Comparison of virtualization technologies such as Xen, KVM, VMware, and hyper-v

xen and kvm are open source free virtualization software.

vmware is a paid virtualization software.

hyper-v is a special virtualization component that comes with Microsoft Windows 2008 R2. If you buy enough licenses, hyper-v (including hyper-v 2008 core) can be used free of charge.

If it is a vmware or hyper-v virtual windows system, whether it is the virtualization software itself or the subsystems, the license fee must be paid.

If it is vmware or hyper-v virtual linux, the virtualization software itself has to pay the license fee, and the subsystem can use linux to save costs.

If it is xen or kvm virtual windows, the subsystems are subject to license fees.

If it is xen or kvm virtual linux, there is no cost to the virtualization software itself and its subsystems.

In terms of performance, virtual windows, if you can get the support of the manufacturer, then performance optimization can not worry. All of these softwares can achieve at least 80% of the performance of the main system (disk, CPU, network, memory), then it is recommended to use hyper-v to virtual windows, Microsoft's own products, virtual windows is definitely an advantage. If it is virtual linux, it is recommended to use xen first, support linux semi-virtualization, can directly use the main system cpu and disk and network resources, achieve less virtualized scheduling operations, can achieve very high performance, but xen operation is complicated The maintenance cost is high. Secondly, we recommend kvm to virtual linux. Linux itself supports krvm's virtio technology, which can achieve a small amount of virtualized scheduling operations and achieve higher system performance. It is not recommended to use hyper-v for virtual linux. Too much incompatibility causes linux to basically fail to run on hyper-v.

If the above products are not intended to buy vendor support, vmware and hyper-v are not recommended, mainly licensing issues. At this time, kvm and xen are left. If virtual windows, it is recommended to use kvm, we can get the disk and network drivers optimized for windows from redhat for free, which can achieve higher performance (almost with hyper-v Performance is flat). And xen's windows optimization driver is not so easy to get (because redhat does not support xen later, see if novell put water, huh, huh, openly speaking, redhat is better than novell).

In summary,

In the case of authorization, virtual windows, it is recommended to use hyper-v

In the case of authorization, virtual linux, it is recommended to use Xen, if you need to reduce management maintenance and learning costs, it is recommended to use kvm.

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

In the absence of authorization, virtual linux, it is recommended to use xen, if you need to reduce management and maintenance costs, It is recommended to use kvm.