Executive Summary:
Virtualization is a fast-growing market, and the good news is that you can build your virtual machines (VMs) and manage your environment with free software. See how VMware and Microsoft products stack up against lesser-known virtualization products such as VirtualBox, QEMO, and Oracle VM.
|
You like free software, right? Virtualization is one of
the fastest growing technologies, and one of the
key driving factors behind its growth is the fact
that many of today’s premier virtualization products are
free. This lets organizations use virtualization for many
different scenarios without spending a lot of money. Let’s
look at the 10 best free virtualization products that work
with Windows.
10. VMware Player—VMware Player doesn’t let you create new virtual
machines (VMs). However, it runs on
both Linux and Windows hosts, and
can run both VMware and Microsoft VM images. VMware
Player is also the basis for VMware’s thriving Virtual Appliance
Marketplace. You can download VMware Player
from www.vmware.com/download/player.
9. Xen—Xen is an open-source, hypervisor-based
virtualization product. You load Xen from a
Linux host, and the latest releases support
both Windows and Linux guests. Xen-enabled
Linux systems can also run under Microsoft’s Hyper-V
virtualization, taking full advantage of the new high performance
VMBus architecture. You can download Xen
from www.xen.org/download.
8. VirtualBox—VirtualBox runs on Windows,
Linux, and Macintosh hosts, and can run Windows
Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows
NT, and many Linux versions as guests.
VirtualBox comes in both a commercial and a free version.
VirtualBox VMs provide audio, USB, and iSCSI support.
You can find VirtualBox at www.virtualbox.org.
7. QEMU—A bit different from the other virtualization
products listed, QEMU is a processor
emulator. QEMU isn’t an open-source project,
but it is free software and is utilized by a number
of other products, including VirtualBox and Win4Lin.
Its system-emulation mode provides basic support for
Windows guests as well as DOS, Linux, and BSD. QEMU
is found at fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/about.html.
6. Oracle VM—Not to be left out of the burgeoning
virtualization market, Oracle began providing
a free Xen variant in late 2007. You manage
Oracle VM with a browser-based management
console. Although the Oracle VM software is free, Oracle
charges for support. You can download Oracle VM at www.oracle.com/technologies/virtualization/index.html.
5. Virtual Iron Single Server Edition—Best known
for its virtual infrastructure management capabilities,
Virtual Iron also offers Single Server
Edition, a free, limited-feature version of its
enterprise-class virtualization product. The free version
can run no more than 12 VMs and supports a maximum
Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) import or export size
of 18GB. You can get the Virtual Iron Single Server Edition
from www.virtualiron.com/products.
4. Microsoft Virtual PC 2007—Virtual PC 2007
is Microsoft’s desktop virtualization product.
It has host and guest support for Windows
Vista. It also supports multiple monitors, x64
host hardware, and hardware-assisted virtualization.
You can download Virtual PC 2007 from www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc.
3. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2—Microsoft’s
primary virtualization offering for Windows
Server 2003 hosts, Virtual Server 2005 R2 is
designed for production server virtualization
tasks. It provides 64-bit host support but no support for
64-bit guests. Virtual Server 2005 R2 supports Windows
Server guests as well as the popular enterprise Linux OSs.
You can download Virtual Server 2005 R2 from www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6dba2278-b022-4f56-af96-7b95975db13b.
2. VMware Server—VMware Server runs on both
Windows and Linux, and it provides 32-bit and
64-bit support for hosts and guests. VMware
Server 2.0, currently in beta, also has experimental
support for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Its
VM’s have audio and USB guest support as well as support
for snapshots. You can get VMware Server at www.vmware.com/download/server.
1. Microsoft Hyper-V Server—Hyper-V Server, as a standalone,
costs $29. However, it’s bundled with certain
editions of Windows Server 2008, making it essentially
free for Server 2008 customers. Hyper-V uses modern
hypervisor-based architecture. It requires an x64
processor with hardware-assisted virtualization, and
can run Windows and Linux guests. You can download
the Hyper-V beta as part of Server 2008 RC1 at www.microsoft.com.nsatc.net/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8F22F69E-D1AF-49F0-8236-2B742B354919.