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
- Not Supported
- Information Only
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Pros
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- + OVM subscription includes license for Enterprise Manager
- + Use OVM to control Oracle Licenses for better TCO
- + Default choice for Oracle apps (support)
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Cons
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- - Skills - OVM not as widely known as Vmware
- - Xen Based - Market is working more toward KVM
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Content |
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=BP12
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WhatMatrix
Content created by WhatMatrix
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WhatMatrix
Content created by WhatMatrix and modified by Romain Serre
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Assessment |
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vSphere 6.0 Enterprise - Click Here For Overview
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Oracle VM 3.4 with Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and OpenStack
Oracle VM subscriptions includes the access to the following technologies and related support:
Oracle VM 3.4 as well as previous releases and future releases
Oracle VM Server for x86 with Oracle VM Manager is a free server virtualization and management solution that makes enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. Backed worldwide by affordable enterprise-quality support for both Oracle and non-Oracle environments, Oracle VM facilitates the deployment and operation of your enterprise applications on a fully certified platform to reduce operations and support costs while simultaneously increasing IT efficiency and agility.
Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control as well as previous releases and future releases
Oracle Enterprise Manager is Oracle’s integrated enterprise IT management product line, which provides the industry’s only complete, integrated and business-driven enterprise cloud management solution. Oracle Enterprise Manager creates business value from IT by leveraging the built-in management capabilities of the Oracle stack for traditional and cloud environments, allowing customers to achieve unprecedented efficiency gains while dramatically increasing agility and service levels.
The key capabilities of Enterprise Manager includes:
- A complete cloud lifecycle management solution allowing you to quickly set up, manage and support enterprise clouds and traditional Oracle IT environments from applications to disk.
- Maximum return on IT management investment through the best solutions for intelligent management of the Oracle stack and engineered systems with real-time integration of Oracle’s knowledgebase with each customer environment
- Secure and scalable traditional and private cloud IT environments through superior, enterprise grade management
OpenStack for Oracle Linux R2 as well as previous releases and future releases (Supported as a Compute Node for Nova). Other OpenStack components are supported under the Oracle Linux subscriptions.
More Details in: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/openstack/linux/documentation/datasheet-oracle-openstack-2296038.pdf
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WS 2016 + SC 2016 (DC) Â - Click Here For Overview
General Overview: Windows Server 2016 in concunction with its management suite System Center 2016 Â were released in Oct 2016 with several (less obvious but important) updates to its virtualization and cloud capabilities. Both play an important role for Microsofts Cloud OS vision that aims to provide customers with one consistent platform for infrastructure, applications, and data - spaning across customer datacenters, hosting service provider datacenters, and the Microsoft public cloud.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 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 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 2016 provides a minimalist deployment model called Nano Server. Nano Server doesnt provide Shell, or 32bit legacy support. Moreover Nano Server supports only specific application such as Hyper-V, Storage, IIS, Container and so on. For further details, please visit this topic:Â https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/get-started/getting-started-with-nano-server
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=AU14
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Current Stable Release OVM 3.4: March 26 2016 - Initial Release Date - July 31st of 2008
The Oracle VM bundle exists since 2008 but its components already exists for more than a Decade:
- Xen Hypervisor: Initial Release in 2003
- Linux: Initial Release in 1991
- MySQL Enterprise: Initial Release in 1995
- Weblogic: Initial Release in 1997
- OCFS2: Initial Release in 2002
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Release Dates - W2016, SC2016: October 2016 (initial Hyper-V: Jun 08, SCVMM Sep 08)
NEW
Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 were released in Oct 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)
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Pricing |
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Ent: $2,875/socket + S&S:$604 (B) or $719 (Prod)
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Oracle VM Premier Limited for 2 Sockets Servers 1 Yr - $599.00; Oracle VM Premier for more than 2 Sockets Servers 1 Yr - $1,199.00;
This subscription includes 24x7 support for the Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and for being a Compute Node managed by Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux R2. Price List: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/els-pricelist-070592.pdf.
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Datacenter: $6,155 for 16 physical cores. Same price as W2012 Datacenter until 16 physical cores
NEW
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
For virtual machines hosted on an licenced WS2016 datacenter server, you can use the AVMA (Automatic Virtual Machine Activation) provided by Microsoft
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=AU17
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$0.00
Support for Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM Manager and Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and for being a Compute Node managed by Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux R2 are included by default on Oracle VM Subscriptions.
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System Center 2016 Datacenter: $3,607 or Standard $1,323 per managed endpoint (up to 16 physical cores)
NEW
The System Center 2016 Datacenter license model is like Windows Server 2016. 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 2016 standard is based on managed endpoint.
For virtualize environment, you just have to buy licenses for the Hyper-V hosts.
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Bundle/Kit Pricing
Details
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=AU18
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$0.00
Support for Oracle VM Servers, Oracle VM Manager and Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and for being a Compute Node managed by Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux R2 are included by default on Oracle VM Subscriptions.
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Vmware switch offer until July 2017
NEW
For the migration of Vmware to Windows Server 2016 Datacenter, if you buy Software Assurance and Windows Server 2016 Datacenter, the Windows Server 2016 Datacenter is free
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Guest OS Licensing
Details
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=AU19
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No
Subscriptions for Oracle Linux are sold separately.
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yes - unlimited OSEs with Datacenter Licenses (Windows Server vms)
This Datacenter license allows for unlimited instances of Windows Server 2016 (or previous version) in virtual machines on this host. In place of the licensed version (i.e. Server 2016) , you can run prior (older) versions or lower editions in any of the OSEs of the licensed server. If you have Windows Server 2016 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 2016 Standard edition, you will have the right to run the bits of any prior version of Standard or Essentials edition.
The WS2016 standard edition enables to run two OSEs. If you need more OSEs, you have to buy additional licenses.
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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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Yes vMotion
- Cross vSwitch vMotion Only
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Yes - Live Migration
There is also a possibility to use SSL to encryption the Live Migration. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Unlimited Concurrent, Shared Nothing; new compression & SMB3 options)
(No major change in WS2016) 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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Migration Compatibility
Details
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=AU27
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Yes
On the same Cluster/Server Pool it is possible to separate the Cluster/Server Pool Members based on the CPU Family to guarantee the success of Live Migration between those Servers but there is no possibility of grouping different CPUs generations by masking out incompatible functions using CPU Masking. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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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 2016.
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=AU28
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Yes - Maintenance Mode
It is possible to execute the Maintenance Mode and It is also possible to Lock some Servers to not receive this Offload of Virtual Machines from the Server that is entering in this State. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes
Typically triggered through Virtual Machine Manager or custom scripts. 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. With VMM 2016, You can place Hyper-V hosts andVMware ESX hosts that are managed by VMM into maintenance mode.
If you have not VMM, you can change the node to pause state and drain node role (VM, storage and so on). When using VMM, the maintenance mode change the node state to pause also. 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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Automated Live Migration
Details
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Yes (DRS) - CPU, Mem - No Storage DRS.
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Yes
Oracle VM provides a DRS feature for the following constraints: (CPU-CPU, N:Network i/o) during VMs runtime and the following constraints: (CPU-CPU, N:Network i/o, MEM:Memory) during VMs startup. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes - Dynamic Optimization (CPU, mem, disk I/O, Net I/O) and VM Load Balancing
NEW
If you have not System Center, a new Windows Server 2016 called VM Load Balancinf 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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=AU30
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Yes
Oracle VM provides a DPM feature that works with IPMI and Wake Up On Lan. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes - Power Optimization
(no major updates with 2016)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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Storage Migration
Details
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=AU31
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Yes
Oracle VM provides a capability to Migrate the VM Disks to different Storage Repositories (Live Local Repository to Local Repository in different Hypervisors - Not Live for any other type of Storage Migration). More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Live and Shared Nothing)
(no major updates with 2016)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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HA/DR |
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=AU32
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32 Hosts in Cluster/Pool
Oracle VM can have up to 32 Servers on each Clustered Server Pool and up to 64 Servers on each Unclustered Server Pool. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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64 nodes / 8000 vims
(no major updates with 2016)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. Â http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg509003(v=ws.10).aspx
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Integrated HA (Restart vm)
Details
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=AU33
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Yes - Clustered Pool
Oracle VM will restart HA-enabled Guests on remaining Hosts in case of Host failure. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (NIC and unmanaged Storage failure detection - Virtual Machine Compute Resiliency - NEW)
NEW
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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Automatic VM Reset
Details
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=AU34
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Yes
Oracle VM will restart Guests on the same Host due to OS Failures. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Heartbeat)
(No major updates with 2016)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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VM Lockstep Protection
Details
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Yes (Fault Tolerance) 2 vCPUs.
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No
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No
(No major updates with 2016)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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Application/Service HA
Details
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No
AppHA is not available with this edition!
vSphere 6.0 Application High Availability (App HA) – Expanded support for more business critical applications.
vSphere 5.5 introduces enhanced application monitoring for vSphere HA with vSphere App HA.
App HA works in conjunction with vSphere HA host monitoring and virtual machine monitoring to further improve application uptime. vSphere App HA can be configured to restart an application service when an issue is detected. It is possible to protect several commonly used applications. vSphere HA can also reset the virtual machine if the application fails to restart.
App HA leverages VMware vFabric Hyperic to monitor applications (you need to deploy two virtual appliances per vCenter Server: vSphere App HA and vFabric Hyperic - the App HA virtual appliance stores and manages vSphere App HA policies while vFabric Hyperic monitors applications and enforces vSphere App HA policies, vFabric Hyperic agents are installed in the virtual machines containing applications that will be protected by App HA).
vSphere 5 introduced the High Availability (vSphere HA) application monitoring API.
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No
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Yes (VM Compute Resiliency)
NEW
Windows Server 2016 brings 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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Replication / Site Failover
Details
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=AU37
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Yes
If the Storage is Replicated the whole environment can be orchestrated to be up and running in minutes if the Failover Site already has the Oracle VM up and running pointing to the Replicated Storage with the help of Oracle Site Guard. More info on: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/ovm3-disaster-recovery-1872591.pdf
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Hyper-V Replica - Storage Replica
NEW
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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Management
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General |
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Central Management
Details
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=AU20
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Yes - OVM Manager & Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control in addition to Oracle VM Manager for Central Management. OEM13c Cloud Control extends Oracle VM Manager with Cloud Capabilities. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E64082/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/GUID-152C4D4A-6FC2-42B0-ABE3-5884D6A466F4.htm#EMCLO180
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Yes (System Center 2016 / VMM)Â
NEW
System Center 2016 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. You can implement Windows Azure Pack to deploy a Private Cloud based with the old Microsoft Azure portal.
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Virtual and Physical
Details
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=AU21
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to provision and manage Virtual Guests, Oracle VM Hosts and Physical Servers. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMLCM/GUID-E1076C88-A0FE-4F2C-AD58-1E4A3BA32757.htm
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Yes (Complete SC mgmt, Fabric Updates, Storage Management)
Basically all components of the System Center 2016 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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RBAC / AD-Integration
Details
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=AU22
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to provide RBAC/ AD-Integration or LDAP-compliant director server. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMSEC/GUID-5DD3B11A-1159-40BD-8AEB-41EDE664AB12.htm#EMSEC13094 and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMSEC/GUID-5DD3B11A-1159-40BD-8AEB-41EDE664AB12.htm#EMSEC12846
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Yes (SCVMM)
With System Center 2016 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 2016 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.
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Cross-Vendor Mgmt
Details
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=AU23
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Yes - Adding 3rd Party Plug-in from Bluemedora Partner
Classified as limited because it is not a default feature and 3rd party plugin is needed. More info on: http://www.bluemedora.com/products/plugin-for-vmware/
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Improved (VMware) & removed (Citrix)
System Center 2012 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. SC2012 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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Browser Based Mgmt
Details
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=AU24
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Yes - OVM Manager & Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control
Both Oracle VM Manager and Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control are HTML Browser Based Mgmt. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E64082/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/GUID-152C4D4A-6FC2-42B0-ABE3-5884D6A466F4.htm#EMCLO180
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Limited (SSPs)
(no major updates with 2016)System Center is based on the .NET frame work. The primary administrator interfaces are not browser-based (like e.g. the new vSphere web client attempts to achieve). There are however web based components for some of the SC products and functions like the Service Manager Self Service Portal (SSP) or the Operations Manager Web Console. Please note that the web based VMM Self Service Portal has been removed with SC SP1. You can implement Windows Azure Pack to deploy virtual machines from a Portal.
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Adv. Operation Management
Details
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=AU25
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Yes - Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control for Advanced Operation Management. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E64082/html/index.html and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/GUID-152C4D4A-6FC2-42B0-ABE3-5884D6A466F4.htm#EMCLO180
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Yes (SC Operations Manager)
SC 2016 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 2016 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 2016 Virtual Machine Manager and System Center 2016 Operations Manager introduces System Center cloud monitoring of virtual layers for private cloud environments. To get this new functionality, use the System Center 2016 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 2016 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.
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Updates and Backup |
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Hypervisor Upgrades
Details
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=AU38
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Yes
Oracle VM provides the capability to upgrade the OVM Servers by the usage of Oracle VM Manager or Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control with Zero Downtime, Migrating (Live) the VMs to other Hosts in the Cluster/Server Pool. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Cluster Aware Updates, Fabric Updates; Management Servers - NEW)
(No major updates with 2016)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.
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=AU39
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Yes
Oracle provides Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control for Linux Patching. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMLCM/GUID-91D92136-E452-48C6-AD49-3D88E8CC575F.htm#EMLCM11557
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Yes (WSUS, SCCM, VMST)
(no major updates with 2016)
Virtual machine patching is typically done using the existing Windows update methods like Windows Server Update Services/System Center Configuration Manager.
To keep your offline virtual machines, templates and VHDs up-to-date with the latest OS and application updates you can use the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 (VMST).
- Install the tool (a configuration wizard guides you through the process of connecting the tool to VMM and WSUS).
- Configure virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks groups.
- Create and schedule servicing jobs (specifies which virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks to update, what resources to use for the update process, and when to start the servicing job).
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=AU40
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Yes - Hot Clones
Oracle provides the ability to execute Hot Clones that works similarly to Snapshots, but ther is no Snapshot Manager. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Checkpoint) - NEW: Production Checkpoint
NEW
Snapshots - with WS2012 R2 also referred to as Checkpoints- can be taken, deleted and reverted to with or without SCVMM while the vm is online. The Hyper-V Live Merge feature allows to merge checkpoint back into the virtual machine while it continues to run (checkpoints include vRAM when taken online).
New in R2 is the ability to export a virtual machine checkpoint while the vm is running.
Before Windows Server 2016, checkpoints were based on the save state and not all applications support this state (ex: AD or SQL). In Windows Server 2016, a new checkpoint process called production checkpoint exists. They are based on backup technology: VSS. Regardless the hosted application, the production checkpoint can be run on the VM. Its work also on Linux VM.
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Backup Integration API
Details
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=AU41
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Yes
Is possible to perform classic backup using agents in the guests but due to the REST API for both OVM Manager and EM13c Cloud Control any time soon there will be integration on the Hypervisor Level
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Yes (VSS API)
The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a set of COM interfaces that implements a framework to allow volume backups to be performed while applications on a system continue to write to the volumes. The Windows SDK can be used to develop VSS applications.
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Integrated Backup
Details
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=AU42
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No
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Yes (WSB & DPM incl. Linux VMs - NEW), Azure Backup (New Fee Based Offering)
NEW
There are various approaches to back up virtual machines under Hyper-V, whether you use your existing backup applications as if the vm was a physical server (agent in vm) or one of the many host level tools (MS or 3rd party) that back up to local devices or cloud repositories.
In Oct 2013 Microsoft announced the availability of the Windows Azure Backup Service for backup of private cloud files to MSs public cloud.
Here are the MS options:
1) Free Windows Server Backup (in conjunction with Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS) can be used to backup and restore vms (including running virtual machines on a standalone host - without the registry edit that was required to register the VSS Hyper-V writer. WSB in 2012/2012 R2 can also backup running virtual machines on a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) - not possible prior to 2012 - but can not backup vms on SMB3 shares.
2) Data Protection Manager (DPM) as part of System Center 2012 SP1 (!) supports: standalone or clustered Hyper-V hosts (both CSV and failover cluster are supported), protecting virtual machine that uses SMB storage, protecting Hyper-V with VM Mobility. Online backups for guests running Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003 are supported
DPM 2012 R2 also added the capability to perform online backups of Linux virtual machines.
3) Windows Azure Backup Service - Windows Server uses the downloadable Windows Azure Backup Agent to transfer file and folder data to the Windows Azure Backup Service. Along with providing cloud backup for Windows Server, Windows Azure Backup Service also provides capability to backup data from System Center Data Protection Manager and Windows Server Essentials to the cloud.
Improvements in Server 2012 enable incremental backup to be independently enabled on each virtual machine through backup software of your choice. Windows Server 2012 uses “recovery snapshots to track the differences between backups. These are similar to regular virtual machine snapshots, but they are managed directly by Hyper-V software. During each incremental backup, only the differences are backed up.
4) Windows Server 2016 has a new system backup based on Change Block Tracking. To backup Windows Server 2016, it is necessary to implement DPM 2016.
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Deployment |
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Automated Host Deployments
Details
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No
This edition does not support auto-deploy or host profiles
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to automate Host Deployments (both Oracle VM Servers and Physical/Virtual Oracle Linux Servers). More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMLCM/GUID-CBC1C903-8541-40BC-A0B2-E5B57F389DE7.htm#EMLCM11421
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Yes (bare metal through VMM), incl. Storage Spaces Direct - NEW
NEW
Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 introduced a feature that allows you to discover physical computers on the network, automatically install a supported operating systems (Windows Server 2008 R2, R2 + SP1 or Windows Server 2012) using PXE boot, and then automatically convert the computers into managed Hyper-V hosts. The physical computer can be without OS (bare-metal) or a computer where you want to overwrite an existing operating system.
With Virtual Machine Manager in System Center 2012 R2 you can also provision physical computers as file servers, then create a Scale-Out File Server cluster that consists of these computers. You can then manage and monitor these clusters in VMM. To create a Scale-Out File Server cluster, you need to use a physical computer profile (new term with R2 - replacing host profile) that is configured with the Windows File Server role.
In VMM 2016, you can provision hyperconverged cluster (based on Storage Spaces Direct)
The deployment requires the following:
- PXE server (Windows Deployment Services) available on your network
- The physical host must have a baseboard management controller (BMC) installed that enables out-of-band management (enables remote power management), needs to be enabled for PXE boot and DNS entries prepared
- A generalized (sysprepped) OS image and any required driver files added to the VMM library
- A Physical Computer Profile (library) - the Phyical Computer Profile includes the location of the operating system image and other hardware and operating system configuration settings
When deploying a host the physical computers will boot from the Windows PE image on the PXE server(configuring the hardware where required, downloads the OS image (.vhdx file) together with the specified driver files, applies the drivers to the operating system image, enables the Hyper-V server role, and then restarts the computer.
Note: To create a Scale-Out File Server cluster (As of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager only) run the Create Clustered File Server Wizard to discover the physical computers, to configure settings such as the cluster name, provisioning type, and discovery scope, and to start the Scale-Out File Server cluster deployment.
For detail on deploying physical computers with VMM 2012 R2 see here: http://bit.ly/17RYzVQ
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Yes
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Yes
Oracle offers the ability to create and deploy both Templates and Virtual Appliances. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (now incl. Gen 2 templates)
(no major update in VMM 2016) VMM enables automated creation of virtual machines from templates (master images that are customized on deployment). Basically a VM templates consist of three main components: a virtual disks (or multiple), a hardware profile (hardware attributes of the virtual machine) and a guest OS profile (custom Windows OS settings for the virtual machine).
VMM 2012 R2 enabled the creation of virtual machine templates that are based on Generation 2 (http://bit.ly/17S06v2) virtual machines and the ability to create Windows and Linux-based virtual machines and multi-VM Services from a gallery of templates.
While you can create a template from an existing VM template or a virtual hard disk stored in the library , typically the vm template creation involves:
- Create a vm and deploy an OS into it
- Customize OS (Hyper-V Integration Components, Windows Updates etc. ...)
- Generalize the image - run Sysprep (select the Generalize option)
- Create the template from the existing vm
During the deployment you will need to specify OS and virtual hardware settings (by creating these profiles or selecting from existing profiles).
Comment: As the image is syspreped BEFORE the template is created the update process of templates is still cumbersome. You can not quickly convert a templates to a vm, update it and convert it back to a template (as you might be used to from VMware vCenter). You have to deploy a vm from the template, update, generalize and convert it back to a template. However the VM can be updated directly from the VHDX file without run the VM template thanks to DISM. A VHDX file can also be mounted in the system to add files.
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Tiered VM Templates
Details
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=AU45
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Yes
Oracle offers the ability to create and deploy both Templates and Virtual Appliances. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Service Templates), guest cluster support - NEW
(No major update in VMM 2016) While vm templates are useful for deploying individual virtual machines they have limitations (single vm only, limited guest customization etc.) when deploying more complex application structures.
In VMM 2012 a service is a set of virtual machines that are configured and deployed together and are managed as a single entity. You can use the Service Template Designer in VMM to create a service templates that define the configuration of the service. The service template includes information about the virtual machines that are deployed as part of the service, which applications to install on the virtual machines, and the networking configuration needed for the service (including the use of a load balancer).
A Service template allows for rich In-Guest customization (e.g. Windows 2008 R2 Role & Feature installation, application deployment and script execution.
After the service template is created, you can then deploy the service to a private cloud or to virtual machine hosts.
VMM 2012 R2 introduced support for scripts that create a guest cluster, allowing the script that runs on the first deployed virtual machine to be different than the script that runs on the other virtual machines in the tier.
Service Templates in 20012/2012R2 details here: http://bit.ly/107oLMh
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No
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to automate Host Deployments with a defined baseline and it is also possible to compare configurations between Hosts. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMLCM/GUID-BC478C2B-A4D9-4855-80A2-4A00D63FC302.htm#EMLCM11613
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Yes (physical computer profiles)
NEW
In VMM 2012 R2 host profiles are replaced by physical computer profiles. You can use physical computer profiles in the same manner that you used host profiles to provision a bare-metal computer to a Hyper-V host. In addition, you can use physical computer profiles to provision a bare-metal computer as a Windows Scale-Out File Server cluster
The physical computer profile is used to specify host settings during a bare-metal deployment. It contains configuration settings such as the location of the operating system image to use during host deployment, together with hardware and operating system configuration settings (management NIC, IP configuration, boot disk settings, drivers, domain, admin password, product key, time zone and scripts).
The physical computer profile can however not be used to check and update compliance of hosts after the initial deployment so has less functionality than e.g. VMwares Host Profiles.
In VMM 2016, we are able to deploy Storage Spaces Direct cluster from VMM. You can deploy disaggregated and hyperconverged solution on physical host from VMM 2016
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=AU47
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No
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Yes (Storage Classifications - incl. file shares - NEW)
(No major update in VMM 2016) VMM 2012 introduced the concept of Storage Classification. It is a simple mechanism to classify the capabilities of the storage managed by VMM (requires compliant SMI-S storage). Classifying storage entails assigning a meaningful classification to storage pools. For example, you may assign a classification of GOLD to a storage pool that resides on the fastest, most redundant storage array.
In VMM System Center 2012 you could create classifications for classic block storage which was managed by VMM. In VMM 2012 R2 you can also create classifications for file shares.
There is currently no automated discovery of the storage capabilities (like with VMware VASA), it is rather equivalent the user defined storage profile used with vSphere.
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Other |
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=AU48
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No
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Yes (Host Groups)
(no major updates with VMM 2016)
VMM 2012 introduces the concept of Host Groups, a hierarchical structure that allows to group hosts by its properties. Several settings and resources are assigned at the host group level, such as custom placement rules, host reserve settings for placement, dynamic optimization and power optimization settings, network resource inheritance, host group storage allocation, and custom properties. By default, child host groups inherit the settings from the parent host group.
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=AU49
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Yes
Oracle offers the same media used to install the Hypervisors as the P2V and V2V Converter. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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No (use down-level VMM versions)
The Virtual Machine Manager feature that allowed you to convert existing physical computers into virtual machines through the physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion process is no longer supported in System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager.
Microsoft states that it is aware of the need for P2V capabilities and essentially recommends to use a down-level version of VMM if this functionality is needed, for details see: http://bit.ly/17S2C4n
The V2V is also deprecated in VMM. The long term solution recommended by Microsoft is the use of Azure Site Recovery
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Self Service Portal
Details
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No
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to create Self Service Portals with Service Catalogues, Billing, Quotas and so on. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/GUID-88E5C1CF-B37B-4F0A-8D1A-284C771885EA.htm#EMCLO222
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Yes (VMM console, Service Manager, Azure Pack, Azure Stack -NEW)
NEW
VMM 2012 introduced comprehensive private cloud capabilities (maintained and expanded with R2). Through VMM, an organization can create private clouds, manage access to the private cloud and the underlying physical resources. App Contoller has taken on the role of the Self-Service portal (for Virtual Machine Manager) in a private cloud scenario (that can also expand your view in to any public e.g. Azure Cloud resources if needed). App Controller is a lightweight web based interface with a web front-end and a backend database component.
AppController is removed of the System Center suite since System Center 2016
Please note: The VMM Self-Service Portal is no longer supported in System Center 2012 SP1. Instead MS recommend that you use the App Controller (included in System Center) as the self-service portal solution.
Self-service users can also use the VMM console instead of the VMM Self-Service Portal to perform tasks, such as deploying virtual machines and services (but beware of users using admin portals), for details on the usage see http://bit.ly/17S4BWv
If you are using Service Manager then your organization can create Service Catalogues and offer those to self-service users (allowing you to surface pre-defined offerigs/services including approval and other processes). While Service Manager based offerings can be any service it can also include e.g. requests for private cloud infrastructure (like creating a new vm or a subscription to a cloud resource). Please note that Service Manager would typically not allow you to manage the actual cloud infrastructure itself. For an example of Service Manager integration see this video: http://bit.ly/1gT26fY
There is also a specific System Center Cloud Services Process Pack - updated to support System Center 2012 SP1. Its a service solution for automating the deployment of IaaS components. The CSPP once implemented offers a self-service experience using the Service Manager self-service portal to facilitate private cloud capacity requests, including the flexibility to request additional capacity as demands increase. See details/download here: http://bit.ly/102Du6w
If you are a Service Provider offering WS 2012 based cloud resources to tenants (running Enterprise workloads) then you could also consider the Azure Pack released in October 2013 (free to MS customers). The Windows Azure Pack is a collection of Windows Azure technologies that integrate with System Center and Windows Server to help provide a self-service portal for managing services such as websites, Virtual Machines, and Service Bus; a portal for administrators to manage resource clouds, scalable web hosting and more.
Essentially the Windows Azure Pack delivers the capabilities of Windows Azure into your datacenter, enabling you to offer a self-service, multi-tenant cloud with Windows Azure-consistent experiences and services. http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/1/C/01C728DF-B1DD-4A9E-AC5A-2C565AA37730/Windows_Azure_Pack_White_Paper.pdf
You can see from above that one of the challenges Microsoft faces is the integration of multiple tool and interfaces to provide a consistent, simplified admin and user experience.
In the next year, Microsoft will release Azure Stack which is a Microsoft Azure in your datacenter. This solution will be sold in CPS format (from 4 servers at least)
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Orchestration / Workflows
Details
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=AU51
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to create Self Service Portals with Workflows to provision VMs or to create Jobs to automate Manual Tasks. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/index.htm
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Yes (SC Orchestrator, SC Service Mgr)
(No major update in 2016)System Center 2012 / R2 includes the Orchestrator product (Opalis acquisition). Orchestrator provides a workflow management solution that lets you automate the creation, monitoring, and deployment of resources in your environment.
Essentially Orchestrator provides the glue between the various System Center and other infrastructure components and allows automated interaction between the components through workflow automation (runbooks). This enables you to automate any process in your environment through a drag-and-drop interface by linking activities into runbooks.
Orchestrator includes many built-in standard activities and you can expand Orchestrators functionality and ability to integrate with other Microsoft and third-party products by installing integration packs.
Integration packs for Orchestrator contain additional activities that extend the functionality of Orchestrator. Details here: http://bit.ly/Un9Quf
Updated in Orchestrator in SC 2012 R2 are the Windows Azure Integration Pack for Orchestrator in System Center 2012 SP1 and System Center 2012 R2 and the System Center Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager.
Orchestrator also provides extensible integration to any system through the Orchestrator Integration Toolkit. You can create custom integrations that allow Orchestrator to connect to any environment.
System Center 2012 / R2 Service Manager provides an integrated platform for automating your organizations IT service management best practices, such as those found in the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management.
You will often find a direct integration between e.g. Service Manager and Orchestrator where e.g. a service request is handled / approved by a Service Manager workflow and subsequently triggers an Orchestrator runbook e.g. a user could request a virtual machine or service (service template) from the self service portal in Service Manager integrated with an Orchestrator runbook that triggers the virtual machine deployment through Virtual Machine Manager.
With Windows Sever 2016, Microsoft introduced PowerShell 5 which provides a wide range of Cmdlets to manage almost all possible configuration and management tasks in the operating system. Essentially all Windows roles and features can be managed using PowerShell.
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=AU52
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Yes
The whole OVM Infrastructure, including Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and Oracle VM Servers are secure by default due to the usage of SSL encryption and Certificate Based Authentication. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMSEC/toc.htm and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E64084/html/index.html
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Windows Security, Hyper-V Extensible Switch (DNSSEC, PVLANs, port ACLs, BitLocker etc., Shield VM - NEW)
NEW
Server 2012 (maintained and enhanced in R2 - see http://bit.ly/19L1mmW) introduced a vast number of general security improvements that will therefore secure your virtual or cloud environment including Secure Boot (prevents boot code updates without appropriate digital certificates and signatures), early Anti-Malware launch, enhanced DNS security (DNSSEC), AppLocker and encrypted cluster volumes (BitLocker) etc.
The biggest virtualization / cloud related improvement has been provided through the new security and isolation capabilities through the Hyper-V Extensible Switch.
Windows Server 2012 / R2 provides the isolation and security capabilities for multi-tenancy by offering the following new features:
- Multitenant virtual machine isolation through private virtual LANs (PVLANs).
- Protection from Address Resolution Protocol/Neighbour Discovery (ARP/ND) poisoning (also called spoofing).
- Protection against DHCP snooping and DHCP guard (DHCP Guard: drops DHCP server messages from unauthorized virtual machines pretending to be DHCP servers, Router Guard: drops Router Advertisement and Redirection messages from unauthorized virtual machines pretending to be routers)
- Isolation and metering using virtual port access control lists (ACLs).
- The ability to trunk traditional VLANs to virtual machines.
In addition to the above WS2012 and WS2012 R2s enhancements in the area of network virtualization can arguably improve network security related aspects (see Network Virtualization)
For a list of most Security and Protection related enhancements in W2 2012 and WS 2012R2 see: http://bit.ly/19L1mmW
In Windows Server 2016, Microsoft brings the Shield VM which are VM protected by a Host Guardian. THe protected VM have their virtual disk encrypted. This system can leverage TPM 2.0 chip or certificate. (https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2016/05/10/a-closer-look-at-shielded-vms-in-windows-server-2016/)
In Windows Server 2016, we are able to add virtual TPM to VM.
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Systems Management
Details
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=AU53
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control and Ops Center for Oracle Hardware alerting and Monitoring, both Web/CLI Based. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/index.htm
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Yes (WMI + PowerShell)
Hyper-V/Hyper-V server environments can utilize the comprehensive native Windows Server OS hardware instrumentation - based on WMI, Microsofts implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards from the DMTF. PowerShell is typically used as the automation framework to implement the instrumentation.
Windows Server 2012 and WS 2012 R2 include Windows PowerShell cmdlets for Network Virtualization that let you build command-line tools or automated scripts for configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting network isolation policies.
Windows Server 2016 brings PowerShell v5 with new cmdlets for everything
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Network and Storage
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Storage |
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Supported Storage
Details
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=AU65
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Yes
Support for NAS: Network Attached Storage, FC: Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCoE. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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SMB3, virtual FC, SAS, SATA, iSCSI, FC, FCoE; shared vhdx - NEW Storage Spaces Direct
NEW
The R2 release of Server 2012 added several storage related features:
- Support for shared virtual hard disks, enabling clustering of virtual machines by using shared virtual hard disk (VHDX) files (can be hosted on CSVs or SMB-based Scale-Out File Server file shares).
- Hyper-V Live Migration over SMB - enables you to perform a live migration of virtual machines by using SMB 3.0 as a transport (SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel for high speed migration with low CPU utilization)
- Improved SMB bandwidth management (configure SMB bandwidth limits to control different SMB traffic types: default, live migration, and virtual machines
Server 2012 introduced a large number of storage related enhancements.
Server 2012 / R2 virtualization hosts support (almost) all commonly available storage types as attachments for virtual machines. The biggest improvement has been the addition of network attached storage allowing you to configure (cheaper/simpler) network-based storage for virtual machines using the SMB3 protocol. New file server features include transparent failover, networking improvements for better bandwidth and resiliency, support for network adapters with RDMA capability, specific performance optimizations, Volume Shadow Copy Service support and support for Windows PowerShell commands.
Another enhancement with WS 2012 was the addition of virtual fibre channel for the virtual machines. Virtual Fibre Channel lets virtual machines connect directly to Fibre Channel-based storage and presents virtual HBA ports in the guest operating system. This provides: Unmediated access to a SAN, Hardware-based I/O path to the Windows software virtual hard disk stack, Live migration, N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), Single Hyper-V host connected to different SANs with multiple Fibre Channel ports, Up to four virtual Fibre Channel adapters on a virtual machine, Multipath I/O (MPIO)
Details on Storage for Hyper-V here: http://bit.ly/TDeOEC
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 also introduced an update to the VHD format, called VHDX, that has much larger capacity and built-in resiliency.
Windows Server 2016 brings Storage Spaces Direct that enable to implement Hyperconverged or disaggregated solution. Storage Spaces Direct enables the use of direct attach storage devices inside servers to create a highly available storage solution. For more information, you can read this whitepaper: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Understand-Hyper-Converged-bae286dd
Sotrage Spaces Direct requires Windows Server 2016 Datacenter edition. This feature is not availablr in Windows Server 2016 Standard
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=AU66
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Yes
Multipath included. In addition to that Oracle offers the Connect Storage Plug-in to simplify Storage Management via Oracle VM Manager or EM13c Cloud Control. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/ and http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/ovm3-storage-connect-459309.pdf
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Yes (MPIO and SMB Multichannel)
NEW
Block based MPIO can be used with Fibre Channel, iSCSI and SAS interfaces in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012/WS2012R2.
An MPIO solution can be deployed:
- By using a DSM (Device Specific Module aka plugin) provided by a 3rd party storage array manufacturer in a Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or SAS shared storage configuration.
- By using the Microsoft DSM, which is a generic DSM provided for Windows Server 2012 in a Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or SAS shared storage configuration.
Details on MPIO here: http://bit.ly/TDa7ut
For SMB based storage Server 2012 has introduces the SMB Multichannel functionality that provides scalable and resilient connections to SMB shares that dynamically create multiple connections for single sessions or multiple sessions on single connections depending on connection capabilities and demand (primarily for resiliency and load balancing).
In WIndows Server 2016, Microsoft has improved the SMB Multichannel configuration. Now each (v)NICs can be added to the same network and left without configuration. The cluster will manage the configuration automatically. This is the SImplified SMB Multichannel (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-server-docs/failover-clustering/smb-multichannel)
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Shared File System
Details
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=AU67
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Yes
OCFS2 included. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (CSV); enhanced compatibility and resilience - NEW
(No major update in W2016) Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) provide a general-purpose, clustered file system in Windows Server 2012 / R2, which is layered above NTFS - allowing multiple hosts access to the same data. They are not restricted to specific clustered workloads (in Windows Server 2008 R2, CSVs only supported the Hyper-V workload).
New CSV related features with WS 2012 R2 are:
- CSV ownership is now balanced across the cluster nodes, to avoid one node owning a disproportionate number of CSVs
- Increased resiliency - multiple Server service instances per failover cluster node (a default instance that handles incoming traffic from SMB clients that access regular file shares, and a second CSV instance that handles only inter-node CSV traffic)
- CSV Cache allocation: In Windows Server 2012 you could allocate only 20% of the total physical RAM to the CSV cache - you can now allocate up to 80%.
- New support for: Resilient File System (ReFS), Deduplication (e.g. for VDI), Parity storage spaces, Tiered storage spaces and Storage Spaces write-back caching
Server 2012 introduced CSV version 2 that features significantly better integration with Hyper-V and had the following enhancements:
- CSV is now a core Failover Clustering feature (no longer a separate component that needs to be enabled)
- Has been enhanced in scalability and performance to support 64 nodes
- Single Name Space (files have the same name and path when viewed from any node in the cluster)
- Extends its benefits beyond Hyper-V to support other application workloads - application storage can be served from the same share as data
- Supports Storage spaces, SMB Direct and SMB Multipathing, and create more efficient storage with thin provisioning
- Enabling CSV on a disk is now a single right click with the mouse
- CSV disks are now included in the Failover Cluster Manager Storage view easing management.
- CSV supports BitLocker encryption
- Support for the full feature set of VSS and support for both Hardware and Software Backup of CSV volumes.
Note: You cannot use a disk for a CSV that is formatted with FAT, FAT32
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=AU68
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Yes
Yes for SAN Boot with FC. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (iSCSI, diskless, FC)
(no major updates with WS2016)
Booting from SAN is supported for iSCSI and FC
In Server 2012 the iSCSI Software Target capabilities were enhanced to support diskless network boot capabilities (you can use a single operating system image to start many diskless computers).
Comment: The new virtual Fibre Channel function is not intended to be a host boot option, rather than a means to provide FC attachment directly to virtual machines.
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=AU69
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Yes
Technically is possible but not officialy supported by Oracle. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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No
(no major updates with WS2016)
Only Hyper-V Server (free version) is documented to supported boot from USB/Flash storage. Microsoft stated already with 2008R2: Although Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is built with components of Windows Server 2008 R2, some changes have been made specifically to Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 in order to support boot from USB.
The documentation for setting up Hyper-V Server 2012 for boot from USB are here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj733589.aspx
Nano Server doesnt support the USB boot. Only SD Card boot is supported.
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Virtual Disk Format
Details
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=AU70
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Raw Images (*.img files)
If a disk is created from OVM Manager it is created by default as a QCOW image and if it is imported it is converted from the original format to QCOW Images. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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.vhdx (incl. sharing and online resizing - NEW), vhd, pass-through (raw)
NEW
Hyper-V in Server 2012 introduced an updated virtual disk format: VHDX. Pass-through (raw) disks and .VHD disks are also supported. You can convert a .vhd file to .vhd using Hyper-V Manager or VMM.
Server 2012 R2 added support for virtual hard disk resizing while the vm is running (only available for VHDX files that are attached to a SCSI controller). Additionally it enables clustering virtual machines by using shared virtual hard disk (VHDX) files.
In WIndows Server 2016, Microsoft has improved the shared VHDX (VHD Set). You can now online resize the disk, move it and backup it from the host level. The improvment is called VHD Set.
Use vhdx whenever possible - the only likely reason why not to use vhd is in case you expect to move the vm to an (older) host with a Hyper-V version not supporting vhdx.
The main VHDX features are:
- Support for virtual storage of up to 64 TB
- Protection against data corruption (logging updates to VHDX metadata)
- Improved alignment of the virtual hard disk format to work well on large sector physical disks.
Other:
- Larger block sizes for dynamic and differential disks (allowing these disks to attune to the needs of the workload)
- 4-KB logical sector virtual disk that allows for increased performance when used by applications and workloads that are designed for 4-KB sectors.
- Ability to store custom metadata about the file (e.g. OS version, or updates that have been applied)
- trim - resulting in smaller files size and allowing the underlying physical storage device to reclaim unused space. (Trim requires direct-attached storage or SCSI disks and trim-compatible hardware.)
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=AU71
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10 TB (if Virtual Disk on OCFS2), Maximum supported on the Guest OS/Filesystem (if Raw Disks)
For NFS there is no limit specified since it depends on the Backend Local Filesystem of the NFS Server. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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64TB (vhdx), 2TB (vhd), 256TB+ (raw)
(no major updates with WS2016)
With Hyper-V / free Hyper-V Server 2012 / R2 the new .vhdx virtual disk format supports disk sizes up to 64 TB. Pass-through disks can be of over 256TB in size. The .vhd format is still limited to 2TB.
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Thin Disk Provisioning
Details
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=AU72
|
Yes
Oracle provides the ability to create Sparse Disks and Thin Cloning for efficient disks usage based on the actual usage in addition to Non-Sparse Disks for full space allocation. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Dynamic Disks, Trim)
(no major updates with WS2016)
Server 2012 has been enhanced to use better just-in-time allocations of storage known as thin provisioning, and the ability to reclaim storage that is no longer needed, known as trim. Hyper-V has been using thinly provisioned disks (Dynamic Disks) for some time, MS typically recommends now to use fixed disks when using the .vhd format (best performance, resiliency) and dynamic disks when using the .vhd format.
Windows Server 2012 identifies and monitors thinly provisioned disks and also provides a new Trim API that allows the underlying physical storage device to reclaim unused space (supported with the new .vhd format). NTFS issues trim notifications when appropriate in real time. In addition, trim notifications are issued as a part of storage consolidation and optimization, which is performed regularly on a scheduled basis. (Trim requires direct-attached storage or SCSI disks and trim-compatible hardware.)
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=AU73
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No
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Yes (Virtual Fibre Channel)
(no major updates with WS2016)
Server 2012 has improved support for NPIV and enables you to connect Hyper-V / free Hyper-V Server virtual machines directly to your Fibre Channel Storage arrays by providing virtual Fibre Channel ports within the guest OS (instead of accessing it as virtualized storage through the host). NPIV lets multiple N_Port IDs share a single physical N_Port. This lets multiple Fibre Channel initiators use a single physical port, easing hardware requirements in SAN design, especially where virtual SANs (i.e. segregation) is needed . Virtual Fibre Channel for Hyper-V guests uses NPIV to create multiple NPIV ports on top of the hosts physical Fibre Channel ports. A new NPIV port is created on the host each time a virtual HBA is created inside a virtual machine. When the virtual machine stops running on the host, the NPIV port is removed.
Features/Benefit:
- Direct (native) access to Fibre Channel Storage from within the virtual machines - allowing native FC management (QoS, performance etc.)
- Cluster guest OSs over native Fibre Channel
- Virtual SAN (if a host is attached to multiple physical SANs using different physical HBAs you can define virtual SANs by grouping physical FC ports on the host that are attached to the same SAN)
- Up to 4 virtual FC ports per vm
- Supports live migration and MPIO (DSM within the vm)
Note: VMM no longer supports management of virtual machines deployed directly on LUNs exposed to Hyper-V through N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV). Workaround: Use virtual fibre channels that are configured for virtual machines in Hyper-V.
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No
vCloud Director also linked clone capabilities but is not supported with this edition (requires Enterprise Plus)
VMwares virtual image sharing technology (vComposer or linked clones) is supported with VMwares virtual desktop solution (Horizon View).
Both Horizon View and vCD (as part of the vCloud Suites) are fee-based Vendor Add-Ons.
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Yes
This technology is named Thin Cloning in Oracle VM provided by OCFS2 filesystem. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Differencing Disk)
(no major updates with WS2016)
Hyper-V/Hyper-V Server supports Differencing Disks with Server 2012 / R2 and 2008 R2. Differencing disks allow for the quick and space-saving creation of virtual machines by pointing to a shared parent disk and storing unique changes (writes) to the individual machines in a difference file that remains linked to the parent image. Reads will be served from the parent (unless the block has already been changed and writes accumulate in the difference file - increasing storage requirements over time).
With Server 2008 R2 Microsoft recommends though to avoid using differencing disks on virtual machines that run server workloads in a production environment (as running out of disk space when using diff disks can cause virtual machines to pause unexpectedly), see http://bit.ly/UxL3DK
Also with Server 2012 / R2, difference disks are typically used for virtual machines with shorter life cycle (i.e. lab environments or pooled VDI environments) due to the linked nature of the images (i.e. updating the parent breaks the link). For Server 2012 MS has not (yet?) updated the above article and only makes general performance recommendation in this document: http://bit.ly/UxHfT9
Quote: Difference disk Having only a few snapshots can elevate the CPU usage of storage I/So, but might not noticeably affect performance except in highly I/O-intensive server workloads. However, having a large chain of snapshots can noticeably affect performance because reading from the VHD can require checking for the requested blocks in many differencing VHDs. Keeping snapshot chains short is important for maintaining good disk I/O performance.
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SW Storage Replication
Details
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=AU75
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No
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Yes (Hyper-V Replica - Storage Replica - NEW)
Server 2012 introduced a new software-based replication called Hyper-V Replica for Hyper-V and free Hyper-V Server environments - 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 without the need of a hardware based replication mechanism.
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) .
New in WS 2012 R2:
- 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.
- 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.
Pros:
- Affordable DR solution (included in Server 2012, no extra licenses required)
- Does not require expensive SAN based replication
- designed to work with lower bandwidth / high latency connections - ideal for small and medium Enterprises
- Test Failover without impact on production vims
Cons:
- Manual failover and recovery actions
- Aimed at smaller scale deployments, typically not a suitable solution for replication of massive environments, added network traffic
- no integration with SAN array replication (like vSphere SRM), no synchronous replication
Windows Server 2016 brings Storage Replica as storage replication solution. This solution enables to replicate at the block-level a volume to another. This volume can be located in a cluster or a standalone server. You can also replicate two volumes located in the same server. This feature requires Windows Server 2016 Datacenter. For further information you can read this topic: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-replica/storage-replica-overview
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No
vSphere Flash Read Cache is not enabled with this edition!
vSphere 5.5 introduced the vSphere Flash Read Cache that enables the pooling of multiple Flash-based devices into a single consumable vSphere construct called vSphere Flash Resource.
vSphere hosts can use the vSphere Flash Resource as vSphere Flash Swap Cache, which replaces the Swap to SSD feature previously introduced with vSphere 5.0. It provides a write-through cache mode that enhances virtual machines performance without the modification of applications and OSs.
At its core Flash Cache enables the offload of READ I/O from the shared storage to local SSDs, reducing the overall I/O requirements on your shared storage.
Documented maxima with vSphere 5.5:
- Virtual flash resource per host: 1
- Maximum cache for each virtual disk: 400GB
- Cumulative cache configured per host (for all virtual disks): 2TB
- Virtual disk size: 16TB
- Virtual host swap cache size: 4TB
- Flash devices (disks) per virtual flash resource: 8
There is also the Storage Accelerator (CBRC) feature that can be enabled (only) with VMware Horizon View (VDI).
View Storage Accelerator is an in memory (ESXi Server Memory) cache, caching common image blocks when reading virtual desktop images. It is applicable to stateless (non-persistent) as well as stateful (persistent) desktops and is transparent to the guest virtual machine/desktop. It does not require any special storage array technology and provides additional performance benefits when used in conjunction with Storage Array technologies.
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-view-storage-accelerator-host-caching-content-based-read-cache.pdf
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No
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CSV Cache; Write-Back Cache - Storage Spaces Direct Cache (NEW)
NEW
In WS 2012 R2 there are two main features to provide perfromance improvements through caching
1. CSV Cache:
Windows Server 2012 introduced the CSV cache to provide (READ) caching on the block level by allocating system memory (RAM) as cache. This can significantly improve Hyper-V read performance (e.g. VDI boot storms).
New in WS 20012 R2:
- In Windows Server 2012, you could allocate only 20% of the total physical RAM to the CSV cache. You can now allocate up to 80%.
- In Windows Server 2012, the CSV cache was disabled by default. In Windows Server 2012 R2, it is enabled by default.
2. Storage Spaces Write- Back Caching:
Storage Spaces can use existing SSDs in the storage pool to create a write-back cache that buffers small random writes to SSDs before later writing them to HDDs.
- write-back cache is transparent to administrators and users and is created on all new virtual disks as long as there is a sufficient number of SSDs in the storage pool (Simple spaces: one SSD, Two-way mirror spaces and single-parity spaces: two SSDs, three-way mirror spaces and dual parity spaces: three SSDs)
- write-back cache works with all types of storage spaces, including storage spaces with storage tiers
- newly created storage spaces automatically use a 1 GB write-back cache (as long as the storage pool contains enough disks with MediaType set to SSD or Usage set to Journal)
3 - The Storage Spaces Direct provides a highly available cache system based on the fastest storage devices. In production it is recommended to deploy two storage devices. Storage Spaces Direct requires Windows Server 2016 Datacenter edition.
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=AU77
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No
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Improved (Storage Spaces); Tiered Storage, Write-Back Cache - Storage Spaces Direct (NEW)
NEW
Windows Server 2012 introduced the concept of Storage Spaces (supported for Hyper-V and free Hyper-V Server environments). In simplified terms Storage Spaces allows you to use inexpensive SAS/SATA drives (JBODS) to provide more advanced pooled and redundant storage through a Storage Virtualization layer. First you create a storage pool specifying the physical disk drives to be used and subsequently you create virtual disks (not to be confused with vhd for virtual machines) within the pool. These disks are appearing then to the host like new physical disks with changed attributes (resilience, capacity etc.) by adding mirroring or parity to the disk and pools can be dynamically expanded. These can now be used for local storage, failover clustering and SMB Direct (RDMA).
WS 2012 R2 introduced significant enhancements to Storage Spaces:
1. Tiered Storage
Ability to to provide tiered storage (that automatically moves frequently accessed data to faster (SSD) storage and infrequently accessed data to slower (HDD) storage).
- To create a storage space with storage tiers, the storage pool must have a sufficient number of hard disks and SSDs to support the selected storage layout, and the disks must contain enough free space.
- When creating a storage space using the New Virtual Disk Wizard or the New-VirtualDisk cmdlet you can now specify to create the virtual disk with storage tiers.
- The virtual disk must use fixed provisioning, and the number of columns will be identical on both tiers (a four-column, two-way mirror with storage tiers would require eight SSDs and eight HDDs).
- Volumes created on virtual disks that use storage tiers should be the same size as the virtual disk.
- Administrators can pin (assign) files to the standard (HDD) or faster (SSD) tier by using the Set-FileStorageTier cmdlet, ensuring that the files are always accessed from the appropriate tier.
2. Storage Spaces Write- Back Caching:
Storage Spaces can use existing SSDs in the storage pool to create a write-back cache that buffers small random writes to SSDs before later writing them to HDDs.
- write-back cache is transparent to administrators and users and is created on all new virtual disks as long as there is a sufficient number of SSDs in the storage pool (Simple spaces: one SSD, Two-way mirror spaces and single-parity spaces: two SSDs, three-way mirror spaces and dual parity spaces: three SSDs)
- write-back cache works with all types of storage spaces, including storage spaces with storage tiers
- newly created storage spaces automatically use a 1 GB write-back cache (as long as the storage pool contains enough disks with MediaType set to SSD or Usage set to Journal)
3. Parity space support for failover clusters, dual parity and automatic rebuild from storage pool free space (rather than hot spares)
- You can now use parity spaces to maximize capacity and resiliency while still offering the ability to fail over to another cluster node
- Dual parity enables you to keep a high level of resiliency when using a parity space with a large number of disks or any time when you need to help protect against two simultaneous disk failures
- When a disk fails, instead of writing a copy of the data that was on the failed disk to a single hot spare, the data is copied to multiple drives in the pool such that the previous level of resiliency is achieved
Please note: Storage spaces can be provided from a single file server node using (non-raided!) SAS or SATA JBODs. For clustered nodes you will need SAS JBODs (not SATA) in a SHARED JBOD enclosure (Storage Spaces does NOT present virtualized local storage as shared storage like e.g. VMware VSA). MS will list certified JBOD enclosures.
Advantages:
- Provide reliable and scalable storage with reduced cost (cheap JBODs)
- Aggregate individual drives into storage pools
- Expand storage pools on demand
- Deploy specific drives as hot spares
Limitations:
- Fibre-channel and iSCSI are not supported
- SAS or SATA JBODs only, no HW Raid, for clustering SAS only and a shared SAS (no SATA) JBOD enclosure
- A mirrored pool must have at least 2 drives, three drive minimum required for using parity
- Virtual disks to be used with a failover cluster must use the NTFS file system not ReFS, cant use thin provisioning and must use the mirrored (not parity) option.
- Performance considerations (software RAID, JBODs of different types, multiple virtual disks per pool etc.)
Storage Spaces FAQ here: http://bit.ly/UxZ1FP
Windows Server 2016 brings Storage Spaces Direct which is a solution that enables to use direct attach storage devices in each node to create a highly available storage system. With this solution, you can deploy hyperconverged solution. The storage devices must be NVDIMM (SCM), NVMe, SATA or SAS. The disks can be SSD or HDD. You can mix the storage device type to create multi-resilient virtual disk to maximize the performance and the storage efficiency. For more information you can read this topic: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-overview
Storage Spaces Direct requires Windows Server 2016 Datacenter edition
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Storage Integration (API)
Details
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=AU78
|
Yes
Oracle offers the Storace Connect Plug-in (included in Oracle VM subscriptions) that simplify storage management like LUN creation, removal, resize and other features directly by the use of Oracle VM Manager. More info on: http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/ovm3-storage-connect-459309.pdf
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SMI-S / SMP, ODX, Trim, ReFS Accelerated VHDX Operation
NEW
Server 2012 deliverd significantly improved storage management.
- The Windows Storage Management API (SMAPI)
- PowerShell cmdlets enabling scriptable and remote administration
- A new interface - the Storage Management Provider framework - enabling customers to easily manage 3rd-party Storage subsystems using either a Storage Management Provider (SMP), or SMI-S Provider.
Microsoft has introduced several storage related integration points with Server 2012 that improve virtualization environments. You can now e.g. manage SMI-S / SMP compliant storage arrays directly from with VMM 2012 for virtualization related task (creating LUNs etc.).
Improved storage integration capabilities include:
- Management of compliant arrays directly from VMM 2012
- Windows Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) enables the arrays to directly transfer data within or between compatible storage devices, bypassing the host computer. Requires ODX-compatible storage arrays and applications (e.g. Hyper-V operations that transfer large amounts of data like creating a fixed size virtual hard disk, merging snapshot or converting virtual hard disks)
- Trim: Windows Server 2012 provides a new API that enables applications to release storage when it is no longer needed. NTFS issues trim notifications when appropriate in real time. In addition, trim notifications are issued as a part of storage consolidation and optimization, which is performed regularly on a scheduled basis. Requires Trim compatible hardware
The improvment of ReFS in Windows Server 2016 brings Accelerated VHDX Operation. This accelerates the checkpoint merging process and the creation of fixed VHDX. ReFS should be used only when deploying Storage Spaces Direct.
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Limited (basic, no SIOC)
Storage I/O Control is not enabled with this license but the basic disk shares and limit functionality still allows you to manage basic disk access priority for vm on the same host (not across hosts - so a single host with lower priority vm could congest I/O paths)
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No
|
Distributed Storage QoS
NEW
WS 2012 R2 introduced a new Storage QoS function that enables you to specify the maximum and minimum I/O loads in terms of I/O operations per second (IOPS) for each virtual disk in your virtual machines (ensuring that the storage throughput of one virtual hard disk does not impact the performance of another virtual hard disk on the same host).
- Specify the maximum IOPS allowed for a virtual hard disk that is associated with a virtual machine.
- Specify the minimum IOPS - receive a notification when the specified minimum IOPS for a virtual hard disk is not met.
- Monitor storage-related metrics through the virtual machine metrics interface.
Details here: http://bit.ly/1ayzAuW
Previous to WS 2012 R2 there was no native method of implementing storage I/O control for disk objects of hosts or virtual machines in Server 2012.
However storage control was possible if the storage is network based (e.g. iSCSI, NFS or SMB) by regulating the network traffic that carries the storage I/O. Please note that control is limited to either the physical network port or the virtual port on the hyper-v switch). As an individual virtual disk that is e.g. stored on SMB is presented as disk object to the virtual machine (not associated with a unique virtual network port) control for individual virtual disk objects is typically not possible.
Background for network based I/O control:
Windows Server 2012 introduces QoS control for physical networks as well as virtual networks (on the port level of the hyper-V virtual switch) with the ability to guarantee a minimum bandwidth to a virtual machine or a service.
With System Center 2012 (min SP1) you can configure some of the new networking settings centrally (but System Center is not required) including Bandwidth settings for virtual machines and IEEE priority tagging for QoS prioritization - PowerShell will be required for the more advanced networking options.
Windows Server 2012 also takes advantage of Data Center Bridging (DCB)-capable hardware to converge multiple types of network traffic on a single network adapter, with a guaranteed level of service to each type.
Unlike in Server 2008 R2 (where only the maximum bandwidth was configurable - without being able to guarantee a minimum bandwidth) Server 2012 introduces a bandwidth floor - the ability to guarantees a certain amount of bandwidth to a specific type of traffic (port or virtual machine).
Windows Server 2012 offers two different mechanisms to enforce minimum bandwidth:
- through the enhanced packet scheduler in Windows (provides a fine granularity of classification, best choice if many traffic flows require minimum bandwidth enforcement, example would be a server running Hyper-V hosting many virtual machines, where each virtual machine is classified as a traffic flow)
- through network adapters that support Data Center Bridging (supports fewer traffic flows, however, it can classify network traffic that doesnt originate from the networking stack e.g. can be used with a CNA adapter that supports iSCSI offload, in which iSCSI traffic bypasses the networking stack - because the packet scheduler in the networking stack doesnt process this offloaded traffic, DCB is the only viable choice to enforce minimum bandwidth)
Another example is Server Message Block Direct (SMB Direct), a Windows Server 2012 feature that builds on Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA). SMB Direct offloads the SMB traffic directly to an RDMA-capable NIC to reduce latency and the number of CPU cycles that are spent on networking.
Again, you can use Data Center Bridging (implemented by some NIC vendors) in network adapters. DCB works in a similar way as Minimum Bandwidth, each class of traffic, regardless of whether its offloaded or not, has bandwidth allocation; in the event of network congestion, each class gets its share - otherwise, each class gets as much bandwidth as is available.
In both cases, network traffic first must be classified (built-in classifications in Server 2012 include iSCSI, NFS, SMB and SMB Direct). Windows classifies a packet itself or gives instructions to a network adapter to classify it. The result of classification is a number of traffic flows in Windows, and a given packet can belong to only one of them.
Details here: http://bit.ly/Ueb07L
In Windows Server 2016, Microsoft brings the distributed Storage QoS. The Storage QoS policy are stored in the cluster database. They can be applied to a single VM or to multiple VMs. The Storage QoS policy is aware about the underlying storage IOPS and can manage centrally the IOPS distribution. The QoS policy can limit the minimum and the maximum IOPS or/and the bandwith to a virtual disk in bytes per second. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-qos/storage-qos-overview
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Networking |
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Advanced Network Switch
Details
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No
vNetwork Distributed Switch functionality is not enabled with this license
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Yes
Support for Centralized vSwitch included. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (Hyper-V Virtual Switch); Extended Port ACLs, vRSS, DLB - Switch Embedded Teaming - Network Controller
NEW
Arguable the biggest improvements to virtualization and cloud environments with Server 2012 have come with the addition of the Hyper-V Extensible Switch (Hyper-V as well as free Hyper-V Server).
Its essentially an Ethernet switch that runs in the management operating system of the Hyper-V parent partition and allows to connect virtual machines to both virtual networks and the physical network. In addition, the Hyper-V Virtual Switch provides policy enforcement for security, isolation, and service levels.
The Hyper-V Virtual Switch enables ISVs to create extensible plug-ins (Virtual Switch Extensions) that can provide enhanced networking and security capabilities. Management of the Hyper-V extensible switch, including deployment and configuration of virtual switch extensions using a new logical switch concept can be done through VMM 2012 (min SP1).
Note: The Extensible Switch is strictly speaking not a natively distributed switch (i.e. there are individual switch instances on each host). However, using the Virtual Switch Extensions Hyper-V can provide more advanced and fully distributed virtual switches (e.g. using Ciscos 1000v) but these are typically fee-based.
New with WS 2012 R2 are the following enhancements:
1. Extended Port ACLs (configure ACLs to provide firewall protection and enforce security policies for the tenant VMs in their datacenters)
- In Windows Server 2012, you were able to specify both source and destination MAC and IP addresses for IPv4 and IPv6. For Windows Server 2012 R2 you can also specify the port number when you create rules
- Stateful rules that are unidirectional and provide a timeout parameter (after the rule is utilized successfully one time, the two traffic flows are allowed without having to be looked up against the rule again for a period of time that you designate using the timeout attribute)
2. Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) of traffic types (WS 2012 provided simultaneous load distribution and failover, but did not ensure load distribution between the NICs in a NIC team in a balanced manner - in WS 2012 R2, dynamic load balancing continuously and automatically moves traffic streams from NIC to NIC within the NIC team to share the traffic load as equitably as possible).
3. Hyper-V Network Virtualization coexists with third party forwarding extensions
When you have a third party forwarding extension installed, Hyper-V Virtual Switch now performs hybrid forwarding. With hybrid forwarding, network traffic that is NVGRE encapsulated is forwarded by the HNV module within the switch, while all non-NVGRE network traffic is forwarded by the third party forwarding extensions that you have installed.
In addition to forwarding, a third party forwarding extension can still apply other policies, such as ACLs and QoS, to both the NVGRE and the non NVGRE-encapsulated traffic. The forwarding extension that you install must be able to process both types of network traffic based on their intended destinations. The policies and capabilities of the Hyper-V Virtual Switch and third party extensions do not displace each other – instead, they are mutually available.
4. Reduced bottle-necks with vRSS
In WS 2012 Receive Side Scaling (RSS spreads the processing across multiple cores on the host and multiple cores on the VM) over SR-IOV was supported; now in Windows Server 2012 R2, virtual RSS (vRSS) is supported on the VM network path, allowing VMs to sustain a greater networking traffic load. To take advantage of vRSS, VMs must be configured to use multiple cores, and they must support RSS. vRSS is enabled automatically when the VM uses RSS on the VM network path.
Other key features of the Hyper-V Virtual Switch:
Multi-tenancy - through the Extensible Switch, Server 2012 provides now the isolation and security capabilities required for multi-tenancy by offering:
- Multitenant virtual machine isolation through PVLANs
- Protection from Address Resolution Protocol/Neighbour Discovery (ARP/ND) poisoning (also called spoofing)
- Protection against DHCP snooping and DHCP Guard
- Virtual port ACLs
- The capability to trunk traditional VLANs to virtual machines
- Monitoring Windows PowerShell/Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
The Hyper-V Extensible Switch can be configured as:
- External (ports that connect to a single external NIC as well as one or more virtual NICs in vims)
- Internal (allowing communication between parent and child partitions, i.e. host and guests)
- Private (communication between child partitions only)
Details here: http://bit.ly/Ue8K0u
In Windows Server 2016, Microsoft has improved the virtual switch because it manages now the teaming. It is not necessary anymore to create teaming and then create the virtual switch on top. This is called Switch Embedded Teaming. Thanks to SET, we can now enable RDMA, vRSS on virtual NIC located in the hyperviseur (parent partition). This enables to converge everything on two network adapters (Storage, Live-Migration, Management, Heartbeat and so on). https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wsnetdoc/2015/09/01/switch-embedded-teaming-network-adapter-teaming-within-hyper-v-virtual-switch/
Moreover Microsoft has improved the Software-Defined Networking layer. The all layer can be managed accross the Network Controller. Network Controller provides API to manage all the network devices (virtual switches, software load balancer and so on). The network controller can be managed accross System Center Virtual Machine Manager. The Network Controller requires Windows Server 2016 Datacenter edition
In WIndows Server 2016, the SDN layer supports VXLAN
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Yes (no LACP Support)
Note: no distributed switch included with this license - so no LACP support - only standard NIC teaming;
vSphere has integrated NIC teaming capabilities. To utilize NIC teaming, two or more network adapters must be uplinked to a virtual switch (standard or distributed).
The key advantages of NIC teaming are:
- Increased network capacity for the virtual switch hosting the team.
- Passive failover in the event one of the adapters in the team goes down
There are various NIC load balancing (e.g. based on originating port, source MAC or IP hash) and failover detection algorithms (link status, Beacon probing) in vSphere, for details refer to: http://bit.ly/16Sm1ll
The maximum number of supported (and teamed) adapters per host varies by vendors and speed (max 32 for 1Gb and 8 for 10Gb)
New in vSphere 5.5. is the enhancement of the LACP capabilities.
The enhanced link aggregation feature provides choice in hashing algorithms and also increases the limit on number of link aggregation groups (22 new hashing algorithm options, 64 LAGs per host and 64 LAGs per VMware vSphere VDS, new workflows to configure LACP across a large number of hosts via templates)
Added in 5.1 was the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) support - which is a standards-based method to control the bundling of several physical network links together to form a logical channel for increased bandwidth and redundancy purposes.
LACP enables a network device to negotiate an automatic bundling of links by sending LACP packets to the peer. As part of the vSphere 5.1 release, VMware now supports this standards-based link aggregation protocol.
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Yes
Support for Active/Backup Bonding, Load Balancer Bonding, LACP Bonding. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes (LBFO); Dynamic Load Balancing - Switch Embedded Teaming - NEW
NEW
With Server 2012 MS finally introduced native NIC teaming capabilities in the OS (rather than relying on third-party solutions) - providing integrated bandwidth aggregation and traffic failover.
Microsoft also refers to it as Load Balancing/Failover (LBFO).
- works with (and between) different NIC vendors, fully supported by MS
- supports up to 32 NICs in a team
New in WS 2012 R2 is the Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) of traffic types (WS 2012 provided simultaneous load distribution and failover, but did not ensure load distribution between the NICs in a NIC team in a balanced manner - in WS 2012 R2, dynamic load balancing continuously and automatically moves traffic streams from NIC to NIC within the NIC team to share the traffic load as equitably as possible).
Restrictions - NIC teaming is compatible with all networking capabilities in Windows Server 2012 R2 with five exceptions:
- SR-IOV
- Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)
- Native host Quality of Service
- TCP Chimney Offload
- 802.1X Authentication
Algorithms:
Option 1: Switch-independent mode; NICs can connect to different switches, doesnt require the switch to participate in the teaming, typically less sophisticated load balancing
Option2: Switch-dependent mode; requires a compatible switch to participate in the teaming, all interfaces of the team are connected to the same switch, typically supports more advanced load balancing
Load Balancing modes for both switch-dependent and independent (new with R2):
- Address Hash distribution
- Hyper-V Port distribution
- Dynamic distribution
Generally the Dynamic Distribution will provide better performance and should be used - details on which mode to deploy in WS 2012 R2 (a scary 52 pages white paper) here: http://bit.ly/1ayFmwk
In Windows Server 2016, Microsoft has improved the virtual switch because this last can now manage the NIC Teaming. This feature is called Switch Embedded Teaming. Thanks to SET, you no longer need to create a NIC Teaming and then, create the virtual switch. With SET, you specify the network adapters that will be part of the teaming inside the virtual switch. Thanks to SET, you can now enable RDMA, vRSS and DCB on virtual network adapters located in the parent partition. This enable to converge all traffic accross two network adapters.
Set supports only the switch independent load-balancing mode and dynamic or Hyper-V port algorithm. Microsoft recommends to use the dynamix algorithm. For further information about SET, you can read this topic: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wsnetdoc/2015/09/01/switch-embedded-teaming-network-adapter-teaming-within-hyper-v-virtual-switch/
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=AU82
|
Yes
Support for VLAN Interfaces included. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes
(no major updates with 2016)
Yes, supports static VLAN and VLAN tagging
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No
Private VLANs (sub-VLANs) are only supported with the virtual distributed switch.
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No
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Yes
(no major updates with 2016) Server 2012 introduced support for PVLANs, which provides isolation between virtual machines on the same VLAN. (A common example is a guest network in a hotel where all guest want to communicate with the outside world e.g. through a router - but avoid communication with each-other).
You can do this by assigning every virtual machine in a PVLAN one primary VLAN ID and one or more secondary VLAN IDs. The PVLAN ports can operate in one of three modes
- Isolated (cant communicate at layer 2)
- Promiscuous (Promiscuous ports can communicate with any port on the same primary VLAN ID - this would be the router in our hotel example)
- Community ports on the same VLAN ID can communicate at layer 2)
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=AU84
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
|
Yes
(no major updates with R2)
Windows Server 2012 has full IPv6 support for host and vms (parent and child partitions).
The new features of IPv6 in Windows Server 2012 are
- better connectivity on the Internet (IPv6 attempts to connect, If this connection fails, Windows marks the network interfaces as unusable for IPv6, causing the IPv6 destination addresses for the Internet properties to be unreachable - reaching it through IPv4 instead)
- a protocol translation service for DirectAccess clients NAT64/DNS64 work together to translate incoming connection traffic from an IPv6 node to IPv4 traffic. The DNS64 resolves the name of an IPv4-only host to a translated IPv6 address. The NAT64 translates the incoming IPv6 traffic to IPv4 traffic and performs the reverse translation for response traffic)
- better manageability of IPv6 settings through Windows PowerShell (The ability to manage IPv6 settings in the common management environment of Windows PowerShell, including scripts and workflows)
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VMDirectPath (No SR-IOV)
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Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes - SRIOV (incl. Live Migration)
(no major updates with WS 2016)
In order to achieve native I/O for the network in virtual machines Windows Server 2012 (maintained with R2) added the ability to assign SR-IOV functionality from physical devices directly to virtual machines. This gives virtual machines the ability to bypass the software-based Hyper-V Virtual Switch, and directly access the network adapter. As a result, CPU overhead and latency is reduced, with a corresponding rise in throughput.
Requirements:
- host hardware that supports SR-IOV (e.g. CPU with Intel VT-d2, chipset support for interrupt and DMA remapping)
- SR-IOV-capable NIC in the virtualization host
Features:
- Live Migration is fully supported. You can Live Migrate a VM using SR-IOV to another host that either does or does not support SR-IOV, and back again. The VM will use SR-IOV if it is available on the target host, and if SR-IOV is unavailable, it will use the traditional software network path.
Limitations:
- Nick Teaming & SR-IOV: when a NIC team is created on top of SR-IOV capable physical NICs, the SR-IOV capability is not propagated. So you cant team in the parent partition and use the same NICs for SR-IOV in the vims at the same time (instead present two SR-IOV NICs to the vims and team them in the guest OS)
- SR-IOV causes the virtual machines traffic to bypass the Hyper-V Virtual Switch. If any switch port policies are set, SRIOV functionality is revoked for that virtual machine
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=AU86
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
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Yes
(no major updates with WS 2016) Support for Jumbo frames has been added with 2008 R2 and is maintained with Server 2012 and 2012 R2.
These are the basic steps to enable Jumbo frames in Server 2012 for you virtual machines:
- Networking hardware must support jumbo packets and the feature must be enabled
- Hyper-V virtual switch must have jumbo frames enabled
- The individual virtual NICs must have jumbo frames enabled
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=AU87
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E50245_01/index.html
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Yes (D-VMQ, Ipsec Offload, SR-IOV )
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Server 2012 supports various functions that improve the networking performance by offloading operations to specialized hardware.
- SR-IOV (assign SR-IOV -capable network adapters directly to a virtual machine to maximize network throughput while minimizing network latency and CPU overhead.)
- Dynamic Virtual Machine Queue (D-VMQ) - essentially allows the hosts single network adapter to appear as multiple network adapters to the virtual machines, allowing each virtual machine its own dedicated network adapter, resulting in less data in the hosts buffers and an overall performance improvement to I/O operations. New in Server 2012: dynamically distributes incoming network traffic processing to host processors, based on processor use and network load. If network load is heavy, D-VMQ automatically uses more processors - with light network load, Dynamic VMQ uses fewer CPUs.
- IPsec Task Offload for Virtual Machines (uses hardware capabilities of server network adaptors to offload IPsec processing. This reduces the CPU overhead of IPsec encryption and decryption)
- Accelerating network traffic through Receive-side scaling and Receive Segment Coalescing
Note: In Server 2012 Virtual machine (VM) Chimney, also called TCP Offload, has been removed (incompatible with native NIC teaming in Server 2012) so TCP chimney will not be available to guest operating systems.
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Limited (no NetIOC)
VMware Network I/O control requires a virtual distributed switch (vDS) which is not enabled with this license. You can still use basic traffic shaping (hard using average/peak bandwidth and burst) on the port group level of the standard switch
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No
|
Yes (max and min bandwidth); SMB traffic types - NEW
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Windows Server 2012 introduces QoS control for networking with the ability to guarantee a minimum bandwidth to a virtual machine or a service.
With System Center 2012 (min SP1) you can configure some of the new networking settings centrally (but System Center is not required) including Bandwidth settings for virtual machines and IEEE priority tagging for QoS prioritization - PowerShell will be required for the more advanced networking options.
Windows Server 2012 also takes advantage of Data Center Bridging (DCB)-capable hardware to converge multiple types of network traffic on a single network adapter, with a guaranteed level of service to each type.
Unlike in Server 2008 R2 (where only the maximum bandwidth was configurable - without being able to guarantee a minimum bandwidth) Server 2012 introduces a bandwidth floor - the ability to guarantees a certain amount of bandwidth to a specific type of traffic (port or virtual machine).
Windows Server 2012 offers two different mechanisms to enforce minimum bandwidth:
- through the enhanced packet scheduler in Windows (provides a fine granularity of classification, best choice if many traffic flows require minimum bandwidth enforcement, example would be a server running Hyper-V hosting many virtual machines, where each virtual machine is classified as a traffic flow)
- through network adapters that support Data Center Bridging (supports fewer traffic flows, however, it can classify network traffic that doesnt originate from the networking stack e.g. can be used with a CNA adapter that supports iSCSI offload, in which iSCSI traffic bypasses the networking stack - because the packet scheduler in the networking stack doesnt process this offloaded traffic, DCB is the only viable choice to enforce minimum bandwidth)
In both cases, network traffic first must be classified. Windows classifies a packet itself or gives instructions to a network adapter to classify it. The result of classification is a number of traffic flows in Windows, and a given packet can belong to only one of them.
Details here: http://bit.ly/Ueb07L
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Traffic Monitoring
Details
|
No
Port Mirroring is only available with the virtual distributed switch
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/ and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMLCM/GUID-2256CB37-5A22-4DDE-A3E3-9C87EC08FD81.htm#EMLCM93821
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Yes (port mirroring); enhanced tracing - NEW
(no major updates with WS 2016)The Hyper-V Extensible Switch in server 2012 provides port mirroring, which allows an administrator to designate which virtual ports should be monitored and to which virtual port the monitored traffic should be delivered for further processing. For example, a security monitoring virtual machine can look for anomalous patterns in the traffic flowing through other specific virtual machines on the switch. In addition, an administrator can diagnose network connectivity issues by monitoring traffic bound for a particular virtual switch port.
New with WS 2012 R2 is a streamlined and more detailed network tracing capability - network traces now contain switch and port configuration information, and tracing packets through the Hyper-V Virtual Switch and any forwarding extensions you have installed are easier to use and read.
Using the new Microsoft Message Analyzer (not just R2) you can also mirror and capture network traffic for remote and local viewing.
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Hypervisor
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General |
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Hypervisor Details/Size
Details
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=AU54
|
Xen Hypervisor - Bare Metal - Java Based Centralizaed Management Interface
The Xen Hypervisor is 1MB, the installation of OVM Server which includes the Xen Hypervisor plus the dom0 (Management/Control Domain) requires 6GB of space. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/ and https://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Project_Software_Overview
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Hyper-V 4
NEW
Hyper-V is Microsofts proprietary hypervisor. With Server 2012 / 2012 R2 it can be installed as role in a full Windows OS, the stripped down Windows OS Server-Core mode or the standalone Hyper-V Server.
The Hypervisor itself is only
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Host Config |
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Max Consolidation Ratio
Details
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=AU55
|
Max Virtual CPU per Host - 4096
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-limits.html
|
1024 vims/host, 2048 vCPUs/host
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Server 2012 supports a maximum of 1024 powered-on vims per host and a maximum of 2048 virtual CPUs per host (in case of running virtual machines with multiple vCPUs the limit that is reached first applies).
Actually achievable maximum number depends obviously on workload characteristics and hardware configuration.
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=AU56
|
384
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-limits.html
|
512 Logical CPUs
NEW
Hyper-V in Server 2012 / R2 supports up to 320 logical CPUs per host (threads) e.g. a 4 socket with 8 cores each and Hyper-Threading enabled = 64 logical CPUs
In Windows Server 2016, the support of logial processors is extended to 512.
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Max Cores per CPU
Details
|
=AU57
|
N/A
|
unlimited
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Number of cores per CPU (socket) are not restricted with the Hyper-V/Hyper-V Server license
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Max Memory / Host
Details
|
=AU58
|
6 TB
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-limits.html
|
24TB
NEW
Hyper-V in Server 2012 / R2 supports up to 4TB of physical RAM per host.
Hyper-V in Server 2016 supports up to 24TB of physical RAM per host
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VM Config |
|
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=AU59
|
128 (Windows) & 256 (Linux)
This max number will vary accordingly to Guest Type and Architecture. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-limits.html
|
up to 240 vCPU (Win) / 240 vCPU (Linux)
NEW
Maximum number of virtual CPUs configurable in a Windows and Linux virtual machine - achievable numbers vary greatly with specific guest OS version, please check! (240 vCPUs supported for e.g.: Windows Server 2012, 2008R2, CentOS 5.7. 5.8, 6.0-6.3, RHEL 6-6.3, SLES11SP2 etc.).
For all supported guests with Server 2016 see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/compute/hyper-v/supported-windows-guest-operating-systems-for-hyper-v-on-windows
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=AU60
|
2 TB
This max number will vary accordingly to Guest Type and Architecture. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-limits.html
|
12TB
NEW
Maximum virtual RAM supported per virtual machine is 12TB.
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=AU61
|
No
|
yes (named pipe)
(no major updates with WS 2016)
virtual machine serial port (max 2) can natively only be connected to a named pipe (i.e. not to the host physical port or network unless using 3rd party options)
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=AU62
|
No
|
No (except Enhanced Session Mode - NEW, VDI & 3rd party)
There is no support for connecting (passing through) physical USB host devices to virtual machines - even with Hyper-V in Server 2016. The Hyper-V virtual machine has no native configurable USB device.
Be aware that Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016 can redirect local resources - including USB devices - to a virtual machine session through Virtual Machine Connection tool. The enhanced session mode connection uses a Remote Desktop Connection session via the virtual machine bus (VMBus), so no network connection to the virtual machine is required.
The other (native) exception is provided for virtual desktop workloads where you can use the capabilities of the RemoteFX protocol to redirect USB devices to virtual machines.
There are however several 3rd party utilities that allow you to redirect USB over IP and provide connectivity to vims in this way. Another work-around is to connect a local USB device to the vm while connecting with the standard RDP client (mstsc.exe) and selecting to connect your local USB device through the Local devices and resources option.
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=AU63
|
Yes
It is possible to add CPU, RAM, Disks and Networking in a running VM (It depends on Guest OS type/version). More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
|
Yes (except CPU)
NEW
Server 2012 / R2 Hyper-V allows to hot-add memory to the virtual machine as long as the memory is configured as dynamic, essentially allowing to adjust the memory while the vm is up and running.
Since 2008R2 Hyper-V allows to add virtual storage (only when connected to virtual SCSI adapter - not IDE) is supported while the vm is running.
Windows Server 2016 enables to hot add/remove virtual NIC and static memories. Windows Server 2016 doesnt support the hot add vCPU. However guest applications as SQL Server need to be restarted when a vCPU is added to the VM; even on VMware
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Graphic Acceleration
Details
|
NO
|
No
|
Yes (Discrete Device Assignemt)
NEW
Windows Server 2016 enables to pass through the graphical card to the VM for performance. 60 FPS can easily be reached for graphical process. The feature is called Device Discrete Assignment. Thanks to this feature, CAO can be now done in VM
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Memory |
|
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Dynamic / Over-Commit
Details
|
=AU90
|
No
|
Yes - Dynamic Memory (Linux guest support - new)
(no major updates with WS2016) SP1 introduced Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V. Dynamic Memory is a feature that lets Hyper-V balance memory automatically among running virtual machines. This feature adjusts the amount of memory available to the virtual machines in response to the needs of the virtual machine, based on values that you specify resulting in higher virtual machine consolidation ratios.
New in WS 2012 R2 is the support for Linux guest - supported Linux operating systems with updated integration services take advantage of Dynamic Memory the same way as virtual machines running Windows Server.
In Server 2012 / R2 Dynamic Memory has the following configuration item, minimum memory that lets Hyper-V reclaim the unused memory from the virtual machines (resulting in increased virtual machine consolidation numbers, especially in VDI environments where many vims can be idle).
Server 2012 also introduced Hyper-V Smart Paging - if a virtual machine has a smaller amount of memory than its startup memory and it is restarted, Hyper-V needs additional memory to restart the machine. Due to host memory pressure or virtual machines states, Hyper-V may not always have additional memory available potentially causing sporadic virtual machine restarts. Smart paging uses disk resources as additional, temporary memory when more memory is required to restart a virtual machine.
Additionally with Server 2012 / R2, you can change the maximum memory amount and apply that change while the virtual machine is running.
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Memory Page Sharing
Details
|
=AU91
|
No
|
No
(no major updates with WS 2016)
There is no page sharing technology in Hyper-V. Microsoft points out that page sharing becomes less efficient with larger memory pages as it is less likely to find common pages. Also newer OSs tend to reduce zero pages through other mechanisms (e.g. SuperFetch). That means that page sharing tends to be more efficient with legacy guest OSs, less efficient with newer ones.
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=AU92
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
|
Yes
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Yes, supports 2MB pages for guests and hypervisor memory management (i.e. virtualized workloads can still benefit even if the are not large page aware)
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|
HW Memory Translation
Details
|
=AU93
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
|
Yes (SLAT)
(no major updates with WS 2016)
Yes, Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) leverages AMD RVI and Intel EPT technology to reduce the overhead incurred during virtual to physical address mapping performed for virtual machines therefore reducing the complexity of the Windows hypervisor and the context switches needed to manage virtual machine page faults.
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Interoperability |
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|
=AU94
|
Yes
Supported. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/
|
Yes (OVF Import/Export)
A new extension to VMM is the OVF Import/Export tool that consists of cmdlets that enable VMM 2012 users to import and export virtual machines that are packaged in the OVF format. You can use the OVF Import/Export tool to import a virtual machine from other virtualization platforms (currently VMware vCenter and Citrix XenServer) or to export a virtual machine for use on another platform.
The OVF format uses an XML file with the extension .ovf together with one or more virtual disks. The OVF Import/Export tool does not convert virtual hard disk file formats. You may need third-party tools to convert a virtual hard disk format.
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|
=AU95
|
Yes
HCL Site: http://linux.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=117:1:2026809683820822:::::
|
Strong Windows Ecosystem
As it is build on the Windows 2016 Server Operating System, Hyper-V can utilize the existing (vast) Windows Operating System ecosystem and qualification structures. Microsoft focusses on the extensibility of Server 2016 and Hyper-V through this existing ecosystem as System Center or Microsoft Azure.
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|
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|
=AU96
|
Yes
Supported Guests: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/E76173/html/vmrns-guest-os-x86.html
|
Closing the gap
Guest Support for Hyper-V (including free Hyper-V Server) 2016 and WS 2016 has clearly improved but there is still a gap compared to VMwares support for older or less mainstream operating systems.
For specific levels/version check (Software Requirements section) : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/compute/hyper-v/supported-windows-guest-operating-systems-for-hyper-v-on-windows
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|
|
Container Support
Details
|
|
|
Yes (Windows containers, Hyper-V Containers)
NEW
Hyper-V under Windows Server 2016 supports containers based on docker. Two kinds of containers exists:
· Windows container: these containers share the Operating System. Only the application dependencies are inside the container (eg: IP stack, .NET, application itself and all change made on the OS)
· Hyper-V container: these containers are located on top of a virtualization layer to increase the security level for multi-tenant environment. The libraries and the binaries are located in the container to avoid interference between the containers
The Windows Server 2016 Standard license support only two Hyper-V containers on the same host. For unlimited Hyper-V containers, you require Windows Server 2016 Datacenter.
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|
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|
=AU98
|
Yes
Restfull API. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/ and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/toc.htm
|
Yes (WMI API, PowerShell 5 - NEW)
NEW
You can use PowerShell for scripting and interface with the published WMI Providers.
In Windows Server 2016, Windows PowerShell 5.0 delivers over 5,000 cmdlets to enable you to manage server roles and automate management tasks.
For new features in PowerShell see: http://bit.ly/1ayOSQh
|
|
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|
No (vCloud API)
The vCloud Suites require Enterprise Plus Editions!
vCloud API - Interface for providing and consuming virtual resources in the cloud.
The new vCloud Director 5.1 release introduces many new features and enhancements to the vCloud Director platform including:
vShield Edge Gateway Management, OrgVDC Networks, Metadata Tagging in Search/Filter, Filter improvements to Query Service, Storage Profiles
VM Snapshots, Attach/Detach Independent Disks, Many API/UI Parity fixes
Vendor Link: http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcloud.api.reference.doc_51%2Fdoc%2Fright-pane.html
See Cloud
|
Yes
Restfull API for the Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control, OVM Manager and OpenStack APIs on OVM Servers. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E64076_01/ and http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/toc.htm
|
Service Provider Foundation API, Azure Service Management API
NEW
In addition to PowerShell / WMI based automation and scripting capabilities MS introduced specific cloud APIs for Service Providers with the Service Provider Foundation and an extended Service Management API with the Windows Azure Pack. The Virtual Machines service of the Windows Azure Pack builds on the Service Provider Foundation (SPF) API provided with System Center 2012 to enable self-service IaaS.
The Service Provider Foundation (SPF) API is an extensible OData REST API in System Center 2012 that enables hosters to integrate their System Center installation into their customer portal and is automatically integrated with customers on-premises installation of AppController. A simple exchange of credentials enables enterprises to add the Service Provider cloud to App Controller for consumption alongside private and public cloud resources. SPF also has multi-tenancy built-in enabling operation at massive scale, controlling multiple scale-units built around Virtual Machine Manager.
The Windows Azure Pack provides a solution for enterprises looking to act as service providers and service providers that want to attract enterprise workloads.
It runs on top of Windows Server and System Center and aims to provide the capabilities of Windows Azure in your datacenter, enabling you to offer a self-service, multi-tenant cloud with Windows Azure-consistent experiences and services.
The Windows Azure Pack is essentially a collection of Windows Azure technologies that install in enterprise and service provider datacenters, integrating with their existing System Center and Windows Server environments.
The Management Portal of the Azure Pack replicates the Windows Azure Developer portal experience found in Windows Azure, along with a subset of the services available in Windows Azure. The capabilities available in the Management Portal can be accessed programmatically through the Service Management API, an OData/REST API. This accessibility enables you to completely replace the portal, for example, if a service provider has their own portal, which they want to integrate with Azure services.
Details here: http://bit.ly/YuRVQl
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Extensions
|
|
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|
Cloud |
|
|
|
|
No
vCloud Suite requires Enterprise Plus!
|
Oracle Enterprise Manager is capable of providing IaaS, PaaS and SaaS as well as Hybrid Cloud Management
The IaaS is provided via Oracle VM and PaaS/SaaS can also be provided on top of this IaaS Implementation, since Oracle Enterprise Manager aggregate those capabilities. For more info access http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/cloud-mgmt-496758.html
|
Cloud OS: System Center, Hyper-V, Azure
NEW
Comment: Due to the variation in individual cloud requirements, different deployment model (private, public, hybrid) and use cases (IaaS, PaaS etc) the matrix will only list the available products and capabilities. It will not list evaluations (green, amber, red) rather than providing the information that will help you to evaluate it for YOUR environment. Use the Analyse & Print Report function to perform a custom evaluation.
Comment End
Microsoft continues to promote its Cloud OS vision, that aims to provide customers with one consistent platform for infrastructure, applications, and data - spaning across customer datacenters, hosting service provider datacenters, and the Microsoft public cloud.
In simplified terms Microsoft wants to provide a common management layer with the components of System Center 2016 that manages not only your private cloud (hosted e.g.on WS 2016) but also public cloud instances (based on Azure) or any hybrid scenarios where you combine on-premise and off-premise cloud resources.
Private Cloud:
The core components of Microsofts private cloud are provided by Windows Server (e.g. Hyper-V provided by 2016) and System Center 2016 for the management of this environment. (For details see: Private Cloud)
In 2017, Microsoft will deliver Azure Stack which is Microsoft Azure in your datacenter. It will not use SYstem Center has a management point. Instead, Azure Stack will use SDC, SDS and SDN management point (eg: network controller, storage spaces direct and Hyper-v). Azure Stack will be sold in CPS format)
Public Cloud:
Microsoft Azure is Microsofts public cloud computing platform (separate offering - not included in Server 2016 or System Center!). It primarily started out as a PaaS environment used to built applications with different programming languages, tools and frameworks through a network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Today Windows Azure provides various services for both Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services and a range of associated services. (For details see: Public Cloud)
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Desktop Virtualization |
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=AU101
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Not evaluated
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Remote Desktop Services (included in Server 2016)
vGPU (Remote FX)
Passthrough GPU (Device Discrete Assignment)
NEW
Microsoft introduced VDI capability (in addition to the existing Terminal Services capabilities) as part of the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) of the Server 2008 R2 operating system.
RDS provides hosted sessions (aka terminal services) as well as virtual desktop functionality (VDI).
With RDS in Windows Server 2012 / R2 , Microsoft has enhanced VDI to provide a more capable single infrastructure to enable the above mentioned virtual and session-based desktops as well as RemoteApp programs - building on the features that were available with 2008 R2.
Note: RDS related capabilities are NOT listed as Fee-Based Add-Ons (no purchase of additional VDI management software is required or licenses involved to enable the RDS management capability).
However, you will require relevant client access licensing to run either sessions or virtual machines (e.g. VDAs, RDS CALs), see http://bit.ly/1cBdgAm for details
There have been a large RDS related enhancements in WS 2012 R2:
User and admin experience:
- Session Shadowing (shadow a session-based or virtual machine-based desktop or RemoteApp program e.g. for helpdesk and troubleshooting)
- Single server RDS deployment including Active Directory (RD Connection Broker role service on the same physical instance as an Active Directory Domain Controller)
- Improved RemoteApp behavior- transparency, live thumbnails, and seamless application move that allows the application content to remain visible while the application is moved on screen
- Quick reconnect for remote desktop clients (reconnect in less than 10 seconds)
- Dynamic display handling - display changes on the client to be automatically reflected on the remote client (seamless device rotation, monitor addition and removal for both remote sessions and RemoteApp programs).
- RemoteFX virtualized GPU supports DX11.1
Reducing Network and Storage Requirements:
- Improved compression and bandwidth usage - using codecs that enable better compression & deliver bandwidth savings (e.g. video content delivery over a WAN utilizes up to 50% less bandwidth compared to WS 2012)
- RemoteFX Codec improvements further reduce bandwidth for non-video content
- Ability to offload all progressive decode processing to AVC/H.264 hardware if available, enabling client implementations on lower-end CPU devices, with better user experience and lower bandwidth than in RDP 8.
- RemoteFX Media Streaming has up to 50% reduced bandwidth compared to WS 2012.
- Online Storage Deduplication - deduplication now works with online vhds (running desktops) on SMB3 storage (for VDI only)
- The new Tiering feature in Storage Spaces allows an SSD tier for frequently accessed data, and a HDD tier for less-frequently accessed data. Storage Spaces transparently moves data at a sub-file level between the two tiers based on how frequently data is accessed. Tiering is frequently used in virtual desktop environments where different data tiers require different storage perfromance.
- Write-back cache: Storage Spaces in WS 2012 R2 supports creating a write-back cache that uses a small amount of space on existing SSDs in the pool to buffer small random writes (predominant in VDI environments)
In WIndows Server 2016, Hyper-V is able to provide a GPU core directly to the VM (passthrough). This enables to get an application running 60 FPS inside a VM. This feature is called Discrete Device Assignement.
A VM supports now the 4K resolution, a VDI VM can be a gen 2, H.264/AVC codec investment, OpenGL & OpenCL API Support.
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1 |
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=AU102
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No
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Improved (Storage Spaces); Storage Spaces Direct - NEW
NEW
Windows Server 2012 introduced the concept of Storage Spaces (supported for Hyper-V and free Hyper-V Server environments). In simplified terms Storage Spaces allows you to use inexpensive SAS/SATA drives (JBODS) to provide more advanced pooled and redundant storage through a Storage Virtualization layer. First you create a storage pool specifying the physical disk drives to be used and subsequently you create virtual disks (not to be confused with vhd for virtual machines) within the pool. These disks are appearing then to the host like new physical disks with changed attributes (resilience, capacity etc.) by adding mirroring or parity to the disk and pools can be dynamically expanded. These can now be used for local storage, failover clustering and SMB Direct (RDMA).
WS 2012 R2 introduced significant enhancements to Storage Spaces:
1. Tiered Storage
Ability to to provide tiered storage (that automatically moves frequently accessed data to faster (SSD) storage and infrequently accessed data to slower (HDD) storage).
Microsoft has developped Storage Spaces direct in Windows Server 2016 that enables to use DAS storage device to create highly available storage system. This works as Storage Spaces but by using local DAS storage device. This enables to create hyperconverged solution based on Microsoft technologies. For more information, you can read the following topic: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-overview
- To create a storage space with storage tiers, the storage pool must have a sufficient number of hard disks and SSDs to support the selected storage layout, and the disks must contain enough free space.
- When creating a storage space using the New Virtual Disk Wizard or the New-VirtualDisk cmdlet you can now specify to create the virtual disk with storage tiers.
- The virtual disk must use fixed provisioning, and the number of columns will be identical on both tiers (a four-column, two-way mirror with storage tiers would require eight SSDs and eight HDDs).
- Volumes created on virtual disks that use storage tiers should be the same size as the virtual disk.
- Administrators can pin (assign) files to the standard (HDD) or faster (SSD) tier by using the Set-FileStorageTier cmdlet, ensuring that the files are always accessed from the appropriate tier.
2. Storage Spaces Write- Back Caching:
Storage Spaces can use existing SSDs in the storage pool to create a write-back cache that buffers small random writes to SSDs before later writing them to HDDs.
- write-back cache is transparent to administrators and users and is created on all new virtual disks as long as there is a sufficient number of SSDs in the storage pool (Simple spaces: one SSD, Two-way mirror spaces and single-parity spaces: two SSDs, three-way mirror spaces and dual parity spaces: three SSDs)
- write-back cache works with all types of storage spaces, including storage spaces with storage tiers
- newly created storage spaces automatically use a 1 GB write-back cache (as long as the storage pool contains enough disks with MediaType set to SSD or Usage set to Journal)
3. Parity space support for failover clusters, dual parity and automatic rebuild from storage pool free space (rather than hot spares)
- You can now use parity spaces to maximize capacity and resiliency while still offering the ability to fail over to another cluster node
- Dual parity enables you to keep a high level of resiliency when using a parity space with a large number of disks or any time when you need to help protect against two simultaneous disk failures
- When a disk fails, instead of writing a copy of the data that was on the failed disk to a single hot spare, the data is copied to multiple drives in the pool such that the previous level of resiliency is achieved
Please note: Storage spaces can be provided from a single file server node using (non-raided!) SAS or SATA JBODs. For clustered nodes you will need SAS JBODs (not SATA) in a SHARED JBOD enclosure (Storage Spaces does NOT present virtualized local storage as shared storage like e.g. VMware VSA). MS will list certified JBOD enclosures.
Advantages:
- Provide reliable and scalable storage with reduced cost (cheap JBODs)
- Aggregate individual drives into storage pools
- Expand storage pools on demand
- Deploy specific drives as hot spares
Limitations:
- Fibre-channel and iSCSI are not supported
- SAS or SATA JBODs only, no HW Raid, for clustering SAS only and a shared SAS (no SATA) JBOD enclosure
- A mirrored pool must have at least 2 drives, three drive minimum required for using parity
- Virtual disks to be used with a failover cluster must use the NTFS file system not ReFS, cant use thin provisioning and must use the mirrored (not parity) option.
- Performance considerations (software RAID, JBODs of different types, multiple virtual disks per pool etc.)
Storage Spaces FAQ here: http://bit.ly/UxZ1FP
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2 |
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Application Management
Details
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=AU103
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No
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Yes (SC Operations Manager 2012 R2); Included
(No major change in SC 2016) SC 2012 R2 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 2012 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 VMM Self-Service Portal web servers, and see diagram views of the virtualized environment through the Operations console in Operations Manager.
A close integration between System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager and System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager introduces System Center cloud monitoring of virtual layers for private cloud environments. To get this new functionality, use the System Center 2012 Management Pack for System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager Dashboard, which is imported automatically when you integrate Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager.
With System Center 2012 R2 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.
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3 |
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No (require VDS)
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No
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MS Forefront (Fee-Based Add On)
(No major change in WS 2016) Microsofts security infrastructure plus wider Windows ecosystem (3rd party solutions)
There have been a number of security related updates on Windows Server and System Center with the 2012 R2 release (see security section in the management category)
Microsoft Forefront is a suite of security related products that deliver end-to-end security and access to information through an integrated line of protection, access, and identity management products.
Main products are:
- Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010
- Forefront Protection Suite
- Forefront Identity Manager 2010
- Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server
- Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint
- Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010
- Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010
For features and details see: http://bit.ly/1aZL5s4
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4 |
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Workflow / Orchestration
Details
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=AU105
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control to create Self Service Portals with Workflows to provision VMs or to create Jobs to automate Manual Tasks. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/index.htm
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Yes (SC Orchestrator / SC Service Mgr 2012 R2), Included
(No major change in SC 2016) System Center 2012 / R2 includes the Orchestrator product (Opalis acquisition). Orchestrator provides a workflow management solution that lets you automate the creation, monitoring, and deployment of resources in your environment.
Essentially Orchestrator provides the glue between the various System Center and other infrastructure components and allows automated interaction between the components through workflow automation (runbooks). This enables you to automate any process in your environment through a drag-and-drop interface by linking activities into runbooks.
Orchestrator includes many built-in standard activities and you can expand Orchestrators functionality and ability to integrate with other Microsoft and third-party products by installing integration packs.
Integration packs for Orchestrator contain additional activities that extend the functionality of Orchestrator. Details here: http://bit.ly/Un9Quf
Updated in Orchestrator in SC 2012 R2 are the Windows Azure Integration Pack for Orchestrator in System Center 2012 SP1 and System Center 2012 R2 and the System Center Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager.
Orchestrator also provides extensible integration to any system through the Orchestrator Integration Toolkit. You can create custom integrations that allow Orchestrator to connect to any environment.
System Center 2012 / R2 Service Manager provides an integrated platform for automating your organizations IT service management best practices, such as those found in the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management.
You will often find a direct integration between e.g. Service Manager and Orchestrator where e.g. a service request is handled / approved by a Service Manager workflow and subsequently triggers an Orchestrator runbook e.g. a user could request a virtual machine or service (service template) from the self service portal in Service Manager integrated with an Orchestrator runbook that triggers the virtual machine deployment through Virtual Machine Manager.
With Windows Sever 2012, Microsoft introduced PowerShell 3 which provides a wide range of Cmdlets to manage almost all possible configuration and management tasks in the operating system. Essentially all Windows roles and features can be managed using PowerShell.
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5 |
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=AU106
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Yes
If the Storage is Replicated the whole environment can be orchestrated to be up and running in minutes if the Failover Site already has the Oracle VM up and running pointing to the Replicated Storage with the help of Oracle Site Guard. More info on: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/ovm3-disaster-recovery-1872591.pdf
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Hyper-V Replica (included) , Storage Replica -NEW, Azure Site Recovery or 3rd party Fee-Based Add Ons
NEW
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.
In Windows Server 2016, we can leverage Storage Replica to replicate block-to-block from one volume to another. Its work for SAN or Storage Spaces (Direct) solution. So you can replicate the volume from one room to another. It can be part of your recovery plan. The replication can be synchronous or asynchronous depending of the latence of the link between both rooms.
Microsoft provides also Azure Site Recovery to replicate VM from one room to Azure or to another room. This technology is based on Hyper-V Replica.
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6 |
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=AU107
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Yes
Oracle offers Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Cloud Control for Chargeback. More info on: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E73210_01/EMCLO/GUID-918D7707-BE04-4E00-8EF1-C4E5BD66CE73.htm
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Hyper-V Resource Metering and Service Manager (included), Health Service - NEW
NEW
(No major updates in Windows Server 2016 except when Storage Spaces Direct is enable. In this case we can leverage Health Service to gather cluster information such as CPU average usage, IOPS, capacity and so on)
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 introduced Resource Metering, a feature that allows customers to create usage-based billing solutions.
MS provides 2 mechanisms to collect this data (without System Center): Hyper-V cmdlets in Windows PowerShell and the new APIs in the Virtualization WMI provider. These metrics are exposed: Average CPU usage, Average physical memory usage, Minimum memory usage, Maximum memory usage, Maximum amount of disk space allocated to a virtual machine, Total incoming network traffic, Total outgoing network traffic.
Microsoft has extended the Resource Metering feature in Hyper-V 2012 R2 to include additional metering objects.
The actual chargeback function can either be provided by the one of the many 3rd party tools or now also by System Center 2016 Service Manager. Service Manager works in conjunction with Operations Manager and VMM. Price sheets, or rate cards, are created in Service Manager for Virtual Machine Manager clouds. The clouds are then assigned to prices sheets. For example, you might have price sheets that are associated to silver and bronze clouds in order to differentiate levels of service.
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7 |
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Network Extensions
Details
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No
3rd party network switch appliances are not supported with this license
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No
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Hyper-V Extensible Switch - 3rd party Extensions (Nexus 1000V - Fee-Based Add On)
(No major updates in WS 2016) The Hyper-V Virtual Switch enables ISVs to create extensible plug-ins (Virtual Switch Extensions) that can provide enhanced networking and security capabilities.
Deatils on Ciscos 1000v for Hyper-V here: http://bit.ly/1aZTXOk
New in 2012 R2 is the ability to give third party extensions visibility into both Hyper-V Network Virtualization address spaces.
The HNV module was moved to inside the virtual switch so that extensions could see both the provider (PA) and virtual (CA) IP address spaces. This allows forwarding and other types of extensions to make decisions with knowledge of both address spaces.
The second change was to implement hybrid forwarding. Hybrid forwarding directs packets to different forwarding agents, based upon the packet type. In the Windows Server 2012 R2 implementation a packet that is NVGRE is forwarded by the HNV module. A packet that is non-NVGRE is forwarded as normal by the forwarding extension. Regardless of which agent performs the forwarding computation, the forwarding extension still has the opportunity to apply additional policies to the packet. If there is no forwarding extension, the Microsoft forwarding logic takes over for non-NVGRE packets.
Details here: http://bit.ly/1aZTz2p
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