Home Original page

Comparison of platform virtualization software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Platform virtualization software, specifically emulators and hypervisors, are software packages that emulate the whole physical computer machine, often providing multiple virtual machines on one physical platform. The table below compares basic information about platform virtualization hypervisors.

  • ^ 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[21] 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 IBM Z 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.

Image type compatibility

[edit]

Name floppy ISO folders on host

physical disk /
device

raw / flat
(whole disk)

raw / flat
(partition)

QED
(QEMU)

VHDX
(Hyper-V)
86Box Yes Yes CD-ROM drive only No Yes No No No No No No Yes No No
Bochs[22] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No v3, v4
Containers, or Zones ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Cooperative Linux (coLinux) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
CHARON ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Denali ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
DOSBox Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No DOSBox-X fork No No No No No
DOSEMU ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
FreeBSD Jail No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
GXemul ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Hercules ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Hyper-V (2008 R2) Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No
Hyper-V (2012) Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
Hyper-V (2012 R2) Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
Integrity Virtual Machines ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
JPC (Virtual Machine) Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linux-VServer ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
LynxSecure ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
LXC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
OpenVZ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Oracle VM Server for x86 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Oracle VM Server for SPARC (LDoms) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
OVPsim ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Parallels Desktop for Mac ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Parallels Workstation ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
PearPC No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No
PikeOS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
PowerVM ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
QEMU Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes read-only Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes except difference type Yes
QEMU w/ kqemu module ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No No ? ? ? ?
QEMU w/ qvm86 module ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
QuickTransit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SIMH ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Simics ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Sun xVM Server ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SVISTA 2004 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TRANGO ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
User Mode Linux ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VirtualBox Yes Yes With guest integration installed on guest os. Yes[23] Yes[23] Yes[23] up to v2 Yes read-only Yes Yes Yes Can read existing disks, but not create new disks. Yes
Virtual Iron 3.1 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Virtual PC 2007 Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No No No No Yes No No
Windows Virtual PC Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No No No No Yes Yes No
Virtual PC 7 for Mac Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
VirtualLogix VLX ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Virtual Server 2005 R2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Synopsys (CoWare) Virtual Platform ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Virtuozzo ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
VMware ESX Server ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
VMware ESXi Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes
VMware Fusion ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
VMware Server ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
VMware Workstation Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
VMware Player Yes Yes ? Partial ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
Wind River Hypervisor ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Xen Yes Yes ? Yes Yes[24] ? ? Yes[24] Yes[24] ? ? Yes[24] ? ?
XCP-ng ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ?
XenServer Yes Yes ? Yes Yes[24] ? ? Yes[24] Yes[24] ? ? Yes[24] ? ?
XtratuM ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
z/VM ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
z LPARs ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name floppy ISO folders on host

physical disk /
device

raw / flat
(whole disk)

raw / flat
(partition)

QED
(QEMU)

VHDX
(Hyper-V)
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 PCI passthrough
KVM Yes Yes Yes[25] Yes Yes (via AIGLX) Yes Yes[26] Yes[27] Yes
User Mode Linux Yes No No No No No Yes N/A
Containers, or Zones Yes Yes Yes Yes Not needed Yes[28] Yes No Yes Not needed Not needed
DosBox No No SVN builds only No Glide (SVN builds only) No Yes No No No No
Oracle VirtualBox (formerly OSE, GPLv2), with Guest Additions (GPLv2)[29] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes branched[30] Yes Yes with Guest Additions[31] with Guest Additions[31] No
Oracle VirtualBox with Extension Pack (PUEL) and Guest Additions (GPLv2)[29] Yes Yes Yes Yes OpenGL 2.0 and Direct3D 8/9[32] Yes branched[30] Yes Yes Yes Yes Retired (Until 6.0;[33] Linux only[34])
Oracle VM Server for SPARC (LDoms) Yes USB 2.0 Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
OKL4 Microvisor Yes Yes VMs only Yes Yes No Static assignment
Virtual Iron 4.2 Yes
Virtual PC 2007 No No Yes No No No Yes Yes
Windows Virtual PC No partially Yes No No No Yes Yes
VirtualPC 7 for Mac No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 No Yes No No ? Yes No
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Yes Partial support over remote desktop connections [11] Yes Yes DirectX 9.0c [12] (via RemoteFX) Yes branched Yes Yes No
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 Yes Yes Yes Yes DirectX 9.0c [13] (via RemoteFX) Yes branched Yes Yes No
Virtuozzo Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0 atp Yes No ? Yes Yes No
VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 Yes No No
VMware ESX Server 4.0 – 6.x (vSphere) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes[35]
VMware Fusion 2.0 Yes Yes Yes No DirectX 9 Shader model 2 No 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[36] Yes branched Yes No Yes Yes No
VMware Workstation 6.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Experimental support for DirectX 8; Also supported with VMGL[36] Yes branched Yes No Yes Yes No
VMware Workstation 7.0 and 8.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Support for DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.13D.[37] Yes branched Yes No Yes Yes No
VMware Player Yes Yes Yes Yes supported with VMGL[36] No No No Yes No
Wind River hypervisor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform Yes
Xen Yes Yes[38] Yes[25] Yes Supported with VMGL[36] ? Yes Yes Yes
XCP-ng Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XenServer Yes Yes[25] Yes Supported with VMGL[36] Yes Yes Yes Yes
z/VM Yes Not applicable Yes (zURM/HMC) Yes Not applicable Yes (2011) Not applicable Not applicable
z LPARs Yes Not applicable Yes (HMC) Yes Not applicable Yes (2007) Not applicable Not applicable
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 PCI passthrough
  • ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 have limited support for redirecting the USB protocol over RDP using RemoteFX.[39]
  • ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 adds accelerated graphics support for certain editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 using RemoteFX.[40][41]

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

Name Maximum host cores / CPUs 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 Maximum number of SCSI + IDE disks per VM guest Maximum disk size per VM guest
Containers, or Zones No theoretical limit (largest SPARC has 384 physical cores) 32 TB (largest SPARC) No limit 8191 No limit No limit No limit No limit
VMware Player 15.0[42] No limit No limit No limit No limit 16 4 GB (32-bit); 64 GB (64-bit) ? 8 TB
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 4.1)[43] 160 logical cores 1 TB 2 TB minus 512 bytes 320 8 255 GB 4 IDE; 60 SCSI 2 TB minus 512 bytes
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 5.0)[44] 160 logical cores 2 TB 64 TB 512 32 1 TB 4 IDE; 60 SCSI 2 TB minus 512 bytes
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 5.5) (free)[45] 16 NUMA Nodes / 320 logical CPUs 4 TB Depending on filesystem 512 8 1 TB 4 IDE; 60 SCSI; 120 SATA 62 TB
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 5.5)[46] 16 NUMA Nodes / 320 logical CPUs 4 TB Depending on filesystem 512 64 1 TB 4 IDE; 60 SCSI; 120 SATA 62 TB
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 6.7)[47] 16 NUMA Nodes / 768 logical CPUs 16 TB Depending on filesystem 1024 256 6128 GB 4 IDE; 256 SCSI; 120 SATA; 60 NVMe 62 TB
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.0)[48] 16 NUMA Nodes / 896 logical CPUs 24 TB Depending on filesystem 1024 768 24 TB 4 IDE; 256 SCSI; 120 SATA; 60 NVMe 62 TB
VirtualBox No limit No limit No limit No limit[49] 32 No limit 4 IDE; no limit for SATA, SCSI, SAS GUI: 2 TB
Command line: no limit
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2[50] 64 cores / 8 CPUs[51] 1 TB No limit 384 4 64 GB 4 IDE; 256 SCSI 2 TB
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012[52] 320 cores / 64 CPUs[53] 4 TB No limit 1024 64 1 TB 4 IDE; 256 SCSI 64 TB
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016[54] 512 cores / 320 CPUs 24 TB No limit 1024 240 12 TB 4 IDE; 256 SCSI 64 TB
Xen
XCP-ng
XenServer[55][56][57][58] 		16383 CPUsx86
8 CPUsARM32
128 CPUsARM64 		16 TBx86
16 GBARM32
5 TBARM64 		No limit No limit 512 PVx86 / 128 HVMx86
8ARM32
128ARM64 		>1 TB PVx86 / 1 TB HVMx86
16 GBARM32
1 TBARM64 		? ?
Name Maximum host cores / CPUs 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 Maximum number of SCSI + IDE disks per VM guest Maximum disk size per VM guest

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.

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Older versions of VMware Workstation support x86.
  3. ^ Older versions of VMware Player/VMware Workstation Player support x86.
  1. ^ "Bhyve supports Windows". Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  2. ^ "1.8. Supported Platforms". Bochs.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  3. ^ "3.4. Compiling Bochs". Bochs.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19559". blogs.windows.com. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  5. ^ "PowerPC – KVM". Linux-kvm.org. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  6. ^ "Development Preview of KVM Virtualization on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM". redhat.com. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  7. ^ "QEMU Binaries for Windows (64 bit)". qemu.weilnetz.de. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b "QEMU Official OS Support List Version 2.0". Claunia.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  9. ^ Oracle VM VirtualBox User Manual, Chapter 3: Configuring virtual machines | Mac OS X guests
  10. ^ "virtualbox.org • View topic – Theo de Raadt discourages VirtualBox usage." forums.virtualbox.org. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  11. ^ "Oracle and Virtual Iron". Oracle.com. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  12. ^ "VMware Player Pro FAQs: Create and run virtual machines | United States". Vmware.com. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  13. ^ [1] Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "Licenses – xcp-ng/xcp Wiki". GitHub. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  15. ^ "Main Page – KVM". Linux-kvm.org. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  16. ^ Look at RedHat or Novell for details
  17. ^ Logical Domains#Supported guest operating systems
  18. ^ "Welcome to". Imperas. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  19. ^ [2] Archived 2008-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ a b "A Performance Comparison of Hypervisors for Cloud Computing". Digitalcommons.unf.edu. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  21. ^ Soltesz, S.; et al. (2007). "Container-based Operating System Virtualization" (PDF). EuroSys. ACM SIGOPS. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  22. ^ "8.19. Disk Image Modes". Bochs.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  23. ^ a b c "Chapter 9. Advanced topics". Virtualbox.org. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h "Xen blktap2 driver". Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  25. ^ a b c "Virtual Machine Manager". Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
  26. ^ "Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for KVM". Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  27. ^ "KVM Migration". Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  28. ^ "beadm in Non-Global Zones – Creating and Administering Oracle Solaris 11.2 Boot Environments". oracle.com. 11 November 2014.
  29. ^ a b "What are "VirtualBox Guest Additions"?". Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  30. ^ a b "VirtualBox Changelog 3.1". Archived from the original on 28 September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  31. ^ a b "Introduction to Guest Additions". Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  32. ^ "VirtualBox Changelog 3.0". Archived from the original on 3 December 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  33. ^ "Changelog for VirtualBox 6.1". Retrieved 16 February 2020. Linux host: Drop PCI passthrough,
  34. ^ "VirtualBox manual: PCI passthrough". Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  35. ^ "VMware VMDirectPath I/O". Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  36. ^ a b c d e "VMGL (formerly Xen-GL)". Archived from the original on 4 November 2007.
  37. ^ "VMware Workstation Features, Multiple OS, Run Linux on Windows – United States". Vmware.com. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  38. ^ "Xen USB Passthrough". Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  39. ^ "Configuring USB Device Redirection with Microsoft RemoteFX Step-by-Step Guide". Technet.microsoft.com. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  40. ^ "Microsoft RemoteFX". Technet.microsoft.com. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  41. ^ "Hardware Considerations for RemoteFX". Technet.microsoft.com. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  42. ^ "Using VMware Workstation Player for Windows" (PDF). 2 March 2020.
  43. ^ "Configuration Maximums : Sphere 4.1" (PDF). Vmware.com. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  44. ^ "Configuration Maximums : Sphere 5.0" (PDF). Vmware.com. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  45. ^ "Free Virtualization with VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)" (in Dutch). Vmware.com. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  46. ^ "Configuration Maximums VMware vSphere 5.5" (PDF). VMWare Inc. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  47. ^ "VMware Configuration Maximum tool". VMWare Inc. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  48. ^ "VMware Configuration Maximum tool". VMWare Inc. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  49. ^ "Chapter 1. First steps". Virtualbox.org. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  50. ^ "Requirements and Limits for Virtual Machines and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2". Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  51. ^ Protalinski, Emil (1 September 2009). "Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 arrives for free". Ars Technica. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  52. ^ "Hyper-V Scalability in Windows Server 2012". Technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  53. ^ "Hyper-V Limits the Maximum Number of Processors in the Hyper-V Host OS to 64". Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  54. ^ "Plan for Hyper-V scalability in Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019". 28 September 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  55. ^ "Xen Project Release Features – Xen". wiki.xen.org. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  56. ^ "Xen Project 4.19 Feature List - Xen". Wiki.xenproject.org. 30 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  57. ^ "Xen 4.19 Released With New 9pfs Backend, Scales Up To 16,383 CPUs - Phoronix". www.phoronix.com. 31 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  58. ^ "Xen Project Announces Performance and Security Advancements with Release of 4.19". www.linuxfoundation.org. 31 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.