Virtualization comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
1st 5th 3rd
Score
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Analysis expand by Roman Macek Gica Livada
ManageIQ Community
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General expand
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  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + mature and feature-rich offering
  • + great ecosystem & support
  • + skills prevelant
  • + - XenServer it is OpenSource based
  • + - It is highly optimized for XenApp and XenDesktop workloads
  • + - Leader in virtual delivery of 3D professional graphics
  • + not specified
Cons
  • - needs clear strategy for public cloud future
  • - comprehensive capability but can become expensive
  • - NSX leading SDN solution but skills scarce
  • - - Less features in free edition. See http://bit.ly/2ddQiVL
  • - - Niche product
  • - not specified
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
THE VIRTUALIST
The VIRTUALIST (Gica Livada) and Enzo Raso (Citrix)
Content created by Virtualizationmatrix; (Contributors: Jon Benedict, Yaniv Dary, Raissa Tona, Larry W. Bailey)
  Assessment  
  •  
Overview
vSphere 6.5 Enterprise Plus - Click Here For Overview
XenServer 7.5 Standard Edition includes Citrix support. XenServer 7.5 extends alignment with XenApp and XenDesktop release cycles while the expanded XenServer Enterprise entitlement ensures you can leverage unique app and desktop performance integrations only available with XenServer. For Standard vs Enterprise edition, please check: http://bit.ly/2ddQiVL
NEW
RHV 4.0 - Click Here For Details
  •  
Maturity
Release Dates:
vSphere 6.5 : November 15th 2016
XenServer 7.5 Release date May 2018
RHV 4.0 released in August 2016
NEW
  Pricing  
  •  
Virtualization
Ent+ :
$3,495/socket + S&S 1Y: $734 (B) or $874 (Prod)
Open Source (free) or two commercial editions, pricing for Standard Edition is: Annual: $763 / socket, Perpetual: $1525/ socket - both including 1 year of software maintenance.
Included in hypervisor subscription
  •  
Management
$5,995(Std) + $1,259(B) or $1,499 (P)
Free (XenCenter)
Yes, combined RHEL and RHV offering 26% savings
  •  
Bundle/Kit Pricing
yes
Yes
RHV: No included (RHEL: 1/4/unlimited)
  •  
Guest OS Licensing
No
Yes (RHV-M)
NEW
VM Mobility and HA expand
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  VM Mobility  
  •  
Live Migration of VMs
Yes (vMotion)
Yes XenMotion
Yes
  •  
Migration Compatibility
Yes (EVC)
Yes (Heterogeneous Pools)
  •  
Maintenance Mode
Yes
NEW
Yes
Yes - Built-in (CPU\Memory) and plugable scheduler
  •  
Automated Live Migration
Yes (DRS) - CPU, Mem
NEW
No, Workload Balancing
Yes
  •  
Power Management
Yes (DPM)
No Workload Balancing
Yes
  •  
Storage Migration
Yes (Live Storage vMotion)
Yes (Storage XenMotion)
200 hosts/cluster
  HA/DR  
  •  
Cluster Size
max 64 nodes / 8000 vm per cluster
64 hosts / resource pool
NEW
Yes
  •  
Integrated HA (Restart vm)
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
Yes
Yes (HA, WatchDog)
  •  
Automatic VM Reset
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
No
No
  •  
VM Lockstep Protection
Yes (Fault Tolerance) 4 vCPUs.
NEW
No
No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: Red Hat Cluster Suite)
  •  
Application/Service HA
App HA
No
No - See Details
  •  
Replication / Site Failover
Yes (vSphere Replication)
DR Orchestration (Vendor Add-On: VMware SRM)
NEW
Integrated Disaster Recovery (no storage array control)
Yes
Management expand
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  General  
  •  
Central Management
Yes (vCenter Server Standard)
NEW
Yes (XenCenter)
Third-party plug-in framework
NEW
  •  
Virtual and Physical
Limited (plug-ins)
Limited (plug-ins)
Yes
  •  
RBAC / AD-Integration
Yes (vCenter and ESXi hosts)
Yes (hosts/XenCenter)
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: CloudForms)
  •  
Cross-Vendor Mgmt
vRealize Automation (Vendor Add-On)
No (native)
Yes (Vendor Add-On: CloudPlatform)
Yes (RHV-M, Power User Portal)
  •  
Browser Based Mgmt
Yes (vSphere Web Client, HTML5 Web Client)
NEW
Not directly with XenCenter but possible with XenOrchestra (Open Source)

More info: https://bit.ly/1gcmTYN
Yes (extended functionality with CloudForms - Fee-Based Add On)
  •  
Adv. Operation Management
Limited (native) - vCenter Operations
Full (with Vendor Add-On: vRealize Operations)
No
Yes
NEW
  Updates and Backup  
  •  
Hypervisor Upgrades
Yes (Update Manager)
NEW
The XenCenter released with XenServer 7.0 allows updates to be applied to all versions of XenServer (commercial and free)
Yes (Red Hat Network)
  •  
VM Patching
Limited (Update Manager)
No
Yes; Including RAM
  •  
Live VM Snapshot
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Backup Integration API
Yes (vStorage API Data Protection)
Limited
No
  •  
Integrated Backup
Yes (vSphere Data Protection) - Replication of backup data, granular backup and scheduling
No (Retired)
No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: Satellite 6)
  Deployment  
  •  
Automated Host Deployments
Yes (Auto Deploy)
NEW
No
Yes
  •  
VM Templates
Yes (Content Library)
Yes
No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: CloudForms)
  •  
Tiered VM Templates
Yes (vApp/OVF)
vApp
Yes (limited native);
Advanced options with Vendor Add-On: Satellite
  •  
Host Profiles
Yes (Host Profiles)
NEW
No
No
  •  
Storage Profiles
Yes (Storage Based Policy Management)
No
Yes
  Other  
  •  
Resource Pools
Yes
No
V2V, P2V
  •  
P2V
Yes (vCenter Converter)
No (XenConvert: retired), V2V: yes
User Portal
  •  
Self Service Portal
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vCloud Suite, vRealize Automation)
No (Web Self Service: retired in XS6.2)
No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: CloudForms)
  •  
Orchestration / Workflows
Yes (vRealize Orchestrator)
Yes (Workflow Studio)
sVirt, SELinux, iptables, VLANs, Port Mirroring
  •  
Security
Yes (ESXi Firewall, vShield Endpoint, VM Encryption)
Basic (NetScaler - Fee-Based Add-On)
Agent-based, CIM, SNMP
  •  
Systems Management
vSphere’s REST API, PowerCLI, vSphere CLI, ESXCLI, Datacenter CLI
Yes (API / SDKs, CIM)
RHV-H or RHEL with KVM - details here
Network and Storage expand
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  Storage  
  •  
Supported Storage
DAS, NFS, FC, iSCSI, FCoE (HW&SW), vFRC, SDDC
DAS, SAS, iSCSI, NAS, SMB, FC, FCoE, openFCoE
Yes (FC, FCoE, iSCSI)
NEW
  •  
SAN Multipath
Yes (enhanced APD and PDL) PDL AutoRemove
Yes (limited for SAS)
Yes
  •  
Shared File System
Yes (VMFS v6)
NEW
Yes (SR)
Yes
  •  
Boot From SAN
Yes (FC, iSCSI, FCoE and SW FCoE)
Yes (iSCSI, FC, FCoE)
Yes
  •  
Boot from USB
Yes
No
RAW, Qcow2
  •  
Virtual Disk Format
vmdk, raw disk (RDM)
vhd, raw disk (LUN)
Default max virtual disk size is 8TB (but its configurable in RHV DB)
  •  
Max Disk Size
64TB
2TB (16TB with GFS2)
NEW
Yes
  •  
Thin Disk Provisioning
Yes
Yes (Limitations on block)
Yes (Limited)
NEW
  •  
NPIV Support
Yes (RDM only)
No
Yes
  •  
Linked Images
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vCloud Suite, vRealize Automation)
Yes - Clone on boot, clone, PVS, MCS
No (native);
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: Red Hat Gluster Storage)
  •  
SW Storage Replication
Yes (vSphere Replication)
No
FS-Cache
  •  
Caching
Yes (vSphere Flash Read Cache)
IntelliCache
Yes
  •  
Virtual SAN
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vSAN 6.5)
No
Yes (Limited)
  •  
Storage Integration (API)
Yes (VASA, VAAI and VAMP)
Integrated StorageLink (deprecated)
Yes (Quota, Storage I/O SLA)
  •  
Storage QoS
Yes (Storage IO Control )
Basic
Various new enhancements + Neutron Integration (Tech Preview) - click for details
  Networking  
  •  
Advanced Network Switch
Yes (vDS)
Yes (Open vSwitch) - vSwitch Controller
Yes
  •  
NIC Teaming
Yes (up to 32 NICs)
Yes (incl. LACP - New)
Yes
  •  
VLAN
Yes
Yes (limited for mgmt. and storage traffic)
NEW
Yes (via host hooks)
  •  
PVLAN
Yes
No
Guests fully, hypervisors partially
  •  
IPv6
Yes
Yes (guests only)
Yes
  •  
I/O Pass-Through
Yes (SR-IOV and VMDirectPath)
SR-IOV
NEW
Yes
  •  
Jumbo Frames
Yes
Yes
TOE
  •  
Offload Support
Yes (TSO, NetQueue, iSCSI)
Yes (TSO)
Yes (vNIC Profile)
  •  
Network QOS
Yes (NetIOC)
Yes (outgoing)
Yes (Port Mirroring)
  •  
Traffic Monitoring
yes (Port Mirroring)
Yes (Port Mirroring)
Yes (virtio), Mem Balloon optimization and error messages
Hypervisor expand
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  General  
  •  
Hypervisor Details/Size
Virtual Hardware version 13
XenServer 7.1: Xen 4.7 -based
No limit stated
  Host Config  
  •  
Max Consolidation Ratio
1024 VMs
1000 VMs per host
x86: 288
PPC: 192
  •  
Max CPU / Host
576 physical
288 (logical)
Unlimited
  •  
Max Cores per CPU
unlimited
unlimited
x86: 12TB
PPC: 2TB
  •  
Max Memory / Host
12TB
5TB
240 vCPUs per VM
  VM Config  
  •  
Max vCPU per VM
128 vCPU
32
4TB
  •  
Max RAM per VM
6TB
NEW
1.5TB
Yes
  •  
Serial Ports
32 ports
No
Yes
  •  
USB Support
Yes (USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x) with max 20 USB devices per vm
Yes
NEW
Yes
  •  
Hot Add/Plug
Yes (CPU, Mem, Disk, NIC, PCIe SSD)
Yes (disk, NIC)
No
  •  
Graphic Acceleration
Yes (NVIDIA vGPU)
Yes
DAS, iSCSI, NFS, GlusterFS, FC, POSIX;
Virtio SCSI support
  Memory  
  •  
Dynamic / Over-Commit
Yes (Memory Ballooning)
Yes (DMC)
Yes (KSM)
  •  
Memory Page Sharing
Yes (Transparent Page Sharing)
No
Yes
  •  
Large Pages
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
HW Memory Translation
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Interoperability  
  •  
OVF Support
Yes
Yes, incl. vApp
Comprehensive
  •  
HW Compatibility
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Improving
Limited
  •  
Guest OS Support
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Good
NEW
  •  
Container Support
Yes
NEW
Yes
REST API, Python CLI, Hooks, SDK
  •  
Scripting / APIs
Web Services API/SDK, CIM, Perl, .NET, Java SDKs, Client Plug-In API, vSphere Clip, vMA
Yes (SDK, API, PowerShell)
REST API
  •  
Cloud API
vCloud API
CloudStack APIs, support for AWS API and OpenStack
RHCI: CloudForms, OpenStack, RHV; Satelite, OpenShift (Fee-Based Add-Ons)
Extensions expand
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  Cloud  
  •  
Overview Cloud
VMware Cloud Foundation
NEW
CloudPlatform; OpenStack
VDI Included in RHV; HTML5 support (Tech Preview)
  Desktop Virtualization  
  •  
Overview VDI
VMware Horizon 7 (Vendor Add-On)
Citrix Desktop Virtualization (XenDesktop & XenApp 7.6 - NEW; ViaB; associated products)
Yes
  1  
  •  
Virtual SAN
vSAN 6.5 (Vendor Add-On)
no
3rd Party
  2  
  •  
Application Management
App Volumes
Vendor Add-On: XenDesktop
Citrix Director
sVirt & Security Partnerships
  3  
  •  
Security Add On
NSX (Vendor Add-On)
Vendor Add-Ons: NetScaler Gateway, App Firewall, CloudBridge, Direct Inspection API
Vendor Add-On: CloudForms
  4  
  •  
Workflow / Orchestration
vRealize Orchestrator
Workflow Studio (incl.)
No - See Details
  5  
  •  
Site Failover
Site Recovery Manager (Vendor Add-On)
Integrated Site Recovery (incl.)
Vendor Add-On: CloudForms
  6  
  •  
Chargeback
vRealize Business (Vendor Add-On)
Vendor Add-On: CloudPortal Business Manager, CloudStack Usage Server (Fee-Based Add-Ons)
Vendor Add-Ons: Load Balancer, High Performance
  7  
  •  
Network Extensions
NSX (Vendor Add-on)
NSX (Vendor Add-on)
No

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • VMware
  • Citrix
  • Red Hat
  •  
  • 1 st
  • 5 th
  • 3 rd
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