted to have.
You must also specify the time interval in minutes that a host is permitted to run below the minimum service level before remaining virtual machines are migrated to other hosts in the cluster - as long as the maximum service level set also permits this.
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No
Distributed Power Management is not enabled in this edition
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Yes - Power Optimization
(No major change in WS2019)Another new feature in VMM 2012 - Power Optimization. Power Optimization is an (optional) sub-feature of Dynamic Optimization (only available when a host group is configured for Dynamic Optimization). Through Power Optimization, VMM helps to save energy by turning off hosts that are not needed to meet resource requirements within a host cluster and turns the hosts back on when they are needed again. Please note: Power Optimization ensures that the cluster maintains a quorum if an active node fails and therefore requires a certain numbers of hosts to remain running in a cluster. See details here: http://bit.ly/TbDCmZ
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Yes
Storage Live Migration is supported and allows migration of virtual machine disks to different storage devices while the virtual machine is running. There is also an option to move an entire storage domain between datacenters or even between setups.
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Storage Migration
Details
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=CY31
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Yes (Live and Shared Nothing)
(No major change in WS2019)Server 2012 overcomes the Quick Storage Migration limitation seen with 2008 R2 (where you can initiate a Storage Migration while the vm remains running for the majority of the transfer but the virtual machine must be powered off at the end of the migration). Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 introduces support for moving virtual machine storage while the virtual machine remains running. You can perform this task by using a new wizard in Hyper-V Manager or by using new Hyper-V cmdlets for Windows PowerShell. You can add storage to either a stand-alone computer or to a Hyper-V cluster, and then move virtual machines to the new storage while the virtual machine(s) continue to run.You can also perform a live migration of a virtual machine between two non-clustered servers running Hyper-V when you are only using local storage for the virtual machine. In this case, the virtual machines storage is mirrored to the destination server over the network, and then the virtual machine is migrated, while it continues to run and provide network services (shared nothing migration).
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200 hosts/cluster
That is the supported maximum number of hosts per RHV datacenter and also per cluster (the theoretical KVM limit is higher).
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HA/DR |
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=CY32
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64 nodes / 8000 vims
(No major change in WS2019)Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 significantly improves the scale of cluster sizes. It now supports running up to 8,000 virtual machines on a 64-node failover cluster (2008 R2 supported a maximum of 16 cluster nodes and 1,000 virtual machines per cluster).In Windows 2012 Server Core you can configure clustering with the SCONFIG cmd utility.In Server 2012 when using the iSCSI Software Target only up to 5 cluster hosts were supported on GA of the product. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg509003(v=ws.10).aspx
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Yes
High availability is an integrated feature of RHV and allows for virtual machines to be restarted in case of a host failure.
HA has to be enabled on a virtual machine level. You can specify levels of priority for the vm (e.g. if resources are restrained only high priority vm are being restarted). Hosts that run highly available vm have to be configured for power management (to ensure accurate fencing in case of host failure).
Fencing Details: When a host becomes non-responsive it potentially retains the lock on the virtual disk images for virtual machines it is running. Attempting to start a virtual machine on a second host could cause data corruption. Fencing allows RHV-M to safely release the lock (using a fence agent that communicates with the power management card of the host) to confirm that a problem host has truly been rebooted.
RHV-M gives a non-responsive host a grace period of 30 seconds before any action is taken in order to allow the host to recover from any temporary errors.
Note: The RHV-M manager needs to be running for HA to function (unlike e.g. VMware HA or Hyper-V HA that do not rely on vCenter / VMM for the failover capability), also HA can not be enabled on the cluster level.
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Integrated HA (Restart vm)
Details
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=CY33
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Yes (NIC and unmanaged Storage failure detection - Virtual Machine Compute Resiliency)
(No major change in WS2019))Virtual machine availability requires Microsoft Failover Clustering to be configured - while this can still be considered added complexity (compared to e.g. VMwares integrated HA) the clustering in Server 2012/R2 has been greatly enhanced, simplified and integrated with VMM:- You can not only add Hyper-V clusters to VMM but also CREATE and MODIFY Hyper-V clusters from within VMM- Availability options for virtual machines on Hyper-V clusters can now be configured using the VMM console, without having to open Failover Cluster Manager (SP1). This includes the ability to configure virtual machine failover prioritization and affinity / anti-affinity rules.- Ability to deploy the VMM server itself as highly available virtual machine- Support for guest clustering (cluster Windows instances in virtual machines) via Fibre Channel (new virtual fibre channel adapter function)There is no restart priority setting for virtual machines or capacity check (if failover capacity is available)New in WS2012 R2 is the ability to detect physical storage failures on storage devices that are not managed by Windows Failover Clustering (SMB 3.0 file shares). Storage failure detection can detect the failure of a virtual machine boot disk or any additional data disks associated with the virtual machine (ensuring that the virtual machine is relocated and restarted on another node - eliminating situations where unmanaged storage failures would not be detected).Also Hyper-V and Windows Failover Clustering are enhanced to detect network connectivity issues for virtual machines. If the physical network assigned to the virtual machine suffers a failure (such as a faulty switch port or network adapter, or a disconnected network cable), the Windows Failover Cluster will move the virtual machine to another node in the cluster to restore network connectivity.
In Windows Server 2016, VM can be protected against network and storage transient issues. If a node has network transient issues, the VM state changes to unmonitored. If the node has for 5mn this kind of issues, the node is placed in quarantine and the VM is moved.
If the cluster has storage issue, the VM state changes to Critial - Paused state. When the storage is recovered, the VM start again from the state before the storage issue.
For more information you can read the following topic: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/clustering/2015/06/03/virtual-machine-compute-resiliency-in-windows-server-2016/
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Yes (HA, WatchDog)
RHV supports watchdog device for linux guests that restarts virtual machines in case of OS failure. High availability (in addition to monitoring physical hosts) also monitors all virtual machines, so if the virtual machines operating system crashes, a signal is sent to automatically restart the virtual machine, but this is with host change.
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Automatic VM Reset
Details
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=CY34
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Yes (Heartbeat)
(No major updates with 2019)Cluster Failover Manager in Server 2012 has an option to enable heartbeat monitoring for individual vms (Enable heartbeat monitoring for the virtual machine under vm properties). If the heartbeats stop, indicating that virtual machine has become unresponsive, the cluster is notified, and can attempt to restart the clustered virtual machine or fail it over. In Server 2012 R2 this function has been enhanced to also monitor specific services and applications within virtual machines.
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No
There is no live lock-step mirroring support in RHV - although the theoretical capability is available in KVM. Red Hat tends to points out that the limitations around this technology (inability to take e.g. snap shots, perform a live storage migrate, limited guest vCPU support, high bandwidth/processing requirements) can make it inappropriate for enterprise implementation.
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VM Lockstep Protection
Details
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=AU35
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No
(No major change in WS2019)While MS failover clustering can provide virtual machine restart there is no integrated mechanism to provide seamless stateful (no downtime) failover in case of host failure.
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No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: Red Hat Cluster Suite)
There is no integrated application level monitoring or restart of services/vm in case of application failures. RHV supports watchdogs and HA.
This is possible using Red Hat Cluster Suite. This is a Fee-based Add-On.
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Application/Service HA
Details
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=CY36
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Yes (VM Compute Resiliency)
(No major update in Windows Server 2019)Windows Server 2016 brought a new feature called VM Compute Resiliency. When an host in the cluster has some network disconnection, it is first isolated. When the host is isolated, the node continues to host the VM role in unmonitored state. If the network issues are still presents after 5mn, the VM is moved to another host. If there is a storage issue, the VM state is Pause-Critical until the storage is again available. For further information, you can read this topic: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/clustering/2015/06/03/virtual-machine-compute-resiliency-in-windows-server-2016/
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No - See Details
There is no natively provided Site Failover capability in RHV. Red Hat does provide the tools needed to provide a disaster recovery solution.
This is possible via 3rd party partners integration (such as Veritas, Acronis, SEP, Commvault).
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Replication / Site Failover
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=CY37
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Hyper-V Replica - Storage Replica
(No major change in WS2019)Disaster recovery capability has been enhanced through the introduction of Hyper-V Replica - an asynchronous replication of virtual machines over a network link from one Hyper-V host at a primary site to another Hyper-V host at a replica site. In the event of failure at the primary site, administrators can manually fail over production virtual machines to the Hyper-V server at the recovery site.
During failover, virtual machines are brought back to a consistent point in time, and they can be accessed by the rest of the network. Minimum interval of replication is 5 minutes (so there is the usual data loss associated with asynchronous replication) .
With WS 2012R2 you can also configure extended replication where the Replica server forwards information about changes that occur on the primary virtual machines to a third server for additional protection. In addition the frequency of replication, which previously was a fixed value, is now configurable. You can also access recovery points for 24 hours. Previous versions had access to recovery points for only 15 hours.
Hyper-V Replica Pros:
- Affordable DR solution (included in Server 2012, no extra licenses required)
- Does not require expensive SAN based replication
- Test Failover without impact on production vims
Cons:
- Manual failover and recovery actions
- Aimed at smaller scale deployments
- no integration with SAN array replication (like vSphere SRM), no synchronous replication
You can of course use (independent of Hyper-V replica) manual array based replication mechanisms to replicate virtual machines on LUN level between sides. This would either be a pretty manual process or requires (fee-based) third party solution with varying levels of integration and complexity.
With Windows Server 2016, you can now replicate at the level block your CSV volume from one cluster to another, from one server to another or between volumes. Thanks to Storage Replica, you can replicate your volumes from one room to another to ensure the Disaster Recovery. When a disaster occurs, you just have to remove the replication link and the volume in the second room is available in read/write. You just have to start your VM
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Yes
You are able to update both RHV-H or RHEL-H via the management UI. The management sends events on updates pending on the hosts and the manager machine.
Updates can be also managed via Red Hat Satellite.http://red.ht/1Oxs20B
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Management
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General |
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Central Management
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=CY20
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Yes (System Center 2019 / VMM and Windows Admin Center)
NEW
System Center 2019 is the new and improved management suite that provides central management of (heterogeneous) Datacenter resources, including private and public cloud, physical and virtual server and client devices. The suite includes a wide range of components that are now covered by a single license: Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, Data Protection Manager, Service Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Endpoint Protection and Orchestrator. Virtual Machine Manager still provides the core function of virtualization management but System Center provides now better integration with the other components that allow for wider (public) cloud management, process automation and self service alongside application management and provisioning. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) enables you to configure and manage your virtualization host, networking, and storage resources in order to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private clouds that you have created.
For two years, Microsoft works on a new free product called Windows Admin Center. It can replace MMC. It provides features to manage Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct and cluster. Its a light tool that doesnt require a database and can be installed on a laptop or a console server.
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Third-party plug-in framework
NEW
RHV focuses on managing the virtual infrastructure and can also manage Red Hat Gluster Storage nodes.
Also RHV-M integrates with 3rd party applications including:
- BMC connector for RHV-M REST API to collect data for managing RHV boxes without having to install an agent.
- HP OneView for Red Hat Virtualization (OVRHV) UI plug-in that that allows you to seamlessly manage your HP ProLiant infrastructure from within RHV Manager and provides actionable, valuable insight on underlying HP hardware (HP Insight Control plug-in is also available).
- Veritas Storage Foundation that delivers storage Quality of Service (QoS) at the application level and maximizes your storage efficiency, availability and performance across operating systems. This includes Veritas Cluster Server provides automated disaster recovery functionality to keep applications up and running. Cluster Server enables application specific fail-over and significantly reduces recovery time by eliminating the need to restart applications in case of a failure.
- Tenable Network Securitys Nessus Audit for RHV-M which queries the RHV API and reports that information within a Nessus report.
- Ansible RHV module that allows you to create new instances, either from scratch or an image, in addition to deleting or stopping instances on the RHV platform.
- (NEW) External Partner Network API - allows third party SDN providers to integrate with RHV.
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Virtual and Physical
Details
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=CY21
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Yes (Complete SC mgmt, Fabric Updates, Storage Management)
Basically all components of the System Center 2019 management suite provide comprehensive management of virtual and physical environments from the same interface(es). The simplified licensing (that includes all System Center components) allows to easily expand from physical device management into virtual and private, as well as public cloud management without having to purchase additional components. A few of the many examples are updates/patches through Configuration Manager as well as the new ability to perform Fabric Updates and Storage Array Management through VMM (SMI-S/SMP based)
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Yes
RHV offers the choice to integrate with many LDAP servers (Microsoft Active Directory, Red Hat Directory Server, Red Hat Enterprise IPA, OpenLDAP, iPlanet Directory Server and more) with support for simple or Kerberos based authentication, centrally managed identity, single sign-on services, high availability directory services.
RHV also provides complete solution for users/groups management using PostgreSQL database as a backend, which can be used in RHV the same way users/groups from LDAP.
RHV provides a range of pre-configured or default roles, from the Superuser or system administration of the platform, to an end user with permissions to access a single virtual machine only. Additional roles can be added and customized to suit the end user environment.
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RBAC / AD-Integration
Details
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=CY22
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Yes (SCVMM, Windows Admin Center)
NEW
With System Center 2019 you can now grant permissions to users on a per cloud basis. This eliminates the need to create a new user role for every combination of action/user/cloud. With System Center 2019 you can create Run As accounts to provide the necessary credentials for performing operations in VMM and use the new capabilities available to the Delegated Administrator and Self-Service User roles to give users the ability to perform tasks.
Windows Admin Center provides the ability to authenticate against the Active Directory domain or from Azure Active Directory. However the RBAC are currently not implemented (July 2019).
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No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: CloudForms)
No - RHV exclusively manages Red Hat based environments.
With Red Hat CloudForms users can manage multiple hypervisor vendors and reduce training costs to switch over to RHV. Details here: http://red.ht/I8JG3E (additional cost, not included in RHV subscription)
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Cross-Vendor Mgmt
Details
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=CY23
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Improved (VMware) & removed (Citrix)
System Center 2019 includes management capabilities for heterogeneous environments. Components like Operations Manager will continue to provide integration with Sun Solaris and various Linux and Unix distributions. SC Orchestrator now integrates toolsets from e.g. VMware, IBM and HP etc. into automated workflows. But also the virtualization and cloud management has been enhanced to manage different hypervisors with support for (alongside Hyper-V) VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer. With VMM 2016, the support of XenServer has been removed and only ESXi 5.5 and further are supported. Comment: Multi-hypervisor management is still a point of contention in the industry. SC2019 has greatly improved the management scope but there still is (and arguably always will be) the inability to replicate 100% of the native vendor features and keep up with constantly changing product releases resulting in the need for the native vendor tool. This primarily applies to virtualization management while support for heterogeneous hypervisor environments under unified cloud management is a generally accepted scenario.
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Yes (RHV-M, Power User Portal)
Yes, RHV-M is Java based and is accessed through a web browser GUI, RESTful API with session support, Linux CLI, Python SDK, Java SDK.
RHV also offers a Power User Portal, a web-based access portal for user (Red Hat positions it as an entry-level Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) user portal). It allows users to: Create, edit and remove virtual machines, Manage virtual disks and network interfaces, Assign user permissions to virtual machines, Create and use templates to rapidly deploy virtual machines, Monitor resource usage and high-severity events, Create and use snapshots to restore virtual machines to a previous state.
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Browser Based Mgmt
Details
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Yes - Enhanced Web Client (with enhanced SSO), No BDE
No vSphere Big Data Extensions (BDE) supported with this edition!
vSphere 5 introduced a web based (Adobe Flex based) vSphere client interface which makes the access to vCenter platform-independent.
VMware positioned the web client as the core management interface since vSphere 5.1 - largely matching and in many cases superseding functionality of the legacy client (many new features will only be accessible through the web client). If you e.g. want to create one of the new large 62TB vmdks, you can only do that from the web client.
vSphere 5.5. maintains both the legacy and web client (confirming continued use of the legacy client) and has further enhanced the capabilities of the web client itself, as well as the Single Sign On that enables central authentication.
vSphere 5.5 web client enhancements:
- full client support for Mac OS X
- Drag and drop (e.g. drag and drop vm on to hosts)
- new filters and dynamically updated object lists based on those filters
- new recent-items navigation aid
The initial vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) has been improved in 5.5:
- Simplified deployment (single installation model for customers of all sizes)
- Enhanced Microsoft Active Directory integration - The addition of native Active Directory support enables cross-domain authentication with one- and two-way trusts common in multi-domain environments.
- Architecture - Built from the ground up, this architecture removes the requirement of a database and now delivers a multi-master authentication solution with built-in replication and support for multiple tenants.
vSphere Big Data Extensions (BDE) is a new addition in vSphere 5.5 for vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Editions. BDE is available as a plug-in for the vSphere Web Client.
BDE is a tool that enables administrators to deploy and manage Hadoop clusters on vSphere. It simplifies the provisioning of the infrastructure and software services required for multi-node Hadoop clusters.
It performs the following functions on the virtual Hadoop clusters it manages:
- Creates, deletes, starts, stops and resizes clusters
- Controls resource usage of Hadoop clusters
- Specifies physical server topology information
- Manages the Hadoop distributions available to BDE users
- Automatically scales clusters based on available resources and in response to other workloads on the vSphere cluster
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Windows Admin Center
NEW
Windows Admin Center is a web-based management tool that enables to handle your Hyper-V hosts and VM, Windows Server and hyperconverged infrastructure based on Storage Spaces Direct. Windows Admin Center is browseable from Edge or Google Chrome. This tool is completely free and you can download it to try it
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Yes (extended functionality with CloudForms - Fee-Based Add On)
RHV has comprehensive data warehouse with a stable API.
It provides a system monitoring dashboard in the UI to monitor the system in these different levels.
Red Hat Virtualization includes a deeper integration with Red Hat Satellite that allows the querying of errata information for the RHV-Manager’s operating system and provides a complete view into critical updates for the infrastructure lifecycle management. The release also includes the ability to modify the health status of Host, Storage Domain, or Virtual Machine objects based on external factors such as hardware failure or OS monitoring alerts. Users can quickly perform an impact analysis of their environment in the event an object beyond RHV’s normal visibility is at risk of failure.
CloudForms offers cloud and virtualization operations management advance capabilities.
Features of the cloud and virtualization operations management capabilities:
- delivering IaaS with self-service
- service catalogs, automated provisioning and life cycle management
- monitoring and optimization of infrastructure resources and workloads
- metering, resource quotas, and chargeback
- proactive management, advanced decision support, and intelligent automation through predictive analytics
- provides visibility and reporting for governance, compliance, and management insight
- Enforces enterprise policies in real-time, ensuring cloud security, reliability, and availability
- IT process, task, and event automation.
Note that CloudForms is an additional Fee-Based offering not covered by the RHV subscription.
Details here: www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/cloudforms
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Adv. Operation Management
Details
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=CR25
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Yes (SC Operations Manager, Microsoft Azure)
SC 2019 Operations Manager enables you to monitor services, devices, and operations from a single console. Numerous views show the state, health, and performance information, as well as alerts generated for availability, performance, configuration and security situations. Specifically for virtualization and cloud aspects you can connect System Center 2019 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) with Operations Manager to monitor the health and availability of the virtual machines and virtual machine hosts that VMM manages. You can also monitor health and availability of the VMM management server, the VMM database server, library servers and see diagram views of the virtualized environment through the Operations console in Operations Manager.A close integration between System Center 2019 Virtual Machine Manager and System Center 2019 Operations Manager introduces System Center cloud monitoring of virtual layers for private cloud environments. To get this new functionality, use the System Center 2019 Management Pack for System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager Dashboard, which is imported automatically when you integrate Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager.With System Center 2019 management packs are also updated with new metrics for chargeback purposes that are based both on allocation and utilization. This provides better integration with chargeback and reporting, and enables monitoring of tenant-based utilization of resources that allows chargeback and billing.
If you dont have System Center Suite, you can leverage Azure to provide some hybrid features such as Azure Update Management, Azure Automation or Azure Monitor. Azure Update Management provides the ability to handle updates for your Windows Infrastructure. It provides also an inventory and a change tracking systyem. Azure Automation can help you to automate some tasks through PowerShell script and finally Azure Monitor can monitor, aggregates log and notify you.
Windows Admin Center is the bridge between the On-Prem and Azure world.
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Yes
NEW
Yes, live migration is fully supported with unlimited concurrent migrations (depending only on available resources on other hosts and network speed). RHV 4.0 adds abilities to use compression and auto-convergence to complete migration of heavier workloads faster.
(NEW) Advanced Live Migration Policies - virtualization admistrator can tune the migration policy, greatly reducing both the time live migration time as well as the actual cutover time.
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Updates and Backup |
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Hypervisor Upgrades
Details
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=CY38
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Yes (Cluster Aware Updates, Fabric Updates; Azure Update Management - NEW)
NEW
VMM 2012 (maintained and expanded with R2 and 2016) finally introduced integration between update services and virtualization hosts (even additional Fabric Servers like library servers, PXE servers, the WSUS server itself and the VMM management server).
VMM supports on demand (marketing speak for manual) compliance scanning and remediation of the fabric servers using compiled Baselines (group of patches/updates).
The scope for VMM update management has been expanded with VMM 2012 R2. You can add servers such as Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and other management servers that are not VMM host servers, as managed computers. You can then use a Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server to manage updates for these infrastructure servers in the same way that you do for other computers in the VMM environment.
VMM 2012 also supports Cluster Aware Updates (CAU) orchestrated updates - when remediations are performed on a host cluster, VMM places one cluster node at a time in maintenance mode and then installs updates. If the cluster supports live migration, intelligent placement is used to migrate virtual machines off the cluster node. If the cluster does not support live migration, VMM saves state for the virtual machines.
This feature requires a Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) server to be associated with VMM. After you add a WSUS server to VMM, you should not manage the WSUS using the WSUS console.
This feature is a big improvements but during my testing I found the manual nature of updating the baseline still a little cumbersome.
A new feature in Microsoft Azure called Update Management enables to centralize the patch management for On-Prem and Azure machines (VM and physical server). It’s a free feature until 500mn of automation in a month. Update Management is just an orchestrator and provides order to Windows Update service. So the 500mn are almost never reached only with Update Management.
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Yes (Red Hat Network)
Updates to the virtual machines are typically performed as in the physical environment. For Red Hat virtual machines updates can be downloaded from the Red Hat Network. For Windows virtual machines you would apply the relevant MS update mechanisms. There is no specific integrated function in RHV-M to update virtual machines or templates.
Centralized patching mechanism for Red Hat machines is possible via Satellite. RHV also shows errata information on updates for RHEL hosts and guests OS.
This is a Fee-based Add-On; Details - http://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/satellite
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