Players in the game are latest vSphere 5.5 and VM Server 3.2
These points will help you understand to host Oracle DB's or any other business critical applications on which hypervisor. All the below points are very much available on the respective vendors documentation.
Below points will make it clear who WINS LEVEL 1 of the GAME....Decide your best choice for hypervisor for yourself.
Stay tuned for LEVEL 2 in the WAR GAME.
| Oracle | VMware | Comments | |
| 1 | VM Server is based upon on underlying Xen hypervisor technology, and includes VM Agent, a Linux kernel with support for a broad array of devices and file systems. | vSphere is not based on Linux kernel but uses proprietory vmkernel which is purpose built | OVM is bulky |
| 2 | Guest OS support is limited. | Guest OS support is vast including Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD, Windows 2000, SCO OpenServer, eComStation etc | OVM needs to work on increasing the list |
| 3 | Per VM RAM/vCPU = 2 TB/128 | Per VM RAM/vCPU = 1 TB/64 | Better job , please refer point 17 |
| 4 | PER SERVER CPU/RAM = 160/4TB | PER SERVER CPU/RAM = 320 / 4TB | Do you have such server? |
| 5 | PER SERVER VMs = 128 | PER SERVER VM's = 512 | VMware doing a good job here. Infact they are known to deliver more VM's per server |
| 6 | Virtual disk size = 10 TB | Virtual Disk size = 62 TB | Large DB can be hosted easily on VMware |
| 7 | Create New VM Wizard creates a new VM even if Wizard is Cancelled | ALL is WELL | |
| 8 | Drag and Drop to invalid targets fail without an error message | It does not allow drag and drop to invalid targets | |
| 9 | Windows 2012 is not supported | Simple Install fails on Windows Server 2012 with DHCP | Both needs to buckle up |
| 10 | No Single Signon/Autodeploy feature available | Some issues around vCenter Single sign-On & auto-deploy server | VMware needs to work hard to make these features more compelling than others |
| 11 | When a server pool has finished being created, it is not possible to change the virtual IP address. | You can dynamically change the same | Simple, in recreate one or BE PERFECTO  |
| 12 | I/O-intensive Storage Operations disrupt Cluster Heartbeat | vSphere continues to perform during I/O intensive storage operations | Can I virtualize my business critical applications??? |
| 13 | Editing VM configuration file results in unexpected behavior | ALL is WELL | BE PERFECTO OR … |
| 14 | Concurrent Clone fails without error | Multiple cloning is possible | no multitasking please |
| 15 | Live Migration fails but VM reports running VM on target VM Server | If vMotion fails, it doesn't show anything on other host | It is a Ghost??? |
| 16 | Solaris 10 machine hangs during Shutdown on VM Server | ALL is WELL | Isn't Solaris 10 is their own product?? |
| 17 | Guests with >32 vCPUs hang at boot | ALL is WELL | Whats the point supporting 128?? |
| 18 | Live Migration of a VM may be affected by Guest Linux Kernel Version | ALL is WELL | Live migration dependent on kernel??? |
| 19 | Hot removal of vCPU's is possible for some configurations | Not possible | VMware anything you could think off? |
| 20 | Solaris 10 Release 8-11 Guest hangs at boot | ALL is WELL | Their own OS hangs?? |
| 21 | Changing Cluster Heartbeat Network Does Not Reflect New IP Address | ALL is WELL | Edit the /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf file on each VM Server in the network to reflect the new IP address, and restart each VM Server??? |
| 22 | Rescanning a LUN Does Not Show the New Size of a Resized LUN | ALL is WELL | What VM user should do? |
| 23 | MySQL performance is degraded on Linux Systems using the EXT4 Filesystem | ALL is WELL | Did we hear degraded performance? Why will I virtualize at first place then? |