Comparison of platform virtual machines

Platform virtual machines are software packages which emulate the whole physical computer machine, often giving multiple virtual machines on one physical platform. The table below compares basic information about platform virtual machine (VM) packages.

Contents

• 1 General


• 2 Features


• 3 Other features


• 4 Restrictions


• 5 See also


• 6 References


• 7 External links

General

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Name	Creator	Host CPU	Guest CPU	Host OS(s)	Guest OS(s)	License
Bochs	Kevin Lawton	Any	x86, x86-64	Windows, Linux, Unix/X11, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, BeOS, MorphOS, OS/2[1][2]	Windows, Linux, DOS, BSD, OS/2	LGPL
Containers, or Zones	Sun Microsystems	x86, x86-64, SPARC (portable: not tied to hardware)	Same as host	Solaris 10, Solaris 11 Express, OpenSolaris 2009.06	Solaris (8, 9, 10, 11), Linux (BrandZ)	CDDL
Cooperative Linux (coLinux)	Dan Aloni, other developers	x86[3]	Same as host	Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista[3]	Linux	GPL version 2
Denali	University of Washington	x86	x86	Denali	Ilwaco, NetBSD	?
DOSBox	Peter Veenstra, Sjoerd, community help	Any	x86	Linux, Windows, Mac OS classic, Mac OS X, BeOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, QNX, IRIX, MorphOS, AmigaOS, Maemo, Symbian	Internally emulated DOS shell; classic PC booter games, unofficially Windows 1.0 to 3.11	GPL
DOSEMU	Community project	x86, x86-64	x86	Linux	DOS	GPL version 2
FreeBSD Jail	FreeBSD	Any running FreeBSD	Any running FreeBSD	FreeBSD	FreeBSD, Linux ABI	BSD
GXemul	Anders Gavare	Any	ARM, MIPS, M88K, PowerPC, SuperH	Unix-like	NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Ultrix, Sprite	BSD
Hercules	Begun by Roger Bowler, as of 2011 maintained by Jay Maynard	Any	z/Architecture	Unix-like	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, OS/360, DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, TSS/370	QPL
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2	Microsoft	x86-64 + hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V)	x86-64, x86 (up to 8 physical CPUs)	Windows 2008 w/Hyper-V Role, Windows Hyper-V Server	supported drivers for Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux (SUSE 10 released, more announced)	Proprietary
iCore Virtual Accounts	iCore Software	x86	x86	Windows XP	Windows XP	Proprietary
Integrity Virtual Machines	Hewlett-Packard	IA-64	IA-64	HP-UX	HP-UX, Windows, Linux (OpenVMS announced)	Proprietary
JPC (Virtual Machine)	Oxford University	Any running the Java Virtual Machine	x86	Java Virtual Machine	DOS, Linux, Windows up to 3.0	GPL version 2
KVM	Qumranet [7]	x86, x86-64, IA-64, with x86 virtualization, s390, PowerPC (see restrictions, e.g., no PowerPC 970 support )	Same as host	Linux, illumos	FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows, Plan 9	GPL version 2
Linux-VServer	Community Project	x86, x86-64, IA-64, Alpha, PowerPC 64, PA-RISC 64, SPARC64, ARM, S/390, SH/66, MIPS	Compatible	Linux	Linux variants	GPL version 2
LynxSecure	LynuxWorks	x86, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d	x86	No host OS	LynxOS, Linux, Windows	Proprietary
lxc	Community project lxc.sourceforge.net	x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC 64, SPARC64	Same as host	Linux	Linux variants	GPL version 2
Mac-on-Linux	Mac-on-Linux	PowerPC	PowerPC	Linux	Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux	GPL
Mac-on-Mac	Sebastian Gregorzyk	PowerPC	PowerPC	Mac OS X, up to Tiger excluded	Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux	GPL
OpenVZ	Community project, supported by SWsoft, now Parallels, Inc.	x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC 64, SPARC64	Same as host	Linux	Linux variants	GPL
Oracle VM for x86	Oracle Corporation	x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x, AMD-V	x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x, AMD-V	No host OS	Microsoft Windows, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Solaris	Oracle VM Server GPL; Manager proprietary
Oracle VM Server for SPARC (LDoms)	Oracle Corporation	UltraSPARC T1, UltraSPARC T2, UltraSPARC T2+, SPARC T3	Compatible	Solaris 10	Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD	Proprietary
OVPsim	OVP [8]	x86	OR1K, MIPS32, ARC600/700, ARM; and public API which enables users to write custom processor models, RISC, CISC, DSP, VLIW all possible	Microsoft Windows, Linux	Depends on target machine, for example includes MIPS Malta that runs Linux or SMP-Linux; and includes public API which enables users to write custom peripheral and system models	Proprietary, Apache 2.0 for models
Parallels Desktop for Mac	Parallels, Inc.	x86, Intel VT-x	x86	Mac OS X x86	DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X Server, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, Solaris	Proprietary
Parallels Workstation	Parallels, Inc.	x86, Intel VT-x	x86	Windows, Linux	Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, DOS, Solaris	Proprietary
PearPC	Sebastian Biallas	x86, x86-64, PowerPC	PowerPC	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD	Mac OS X, Darwin, Linux	GPL
PikeOS	SYSGO AG	PowerPC, x86, ARM, MIPS, SPARC, SuperH	Same as host	PikeOS	PikeOS native, Linux, RTEMS, OSEK, ARINC 653 APEX, ITRON	Proprietary
PowerVM	IBM	POWER4, POWER5, POWER6, PowerPC 970	POWER4/5/6, PowerPC 970, X86 (PowerVM-Lx86)	No host OS	Linux PowerPC, x86; AIX, i5/OS, IBM i	Proprietary
QEMU	Fabrice Bellard, other developers	x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC, Alpha, SPARC 32/64, ARM, S/390, M68k	x86, x86-64, ARM, CRIS, LM32, MicroBlaze, MIPS, SPARC 32/64, PowerPC	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS	Changes regularly[4]	GPL/LGPL
QEMU w/ kqemu module	Fabrice Bellard	x86, x86-64	Same as host	Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Windows	Changes regularly[4]	GPL/LGPL
QEMU w/ qvm86 module	Paul Brook	x86	x86	Linux, NetBSD , Windows	Changes regularly	GPL
QuickTransit	Transitive Corp.	x86, x86-64, IA-64, POWER	MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, x86	Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris	Linux, Mac OS X, Irix, Solaris	Proprietary
RTS Hypervisor	Real-Time Systems	x86	x86	No host OS	Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Embedded, Windows CE, Linux, Android, VxWorks, OS-9, RTOS-32, QNX, RTEMS, T-Kernel, proprietary	Proprietary
ScaleMP vSMP Foundation	ScaleMP	x86, x86-64	Same as host, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM	No host OS	Linux	Proprietary
vNUMA	Matthew Chapman	ia64	ia64, combines CPUs and memory from independent nodes into a virtual NUMA machine	No host OS	Linux	Open source/research
Safe Virtual Machine, SVM	Altreonic, www.altreonic.com	Any	Any	OpenComRTOS or any other (RT)OS	N.A.	Binary, Open Technology License
SIMH	Bob Supnik, The Computer History Simulation Project	Alpha, ARM, HPPA, x86, IA-64, x86-64, M68K, MIPS, MIPSel, POWER, s390, SPARC	Data General Nova, Eclipse; Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-15, VAX; GRI Corporation GRI-909, IBM 1401, 1620, 1130, 7090/7094, System 3; Interdata (Perkin-Elmer) 16b/32b systems; Hewlett-Packard 2114, 2115, 2116, 2100, 21MX; Honeywell H316/H516; MITS Altair 8800 with 8080 and Z80; Royal-Mcbee LGP-30, LGP-21; Scientific Data Systems SDS 940	BSD, Linux, Solaris, VMS, Windows	Depends on target machine, includes NetBSD/VAX, OpenBSD/VAX, VAX/VMS, Unix v6, Unix v7, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, ITS	BSD-like, unique
Simics	Virtutech	x86, x86-64, SPARC v9	Alpha, ARM, IA-64, MIPS 32/64, MSP430, POWER, PowerPC 32/64, SPARC v8/v9, x86, x86-64, TI TMS320C64xx	Windows, Linux, Solaris	Depends on target machine, VxWorks, OSE, QNX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, RTEMS, TinyOS, many others	Proprietary
Sun xVM Server	Sun Microsystems	x86-64, SPARC	Same as host	No host OS	Windows XP, 2003 Server (x86-64 only), Linux, Solaris	GPL version 3
SVISTA 2004	Serenity Systems International	x86	x86	Windows, OS/2, Linux	Windows, Linux, OS/2, BSD	Proprietary
TRANGO	TRANGO Virtual Processors, Grenoble, France	ARM, XScale, MIPS, PowerPC	Paravirtualized ARM, MIPS, PowerPC	No host OS, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts	Linux, eCos, µC/OS-II, WindowsCE, Nucleus, VxWorks	Proprietary
User Mode Linux	Jeff Dike, other developers	x86, x86-64, PowerPC	Same as host	Linux	Linux	GPL version 2
VirtualBox	Innotek, acquired by Oracle Corporation	x86, x86-64	x86, (x86-64 only on VirtualBox 2 and later with hardware virtualization)	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X x86, Solaris, FreeBSD, eComStation	DOS, Linux, Mac OS X Server,[5] FreeBSD, Haiku, OS/2, Solaris, Syllable, Windows	GPL version 2; full version with extra enterprise features is proprietary
Virtual Iron 3.1	Virtual Iron Software, Inc., acquired by Oracle	x86 VT-x, x86-64 AMD-V	x86, x86-64	No host OS	Windows, Linux	Full product is proprietary, a few components are GPL version 2[6]
Virtual PC 2007	Connectix	x86, x86-64	x86	Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate), XP Pro, XP Tablet PC Edition	DOS, Windows, OS/2, Linux (SUSE, Xubuntu), OpenSolaris (Belenix)	Proprietary
Windows Virtual PC	Connectix	x86, x86-64 with Intel VT-x or AMD-V	x86	Windows 7	Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008	Proprietary
Virtual PC 7 for Mac	Connectix	PowerPC	x86	Mac OS X	Windows, OS/2, Linux	Proprietary
VirtualLogix VLX	VirtualLogix	ARM, TI DSP C6000, x86, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d, PowerPC	Same as host	No host OS	Linux, Windows XP, C5, VxWorks, Nucleus, DSP/BIOS, proprietary	Proprietary
Virtual Server 2005 R2	Connectix	x86, x86-64	x86	Windows 2003, XP	Windows NT, 2000, 2003, Linux (Red Hat, SUSE)	Proprietary
CoWare Virtual Platform	CoWare	x86, x86-64, SPARC v9	Devices including (multi) cores from ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, Toshiba MeP, Renesas SH, TI, Tensilica, ZSP	Windows, Linux, Solaris	Depends on guest CPU; includes: Linux (various flavors), mITRON (various flavors), Windows CE, Symbian, more	Proprietary
Virtuozzo	SWsoft, now Parallels, Inc.	x86, IA-64, x86-64	x86, IA-64, x86-64	Linux, Windows	Linux, Windows	Proprietary
VMware ESX Server	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	No host OS	Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, OSx86 (as FreeBSD), virtual appliances, Netware, OS/2, SCO, BeOS, Darwin, others: runs arbitrary OS[7]	Proprietary
VMware ESXi	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	No host OS	Same as VMware ESX Server	Proprietary
VMware Fusion	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	Mac OS X x86	Same as VMware ESX Server	Proprietary
VMware Server	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	Windows, Linux	Same as VMware ESX Server	Proprietary
VMware Workstation 7.1	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	Windows, Linux	Same as VMware ESX Server	Proprietary
VMware Player 3.1	VMware	x86, x86-64	x86, x86-64	Windows, Linux	Same as VMware ESX Server	Proprietary, free of charge for personal non-commercial use[8][9]
Wind River hypervisor	Wind River	x86, PowerPC	Same as host	No host OS	Linux, VxWorks, unmodified guests (including MS Windows and RTOSes such ach OSE, QNX and others), bare metal virtual board	Proprietary
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform	Wind River	PowerPC	Same as host	No host OS	VxWorks, bare metal virtual board	Proprietary
Xen	Xensource	x86, x86-64, IA-64	Same as host	NetBSD, Linux, Solaris	FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows XP & 2003 Server (needs vers. 3.0 and an Intel VT-x (Vanderpool) or AMD-V (Pacifica)-capable CPU), Plan 9	GPL
XtratuM	Universidad Politecnica de Valencia	x86, x86; SPARC v8 LEON2/3	Same as host	No host OS	GPOS: Linux, RTOS: PartiKle, RTEMS	GPL
z/VM	IBM	z/Architecture	z/Architecture, z/VM does not run on predecessor mainframes	No host OS, itself (single or multiple levels/versions deep, e.g. VM/ESA running in z/VM 4.4 in z/VM 5.2 in z/VM 5.1.)	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, VM/CMS, MUSIC/SP, OpenSolaris for System z, predecessors	Proprietary
z LPARs	IBM	z/Architecture	z/Architecture	Integrated in firmware of System z mainframes	Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, MUSIC/SP, and predecessors	Integrated in firmware of System z mainframes
Name	Creator	Host CPU	Guest CPU	Host OS(s)	Guest OS(s)	License

Features

Name	Guest OS SMP available	Runs arbitrary OS	Supported guest OS drivers	Method of operation	Typical use	Speed relative to host OS	Commercial support available
Containers, or Zones	Yes, over 500-way on current systems	No	Uses native device drivers	Operating system-level virtualization	Server consolidation with workload isolation, single workload containment, hosting, dev/test/prod	Native	Yes
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2	Yes, up to 4 VCPUs per VM	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test, desktop virtualization, could computing	Near native	Yes
OpenVZ	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Virtualized server isolation	Native[9]	?
KVM	Yes[10], up to 16 VCPUs per VM	Yes	Yes	AMD-V and Intel-VT-x	?	?	Yes, Look at RedHat or Novell for details
Linux-VServer	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Virtualized server isolation	Native[10]	Yes
Oracle VM Server for x86	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and hardware virtualization	Server consolidation and security, enterprise and business deployment	Near native	Yes
Oracle VM Server for SPARC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and hardware virtualization	Server consolidation and security, enterprise and business deployment	Near native	Yes
OVPsim	Yes	Yes	Yes, but most of the time unmodified is the goal	Full system simulation with optional component virtualization	Software development (early, embedded), advanced debug for single and multicore software, compiler and other tool development, computer architecture research, hobbyist	Depends on target, up to 500% faster than embedded target, runs over 1,000 MIPS on desktop	Yes, with commercial license from Imperas[11]
PikeOS	Yes	Yes, but modifications required as paravirtualization is used	Yes	Paravirtualization	Safety and security critical embedded systems.	Near native	Yes
RTS Hypervisor	Yes	Yes	Compatible. OS drivers run unmodified, no special drivers required	Two modes: full virtualization and paravirtualization; both modes may be used for different operating systems concurrently	x86 based devices: vertical markets include robotics, industrial automation, medical, telecom, test and measurement; focus is on real-time uses	Native	Yes
ScaleMP vSMP Foundation	Yes, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server scaling (large workloads), Server consolidation, Cloud computing	Near Native	Yes
Safe Virtual Machine Altreonic	Not applicable	Runs on any OS	OpenComRTOS all services	Interpreter	Executes binary code on any embedded processor, diagnostics, dynamic code loading, 3KB code size	Depends on application	Yes
Sun xVM Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization	Servers	Up to near native speed[11]	Yes
SVISTA 2004	No	?	?	?	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	?	?
TRANGO	Yes	Yes[12]	Yes	Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization	Mob. phone, STB, routers, etc.	Native[13]	?
User Mode Linux	???	No	special guest kernel+modules required	Porting	used as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking	near Native [14] (Runs slow as all calls are proxied)	?
Oracle VirtualBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Business workstation, server consolidation, service continuity, developer, hobbyist	Near native	Yes (with commercial license)
Virtual Iron 3.1	Yes, up to 8 way	Yes	Yes	Native virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test	Near Native	Yes
Virtual PC 2007	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization, guest calls trapping where supported	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	Near native with virtual machine additions	?
Windows Virtual PC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Hardware virtualization	Developer, Business workstation, support for Compatibility with Windows XP applications	Near native with virtual machine additions	No
Virtual PC 7 for Mac	No	Yes	Yes	dynamic recompilation (guest calls trapping where supported)	Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation	Slow	?
Virtual Server 2005 R2	No	Yes	Yes	Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported)	Server, server farm	Near native with virtual machine additions	?
CoWare Virtual Platform	Yes	Yes	Yes ( Same compiled Software image as for the real device)	Full-system virtualization (Processor Core ISA + Hardware + External connections)	Early embedded software development and integration (from driver to application), Multi-core software debugging and optimization	Depending on the system characteristics and the software itself, ranges from faster than real time to slow.	Yes
Virtuozzo	Yes	No	Compatible	Operating system-level virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, disaster recovery, service providers	Native [15]	Yes
VMware ESX Server 4.0 (vSphere)	Yes, add-on, up to 8 way	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test, cloud computing	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0	Yes, add-on, up to 4 way	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware ESX Server 2.5.3	Yes, add-on, 2 way	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware Fusion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation	Near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware Server	Yes (2-way)	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Server/desktop consolidation, dev/test	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware Workstation 6.0	Yes (2-way)	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization (VMI) and virtualization	Technical professional, advanced dev/test, trainer	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
VMware Player 2.0	Yes (2-way )	Yes	Yes	Virtualization	Technical professional, advanced dev/test, trainer, end user on prebuilt machines	Up to near native[citation needed]	Yes
Wind River hypervisor	No	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization	Embedded, safety critical, secure	Native	Yes
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform	No	Yes	Yes	Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization	Embedded, safety critical, secure	Native	Yes
Xen	Yes, v4.0.0: up to 128 VCPUs per VM	Yes	Not required with the exception of the networking drivers where a NAT is required. A modified guest kernel or special hardware level abstraction is required for guest OSs.	Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization	Server/desktop consolidation, dev/test	Up to near native speed,[16] substantial performance loss on some workloads (network and disk intensive especially)[citation needed]	Yes
XtratuM	Yes	No	Yes, but not required.	Paravirtualization	Embedded, safety critical, secure	Native (overhead lower than 1%)	Yes
z/VM	Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment	Yes	Yes, but not required	Virtualization (among first systems to provide hardware assists)	Servers	Near Native[17]	Yes
z LPARs	Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment; up to 64 real cores	Yes	Yes, but not required	Microcode and hardware hypervisor	Servers	Native: System z machines always run with at least one LPAR	Yes
Name	Guest OS SMP available	Runs arbitrary OS	Supported guest OS drivers	Method of operation	Typical use	Speed relative to host OS	Commercial support available

• ^ Providing any virtual environment usually requires some overhead of some type or another. Native usually means that the virtualization technique does not do any CPU level virtualization (like Bochs), which executes code more slowly than when it is directly executed by a CPU. Some other products such as VMWare and Virtual PC use similar approaches to Bochs and QEMU, however they use a number of advanced techniques to shortcut most of the calls directly to the CPU (similar to the process that JIT compiler uses) to bring the speed to near native in most cases. However, some products such as coLinux, Xen, z/VM (in real mode) do not suffer the cost of CPU-level slowdowns as the CPU-level instructions are not proxied or executing against an emulated architecture since the guest OS or hardware is providing the environment for the applications to run under. However access to many of the other resources on the system, such as devices and memory may be proxied or emulated in order to broker those shared services out to all the guests, which may cause some slow downs as compared to running outside of virtualization.

• ^ OS-level virtualization is described as "native" speed, however some groups have found overhead as high as 3% for some operations, but generally figures come under 1%, so long as secondary effects do not appear.

• ^ See^[12] for a paper comparing performance of paravirtualization approaches (e.g. Xen) with OS-level virtualization

• ^ Requires patches/recompiling.

• ^ Exceptional for lightweight, paravirtualized, single-user VM/CMS interactive shell: largest customers run several thousand users on even single prior models. For multiprogramming OSes like Linux on zSeries and z/OS that make heavy use of native supervisor state instructions, performance will vary depending on nature of workload but is near native. Hundreds into the low thousands of Linux guests are possible on a single machine for certain workloads.

Other features

Name	Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest	USB support	GUI	Live memory allocation	3D acceleration	Snapshots per VM	Snapshot of running system	Live migration	Shared folders	Shared clipboard
KVM	Yes	Yes	Yes[13]	Yes	Yes (via AIGLX)	Yes	Yes[14]	Yes[15]
User Mode Linux	Yes	No	No	No	No			No	Yes	N/A
Oracle VirtualBox-OSE (GPLv2)	Partial (since version 1.4, but unsupported) [18]	USB 1.1	Yes	Yes	OpenGL 2.0[16] DirectX 3D[17]	Yes branched[18]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Oracle VirtualBox-PUEL (pre-compiled, not free)	Partial (since version 1.4, but unsupported) [19]	USB 2.0	Yes	Yes	OpenGL 2.0[16]	Yes branched[18]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Oracle VM Server for SPARC	Yes	USB 2.0	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Virtual Iron 4.2								Yes
Virtual PC 2007	No	No	Yes	No	No			No	Yes	Yes
Windows Virtual PC	No	partially	Yes
VirtualPC 7 for Mac	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No			No
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2		No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	No
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2	Yes	Partial support over remote desktop connections [20]	Yes	Yes	DirectX 9.0c [21]	branched	Yes	Yes
Virtuozzo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No			Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0 atp			Yes		No	?	Yes	Yes
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	DirectX 9 Shader model 2			No
VMware Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	1	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
VMware Workstation 5.5	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Experimental support for DirectX 8; also supported with VMGL[19]	Yes branched	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
VMware Workstation 6.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Experimental support for DirectX 8; Also supported with VMGL[19]	Yes branched	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
VMware Workstation 7.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Support for DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.13D.[20]	Yes branched	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
VMware Player	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	supported with VMGL[19]	No	No	No	Yes
Wind River hypervisor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes			No
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform	Yes
Xen	Yes		Yes[13]	Yes	Supported with VMGL[19]	?	Yes	Yes
z/VM	Yes	Not applicable	with add-ons	Yes	No			No
z LPARs	Yes	Not applicable	Yes	Yes	No			No
Zones	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Name	Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest	USB	GUI	Live memory allocation	3D acceleration	Snapshots per VM	Snapshot of running system	Live migration	Shared folders	Shared clipboard

• ^ VirtualBox User Manual, Chapter 9.9; requires usage of VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk which says:This is a development tool and shall only be used to analyse problems. It is completely unsupported and will change in incompatible ways without warning.


• ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 have limited support for redirecting the USB protocol over RDP using RemoteFX.^[21]


• ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 adds accelerated graphics support for certain editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 using RemoteFX.^[22][23]

Restrictions

This table is meant to outline restrictions in the software dictated by licensing or capabilities.

Name	Maximum host physical processors (sockets)	Maximum host cores per processor	Maximum host memory	Maximum host disk volume size	Maximum number of guest VM running	Maximum number of logical CPU per VM guest	Maximum amount of memory per VM guest, 32/64 bit	Maximum number of SCSI + IDE disks per VM guest	Maximum disk size per VM guest
Containers, or Zones	72	No limit	4TB	No limit	8191	No limit	No limit	No limit	No limit
VMware Player 3.1[24]	?	?	No limit	N/A	?	8	8/32 GB	?	2 TB
VMware Server 2.0[25]	16	16	No limit	N/A	64	2	8/8 GB	4 IDE; 60 SCSI	950 GB
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 4.1[26]	160	160	1 TB	2 TB minus 512 bytes	320	8	255/255 GB	4 IDE; 60 SCSI	2 TB minus 512 bytes
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0[27]	160	160	2 TB	64 TB	512	32	1 TB	4 IDE; 60 SCSI	2 TB minus 512 bytes
VirtualBox 4.0.x	No limit ?	No limit ?	No limit ?	No limit	No limit[28]	16	No limit	4 IDE; no limit SATA, SCSI, SAS	2 TB
Hyper-V 2008 R2[29]	64	64	1 TB	No limit	384	4	64 GB	4 IDE; 256 SCSI	2 TB

Note: No limit means no enforced limit. For example, a VM with 1 TB of memory cannot fit in a host with only 8 GB memory and no memory swap disk, so it will have a limit of 8 GB physically.

See also

• List of computer system emulators


• Comparison of application virtual machines


• Hypervisor


• Platform virtualization


• Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements


• Virtual machine
  
  
  
  • Virtual DOS machine


• x86 virtualization

References

1. ^ The list of platforms supported by Bochs
   
   
   . Retrieved on 2011-07-27.


2. ^ Instructions on compiling Bochs
   
   
   . Retrieved on 2011-07-27.


3. ^ ^{a b} Cooperative Linux FAQ
   
   
   . Retrieved on 2009-01-27.


4. ^ ^{a b} QEMU Official OS Support List
   


5. ^ Oracle VM VirtualBox® User Manual, Chapter 3: Configuring virtual machines | Mac OS X Server guests
   


6. ^ Oracle and Virtual Iron
   


7. ^ Can run a guest OS without modifying it, and hence is generally able to run any OS that could run on a physical machine the VM simulates


8. ^ VMware Player FAQ
   
   
   . Retrieved on 2011-07-27.


9. ^ VMware Player 3.1 EULA
   
   
   . Retrieved on 2011-07-27.


10. ^ http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/running-windows-smp-guests
    


11. ^ Imperas
    


12. ^ http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~mef/research/vserver/paper.pdf
    


13. ^ ^{a b} "Virtual Machine Manager"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2010-02-20.


14. ^ "Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for KVM"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2010-05-20.


15. ^ "KVM Migration"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2010-05-20.


16. ^ ^{a b} "VirtualBox Changelog"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2009-06-30.


17. ^ "VirtualBox Changelog"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2009-06-30.


18. ^ ^{a b} "VirtualBox Changelog 3.1"
    
    
    . Retrieved 2010-10-01.


19. ^ ^{a b c d} "
    
    
    VMGL (formerly Xen-GL)".


20. ^ http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/new.html
    


21. ^ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817581(WS.10).aspx
    


22. ^ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817578(WS.10).aspx
    


23. ^ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817602(WS.10).aspx
    


24. ^ [1]
    
    
    Getting Started Guide VMware Player 3.1


25. ^ [2]
    
    
    VMware Server User’s Guide VMware Server 2.0


26. ^ [3]
    
    
    Configuration Maximums VMware® vSphere 4.1


27. ^ [4]
    
    
    Configuration Maximums VMware® vSphere 5.0


28. ^ [5]
    
    
    Oracle VM VirtualBox User Manual. Accessed 2011-04-07


29. ^ [6]
    
    
    Requirements and Limits for Virtual Machines and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2

External links

• Technical comparison of Linux virtualization technologies
  
  
  .


• Unix for Windows FAQ at Unix.com

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtual_machines