Hyper V or VMWare?

While not an expert, I am fairly familiar with VMWare. I know very little about Hyper V, but have watched @Kari videos about it. I know VMWare is easier to set up and there are some features easier to use in VMWare. What I am asking is what are the advantages/disadvantages between Hyper V and VMWare for those who have tried both. I would suspect both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I am biased to answer, I am a Hyper-V fan and do not know VMware products too well. Anyway, some features in Hyper-V I like:

• The Checkpoints, I use Standard Checkpoints exclusively, for some other users the Production Checkpoint might be better
• Perfectly working Visual Studio integration for those coding Windows Universal or mobile apps. Installing Visual Studio after the Hyper-V is set up automatically creates the Windows Mobile virtual machines for debugging
• Automatic shutdown or suspension when the host is turned off, hibernated or the current user signs off. No need to shutdown virtual machines, automatic start feature restores my virtual machines to the exact state they were when suspended when I sign in again, either immediately or after a delay set by me
• Automatic start of selected virtual machines whenever I sign in, immediately or after a delay set by me
• Ability to run simple nested virtual machines; For instance my Windows XP needs are covered by running Microsoft Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode on a Windows 7 Ultimate virtual machine running on Hyper-V on my Windows 10 host
• Dynamic RAM which really works; set Start RAM, Minimum RAM and Maximum RAM values. The vm only uses the host RAM according to its current needs. Other virtualization solutions have "kind of" dynamic memory features, too, but they do not release the unneeded RAM to the host but instead the RAM not needed at the moment can only be used by other virtual machines; In Hyper-V each vm with dynamic memory enabled, the RAM they do not need and is released will immediately be usable by the host. In screenshot an example about how little RAM a Windows 10 Pro vm needs when its idle, only downloading and installing updates:

(Click to enlarge.)

A short list, only a few points but already these points make Hyper-V my favorite.

Kari

A few questions, and I may be wrong, but I understand Hyper v is this way. The virtual switch runs the VM connection through the Host? The VM cannot 'see' the Host? You cannot install a USB and have it used by the VM. The VM can see other VM's but can it see other Drives on the Host?

essenbe said:

The virtual switch runs the VM connection through the Host?

Yes. Depending on your needs you can assign a vm an external virtual switch (full network & Internet connectivity), an internal switch (full network connectivity, no Internet) or a private switch (network connectivity only between virtual machines using the same private switch, no connection to host, no Internet).

essenbe said:

The VM cannot 'see' the Host?

Again, depending on the switch you have assigned to vm. External and Internal switches = full network connections between host and virtual machines, private = no connection to host.

essenbe said:

You cannot install a USB and have it used by the VM.

Enhanced Mode (guest w. 8 or later, Server 2012 or later, Red Hat Linux Enterprise, CentOS Linux) all host devices can be used, see below. On guests running 7 or older Windows or other than mentioned Linux the same can be achieved by using Remote Desktop Connection to connect to the vm.

essenbe said:

The VM can see other VM's but can it see other Drives on the Host?

In enhanced mode it can see everything:

The enhanced mode basically brings the best of RDP to Hyper-V.

In addition to my previous post, here's a simple explanation how the virtual switches work in host and a vm.

When you create external virtual switches, also the host starts using them. Here's the Network & Sharing Center from my host, connected to the network and Internet through Hyper-V external wired and wireless switches:

The prefix vEthernet is the revealing factor here, it tells that these two are not my physical wired and wireless adapters but virtual switches instead, using the host physical adapters for connection. For the virtual machines to get connected, all network traffic also from and to host must go through the external virtual switches.

Here's how the adapter view looks like:

1 = My real wired adapter
2 = The wired external switch I am de facto using at the moment on my host. It in its turn uses the physical wired adapter (#1)
3 = My real, physical wireless adapter
4 = A network bridge connecting the host wireless adapter (#3) to an external network switch (#5). When you create an external network switch assigning it to a wireless adapter, a network bridge will always be automatically created. As the Hyper-V virtual machines can only see and use a wired Ethernet connection, or rather a Hyper-V vm always sees all network adapters as wired not understanding the concept of wireless, a bridge is needed to present an external switch assigned to host wireless adapter as a wired connection to Hyper-V
5 = The wireless external switch which as told above uses the bridge (#4) to connect to host wireless adapter (#3)
6 = An Internal switch for Windows Mobile virtual machines, used for debugging / testing mobile code from Visual Studio

Kari

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I appreciate your extra effort, Kari. That was an excellent demonstration of what actually happens to accomplish each function you want/need.

You are welcome Steve :)