HYPER-V advantage over VMWARE when using physical HDD's

Hi there

one HUGE advantage using HYPER-V over VMWARE is that HYPER-V can use physical disks directly (provided they are attached in the VM as SCSI - @Kari - thanks for sorting that out for me !!). This means you don't need to recover / reformat anything as the HDD's can be used "As IS".

With VMWARE although you can attach "physical Hdd's" -- again in the vm config they need to be added as SCSI devices - VMware will use its own format even though the HDD's are presented as full HDD's in the VM.

Performance wise the HYPER-V VM is superior as the I/O on the VM with native Hdd's is handled by the GUEST VM whereas with VMware when using physical HDD's the I/O is at an extra level - the HOST handles the vmdk I/0 which intercepts the GUEST I/O of the physical HDD.

For a server this is important if using a server as a VM.

My main problem though with Windows as a HOST is that it's really difficult to get Windows to run completely headless -- not surprising as it's designed as a desktop OS. I don't want too pay an absolute fortune for the latest Windows server - and using the trial ones mean re-install every 180 days which is a pain. You can switch off things like automatic update (don't want that on a Server) but sometimes you get a windows HOST prompt which suspends everything until the reply is received so you can't disconnect monitor and keyboard completely. !!

However I'm really impressed with HYPER-V -- would be good if Ms came out with a minimal host - even without a GUI which could run HYPER-V - ideally the Host should be able to run Headless.

Cheers
jimbo

Kari said:

One method to test is Disk2VHD; it creates an identical copy of your system and just might work. Worth to test, anyway.

Hyper-V - Create and Use VHD of Windows 10 with Disk2VHD - Windows 10 Forums

Hi there

I think that VMware's VMware converter tool might work as well -- V2V conversion -- although be careful when setting up the target VM options.

I think though unless you have a real "Production type VM" running lots of applications and with several users on the system daily then IMO creating a brand new VM seems the way to do it.

USB seems better supported these days - although I can't get Minidisc recorder to work -- I still need an old fashioned "XP" system for that running on vmware -- I've got a separate machine for that purpose. I can't get the passthru to load the minidisc driver on the XP system on Hyper-V.

Note I'm still new to this so I'm not giving up --it's very useful to have some spare machines lying around for doing this type of testing !!! even if the hardware is "Donkey's years old".!!

However I really am liking HYPER-V -- takes a bit of a learning curve and you really need to decide seriously what you want your VM to do.

I'd still love it if a "cut down Windows Host" could be available -- windows 2012 server (Hyper-v 2012 server) looks a possible bet for a Host -- can't afford 2016 server unfortunately).

@cereberus -- Windows activation seems OK -- but remember to UNINSTALL VMWARE tools first if going from VMware guest Windows to Hyper-V -- Digital activation should still be OK if you install your Guest on the same machine you ran the VMware machine from.

I'm messing about with some Linux VM's so activation isn't an issue here. I tested a build of W10 pro (build 1511) x-64 and it activated OK though.

Hint -- For Virtual switches if using Wifi -- add a Virtual Ethernet adaptor to the VM --saves a whole slew of connectivity problems. Ethernet protocol just works !!. Wif1 is tempremental at best -- ethernet connections always just work. Avoid also the "legacy mode" for the adapter --=I wasted 2 hours with that before deleting and using the standard create vswitch.


Cheers
jimbo