Hyper-V vs. VMware Fusion for Test Machines: Battle royal

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As a Microsoft software-using engineer I was a huge fan of Sony VAIO series. They were beautiful and very powerful but when Sony decided to stop and exit the market I contacted Sony to find out if they would still be supporting all their services, sadly the answer was no so unfortunately I switched to a Macintosh.  I say unfortunately because I was thinking that SharePoint, SQL Server or any other Microsoft software (back-end, not talking about SkyDrive, Office…) couldn’t be installed on a Macintosh.

This was my thinking until I discovered VMware Fusion. VMware Fusion is recommended for home users who are looking for the easiest, fastest and most reliable way to run Microsoft applications like SharePoint, SQL or Windows Server on a Mac.

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Virtualization extensions

Many times Virtualization Technology extensions aren’t enabled in motherboard BIOS in order to run recent OS and applications but they should be. Your PC processor and motherboard should support this feature, if they don’t, you can’t do anything to get this feature because it’s a built-in hardware feature. Modifying BIOS settings could be tricky and it is different for each type of motherboards and BIOS. With my MacBook Pro Retina 2013 I didn’t modify anything to begin with virtualization. I just downloaded the tool and began creating Virtual Machines.

Network cards

I just want a wireless connection on my Virtual Machine. Thomas Vochten already wrote an article about Hyper-V and how to get a wired or a wireless connection. All these steps aren’t useless with VMWare Fusion. No need to install an Internal/External card or to enable any feature. This entire configuration is done behind the screen (I guess) and you can surf and install the prerequisites of SharePoint without an unattendant installation. The intent of an unattended installation is to assist those who are required to perform an ‘offline’ Prerequisite Installation of SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012.

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Performance

With a highly optimised 64-bit engine and multicore processing power that makes the most effective use of the latest Intel Has well processors, Fusion 6 runs Windows and Mac applications side-by-side faster than ever. Fusion 6 leverages the Mac’s faster memory, faster SSD performance and greater power under the hood, to let you run Windows applications at incredible speeds.

VMWare Fusion is also optimised to give you the fastest performance while least impacting the power of your Mac, Fusion 6 ensures that every watt of power coming out of your Mac’s battery is used as efficiently as possible. It’s a real pleasure to have a SharePoint that runs very well. As I’m using a SSD Hard disk with a I7 processor, I don’t have any performance issue but I let you read the following great article about Hyper-V vs. VMware performance:http://packageology.com/2012/08/windows-8-hyper-v-vmware-workstation-9/

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Drag and Drop

Another disappointing point at Hyper-V was that I was unable to copy/paste or drag and drop any file from my host to Virtual Machine. In the meanwhile there was a workaround. We could install Remote Desktop Manager (great product from Microsoft and its 100% free), or create a network file sharing to transfer data. But they are still workarounds. With VMWare Fusion you don’t have any issue with drag and drop. It all works smoothly! You can read other information about copy/paste on documentation for VMware Workstation

Interact with Retina

Windows never looked so good with Retina Display optimization for a crisp and detailed experience of your Windows applications.

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Thanks to this feature you can use the “native resolution of Retina display” in your Virtual Machine and get a beautiful resolution of 2560×1600 on your MacBook Pro 13 Retina. It is particularly useful when you need huge workspace like debugging SharePoint Server and SQL Server on the same screen.

Enhanced Connectivity

Extend your Mac’s connectivity to your Windows environment and take advantage of USB 3 support for ultra-fast file transfers, SDXC card reader to import and view your photos directly in Windows and view them on an external monitor or TV using the Thunderbolt port or HDMI port of your Mac. Fusion 6 also has support for HD audio with 5.1 surround sound and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology. (USB 3 support requires Windows 8 or higher).

Pro’s / Contra’s

VMWare

Pros

    • The most popular desktop virtualization software
    • Retina Display support
    • Drag & Drop
    • Shared clipboard
    • Shared USB
    • Guest VM's can automatically change resolution when resizing application window.
    • Better networking features – built in DHCP servers, NAT, etc.

Cons

    • Is not free (+/- 70€).

Hyper-V

Pros

    • It’s a Microsoft tool (many blogpost, many forum support etc…)
    • Comes free with Windows !
    • Any other machine with the Hyper-V console can connect and manage the VMs
    • Dynamic memory allocations
    • Live Migration

Cons

    • Requires a CPU that supports SLAT. This includes most modern CPUs such as the Intel Core series (e.g. i3, i5, i7)
    • No 3D hardware acceleration.
    • No drag & drop
    • No shared clipboard functionality
    • No automatic desktop resizing or tabbed interface. However, you can connect via remote desktop and use RDCMan to get this functionality.
    • Virtual switch editor not as good as VMWare’s virtual (no built in DHCP).

References