Help Me Choose a Hypervisor
I was researching Dell’s latest announcement, Dell Unveils Virtualization Blockbuster – From Servers and Storage to Software and Services and trying to find definitive proof of the $99 price for embedded ESXi or the $299 price for embedded Citrix XenServer Express as reported by virtualization.info. Although I did not find the pricing in the announcement, I was able to find it by going through the process of using the Dell Online Store to build a R805 server. By clicking the green “customize it” button I was eventually able to see the Optional Virtualization Offerings section with the pricing for the embedded hypervisors. See the screenshot to the right. (click for larger view)What surprised me during this process was the “Help me Choose” link in this section. Clicking that link took me to a Help Me Choose: Hypervisor page from Dell that is basically accurate and helpful for comparing high level features of ESX 3.5, ESXi, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.
Here is a screenshot of the comparison table from Dell’s page.
on May 9th, 2008 at 6:52 am
We have the latest Citrix version installed on our FC SAN.
on May 12th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Yes, Citrix Xen 4.1 supports fiber channel. Maybe the embedded version from Dell doesn’t support FC? I think I read this somewhere.
on May 13th, 2008 at 5:50 am
The embedded versions Dell is offering is XenServer Express or XenServer Enterprise. An Express host is limited to 2 CPU sockets, 4GB ram, only 4 VMs, and dedicated, direct attached storage. Enterprise is unlimited and can use shared storage. You can see the different versions at http://www.citrixxenserver.com/products/Pages/myproducts.aspx
on May 13th, 2008 at 7:31 am
[…] Help Me Choose a Hypervisor […]
on May 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
[…] for the embedded hypervisor offerings just last week, and surprise, ESXi is the cheapest option! For $99 extra you can order new hardware pre-installed with the VMware hypervisor. Assuming all hardware manufacturers follow with similar competitive pricing, don’t be […]