[a]-Hyper-V parallels xen.org source and has for some time now and slightly behind with better performance attributed to XenServer due to Paravirtualization versus hardware emulation used by Vmware. However, IMO this is not the only obstacle being nothing compares as of this right from a TCO and ROI to a read-only desktop per unlimited user accounts and using AD and OU per BU to segment policies and conditions relative to the read-only desktop. One should easily get 15 IOPS or less with Windows 7 and 756 MB of RAM with no page file and shared write cache and virtual PVS servers dedicated to streaming having stripped off BOOT.iso to a pair of Linux or Windows TFTP servers (I like Solarwinds) behind a virtual or physical load balanced such as BigIP or Netscaler SDX, or VPX being the down-level VIPs are generally for “infrastructure services and never used by general users but services”. [b]-The other difference is storage requirements. Generally, to use Vmware hardware emulation effectively I must turn on thin provisioning at storage level (preferred); thus, allowing me to over allocate which to me is less preferred then ROL or (my term: resources-on-loan aka dynamic capacity on demand) whereas I can generally get 200% out of a single XenServer host and GNU or Citrix (either one and both are free). [c]-Storage protocol requirements are differing enough to be listed, IMO. Vmware with View is a requirement to use FC direct versus the option on PVS server to now cache and use VDISKs in VHD native format from a NAS share which I recent POC'd originally using 1 server running XenServer and FreeNAS for storage and local SAS drives only for all virtual single-server POC then graduated this to a 2 meter cabinet concept and obtained 7000 vanilla Windows 7 VOS's on my VDI design. Critical design for HA here is the ability to have HA on desktops and infrastructure components by having a single LUN for write-cache and single LUN presented to the streaming PVS servers for VHD's.

1. What is the primary differences between M$
Hypervisor and VMWare Hypervisor?
Night and day.
[a]-Hyper-V parallels xen.org source and has for some time now and slightly
behind with better performance attributed to XenServer due to Paravirtualization
versus hardware emulation used by Vmware. However, IMO this is not the only
obstacle being nothing compares as of this right from a TCO and ROI to a read-only
desktop per unlimited user accounts and using AD and OU per BU to segment policies
and conditions relative to the read-only desktop. One should easily get 15 IOPS or
less with Windows 7 and 756 MB of RAM with no page file and shared write cache and
virtual PVS servers dedicated to streaming having stripped off BOOT.iso to a pair
of Linux or Windows TFTP servers (I like Solarwinds) behind a virtual or physical load
balanced such as BigIP or Netscaler SDX, or VPX being the down-level VIPs are
generally for “infrastructure services and never used by general users but services”.
[b]-The other difference is storage requirements. Generally, to use Vmware hardware
emulation effectively I must turn on thin provisioning at storage level (preferred);
thus, allowing me to over allocate which to me is less preferred then ROL or (my term:
resources-on-loan aka dynamic capacity on demand) whereas I can generally get 200%
out of a single XenServer host and GNU or Citrix (either one and both are free). [c]Storage protocol requirements are differing enough to be listed, IMO. Vmware with
View is a requirement to use FC direct versus the option on PVS server to now cache
and use VDISKs in VHD native format from a NAS share which I recent POC'd
originally using 1 server running XenServer and FreeNAS for storage and local SAS
drives only for all virtual single-server POC then graduated this to a 2 meter cabinet
concept and obtained 7000 vanilla Windows 7 VOS's on my VDI design. Critical
design for HA here is the ability to have HA on desktops and
infrastructure components by having a single LUN for write-cache and single LUN
presented to the streaming PVS servers for VHD's.
This is real-time HA without need for additional software and no
middleman bottleneck to storage infrastructure as with XenDesktop hosted on ESX

2. and having to use Virtual Center but no clear HA for Virtual Center from a dynamic
and automated perspective (that I know of). Note: That 7000 is with blades that
support xyz RAM whereas using Cisco UCS blades that number in theory can go much
higher being streamed desktops are RAM constraints with IOPS to writecache.
Actually, I have saved more money by using 15 @ 2U servers with 96 GB RAM ONLY,
2008 R2 64 BIT STANDARD EDITION. I can show where you LOSE session count if
going from 96 to 128 or higher on typical HP G5-6+ series and up due to all vendors
except Cisco have a hard limit of 96 GB of RAM at 100% BUS SPEED. The instant you
go to 128 you lose 30% BUS SPEED from memory to processor and vice versa. Hence,
on one occasion I cut OS costs by 50% and hit 425 sessions per 2U server and our cost
at GMAC with full HA kit, dual power, dual NICs, dual patch, two cores, patch for iLO,
then used digital KVM for secondary entry, RDP made third-way to access every server
with iLO being most advantageous back when using virtual CDROM or floppy.
I digress – anyway, I have not had the opportunity to test Cisco UCS with FULL 384
GB per BLADE WITH ZERO drop in bus speed. If the technical problems are eliminated
or removing the UCS aspect and going with physical blade only I believe we can get
10000 read-only desktops, no applications installed, 20 GB – Win7 – Pagefile,
logging, no AV, no inventory agents, only other agent I recommend is the Advanced
Client from Liquidware which comes with a free license for Liquid Profiles. Customer
originally planned on buying 14 cabinets. I went from 14 to 4 cabinets for 30000 users
which there is no way which time zone and shift differentials at 600 sites that system
would reach 30000 “concurrent” due to dynamic capacity on demand and
advanced algorithms applied for desktop timeout aka resource retention policies and
return to shared pool.
Must be shared privates cloud scenario where desktops are agnostic to users, licensing
is bridged or shared, everything is shared. I would really like a chance to test this
although I have used Cisco UCS for several POCs it was Hyper-V on one and ESX on
another and could never get approval to try XenServer which Hyper-V and XenServer
use the same paravirtualization method and www.xen.org source GNU came first! This
is NOT the “which came first, chicken or egg?”
Brian Murphy
http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud[1]

3. If you like this article and the others on this site, send me an Invite and if you
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1. http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud