IT Manager with 51-200 employees

Apr 27, 2014

Virtual Networking: VMware vs. Hyper-V

We've been busy building out our new Server 2012/Hyper-V infrastructure in support of our move to all new and shiny Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Office 2013 along with our move to Windows 8 on all the client machines. We made the decision to move off VMware ESXi as our virtualization platform and onto Hyper-V as we are first and foremost a Microsoft shop. Server 2012 and Hyper-V now offer a compelling platform for virtualization and, frankly, if we can do what we want to do with products from one vendor rather than multiple vendors then so much the better. Hyper-V is no longer a poor relation to VMware in terms of performance or capabilities and, believe me, I was the most “dyed in the wool” rabid VMware user for many years so I’m not saying this just to toe the company line. I firmly believe that it’s now pretty much a level playing field between VMware and Microsoft.

During our migration we have been learning about the subtle differences between the two platforms and have had to adjust our thinking accordingly. Virtual networking, and specifically “virtual switches”, is one area where we have had to really make a conscious effort to adjust how we look at things and how we configure things. Let me explain …

In both VMware and Hyper-V you have to deal with virtual switching to “bridge” the virtual machines hosted on a virtualization host to your physical network. Both platforms allow you to create virtual switches that act pretty much the same a physical layer 2 switches and both platforms require you to create at least one virtual switch before VM’s can be connected to the outside world. But while the overall concept is the same the execution varies rather a lot between the two platforms.

VMware Virtual Switch

In VMware I can create a virtual switch and attach one or more physical NIC’s to the switch. If I create a virtual switch with 2 NIC’s then the switch would have theoretical throughput of 2Gbps assuming both underlying physical NIC’s were gigabit. When I attach VM’s to the switch the VM’s would route traffic over both NIC’s (in theory). I know in practice that traffic might “ping pong” across the NIC’s as they aren’t actually teamed together (bonded) but the point is the switch provides “bigger” bandwidth than a switch with only one NIC attached. (You can bond NIC’s for switches but that is beyond the scope of this blog.) Think of the switch as providing “load balancing” across the attached NIC’s as well as a certain amount of redundancy as the switch (and the attached VM’s) can survive a component NIC failure and keep connectivity in place. Our VMware configs usually had a couple of switches configured, each with a couple of NIC’s, and each switch would support multiple VM’s. VMware virtual switches normally do NOT have an IP assigned to the switch as underlying VMware doesn’t attempt to bind an IP to the physical NIC.

Here is the list of physical NIC’s in my lab ESXi box, one NIC is currently connected to the physical network:

And here is the current switch configuration:

In this case the switch is the default one created at installation time. It includes the single cabled NIC I have in place right now. Note that there are actually two networks configured – VM Network and Management Network. The Management Network actually has an IP address assigned as that is the IP address for the VMware host itself. In many cases when a VMware host has many NIC’s the Management Network might have a NIC all to itself. The VM Network provides switch connectivity to the VM’s attached to it and an IP address is NOT assigned to the network. Note: as there is only one NIC assigned to the switch connectivity to both the host and the VM’s would be lost if the NIC failed or was disconnected from the network.

As you can see I have now added a second virtual switch (it has a NIC that is NOT cabled in to the physical network at this point). I have removed the VM Network from the first virtual switch (vSwitch0) and added a new network, VM Network 2, to the second virtual switch (vSwitch1). Now I have completely segmented my management network (physical host access) from my virtual machine network (virtual machine access). In this case the host would be accessible from the physical network as its switch (vSwitch0) has an operational NIC attached. The Server 2012 VM on vSwitch1 would NOT be accessible from the physical network as its switch does not have an operational (cabled in) NIC attached.

And now I have removed the second virtual switch, added the second NIC to the first virtual switch and moved the Server 2012 VM back on to the VM Network on the switch. In this case both the host and the VM would be accessible from the physical network as the switch has at least one operational NIC attached to it.

VMware virtual switching is pretty configurable and elastic.

Hyper-V Virtual Switch

Hyper-V virtual switches do NOT have the same ability to bind multiple NIC’s into a switch config, at least not at the virtual switch level. Traditional Hyper-V “external switches” work on the paradigm of one physical host NIC being bound to the switch. If you have a server with a whole bunch of NIC’s then you would need to create a virtual switch for each NIC that you want to use with Hyper-V. Each switch can support multiple VM’s attached to it, just like VMware, but each switch can only have the one physical NIC bound to it.

With the advent of Server2012 and Hyper-V 3 the single NIC constraint can be circumvented by TEAMING NIC’s at the Server 2012 level through Server Manager. The resulting tNIC can then be selected as the “NIC” for a Hyper-V virtual switch and the virtual switch would then have the aggregated bandwidth of the underlying NIC’s. The caveat here is that the PHYSICAL SWITCH on the other end of the cables from the NIC’s has to also allow for port teaming either via a manual set up or via LACP.

The other thing to understand is that the virtual switch will “take over” most of the characteristics of the NIC/tNIC assigned to it. That means the virtual switch will take on the IP address – DHCP or STATIC – of the underlying NIC as the NIC is just a NIC to the Windows Server host. This is very important to understand when you are setting up Hyper-V, specially so on a single NIC server.

Here is the adapter configuration on my lab Hyper-V server:

This is pretty similar to my VMware server, I have two physical NIC’s but only one is actually cabled into the physical network at this time. You’ll also note the “vEthernet” connection, this is the single Hyper-V virtual switch that has been created on this box.

In the Hyper-V Manager on the server I see the following for the virtual switch config:

This is the switch that I created to support my first Hyper-V VM’s. It is created as an “External Network” which means that it provides connectivity between the attached VM’s and the physical network beyond the Hyper-V host. And, importantly, it is set to, “Allow management operating system to share the network adapter”. This is critical in a single NIC server or, as in my case, when there is only one connected NIC on a multi-NIC machine. This setting is analogous to the VMware “Management Network” in that it is what allows the Server 2012 host to “share” the NIC with the Hyper-V guests attached to the switch. If I had created this switch and NOT selected this setting I would have ended up NOT being able to access the HOST over the network as the switch would NOT share the NIC between the VM’s and the host (single operational NIC, remember?). When this setting is selected, the switch will take on many of the characteristics of the underlying NIC including its network address settings (DHCP or Static); therefore, the switch will bind itself to the IP assigned to the HOST.

This is a really important concept to grasp because I cannot create a switch and assign multiple NIC’s to it (as mentioned previously). If I have a server with a bunch of NIC’s and I go and create one virtual switch per physical NIC AND I select the “Allow management setting …” then I will be binding multiple IP addresses to my host and that is probably not what I want to do. In our office our sysadmin, Louis, was wondering why all of a sudden the Hyper-V host had pulled a bunch of DHCP addresses; the answer was he created a bunch of switches all of which had management turned on which, in turn, required an IP and the default setting is DHCP.

Note that the switch IP, if there is one, has no bearing on the IP’s assigned to the VM’s nor do the VM’s require the switch to have an assigned IP. If a switch has an IP then it is there strictly to provide connectivity passthrough to the host.

As you might imagine, it is not as easy to configure Hyper-V virtual networking to be as “elastic” as VMware virtual networking, VMware still outshines Microsoft in this regard. You CAN use NIC teaming at the Server 2012 level to create tNIC’s (teamed NIC’s) that can then be incorporated into Hyper-V virtual switches but there are caveats that have to be met. Your physical switches must “understand” how you have teamed the NIC’s and be configured (or configure themselves) accordingly. Also, depending on how the NIC’s are teamed there is the possibility of tNIC failure if an underlying teamed NIC fails. If a tNIC in a Hyper-V switch fails then the switch itself will fail. This is very different behaviour from that of the VMware virtual switching that I have discussed and it is something you need to understand as you move from VMware to Hyper-V.

Conclusion

VMware still has the edge on Microsoft when it comes to simple virtual switching (and simple is what we deal with in the SMB world). But the edge is slim and Hyper-V does offer real value and a compelling use argument. Like anything else in IT, you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the products you select and design your environment accordingly. I hope this discussion of VMware and Hyper-V virtual switching will help you in your endeavours.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user250662Works

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Jun 5, 2015

I am not sure about the last statement as even with VMWare you still need to go in and configure multiple NIC's on one switch for LACP, Active Passive, IP Hash, MAC Hash....... the only difference I can see is where the linking of the NIC's happens. Microsoft is before adding the Virtual NIC to the Switch, VMWare is after the switch is created and addition NIC's are added

reviewer1563234

IT Operations Manager at a computer software company with 1-10 employees

Aug 29, 2021

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An advanced solution with good management and the capability to scale

Pros and Cons

"I find that most of the competition is more or less the same. However, Hyper-V is, when you compare it to the older platforms like VMware, a little bit more advanced at this stage."

"If a person has never implemented the solution before, they might find the process difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We mostly use Microsoft Hyper-V in our production environment.

What is most valuable?

I find that most of the competition is more or less the same. However, Hyper-V is, when you compare it to the older platforms like VMware, a little bit more advanced at this stage.

I like the System Center part of it, the System Center VMM, where you can manage all the stuff together in the orchestrator and those kinds of things. That was not really available when we looked at Proxmox and other options.

Microsoft's got the better deployment tools like MBT and conflict manager, which is not in the other platform.

For me, the initial setup was very easy.

The solution has been very stable.

The scalability on offer is good.

What needs improvement?

It's hard to compare it to other solutions. Everything has almost the same offering.

It's possible that more deployment tools might make it a bit better.

If a person has never implemented the solution before, they might find the process difficult.

The next generation should at least include most of the tools of the next operating system.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution from the start. I likely started using it around 2006. It's been well over a decade. I've used it for many, many years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very simple in my case. I've got a certification, so for me, it's almost like second nature. For someone with less experience, it's possible it may be a bit difficult.

What about the implementation team?

I am able to handle the implementation myself. I do not need an integrator or consultant.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did look at Proxmox and Citrix Hypervisor, among other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I'm just a customer and an end-user.

I'm using the 2012 and 2016 versions of the product.

I'm more familiar with Hyper-V and with Microsoft products. I've got certification in that as well. There are some management solutions out from Microsoft, which are not just for Hyper-V, but for a lot of things. With these, it's almost like an all-in-one product, which you don't really get when you look at your Linux-based virtualizers. For example, with Proxmox, there is not really management. You have these notes that you couple up and then you have a backup server, however, you don't really have something that you can orchestrate those things with. Citrix, I can't speak to as I didn't really work with Citrix that much.

If you run any kind of network solution, I would rather recommend Hyper-V over any other hypervisor at this moment - unless you are looking at it from a cost of ownership perspective.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. There's no such thing as a perfect product, however, I'm pretty happy with this.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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Aws Al-Dabbagh

IT Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

May 25, 2021

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Easy to use, straightforward to setup, and capable of scaling

Pros and Cons

"Microsoft has documentation that is easy to find, helpful, and readily available."

"The solution is heavily reliant on Microsoft's active directory for authentication, for coordination between nodes. Therefore, it inherits all the issues that are within the active directory."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is server virtualization software. We're using it to create virtual servers on our hosts and assign roles to each server separately. That's basically what a virtualization server does.

What is most valuable?

The solution's ease of use is the most important feature. It is very easy to use and implement.

It has very good fail-over features. You can have servers running in a fail-over cluster and whenever one server fails, you can migrate the workloads to the second one. This is also a very important feature to avoid service downtime or to minimize it at the very least.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward for the most part.

Microsoft has documentation that is easy to find, helpful, and readily available.

The stability is pretty good.

The solution can scale.

What needs improvement?

The solution has already improved for us. We have the older version, which was released in 2012, or the end of 2012. There were two releases after that, however, we haven't updated due to the fact that the upgrade costs are too high, and therefore we've migrated to Hyperflex.

The solution is heavily reliant on Microsoft's active directory for authentication, for coordination between nodes. Therefore, it inherits all the issues that are within the active directory.

If you have other virtualization solutions you have about 95% or 99% of the resources of the host available to you to assign to a virtual server. However, with Windows, that number is less than 95% and is more like 90%. There is a margin reserved for the server itself. That's a downside.

The solution needs to improve integration with hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, or SGI solutions. We were going with SGI for our next virtualization solution. I read reviews about the Hyper-V causing issues with SGI. When we decided to go with SGI, I decided against going with Hyper-V due to the integration issues that it had.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about five years or so at this point, give or take. It's been a while. I'm currently using it now as well.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is basically stable. There are not many faults happening in the four or so years that we had it running. Whatever happened was basically either due to the active directory or due to environments like the server itself that had power loss one time. It shut down and we needed to restart it. However, basically, that's an environment issue, not an issue inherent to Hyper-V itself. Otherwise, Hyper-V runs smoothly.

There is a small overhead of resources reserved for the server itself. Other virtualization solutions have less overhead than that. However, due to the fact that Hyper-V is running on Windows Server, there is a margin of overhead reserved for the server itself.

For the most part, however, it's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is quite scalable. If a company needs to expand, it can do so with relative ease.

Due to the fact that it's a virtualization solution, our IT team of three is managing it. However, as an ISP, we host some very important client services as well on the same solution. That means the number of users can go up to 100,000. From a management perspective, the management is just the three of us in the IT department.

We do not plan to increase usage at this time. Currently, with our version, we're planning to phase it out in our company within the next few years. That's mostly due to the fact that upgrade costs are too high and the solution is already an older generation, and we have decided to buy a fully new solution on new hardware. It will be Hyperflex.

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't contacted Microsoft for support. We've worked with several Microsoft partners for support and they were responsive. However, we haven't reached out to Microsoft directly.

There is good documentation from Microsoft and this can help with troubleshooting as well.

Windows support in general is available online. It's as easy as Googling the issue that you have and you'll readily find solutions. It's not complicated. That part is positive. Other solutions are either too complicated or not very popular. In other products, if you need any support, you must either contact the vendor themselves or look for professional support.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is straightforward if you know how to use Windows Server. Hyper-V is basically a role on Windows Server. Therefore, you can use Windows Server for many roles on networking, on the active directory. Hyper-V is just one of them. You can just install the role and enable it and that's it. Basically, it's up.

The deployment is quite quick. It's a part of the server.

Initial setup process:

after installing the Windows Server, you select 'Add Roles & Features' from the 'Manage' Menu on the 'Server Manager' Window.

then you step through the wizard, selecting the 'Hyper-V' Role along with any features Windows requires for that role. a restart is recommended even if it's not required.

to implement a solution with redundancy, you can install the 'Failover Cluster' Role with the Hyper-V Role on 2 (or more) identical servers, and create a Failover Cluster out of the servers where VMs would "Fail Over" between servers.

then you need to set up a virtual switch to connect the VMs. you should set up at least 1 external switch to enable internet access and remote reachability for the VMs.

then you can create VMs and run them.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The costs in regards to upgrading the solution are quite high and it deters customers from changing versions.

The old solution in 2012 was charging at a cost per server and the pricing was good at the time. In 2016, Microsoft upgraded the licensing, or changed the licensing scheme to per CPU within the server. Basically, if we wanted to upgrade to 2016, we would have had to pay double again for the same software. Therefore, we decided to go with another solution.

The solution offers perpetual licensing.

What other advice do I have?

We are just a customer or end-user.

We're using the version that is on Windows Server 2012 R2.

I'd advise other companies that this solution is to be considered, compared to other solutions. That said, there are solutions that are better and it depends on the scenario. It depends on the scenario, the scale you have, the implementation, et cetera. Companies should compare it to other solutions. Maybe the cost is high and performance isn't as good for them. I would suggest companies go with the VMware solution. That said, again, it depends on the scenario. In some scenarios, where a company is heavily dependent on Microsoft and Windows, it would be a better solution for them.

If most of your workloads are Windows Server, then buying a server host would give you free licensing for those workloads. The licensing would be included. Otherwise, if you buy another solution then you have to pay separately for each Windows license. The cost would be again, very high. For us, I can say maybe 70% or 80% of our workloads are Linux and other OS's, not Windows. It wouldn't make sense for us to go with Hyper-V. The cost would be too high. If you are implementing heavily into Windows Server, go for Hyper-V. If you have a different application or different type of application, then you'd be better off going with another solution.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Reviewer4901

IT Executive at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

Dec 13, 2018

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Previously we had five machines running the infrastructure. With Hyper-V, now we have one.

Pros and Cons

"It makes it easier to deploy service. All service tends to migrate onto the server house without having problems now. It is hardware independent."

"It might make it easier to move VMs across Hotmail hosts. This application process make it a little bit easier."

How has it helped my organization?

It makes it easier to deploy services. All services tend to migrate onto the server house without having problems now. It is hardware independent.

What is most valuable?

We find the most valuable feature is just hosting the VM. The replication I do with other software.

What needs improvement?

It might make it easier to move VMs across Hotmail hosts. This application process may make it a little bit easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not had problems with the stability of the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I am using the free version of the solution. There are some limited features, and it is not too scalable. But, I am sure the full version is much better for scaling.

We have plans to migrate to the full version in the future, as we have a greater need for usage.

How is customer service and technical support?

I never had the need to contact technical support.

How was the initial setup?

It was a straightforward setup. The deployment basically took two days. We prepared the hosts, migrated to the new hosts, turned off the old hardware and then we had one machine with all of the servers running. Previously we had five machines running the infrastructure, and now we have one.

What was our ROI?

Hyper-V is free in my case, and by purchasing Windows servers 2019, Hyper-V is already included. It provides the same operating systems for competitors that charge a lot more for the same results.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I use the free version of Hyper-V.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

VMware has a comparable solution, but their price is too expensive for my needs.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user6186

Independent Analyst and Advisory Consultant at Server StorageIO - www.storageio.com

Jan 4, 2017

Review about Microsoft Hyper-V

Happy 20th Birthday Windows Server, ready for Server 2016?

In case you have not heard, is celebrating the 20th birthday (or anniversary) of Windows Server.

has a nice site with info graphics and timelines of where Windows Server has been and accomplished over the past 20 years.

Some of you may remember from 20 years ago Windows Server with a different name aka Windows NT Server. Back in the day, if you recall (or read), server requirements were more in the 33 MHz vs. 3.3GHz range, 32MB of RAM Memory vs. 32GB to 320GB, 150MB HDD vs. 150GB SSD or 1.5TB HDD.

Keep in mind that 20 years ago Linux was a relative new thing with Red Hat not yet quite household or more specific enterprise name. The various Unix (e.g. IBM AIX, HP HP-UX, Sun Solaris, DEC Unix and Ultrix among many others) were still dominate, OS2 had peaked or close to, among others. Virtual Machines were Logical Partitions (LPAR) on Mainframes along with virtual PCs software and hardware assist boards.
IMHO there is no coincidence of Microsoft celebrating 20 years of WIndows Server going into the fall of 2016 and the upcoming release of .

What’s New in Server 2016 (TP5)?

If you have not done so, check out the latest Tech Preview 5 (TP5) of Windows (get the bits e.g. software here to try) which includes Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) that leverages internal PCIe and drive formatSSD (NVMe, SAS, SATA) along with HDDs (SAS, SATA) for creating local and scale-out converged (desegregated) and hyper-converged (aggregated) solutions. In addition to S2D there is Storage Replica (SR) which is replication of local storage part of S2D (not to be confused with DFS or other replication).

Other enhancements include ReFS as the default file system instead of NTFS (don’t worry, NTFS like FAT does not go away yet). There are enhancements to Hyper-V including VM shielding, hot-plug virtual network adapters, enhanced Linux support and fail over priorities among others. Other enhancements include updates for AD including improved integration with on-premise as well as Azure AD for hybrid environments, PowerShell updates, Docker management including Linux (via Hyper-V) and Windows via Nano) container engines.

Speaking of Nano, if you had not heard, this is a new very light weight Windows Kernel that removes 32 bit WOW and GUI support. The result is that Nano is a very small physical (under 1GB image instance size) using less disk, less memory and less CPU to do a given amount of work, oh, and boots super fast, even without SSD. By not having all the 32 bit and GUI overhead, the intent with Nano is there should be fewer updates and maintenance tasks to do, while enabling Windows containers for SQL Server and other applications.

In addition to PowerShell, AD and other management enhancements, Windows Server 2016 (TP5) also enables bridging two worlds e.g. traditional on-premise (or cloud) based Windows Server and Public Cloud (e.g. Azure) and Private or Hybrid including Azure Stack. Note that if you have not heard of Azure Stack and are looking at cloud stacks such as OpenStack, do your due diligence and at least familiarize yourself with Azure Stack.

View more about WIndows 2016 TP5 enhancements here.

Where To Learn More

Check out the Microsoft 20 years of Windows Server site here
Learn about the upcoming next version of Windows Server 2016 here
Get the Windows Server 2016 Tech Preview 5 (TP5) bits here
Cloud Storage Decision Making (looking at Microsoft Azure)
Cloud Storage Considerations (looking at Microsoft Azure)
Learn more about HDDs here, NVM and SSDs at www.thenvmeplace.com and www.thessdplace.com
Server Storage I/O performance and related tools page
Overview Review of Microsoft ReFS (Reliable File System) and resource links

What This All Means

Congratulations Microsoft and Windows Server on 20th birthday (anniversary) you have come a long way.

With the new features and functionality in Windows Server 2016, looks like there is still a good future for the software defined server.

Read more here including how to get the 2016 TP5 bits to try yourself.

Ok, nuff said, for now… cheers GS

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user79785

Director of IT with 51-200 employees

Jan 19, 2014

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Replica, Cost and Stability are very valuable but support has only been average - has proven to be hit-or-miss

What is most valuable?

There are a few features that make the product stand out:

Replica: We have Replica running in our NY & London datacenters and can (and on a couple of occasions, have) fail over servers quickly and cleanly. Failback also worked like a charm.
Cost: It’s no secret that H-V is much less expensive than VMware; we are saving many thousands a year in licensing & support. It also sets up for future costs savings as the business grows.
Stability: Since we implemented the H-V solution we have reported outstanding uptimes.

How has it helped my organization?

The prime example is the simplicity and cost savings of our new DR/BCP solution. By consolidating our two disparate corporate AD2008/VMWare domains into a single Hyper-V/AD 2012 domain we have:

Drastically reduced the complexity of the environment. NO more kludges or 3rd-party software to get systems like Exchange, Lync or AD Users conversing seamlessly.
About $150K a year in colocation costs. With our private cloud we have a built-in DR/BCP solution on existing infrastructure, no need to farm out to a colo provider.

What needs improvement?

To be determine – we will be conducting a review of the R2 release in the second quarter of 2014.

For how long have I used the solution?

We’ve had the system in place since January 2013 and it went into full production in May 2013.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Not outside the usual challenges in learning a new application. We had 4 months to design, install and run the new domain in parallel to former environments.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Outside of needing to keep the VM hosts patched (we did have an issue with a driver related to storage), no.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zero – we have a pretty robust infrastructure in place for the number of staff. Clustered DL385’s & EMC VNXe at each datacenter will allow us to scale out and up easily (we are using around 12% of capacity on the VNXe and can drop additional servers into the cluster if there’s a spike in use or we make acquisitions).

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Good.Technical Support: Average. I say that as my experience with MSFT Support in general has proven to be hit-or-miss with the first-level support. The second-level support is much better and I haven’t had to go beyond them for solutions.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had VMware/AD 2008 in place at the two companies; the US infrastructure was already built out with SAN and meshed networking so we had to play catch-up with the UK datacenter. The switch was made at the behest of the group CEO – what the boss wants the boss gets!

How was the initial setup?

Pretty straightforward without any major surprises. The online documentation written up by MSFT and the legion of fans proved to be invaluable. The setup of Replica proved to be very easy.

What about the implementation team?

Implementation was done mostly by in-house staff (2 of us) and we needed a hand from a VAR for some of the clustering setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Between the additional hardware/software and consultant costs we spent around $80K.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No – we felt the two best solutions were VMware & MSFT as we had been using VMware and had many years of experience with MSFT products.

What other advice do I have?

Do not be afraid to work $$$ into the budget in case you need assistance from a 3rd-party.
Test in parallel and do not be a hero and try to do it whole-hog at once.
Do not postpone the DR/BCP part of the project. If you are building out a new infrastructure DO THIS FIRST. We were forced to push this to the back of the project and it bit us for a few days; in the end you do what the executives say but having file/application/server/site disaster recovery is an absolute must before you migrate production data.
If you haven’t gone too far with it do a review of R2; it provides many improvements in the VM & Replica features.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user8256

Senior Manager of Infrastructure with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 2, 2013

Management Tasks for Hyper-V 2012

The Hyper-V Manager interface is used to manage standalone Hyper-V Primary, Replica servers, and the virtualized workloads running on those servers. The Failover Cluster Manager interface is used if the Primary or Replica servers are part of a Hyper-V Failover Cluster. Hyper-V Replica management tasks can be categorized as follows:
 Hyper-V Server Primary Site Management Tasks
 Hyper-V Server Replica Site Management Tasks
 Virtual Machine Primary Site Management Tasks
 Virtual Machine Replica Site Management Tasks
 Modifying Virtual Machine Replication Settings
Note: In the above list, Hyper-V Failover Cluster can be substituted for 'Hyper-V Server'.

Hyper-V Server Primary Site
Management tasks involving the Hyper-V Server at a Primary Site include:
 Ensure the Hyper-V server (Hyper-V Failover Cluster) at the Primary site is configured as a Replica server to support Reverse Replication for a Planned Failover event

To configure the Hyper-V server at the Primary site as a Replica server:
1. In the Hyper-V Manager interface, Click on Hyper-V Settings in the Actions pane
2. In the Hyper-V Settings dialog box, Click on Replication Configuration
3. In the Details pane, Select Enable this computer as a Replica server
4. Choose an Authentication method to include the port that will be used (if not using the default port)
5. Configure Authorization and storage. This includes designating a specific location to store replica virtual machine files if the default location is not to be used. Should you not desire to allow all Hyper-V Primary servers to be serviced, you have the option to allow only specific Hyper-V servers (Primary servers) to send replication requests. Click Apply or OK when finished
Note: In a Replica cluster, use the Hyper-V Replica Broker role to configure the cluster nodes for replication.

 Monitor the Replication Health of virtual machines configured for replication

To monitor the Replication Health of a virtual machine configured for replication:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, Right-click on one of the Column Headings and select Add\Remove Columns
3. Choose Replication Health in the Available Columns list, click Add to move it to the Displayed Columns list
4. Move the new column to the desired location in the listing and click OK

 Monitor Hyper-V Replica specific Performance counters using Performance Monitor

To monitor Hyper-V Replica performance:
1. Click the Start button, then click Run and type perfmon.msc and press ENTER
2. In the navigation tree, expand Monitoring Tools, and then click Performance Monitor
3. In the menu bar above the Performance Monitor graph display, either click the Add button (+) or right-click anywhere in the graph and click Add counters from the menu. The Add Counters dialog box opens
4. In the Available Counters section, select counters to view in the Performance Monitor display. The counters for Hyper-V Replica are virtual machine specific and are listed under Hyper-V F Counter VM
5. Choose the desired counters and instances (virtual machines) then click the Add button to add the counters
6. When finished, click OK
For more information Performance Monitor, visit the Performance Monitor Getting Started Guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744567(WS.10).aspx) on TechNet.

 Evaluate Hyper-V Replica log data using the Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS\Admin log

To review Hyper-V Replica log data:
1. In the Server Manager Menu Bar, Click on Tools and choose Event Viewer from the list
2. In the navigation tree, expand Application and Services Logs, expand Microsoft, expand Windows, expand Hyper-V-VMMS
3. Click on Admin
Hyper-V Replica event messages are registered in the Hyper-V-VMMS channel.

Hyper-V Server Replica Site
Management tasks involving the Hyper-V Server at a Replica Site include:
 Ensure the Hyper-V server (Hyper-V Failover Cluster) at the Replica site is configured as a Replica server
To configure the Hyper-V server at the Primary site as a Replica server:
1. In the Hyper-V Manager interface, Click on Hyper-V Settings in the Actions pane
2. In the Hyper-V Settings dialog box, Click on Replication Configuration
3. In the Details pane, Select Enable this computer as a Replica server
4. Choose an Authentication method to include the port that will be used (if not using the default port)
5. Configure Authorization and storage. This includes designating a specific location to store replica virtual machine files if the default location is not to be used. Should you not desire to allow all Hyper-V Primary servers to be serviced, you have the option to allow only specific Hyper-V servers (Primary servers) to send replication requests. Click Apply or OK when finished

Note: In a Replica cluster, use the Hyper-V Replica Broker role to configure the cluster nodes for replication.

 Monitor the Replication Health of virtual machines configured for replication

 Monitor Hyper-V Replica specific Performance counters using Performance Monitor

To monitor Hyper-V Replica performance:
1. Click the Start button, then click Run and type perfmon.msc and press ENTER
2. In the navigation tree, expand Monitoring Tools, and then click Performance Monitor
3. In the menu bar above the Performance Monitor graph display, either click the Add button (+) or right-click anywhere in the graph and click Add counters from the menu. The Add Counters dialog box opens
4. In the Available Counters section, select counters to view in the Performance Monitor display. The counters for Hyper-V Replica are virtual machine specific and are listed under Hyper-V Replica Counter VM
5. Choose the desired counters and instances (virtual machines) then click the Add button to add the counters
6. When finished, click OK
For more information Performance Monitor, visit the Performance Monitor Getting Started Guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744567(WS.10).aspx) on TechNet.

 Evaluate Hyper-V Replica log data using the Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS\Admin log

Virtual Machine - Primary Site
Management tasks involving virtual machines at the Primary Site include:
 Planned Failover - This action initiates a failover of a virtual machine from a Primary to a Replica server. This is a 'planned' event as opposed to a Failover action, which is unplanned. Since it is a 'planned' event, there should be no data loss. This action executes a series of checks prior to executing the failover. One check determines if the Primary server has also been configured as a Replica server. This is done because the assumptions are first, the virtual machine being failed over to a Replica server will eventually be moved back to the Primary server and second, the Primary server will become the Replica server for the virtual machine that is being failed over. This action provides an Administrator the flexibility to execute the failover of a virtual machine to a replica server in a controlled manner before a disaster occurs

To execute a Planned Failover for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Planned Failover
4. A list of Pre-Requisites and Actions is presented. If the Virtual Machine has not been shut down and the Primary Server not configured as a Replica Server, complete those tasks before proceeding. By default, Start the replica virtual machine after Failover is checked (uncheck if this is not the desired action for the virtual machine after a Planned Failover completes)
5. Click on the Failover button.
6. If the Failover is successful, a pop-up dialog box appears reporting the Failover completed successfully (Note: If the option to start the virtual machine after the Planned Failover was left checked, then the virtual machine will be started on the Replica server). Close the dialog box.
7. If the Planned Failover does not complete successfully, review the information contained in the General Methodology for troubleshooting the virtual machine Failover process in the troubleshooting section.

 Pause Replication - This action pauses replication for the selected virtual machine. The Replication Health column in the Hyper-V Manager interface (if selected for display) reflects a Warning Status

To Pause Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine that is not paused
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Pause Replication
4. The Replication Health, if visible, in Hyper-V Manager, will be updated and the Replication Health for the virtual machine will indicate a Warning. The State column still shows the Virtual Machine as Running
5. Right-click on the Virtual Machine, select Replication and then click on View Replication Health. The health report reflects an accurate Replication State which should be Replication Paused

 Resume Replication (Available only if replication has been paused for a virtual machine) - This action resumes replication for the selected virtual machine (the action must be executed in the same site where replication was Paused). The Hyper-V Replica Network Services component re-establishes a connection to the Replica server (if needed) and replication resumes. If the virtual machine was in a Resynch Required state, Resume Replication performs a resynchronization. A resynchronization essentially compares blocks between the Primary and Replica VHDs and then sends the delta blocks to the Replica. Scenarios where this can happen include, but may not be limited to, a failure occurred on the Primary server when changes were being made to the replication log or, if the Primary is a Failover Cluster, an unplanned cluster failover occurred. The Replication Health column in Hyper-V Manager interface (if selected for display) reflects a status of Normal

To Resume Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a paused virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Resume Replication
4. The Replication Health, if visible, in Hyper-V Manager, is updated and the Replication Health for the virtual machine is Normal

 View Replication Health - This action provides data about the replication events for a virtual machine.
A Replication Health Report can be saved as a CSV file. A Replication Health Report indicates if it is being viewed as either a Primary or a Replica virtual machine (see a sample of a Replication Health Report on a Replica virtual machine later in this guide)

To view Replication Health for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose View Replication Health
4. The Replication Health Report for the virtual machine is displayed. The report can be saved as a CSV file by clicking on Save as … Button

 Remove Replication - This action stops replication for the virtual machine. All connections for the virtual machine to the Replica server are terminated. The Replication Health in Hyper-V Manager on the Primary server, if selected for viewing, is Not Applicable. A corresponding action must be accomplished on the Replica server. Failure to execute this same action on the Replica server will result in errors should a Hyper-V Administrator attempt to re-enable replication for the virtual machine (more information is provided in the Troubleshooting section)

To Remove Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and choose Remove Replication
4. Acknowledge the pop-up Warning by clicking on Remove Replication
5. The Replication Health column, if displayed, indicates Not Applicable for the virtual machine
6. Connect to the Replica server and execute Steps 1-5. This will remove replication for the virtual machine on the Replica server and will initiate a merge for all the replica information for the virtual machine
7. The Replication Health column, if displayed, indicates Not Applicable for the virtual machine
8. Additional cleanup action is required on the Replica server. In Hyper-V Manager, Right-click on the virtual machine and choose Delete. Acknowledge the pop-up Warning by clicking on Delete. This removes the virtual machine reference in Hyper-V Manager. Some data files remain on the Replica server in the storage location specified for the replication data. To recover storage space, manually remove the data.

 Enable Replication (Available only if replication is not enabled for a virtual machine) - This action enables replication for a virtual machine

To Enable Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Enable Replication
4. Review the information in the Before You Begin screen and click Next
5. In the Specify Replica Server screen, provide the name for the Replica Server using the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or NetBIOS format. There is also the option to Browse Active Directory for the server. If the Replica Server is configured correctly, the Specify Connection Parameters screen is populated. If not, an error is registered and an option to Configure Server is available to configure the server to be a Replica Server. If data compression is not desired, Uncheck the box Compress the data that is transmitted over the network. Click Next
6. In the Choose Replication VHDs screen, ensure all disks to be replicated are Checked and then click Next (i.e. uncheck those disk you do not want replicated. An example might be a disk functioning as a repository for the virtual machine page file)
7. In the Configure Recovery History screen, select as desired. For an explanation of the options, review the section on Enabling a virtual machine for replication. Click Next
8. In the Choose Initial Replication Method screen, select as desired. For an explanation of the options, review the section on Enabling a virtual machine for replication. Click Next
9. Review the information in the Summary screen, and click Finish
Once replication has been enabled for a virtual machine, the Replication Health column, if visible, in Hyper-V Manager will be updated. Once the Initial Replication (IR) has been completed, the Replication Health for a virtual machine will be Normal.

Virtual Machine - Replica Site
Management tasks involving virtual machines at the Replica Site include:
 Failover - This action executes a process that starts a virtual machine on the Replica server using a replica (Recovery Point) selected by the Hyper-V Administrator. This is an unplanned event unlike the Planned Failover action, which is a planned event. Executing a Failover for a virtual machine could result in data loss depending on which recovery point is selected

To Failover a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Failover
4. In the next screen, choose a recovery point from the drop-down listing of all the recovery points associated with the virtual machine and then click Failover
5. The virtual machine starts and the Replication Health indicates Warning. If the Primary server remains the same, the Replication Health for the virtual machine that was recovered is also Warning. To complete the process and remove the Warnings, either Cancel Failover or configure Reverse Replication and allow Initial Replication to complete. If a new Replica Server is needed, configure Reverse Replication to the new Replica server.

 Test Failover - This action allows a Hyper-V Administrator to test a virtual machine on the Replica server without interrupting the production workload running on the Primary server. The network configuration for the test virtual machine is disconnected by default so as not to interfere with the production workload. If network connectivity is to be tested, the recommendation is to create a separate test network and connect the test virtual machine to that network. The virtual machine created and started has the same name as the original virtual machine with a modifier of Test added on to the end

To start a Test Failover for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Test Failover
4. In the next screen, choose a recovery point from the drop-down listing of all the recovery points associated with the virtual machine and then click Test Failover. A new test virtual machine is created but is not started. At this point, the virtual machine can be started and then a connection can be made to the virtual machine and a verification process can be completed

 Stop Test Failover (Available only if a test is already running for the selected virtual machine) - This action stops a test that is in progress for the selected virtual machine. The virtual machine is stopped and deleted from Hyper-V Manager (Note: If the Test Failover is being executed on a Replica cluster, the Test-Failover role that is created in Failover cluster Manager will have to be manually deleted)

To stop a Test Failover for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select the virtual machine being tested, not the test virtual machine that is running. Right-click on the virtual machine, select Replication and then choose Stop Test Failover
3. The test virtual machine is stopped if it is running and is removed from Hyper-V Manager as the test is completed

 Pause Replication - This action pauses replication for the selected virtual machine. The Replication Health column in Hyper-V Manager, if selected for viewing, indicates a Warning
To Pause Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine that is not paused
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Pause Replication
4. The Replication Health, if visible, in Hyper-V Manager, is updated and indicates a Warning

 Resume Replication (Available only if replication has been paused for a virtual machine on the Replica server) - This action resumes replication for the selected virtual machine. If a 'resynch' is required for the virtual machine, that action will be initiated on the Primary server. The Replication State column, if selected for viewing in Hyper-V Manager, indicates Replication Enabled

To View Replication Health for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose View Replication Health
4. The Replication Health Report for the virtual machine is displayed. The report can be saved as a CSV file by clicking on Save as…
 Remove Replication - If a Remove Replication action is executed on the Replica server, a corresponding action must be executed on the Primary Server. This action stops replication for the virtual machine. Prior to re-enabling replication, the virtual machine must be deleted in Hyper-V Manager on the Replica server. This destroys the virtual machine on the Replica Server. If the virtual machine is not deleted, a Replication error is reflected in Hyper-V Manager and associated error logs are registered (more information is provided in the Troubleshooting section)

To Remove Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click and select Replication and then choose Remove Replication
4. Acknowledge the pop-up Warning by clicking on Remove Replication
5. The Replication Health column, if displayed, indicates Not Applicable
6. A process will start to merge all recovery point data into the VHD that was initially replicated
7. Connect to the Primary server. In Hyper-V Manager, the virtual machine Replication Health indicates Normal
8. Execute Steps 1-5. This removes replication for the virtual machine on the Primary server
9. The Replication Health column, if displayed, now indicates Not Applicable on the Primary server. If Step 8 is not accomplished before the next 5 minute replication interval, Replication Health will indicate Critical
10. Additional cleanup action is required on the Replica server. In Hyper-V Manager, Right-click on the virtual machine and choose Delete. Acknowledge the pop-up Warning by clicking on Delete. This removes the virtual machine reference in Hyper-V Manager. Some data files remain on the Replica server in the storage location specified for the virtual machine. To recover storage space, manually remove this data

 Cancel Failover - This action is available if a Failover action was executed for a virtual machine. This allows a Hyper-V Administrator to cancel the Failover action if, for example, he decides the recovery point chosen was not the desired one. After cancelling the Failover, another recovery point can be selected and another Failover process initiated. A Failover can only be cancelled if the virtual machine state is Failed over - Waiting Completion. If a Reverse Replication has been completed, the Failover can no longer be cancelled
To Cancel Failover for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine that has a Replication Health of Warning but viewing the Health Report shows Failover Complete
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click, select Replication and then choose Cancel Failover
4. Acknowledge the pop-up Warning by clicking on Yes. On the Replica server, the virtual machine is turned off and the Replication Health indicates Normal. On the Primary server, the Replication Health shows Critical.
5. To clear the Critical health state, right-click on the virtual machine and select Replication and then choose Resume Replication

 Reverse Replication - This action is available if a Failover action was executed for a virtual machine. This allows the Hyper-V Administrator to designate a Hyper-V server as a Replica server for the virtual machine that was recovered

To enable Reverse Replication for a virtual machine:
1. Open Hyper-V Manager
2. In the details pane, select a virtual machine that has a Health of Warning
3. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click, select Replication, and then choose Remove Recovery Points. This merges all the recovery points into the original VHD. This completes Failover but Replication Health still indicates Warning
4. With the virtual machine selected, Right-click, select Reverse Replication
5. Complete the Reverse Replication wizard by either selecting the Primary server (the default) as the Replica y server or choosing another Replica server. Keep in mind that if the selected Hyper-V server has not been enabled as a Replica server and the appropriate firewall rule enabled, the Reverse Replication process will fail

 Remove Recovery Points - This action is available only during a Failover scenario. When this action is executed, all recovery points (snapshots) for a Replica virtual machine are deleted. When the action is executed, a pop-up dialog box is presented to the user indicating all recovery points will be removed and Cancel Failover will no longer be available. The user must acknowledge the pop-up by clicking either Yes or No. If Yes is selected, the Failover is committed and the recovery points are merged down into the base VHD for the virtual machine. At this point Reverse Replication can be configured to clear the Warning for Replication Health and an Initial Replication can begin to the new Replica Server

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Report as inappropriate

Oct 20, 2013

Thanks for the excellent review on Hyper-V. Just wanted to know if there is any limit of hosts on hyper-V? What external monitoring tool do you recommend for monitoring hyper-v servers?

Ahmed Gamil

PreSales Manager at UC-Solutions

Apr 8, 2021

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Stable with minimal downtime, and it has a good licensing model

Pros and Cons

"There are two very good things about this product including licensing and stability."

"It would be nice if they provided a free management console that we could use to manage all of the hosts for no additional fee."

What is our primary use case?

I am a solution provider and Hyper-V is one of the products that I implement for my customers.

What is most valuable?

There are two very good things about this product including licensing and stability.

What needs improvement?

If you have a lot of Hyper-V servers then you will need an additional product, which is the System Center Virtual Machine Manager, so that you can control the host environments of all of your virtual machines. It would be nice if they provided a free management console that we could use to manage all of the hosts for no additional fee.

There should be a way to restart the services and not the whole station, which would minimize downtime, especially when updating the operating system. This is a feature that everybody needs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started working with Hyper-V in 2012, between eight and nine years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is very stable, in particular with the most recent version of Windows Server. This is true even in a cluster environment, and I have never found an issue with stability.

Obviously, when you are using Windows Server update, it will restart the server occasionally and you will have downtime, but it will be minimal. If you don't want to have any downtime then you will need multiple hosts in a cluster environment. You can move your virtual machines from one host to another, which means that you can restart the server and not affect the service. This can be important because sometimes, the restart process takes too much time to complete.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very easy to scale Hyper-V. However, it depends on the version that you have because if you have the Standard Edition then you only have three hosts. If you want more than three hosts then you will need a Datacenter version.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have experience with VMware and one of the nice features is that you can restart a service after an update and everything goes live in seconds, rather than minutes.

These two technologies compete with each other, and in deciding which to use, I speak with users about their needs. I also speak with them about the knowledge of their technical team and the budget. These are all factors in the decision because I want to provide the best solution from both a technical and budget perspective.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. All you have to do is watch a 10-minute YouTube video and you can deploy the hardware.

It can be deployed in different ways. If you need to have a virtual environment then it will be hosted on Microsoft Azure. If instead, you have your own private cloud then it will be hosted on-premises, on your physical servers.

The tricky part about this field is not the deployment. It's troubleshooting and finding solutions for issues. For just about any software, you can deploy anything. Even if you don't understand anything about the product, you can deploy anything from scratch and there is no issue with it. The problem is figuring how to solve issues and find solutions outside of the box. Almost all Microsoft issues are solved in this way. It's not about what you find online or in the documentation. Rather, you need to think outside the box. It's the hardest part about this field.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you have the standard edition of Windows server then with each copy of the operating system, you have two virtual machines for free.

If you have a Windows Datacenter license then you have unlimited virtual machines for free. This is much better compared to ESXi or VMware, where each virtual machine requires its own license. In the Windows Datacenter, you can have as many as you want.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner