Comparison of virtualization technologies such as 20180307-xen, KVM, VMware, Hyper-V, etc.

Xen and KVM are open source free virtualization software.

VMware is a paid virtualization software.

Hyper-V is special, the virtualization component that comes with Microsoft Windows R2, and if you buy enough licenses, Hyper-V (including Hyper-V core) can be used for free.

In the case of a VMware or Hyper-V virtual Windows system, the license fee is paid for both the virtualization software itself and the subsystems within it.

In the case of VMware or Hyper-V virtual Linux, the virtualization software itself pays the licensing fee, and the subsystem can use Linux to save costs.

In the case of Xen or KVM virtual windows, the subsystem in it will pay the licensing fee.

In the case of Xen or KVM virtual Linux, the virtualization software itself and its subsystems do not incur any costs.

In terms of performance, virtual windows, if you can get vendor support, then, performance optimization can not worry. These software all can achieve at least 80% of the main system performance (disk, CPU, network, memory), it is recommended to use Hyper-V to virtual windows, Microsoft's own products, virtual Windows is absolutely advantageous. In the case of Virtual Linux, it is recommended to use Xen first, support Linux semi-virtualized, can directly use the main system of CPU and disk and network resources, to achieve less virtualization scheduling operations, can achieve very high performance, but Xen operation complex, maintenance cost is high. Second, we recommend KVM to the virtual Linux,linux itself support KVM Virtio technology, can achieve a small number of virtualization scheduling operations, get high system performance. Hyper-V is not recommended for virtual Linux, and too many incompatibilities cause Linux to run on Hyper-V basically.

If the above products we do not intend to buy vendor support, which VMware and Hyper-V, is not recommended to use, mainly licensing issues.

KVM and Xen are left, and if you use KVM for virtual windows, we can get a free driver for Windows-optimized disks and networks from Redhat, which can achieve high performance (almost flat with Hyper-V performance). And the Xen Windows optimization driver is not so easy to get (because Redhat later does not support Xen, see if Novell is water, hehe, in terms of openness, redhat better than Novell).

Sum up

In the case of licensed virtual windows, it is recommended that Hyper-V

In the case of licensed virtual Linux, it is recommended to use Xen, for example, considering the need to reduce administrative maintenance and learning costs, KVM is recommended.

In the absence of authorization, virtual Windows is recommended to use KVM

Reprint to: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5de3b90c0102wcv4.html

Comparison of virtualization technologies such as 20180307-xen, KVM, VMware, Hyper-V, etc.