Hyper-V, VMware, VirtualBox Feature Comparison
Below is a feature comparison of modern hypervisor platforms, such as Hyper-V, VMware, VirtualBox and others:
| Name | Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest | USB support | GUI | Live memory allocation | Snapshots per VM | Snapshot of running system | Live migration | Shared folders | Shared clipboard | PCI pass-through | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KVM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| User Mode Linux | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | N/A | ||||
| DosBox | No | No | SVN builds only | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Oracle VirtualBox (formerly OSE, GPLv2) | Yes | USB 1.1 only | Yes | Yes | Yes branched | Yes | Yes | No | No | Linux only | |
| Oracle VirtualBox with Extension Pack and Guest Additions (PUEL) | Yes | USB 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes branched | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Linux only | |
| Oracle VM Server for SPARC | Yes | USB 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Guest PC | No | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | N/A | |
| OKL4 Microvisor | Yes | Yes | VMs only | Yes | No | Static assignment | |||||
| Virtual Iron 4.2 | Yes | ||||||||||
| Virtual PC 2007 | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Windows Virtual PC | No | partially | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||||
| VirtualPC 7 for Mac | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | |||||
| Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 | Yes | Partial support over remote desktop connections | Yes | Yes | branched | Yes | Yes | No | |||
| Virtuozzo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| VMware ESX Server 3.0 atp | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | ||||||
| VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 | Yes | No | |||||||||
| VMware ESX Server 4.0 (vSphere) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| VMware Fusion 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |||||
| VMware Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| VMware Workstation 5.5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes branched | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| VMware Workstation 6.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes branched | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| VMware Workstation 7.0 and 8.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes branched | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| VMware Player | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | ||
| Wind River hypervisor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||||||
| Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform | Yes | ||||||||||
| Xen | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| z/VM | Yes | Not applicable | Yes (zURM/HMC) | Yes | Yes (2011) | Not applicable | Not applicable | ||||
| z LPARs | Yes | Not applicable | Yes (HMC) | Yes | Yes (2007) | Not applicable | Not applicable | ||||
| Zones | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||||
| Name | Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest | USB | GUI | Live memory allocation | Snapshots per VM | Snapshot of running system | Live migration | Shared folders | Shared clipboard | PCI passthrough |
- Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 have limited support for redirecting the USB protocol over RDP using RemoteFX.
- Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 adds accelerated graphics support for certain editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 using RemoteFX.
Sources
Company Websites and Wikipedia
Backup Software Overview
Server Backup SoftwareDownload BackupChain
Cloud Backup
Backup VMware Workstation
Backup FTP
Backup VirtualBox
Backup File Server
Hyper-V Backup
Backup Hyper-VPopular
- Hyper-V Links, Guides, Tutorials & Comparisons
- Veeam Alternative
- How to Back up Cluster Shared Volumes
- DriveMaker: Map FTP, SFTP, S3 Site to a Drive Letter (Freeware)
Resources
- Free Hyper-V Server
- Remote Desktop Services Blog
- SCDPM Blog
- SCOM Blog
- V4 Articles
- Knowledge Base
- FAQ
- Archive 2024
- Archive 2022
- Archive 2021
- Archive 2020
- Archive 2018
- Archive 2017
- Archive 2016
- Archive 2015
- Archive 2014
- Archive 2013
- Hyper-V Scripts in PowerShell
- FastNeuron
- BackupChain (Greek)
- BackupChain (Deutsch)
- BackupChain (Spanish)
- BackupChain (French)
- BackupChain (Dutch)
- BackupChain (Italian)
Backup Software List
BackupChain
Veeam
Unitrends
Symantec Backup Exec
BackupAssist
Acronis
Zetta
Altaro
Windows Server Backup
Microsoft DPM
Ahsay
CommVault
IBM
Other Backup How-To Guides
- How to Delete VSS Shadows or Snapshots
- Free Disk2VHD Hyper-V VHDX Physical to Virtual Conversion P2V
- Hyper-V Backup for Cluster Shared Volumes
- Resolving VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE Backup Errors
- VMware Scheduled Snapshot Creation in a Task, Fully Automated
- How to fix: could not create backup checkpoint for virtual machine
- Destination Path Too Long Fixed: Freeware Tool Deletes Long Path
- Disaster Recovery Strategies and Recovery Objectives
- New: Backup Software Comparison and List
- Veeam Alternative for Hyper-V Backup
- How to fix: Selected writer ‘Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer’ is in failed state, VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_PREPARE_SNAPSHOT
- Cloud Backup Hyper-V Virtual Machines over the Internet
- Best Free Network Attached Storage for Files, Hyper-V, and Backups
- Is My Hard Drive Failing? Signs of Hard Drive Failure
- Hyper-V Files, Formats, Snapshots, and Checkpoints Explained
- What are Hyper-V Checkpoints, Snapshots, and VSS?
- How to fix error CLSID {463948d2-035d-4d1d-9bfc-473fece07dab} Access Denied
- Hyper-V Manager: Scheduled Snapshot and Checkpoint Creation
- How to Convert VHD Files to VHDX Disks in Hyper-V
- Hyper-V Server 2008 R2: Important Hotfixes and Updates