What are the advantages of Hyper-V in contrast to other virtualization solutions, for example VMWare ESX?
Good question. I tend to look at hypervisors as a commodity, where you can just pick the one that best meets your needs. In the case of Hyper-V, I personally believe that Windows 7 performs better on Hyper-V with XenDesktop than with VMWare ESX or even XenServer. I think that cost is also another factor that should be considered when looking at the advantages of Hyper-V. In the end though, it comes down to your preference for a feature set, the commercial aspect of it, and sometimes what you already have in your datacenter. Q: What is a good or ideal size host in terms of CPU and memory? A: Well, I personally prefer the Nehalem L55xx series for processors; however as everyone warns your mileage may vary, so look at the performance reports for similar workloads and choose the most appropriate processor model. For memory, look for the most efficient cost point where the RAM is still sold in affordable chip sizes. For instance, on a blade server with 12 memory slots, the 8 GB chips have a
