News

posted on 27 June 2008 10:08

Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V has 90 - 97% of the performance of a non-virtualised Windows Server 2008 system when connecting to a storage area network (SAN) using QLogic HBAs.

The non-virtualized Windows Server 2008 performance was 200,000 IOs per second (IOPS) performance native with QLogic 8Gbit/s adapters. The Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V version, the one using hypervisor-based virtualisation technology, was at least 90 percent and as much as 97 percent of the native I/O performance across a data range for enterprise applications.

Mike Schutz, director of product management, Windows Server and Solutions Division at Microsoft Corp, said: “The microkernelized architecture of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is designed from the ground up to optimize I/O performance. With support for features like pass-through virtual machine disk access, customers can receive high I/O performance for SAN-attached servers when combined with high performance products such as QLogic 8Gb adapters.”

Microsoft makes the point that, with Windows Server 2008, everything needed to support server virtualisation and presentation virtualization is available as a feature of the operating system.

I.e. you don't have to buy VMware or Xen.

Hyper-V is available now from Microsoft.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}