23
8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 1/23 Winning Against Xen-Based Server Products Overview Introduction Objectives The purpose of this module, Winning Against Xen-based Products, is to enable you to differentiate VMware solutions from Xen-based server virtualization products, such as from Citrix, Red Hat, Novell, Oracle, SUN, and Virtual Iron. In doing so, you will frame the customer’s vendor comparison in terms of VMware’s product advantages and company strengths, and force Xen-based server virtualization products to react by  positioning against our strengths. How would you respond? EXAMPLE Juan, a systems operations manager at one of your customer sites, has been researching Xen-based solutions to use in a server consolidation project at his company. He is concerned that VMWare may not be the best solution after his research. Juan I have been checking out Xen as a potential solution for our ongoing virtualization project. I have heard and seen some things that make me think that 21

vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 1/23

Winning Against Xen-Based Server Products

Overview

Introduction

Objectives

The purpose of this module, Winning Against Xen-based Products, is to enable you todifferentiate VMware solutions from Xen-based server virtualization products, such asfrom Citrix, Red Hat, Novell, Oracle, SUN, and Virtual Iron. In doing so, you will framethe customer’s vendor comparison in terms of VMware’s product advantages andcompany strengths, and force Xen-based server virtualization products to react by positioning against our strengths.

How would you respond?

EXAMPLE

Juan, a systems operations manager at one of your customer sites, has been researching

Xen-based solutions to use in a server consolidation project at his company. He isconcerned that VMWare may not be the best solution after his research.

Juan

● I have been checking out Xen as a potential solution for our ongoingvirtualization project. I have heard and seen some things that make me think that

21

Page 2: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 2/23

Xen-based products have closed the gap in functionality with VMware, but atlower cost.

● All six (6) of vendors that sell Xen-based products shoe a lower licensing costthan VMware. In fact, Virtual Iron says they are about 20% of the cost of 

VMware.

● Then, I found out that Xen-based products leverage paravirtualization insteadof the binary translation of VMware, and their hypervisor is 64-bit instead of onlythe 32-bit hypervisor provided by VMware. I am concerned that this means thatVMware will not perform as well as one of these products.

● When I called a Citrix representative, they told me that their XenServer 5.0 was a‘game changer’ that had caught up to VMware’s capabilities. There were about150 improvements in their latest product!

Finally, I am concerned about running our Oracle applications and databases onVMware, since it appears that Oracle won’t provide support it I run their applications on VMware.

How to Successfully Differentiate VMware

To powerfully position VMware against Xen-based vendor competitive claims, you willneed to:

● Know your competitors● Differentiate VMware solutions based on VMware’s strengths● Respond to Xen-based vendor’s claims

Know your competitors

Key Features of Xen-based Products and Pricing

Objectives

To successfully differentiate VMware you must know your competitor. In a competitivesales situation, you will need to understand that “Xen” is an umbrella term that does notrefer to a particular product. Know the lack of interoperatibility among, and the basic pricing structure of the various Xen-based products.

Meet the Xen Vendors

Xen is not a commercial product. Xen is an open source virtualization project started atthe University of Cambridge.Six companies – Citrix, Oracle, Virtual Iron, Novell, Red Hat, and SUN – have taken theopen source Xen hypervisor and made proprietary enhancements to make it into acommercial-grade product. An example of a proprietary enhancement is the paravirtualized Windows I/O drivers that each vendor creates to get acceptable Windows

21

Page 3: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 3/23

VM performance. These enhancements create interoperatibility issues. The Linux ISvendors, Novell and Red Hat, have included Xen as a feature in their commercial LinuxOperating System. A bad idea since that links the reliability of the virtualization stack tothe reliability of a general purpose operating system.

Interoperatibility Issues

By starting with Xen, all the vendors have a common element. However, the proprietaryenhancements from each vendor are made based on their target market and specificneeds.

Some of these enhancements make it back into the mainline Xen code sooner than othersand others have never made it back to the mainline code because some vendors see their  proprietary enhancements as “differentiators”. However, the end result is that none of thesix different products can interoperate with each other without some sort of a conversion.

For example, you cannot take a VM created for Red Hat and run it as-is on Virtual Iron.The Xen code has, in effect, “forked” into incompatible products among these vendors.

So when people say “Xen,” it is important to clarify to which of the six commercial  products they are referring. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and requiresdifferent tactics in a sales situation.

Multiple Choice: Interoperability

Question

Which of the following is a valid explanation for this statement: “VMs created for oneXen-based platform will not run on another Xen platform without modification.”

Answer

Each Xen vendor makes proprietary enhancements, thereby creating this incompatibility

 Note:

21

Page 4: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 4/23

The proprietary enhancements by each vendor do not always make it back to the mainlineXen code base. Therefore, the Xen code base is “forking!, resulting in incompatibilities.

Commercial Xen’s Uncertain Future

Citrix

Strongest third player – but challenged to find a server market niche

Novell

Virtualization management limited – could expand (recently acquired PlateSpin)

Oracle

Clearly focused on defending Oracle stack – but how rich will its management be?

Virtual Iron

Future requires acquisition or strong alliances

SunPossible wildcard – but attention to software business an ongoing issue

Red Hat

Shift in focus from Xen toward OS-centric KVM virtualization

21

Page 5: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 5/23

The Xen-camp is facing some major challenges. None of the six products have gainedmuch traction, even having been in the marketplace for two or three years now. At theDecember 2008 Gartner Datacenter conference, Gartner’s basic assessment was that eachof the Xen-based vendors was trying to find a niche as none was very successful in themainstream market. Citrix was stated to be the strongest among all of them, but Citrix

reported only $21.9 million in total combined XenServer and XenDesktop revenue in2008, missing its own target of $25 million. Oracle came to market with Oracle VM butits strategy is clearly to use Oracle VM to support its corporate strategy of a verticallyintegrated Oracle solution stack. No company would seriously consider Oracle VM for their broad datacenter needs as it still lacks core items like paravirtualized Windows I/Odrivers.

In addition, when Xen first came out, it appeared to be the obvious open source choicefor doing virtualization on Linux. However, KVM (kernel-based virtual machine)emerged in 2007 and was quickly adopted into the mainline Linux kernel – somethingthat Xen tried, but failed to do. The start-up that developed KVM, Qumranet, has since

 been acquired by Red Hat publicly stated that its virtualization future is with KVM. RedHat will still support Xen in its current products, but future products will focus on KVM.Because KVM is part of the Linux kernel, KVM is also gaining momentum in the Linuxdeveloper community, making Xen’s future very unclear. Currently, there are nocommercial-grade server virtualization products based on KVM.

Pricing Differences

21

Page 6: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 6/23

Different Xen-based vendors make money in different ways. Some charge for support,some for licensing, some for management, and most charge a combination of the three.

Regarding management, some vendors include the management capabilities as part of theoverall package, while others charge for it separately. Citrix, Oracle, and Virtual Iron

include some aspects of centralized virtualization management capabilities in their offerings, but many of them also charge extra to get the more advanced managementcapabilities.

As an example, Red Hat will say that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) includes basicvirtualization management. But to really get the virtualization management thatcompanies need, you will need to purchase Red Hat’s Network Satellite product atsignificant additional cost.

Some make their money by charging for support only, while others will charge a licensefee as well as for support. Regardless of whether they charge for support, licensing,

and/or management, the fact is that Xen-based solutions are not truly “free.” Each of these components will dramatically impact a customer’s deployment costs.

Pricing Example

 Novell and Red Hat provide the base virtualization as part of their Linux distributions, for which companies pay annual support. However, to get any decent virtualizationmanagement capabilities, they would need to purchase Novell Zenworks Orchestrator ($4000-6000) and Red Hat RHN Satellite ($13,000) at significant extra cost.

How to Differentiate VMware’s Strengths

 Differentiate VMWare from Microsoft by Using the 5-Point Framework 

The VMware Advantage

Five Core Areas of VMware Differentiation – Review

Most Reliable Foundation

21

Page 7: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 7/23

Here we’re talking about the hypervisor. The hypervisor is the foundation for anyvirtualization deployment – if it doesn’t work, nothing else does. And while VMwarecompetitors would like you to believe that all hypervisors are commodities, there arecritical architectural differences that will severely impact your virtual infrastructure.Make sure you select the most reliable, market-proven hypervisor – VMware ESX/ESXi

Virtual Datacenter Services

A hypervisor is just the foundation; it isn’t the whole package. It’s the services thatimpact such things as application availability, security, and scalability that fully deliver the value of virtualization. Only VMware’s solution delivers these core IT and businessservices.

Complete Virtualization Management

It is critical to have the right management tools to manage the entire virtualinfrastructure. Only VMware provides a comprehensive virtualization managementsolution to manage the entire virtual infrastructure over the complete lifecycle of the

virtual machine and increase operational cost savings.

Support for Complete IT Infrastructure

Customers need flexibility and choice in hardware, Os, and applications to efficientlymanage their business. VMware has very broad support for hardware, OS, andapplications enabling your customers to simplify their IT infrastructure and standardizeon one virtualization solution for all their workloads. Other vendors solutions can onlysupport a small subset of software, hardware, and operating systems.

Proven and Trusted Solution

Don’t just take our word for it. Tens (10) of thousands of companies have deployedVMware solutions in production and have reported significant return on investment in aslittle as six (6) to nine (9) months. In choosing VMware, customers can be assured thatthey’ll receive 100% of the benefit with 0% of the risk compared to other offerings.

The VMware Advantages over Xen-based Products

Most Reliable Foundation

A proven, most reliable & scalable hypervisor vs. I/O bottlenecks in Xen Dom0 and

dependence on general purpose OS. VMware delivers the industry’s most proven, mostreliable, most scalable hypervisor. In contrast, the Xen architecture has been shown tohave I/O scalability issues because its Domain 0 can’t keep up under heavy I/O load. Xenis also dependent on an instance of Linux running in the Domain 0, making it susceptibleto the patching and upkeep of a general purpose OS like Linux.

21

Page 8: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 8/23

Virtual Datacenter Services

Core virtual datacenter services that increase application uptime, increase business

productivity, and reduce costs vs. Xen products lacking core services. VMwaredelivers core services for the virtual datacenter today that reduce customer’s capitalexpenditure and operating costs, increases application uptime, and increase overall

 productivity. In contrast, many Xen-based products still lack core services for the virtualdatacenter that VMware has had since 2006.

Complete Virtualization Management

Complete VM lifecycle management and Disaster Recovery (DR) vs. no VM lifecycle

management or DR solution from any Xen-based vendor. VMware managementsolutions cover and automate processes for the complete VM lifecycle, including disaster recovery. In contrast, none of the Xen-based vendors offer complete VM lifecyclemanagement to the same depth as VMware’s solutions.

Support for Complete IT Infrastructure

Support for very broad set of hardware, guest OSes, & applications vs. Xen’s more

limited support. VMware supports more hardware, guest operating systems, andapplications than any of the Xen-based vendors. This broad support is significant tocustomers because it allows to maximize the investments they’ve already made in their existing hardware, operating systems, and applications. It also gives them maximumflexibility and choice for future infrastructure decisions because they will not be limited by what the virtualization solution supports.

Proven and Trusted Solution

Over 130,000 VMware customers; ROI in as little as 6-9 months vs. comparatively

few reference customers for Xen-based commercial products. VMware’sdemonstrated success in tens of thousands of production environments worldwide is thefinal proof. Customers trust their mission-critical applications to run on VMware.VMware customers also regularly report positive ROI within 6-9 months. Comparatively,the Xen vendors have far fewer reference customers running Xen broadly in their  production environments.

Multiple Choice: Assess the Ability to Differentiate using the 5-point Framework 

Question

Which of the following are true statements that differentiate VMware from Xen-based products using the 5-Point Framework?

Answer

1. Xen-based products rely on a general purpose OS, making it susceptible to the patching and upkeep of that OS

21

Page 9: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 9/23

2. Xen-based products still lack core virtual datacenter services and virtualmanagement solutions that VMware offers today.

3. Xen-based products do not have any integrated, automated disaster recoverysolution.

Note:VMware can be differentiate from Xen-based products by using the 5-Point Framework:Xen’s Dom0 creates I/O scalability bottlenecks; it relies on a general purpose OS, makingit susceptible to OS security issues.

1. Xen trying to catch up with VMware on services’ better uptime, productivity, andcost reduction.

2.  No Xen vendor has as a complete solution for VM lifecycle management anddisaster recovery.

3. Xen-based products have less hardware, guest operating systems, and applicationssupport.

4. Xen-based products have much fewer customers in production environments

compared to VMware.

Multi-VM Performance Differences

A lower VM density per Xen host means more infrastructure costs for the customer,including more server hardware, software licensing, networking infrastructure, electricity,and datacenter space.

Hardware, Guest OS, and Application Support

Citrix XenServer and Virtual Iron still trail far behind VMware in hardware and guestoperating system support.

Respond to Xen-Based Vendor’s Claims

21

Page 10: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 10/23

Commonly Heard Xen-related Claims

The following are 4 commonly heard Xen-based product claims:Claim #1: Xen-based products are lower cost than “expensive” VMware.Claim #2: In general, Xen-based products perform better than VMware ESX.Claim #3: Citrix XenServer 5.0 is a ‘game-changer’ – it has caught up to VMware on

capabilities.Claim #4:Oracle only provides support for its applications when running on Oracle VM,not on VMware.

Claim #1: Xen-based products are lower cost than VMware.

The Xen-based vendors often lead with price because their products cannot competehead-to-head with VMware on value and capabilities. They also try to associatethemselves with the open source movement, leaving the impression that this link somehow makes them less expensive.

For instance, Virtual Iron commonly claims that they deliver all or most of thefunctionality of VMware at one-fifth the cost. The impetus of their sales model is toclaim that they are cheaper than VMware.Red Hat recently started a campaign saying that customers could save more money withRed Hat over VMware, implying that VMware was too expensive. Their slogan states“Virtualize without VMware and save a lot of actual money”.How to Handle Claim #1 in a Sales Situation

● The fact Xen is open source does not mean that a product based on Xen will be“free.” Many Xen-based vendors charge significant amounts for support andmanagement, which they usually leave out of their cost comparison claims.

● Many Xen-based vendors omit the fact that they do not have all the core virtualdatacenter services that VMware delivers.

● In a virtualizes IT environment, “cost per application” is what matters since manyVMs run on one server. The Xen comparisons are still focused on cost-per-server   – the wrong metric for a virtualized environment. VMware solutions haveadvantages in memory management, driver models, and resource scheduling toenable a greater VM density per host, which results in a lower cost per applicationfor VMware’s solution.

Cost-per-Application

Cost-per-application takes into account two factors:1. The costs of required hardware infrastructure components (server, storage,

networking, power and datacenter space) and required software components(operating system, virtualization software, virtualization management software,databases). The first factor ensures that companies get a more accurate picture of their total acquisition costs to virtualize a datacenter.

21

Page 11: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 11/23

2. The number of applications that each virtualization platform can run on eachserver (virtual machine density) at an acceptable performance level. The secondfactor accounts for the many-VMs-to-one-server relationship in a virtualenvironment. Any cost comparison that does not account for either of thesefactors is incomplete.

VMware has invested significant engineering resources to ensure that its platform canachieve high VM densities, and therefore, low cost-per-application.

VMware Delivers Core Capabilities that Xen Lacks

Server Consolidation Costs

21

Page 12: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 12/23

  Note: This illustration does not account for Citrix’s 2/23/09 product announcementsregarding Citrix Essentials and making XenServer free. Citrix Essentials is required toget basic functionality like HA, and Citrix has not announced final pricing yet. However,the overarching concept of cost-per-application is still very much valid, even in light of Citrix’s recent announcements.

How VMware Achieves Higher VM Density

VMware’s platform has unique features and technologies that allow it to run manyapplications per host (physical server) and thereby achieve a higher VM density thanother offerings. The most significant reasons why VMware’s platform can enable ahigher VM density include the following:

Memory overcommit – VMware ESX makes more efficient use or RAM by reclaimingidle memory and sharing identical memory pages among VMs on a host.

Direct driver model – VMware optimizes device drivers for virtualization and places

them directly in ESX. Other hypervisors, instead, use an indirect driver model by whichgeneric device drivers are located in a separate partition (Parent Partition or Domain0).This architecture forces VMs to fight over resources in the Parent Partition (or Domain0)creating an I/O bottleneck that limits the number of VMs that a host can run. On the other hand, VMware’s platform gives VMs direct and fast access to the hardware via drivers inthe hypervisor and allows it to reach higher VM density before hitting any performancedegradation.

High performance scheduler – VMware designed and optimized the ESX scheduler tohandle the workload of many concurrently running VMs. Other vendor’s hypervisors,instead, use the process scheduler of general purpose operating systems, which is not  built for virtualization and therefore hits performance limits when running a lower number of VMs than ESX.

Large memory pages and nested page tables support – ESX supports large memory pagesand nested page tables to optimize memory access and can provide substantial  performance benefits on mission-critical. Intensive applications such as an Oracledatabase.

DRS with resource pools – Thanks to automated load balancing capabilities of DRS,VMware’s platform can dynamically allocate resources to the application that needs themthe most. Allocation of resources happens automatically and without servicediscontinuity. This minimizes the spare capacity that needs to be pre-allocated tomaintain performance during spikes in application workload and allows to increase thenumber of applications run on a given pool of resources.

 No other offering delivers this total set of technologies that increase VM density andlower the cost per application.

21

Page 13: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 13/23

Rebuttals (Simulated Dialog)

Xen: Our Xen-based solution is based on an open source product so it delivers the samefunctionality at a much lower cost.

VMware: Xen….are commercial products based on an open source. Does not mean theyare lower cost. Charge for support, licensing, and management software.

Xen: that may be true, but even with the costs for support, licensing, and management,Xen products still cost less than VMware.

VMware: you’re only looking at upfront licensing and support costs. In a virtualdatacenter, it is cost-per-application that matters. VMware is lowest.

Xen: Prove it

VMware: achieves higher VM density. From better memory management, driver model,resource scheduling, and other technologies. That the Xen-based products don’t have.

Question

Which one of the following is a recommend response to Xen-based vendors claim thattheir products cost less than VMware’s solution?

Answer

VMware’s solution have advantages in memory management, driver models, andresource scheduling to enable a greater VM density per host, which results in a lower cost per application than Xen offerings.

Claim #2 – Xen-based Products Perform Better than VMware ESX

Xen-based vendors try to make a gross generalization that they perform better thanVMware. They typically base this claim on three things.

1. They claim that paravirtualization is key to better performance on Linux.2. Further, they state that Xen has better support for CPU hardware-assist than

VMware.3. Finally, they point out that Xen’s hypervisor is 64-bit, while ESX 3.5 is still

“only” 32-bit, implying better performance for their hypervisor.

How to Handle Claim #2 in a Sales Situation

21

Page 14: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 14/23

The reality of these claims is simple: Xen’s arguments are outdated or simply notsupported by any real test data.ESX 3.5 does indeed support Linux paravirtualization with VMI/paravirt_ops. The performance benefits of VMware’s Linux paravirtualization can be found atwww.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1038

ESX 3.5 fully supports both first and second generation CPU hardware-assist. This is anoutdated argument from Xen-based vendors.

Finally, Xen vendors have never proven (with data) that its 64-bit hypervisor broadly performs better than ESX 3.5 on today’s workload. In fact, XenSource (before it wasacquired by Citrix) published a performance paper where it was not faster than ESX inmany of the tests. ESX also supports 64-bit guest Oss so the Xen hypervisor has noadvantage in this regard either.

CPU Hardware-Assist in VMware

To further expand on the CPU hardware-assist support, you should understand problemssolved by the first and second generations of this technology and VMware’s support.

First Generation Hardware Assist Support

Assist with instruction virtualization only. Memory virtualization is still emulated insoftware.Performance gains are workload dependent.VMware’s binary translation is mostly faster than this generation of hardware-assist. Xendoes not have binary translation so must use hardware assist.VMware ESX today supports first generation hardware support to give users the optionof using it or not. Xen’s claims were based on the fact that VMware previously did not provide this option. It is now a moot point.

Second Generation Hardware Assist Support

Assists in reducing the memory overhead of virtualization – moves memory translationsfrom software to hardware for better performance.Requires nontrivial optimizations in monitor and kernel to see performance gainsVMware ESX today supports second generation and seeing significant improvements inmemory intensive applications.Most Xen-based vendors don’t yet support second generation. Some who do are gettinglow performance gains due to poor monitor and kernel tuning.

Rebuttals

Xen: When it comes to VM performance, paravirtualization is the key to better  performance on Linux. This function is not included in VMware.

VMware: Actually, ESX 3.5 supports Linux paravirtualization.

21

Page 15: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 15/23

Xen: But VMware relies on slow software emulation instead of CPU hardware-assist.Xen takes advantage of CPU hardware assist to get better performance.

VMware: VMware supports both 1st. and 2nd generation hardware-assist technology. Infact, VMware supported 2nd generation before any Xen vendor.

Xen: what about VMware’s binary translation – the slow software emulation? Doesn’tVMware still use that?

VMware: provide choice to customers. Can run BT, first-gen or second-gen HW assist.Whichever performs better. Does Xen support large memory page tables, 255 GBs of virtual memory?

VMware: How well does Xen scale when many VMs are running on one host? Linear scaling like that VMware ESX delivers? Key in a virtual environment.

QuestionWhich one of the following is a recommend response to Xen-based vendor’s claim thattheir products perform better than VMware?

Answer

This claim is based on outdated information. VMware provides the performance featuresfound in Xen-based products and has performance capabilities missing in commercialXen products.

Note:

VMware supports the performance features most often cited by Xen Vendors –  paravirtualization and CPU hardware-assist – and commercial Xen products lacks corecapabilities like large memory page tables and 255 GBs of virtual memory support per VM.Claim #3 – Citrix XenServer 5.0 is a ‘Game-changer’Citing 150 new improvements, that brings their product up to the level of VMware’s platform.

How to Handle Claim #3 in a Sales Situation

There are several key points to use in response in a sales situation. Consider the followingfacts:Most of the 150 improvements represent very little that is new or significant, and thehandful or any substance represent capabilities that VMware has had for several years.

For instance, two of the main 5.0 features that Citrix touts are high availability (HA) for restarting VMs and integrated physical-to-virtual (P2V) capabilities. VMware has hadHA and P2V since 2006 and earlier, and Citrix’s P2V has severe limitations like no “liveP2V of a running physical server. Neither are “game-changers”.

21

Page 16: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 16/23

Citrix also likes talk about VM-level fault tolerance (FT) in XenServer. What they fail tomention is that VM-level FT was not available at 5.0 launch and won’t ship until firsthalf of 2009. they were selling a feature that was not yet available!.

The bottom line is that Citrix XenServer 5.0 is hardly a game-changer. It tries to closesome key gaps with VMware but still trails far behind with its lack of core capabilities.5.0 did not gain much market traction and that is why Citrix decided to make XenServer available for free – a last ditch attempt to boost market adoption.

Overview of Citrix XenServer

Citrix XenServer lacks memory overcommit. Therefore, it runs fewer concurrent virtualmachines per host compared to VMware ESX. This lower virtual machine density per shot results in customers needing to buy more hardware and operating system licenses.

In addition, XenServer’s memory support limits are significantly lower than VMware

ESX’s maximum limits. XenServer only supports up to 32 GB RAM per VM (comparedto ESX 3.5 at 64 GB) and only 128 GB RAM per host (compared to ESX 3.5 at 256

GB). These lower memory support limits restrict XenServer’s ability to effectively runmemory-intensive workloads.

In Feb 2009, Citrix announced that it would start giving XenServer away for free. Thefree product includes XenMotion and XenCenter. However, Citrix will now charge for anew management product called Citrix Essentials, ranging from $1500 to $5000 per host.Core functionality, like HA, is only available in Essentials. Basically, Citrix has shiftedthe cost from XenServer to Essentials. Customers will end up paying a comparable or higher amount to get a working solution from Citrix.

Resource Pools

XenServer resource pools are nothing like VMware Infrastructure resource pools.VMware Infrastructure resource pools allow companies to carve out logical sets of CPUand memory resources from a cluster of servers and assign each pool to a specific business group. VMware Infrastructure does all of the behind-the-scenes management toensure that each business group gets their allocated resources without disrupting other groups. XenServer resource pools are just batch configuration pools for network andstorage settings. It allows an IT admin to have a network or storage configuration change be automatically applied to a set of XenServer hosts. The fact that Citrix chose to call itsfeature “resource pools” is one example of a confusing marketing tactic.

21

Page 17: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 17/23

System Level Fault Tolerance

Citrix markets that XenServer 5 has system-level fault tolerance. However, according toCitrix’s web site, this feature (called Marathon everRun VM with Lockstep technology)will not be available until Q209. This is what Citrix calls “level 3” protection. What isavailable today is only HA and component-level fault tolerance. At the time of this

module’s publication, Citrix has not specified which edition of Citrix Essentials will berequired to get system level fault tolerance functionality.

Dynamic Provisioning

Citrix heavily markets the ability for its Provisioning Server to remotely provision anoperating system image to a virtual machine or physical server. At the time of thismodule’s publication, it appears that Provisioning Server functionality is only availableas part of Citrix Essentials Platinum Edition, which costs $5000 per host.

XenServer Still Trails VMware Infrastructure

Citrix XenServer 5.0 still has significant gaps compared to VMware’s platform. One,

regarding security of the XenCenter console. The other five (5) areas are shown here.XenServer its now free. Companies looking to evaluate XenServer need to know aboutthese gaps.

1. Lack of memory overcommit support

Severely limits scalability

The lack of memory overcommit means that XenServer runs fewer concurrent virtualmachines per host compared to VMware ESX. This lower virtual machine density per host results in customers needing to buy more hardware and operating system licenses.

2. No hot VM backups, no LAN-free backups

Backups, also called exports, can only be done while VMs are offline. The entire virtualdisk is backed up over the network to the local system where XenCenter is running.

3. No guest customization features for automating VM provisioning

XenServer has no guest customization when creating VMs from templates. This meansthat Sysprep of Windows guests must be done manually before the template is created.Template creation is one-way process, meaning that it converts a normal VM into atemplate without the ability to change it back to the original state.

4. No true host resource pools, no pool hierarchies

As mentioned before, XenServer does not have true resource pools. XenServer host poolsonly share network and storage configurations.

5. Limited to <4 host NICs due to high networking CPU usage

The 1 vCPU of XenServer’s Domain 0 causes it to effectively max out on CPU resourcesat about 4 physical NICs per XenServer host. This clearly shows the I/O bottleneck of XenServer’s Domain 0.

21

Page 18: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 18/23

XenCenter Security IssueCitrix’s centralized management tool, XenCenter, grants any XenCenter user  root

access to all XenServer hosts. This is a major security issue!.

With XenCenter it is all or nothing. Any user that logs into XenCenter not only has fullaccess to all virtual management capabilities, BUT they will also have root access toALL XenServers being managed! XenCenter does not have the ability to define differentadministrative roles with different levels of access. For all but the smallest organizations,this is a show-stopper.

Rebuttals

Citrix: VMware was far ahead of Citrix XenServer, but that has all changed with therelease of version 5.0. It truly is a game changer in the virtualization space.

VMware: XenServer 5.0 is still playing catch-up to VMware. It is not a “game-changer”.

Citrix: XenServer 5.0 has 150 new improvements. Up to par with VMware. At a lower cost. Has high availability, P2V, and VM-level fault tolerance to name a few.

21

Page 19: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 19/23

VMware: most of XenServer’s “150 improvements” are minimal. The fewimprovements you mentioned, like HA and P2V, still trail VMware.

Citrix: Our high-availability does what VMware HA does and we have P2V just like

VMware. What do you mean they are still behind?

VMware: Xen’s Ha restarts VMs only when the entire host fails. VMware HA handleindividual VM failures. Xen’s P2V can’t even handle a “live P2V”.

Citrix: well, we had fault tolerance before VMware.

VMware: confusing people. No VM-level fault tolerance until 6+ months after Xenserver launch. Citrix made it sound like VM-level fault tolerance was available atlaunch.

Citrix: Still, when you compare costs, Citrix XenServer is a better deal. In fact, we justmade it free. How can you beat that?

VMware: XenServer runs fewer VMs. Due to its lack of key technologies like memoryoversubscription. VMware delivers lower cost per application. XenServer showstopper.

Question

Which one of the following is a recommended response to Citrix’s claim that XenServer 5.0 is a “game-changer?”

Answer

Even with a free price tag, XenServer still delivers far less value than VMware. Plus,Citrix has moved lots of core capabilities into Citrix Essentials, which they will changefor. VMware still delivers the best value.

Claim #4 – Oracle only Provides Support for its Applications Running on Oracle

VM

Oracle’s Sales Position

There have been reports that Oracle sales teams have been telling companies that Oracle provides no support for Oracle applications or databases if run on VMware.

21

Page 20: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 20/23

How to Handle Claim #4 in a Sales SituationObviously, a total lack of support by a major vendor would be of concern. The followingfacts should help you in a sales situation:

Stated simply: Oracle is supported on VMware. In fact, the Oracle support policy

concerning VMware has not changed in almost THREE YEARS! Oracle Metalink (MyOracleSupport) 249212.1 is the definitive document that clarifies support for VMware, but it is not accessible from Oracle’s public Web site.

Since this information on VMware support can be viewed only by registered customersthrough Oracle’s proprietary “Metalink ” or other Oracle-based system, the Oracle salesteam can use this lack of understanding to scare customers and prospects away fromVMware.

Remember: Oracle SUPPORT is not the SAME as ORACLE SALES!!!!!

Oracle Support ClarifiedOracle Metalink 249212.1 says that Oracle will support its products running on VMware,in the following manner:

● Oracle will provide support for issues that are known to occur on anative/physical OS instance. Since VMware does not modify the guest OS, the bugs customers are finding are going to be seen on a native OS.

● Issues that can be demonstrated not to be as a result of running on VMware.VMware has not been at fault in the Oracle space to date. If found that VMware isthe cause of the problem, then VMware support will assist customers with theissue.

A customer or prospect may say at this point, “If my bug hasn’t been seen before on physical system, I’ll be stuck!” While this is a legitimate concern, VMware has not had asingle report of Oracle denying a support call on this basis since we began tracking this inearly 2007.

Support for Oracle VM - Oracle’s Virtualization Product

Oracle does certify all of its products on Oracle VM. This is a higher level of supportthan what’s available for VMware. Certification is a guarantee that Oracle will resolveany issue, including ultimate root-cause analysis of bugs, known or unkown. Whencustomers have issues with Oracle VM, at least they’ll have a guarantee of Oracleowning the problem. It is one of the ways that Oracle is using to allay people’s fearsabout using Oracle VM, given that it is a first-generation, unproven product.With VMware, to date, no documented bug has been found when running Oracle onVMware that is attributed to VMware. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but in over two years of tracking, no issues have been found where VMware engineering support wasrequired.

21

Page 21: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 21/23

Oracle support is committed to taking bugs and doing their best to resolve them – and thehave done so far that same 2+ year period. It just needs to be noted that customers cannotexpect Oracle to do the root-cause analysis of non-Oracle products, such as VMware,under this support structure.

RebuttalsOracle: VMware may be great for other applications, but if you are virtualizing an Oracledatabase or application, Oracle will not provide any support for VMware.

VMware: So, have you called Oracle support yourself to verify this information? Thesales team may be saying this, but Oracle Metalink 249212.1 says something verydifferent.

Oracle: What do you mean? OracleVM is the only certified virtualization platform for Oracle databases and applications. Therefore, there’s no support for VMware, right?

VMware: difference between certification and support. Oracle Metalink 249212.1 clearlystates the conditions under which Oracle will provide support for VMware.

Oracle:What are those conditions?

VMware: First, Oracle will provide for issues that are known to occur on native/physicalOS instances. Second, issues that are not a result of running on VMware.

Oracle: that still sounds risky.

VMware: VMware has not been at fault in the Oracle space to date. If found thatVMware is the cause of the problem, then VMware support will assist customers with theissue.

Oracle: but why wouldn’t I just run on Oracle VM and avoid the risk all together?

VMware: major sacrifices with Oracle VM. Unproven and lacks many core virtualizationcapabilities. Resulting in higher capital and operational expenses.

Question

21

Page 22: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 22/23

Which one of the following is a recommended response to the claim that Oracle does notsupport its products on VMware?

Answer:

Oracle does support its products on VMware. This policy has been in place for over 2years and has not changed.

Note:

Per Oracle Metalink 249212.1, Oracle supports Oracle products running on VMware, inthe following manner: Oracle will provide support for issues that are known to occur on anative/physical OS instance or issues that can be demonstrated not to be as a result of running on VMware.

Role-Play: Bringing it all Together

QuestionThis past week, I have been researching Xen. It appears that all six vendors are lessexpensive than VMware, with some only a fraction of the cost. You realize that my budget is under scrutiny, and it seems that maybe we can save some money with someoneelse.

Answer

We hear that from many places quite frequently. What they don’t tell you is that in avirtualized IT environment, cost-per-application is what matters since many virtualmachines run on one server. Here are a couple of charts showing VMware’s cost-per-application advantage over Xen products.

Note:Its important for customers to understand the true costs in terms of cost-per-application,which includes cost of hardware, software, infrastructure, power and cooling costs.Having addressed the customer’s cost concern, you can now sell the rest of VMware’svalue.

Question

As you know, we are trying to maximize our performance with our current plans. I’veseen several statements regarding the fact that Xen-based products perform better thanVMware. In particular, the 64-bit hypervisor in Xen seems to be of interest.

Answer

Xen’s claims are based on misinformation. They try to point to Xen’s support for  paravirtualization, CPU hardware-assist, and a 64-bit hypervisor as the core tenets of their claims. VMware ESX has all of those. What Xen fails to say is that they actually

21

Page 23: vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

8/9/2019 vCAModule3 Winning Against Xen Based Server Products

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vcamodule3-winning-against-xen-based-server-products 23/23

lack other performance capabilities that VMware supports, such as large memory pagesand support for 255 GBs of virtual memory per VM.

Note:Its important to point out the fact that these statements are out of date and not supported

  by data. Vmware continues to outperform competitors under typical datacenter workloads.

Question

As you know, we are an Oracle shop. My management is very concerned that our Oraclesales representative told us that Oracle will not support their products on VMware. Infact, Oracle VM is the only certified virtualization platform products.

Answer

This is a misleading statement. Oracle is supported on VMware, and I can show you thedocument that states this support. It has not changed for over two years. In addition,

VMware stands ready to assist if our product is ever the source of the problem

Note

Oracle is supported on VMware, and there is a document to prove it (Oracle Metalink 249212.1). oracle had to “certify” Oracle VM – it is one of the few ways to enticecustomers to deploy this unproven virtualization product from Oracle. Remember todifferentiate Oracle Sales from Oracle Support.

21