Hyper-V Containers: Product Overview and Insight

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Bottom Line

Many enterprise workloads still run on Windows, and Hyper-V Containers can help enterprises move these applications to cloud native environments. This will help them run both Windows and Linux applications in parallel and also on hybrid cloud infrastructure without heavy operational overhead.

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Formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, Hyper-V creates virtual machines on systems running Windows. Hyper-V allows users to create and run multiple container instances concurrently on a host. However, each container runs inside of a special virtual machine. This provides kernel level isolation between each Hyper-V container and the container host.

Hyper-V relies on the Docker Engine to create the actual containers. It also supports Kubernetes to manage and orchestrate containers. The environment is designed to work with the Azure Service Fabric. This eliminates the need to make any changes to the underlying application.

Product Description

Hyper-V uses application-defined base images and creates a virtual machine using that base image. The environment encapsulates libraries, binaries, and the application inside a Windows container. Hyper-V is designed to serve as be a lighter weight configuration platform that pushes or pulls containers from the Docker Hub or a local repository.

Every Hyper-V Container contains a copy of the Windows kernel and has memory assigned directly to it. The result is strong isolation. The benefit is that the environment can run untrusted and multi-tenant applications on the same host.

Features

Container Tool

Docker, Kubernetes

Compatibility

Windows, Linux

Management

Users can manage multiple tasks in Hyper-V containers. This includes scheduling, health monitoring, failover, scaling, networking and service discovery, to name a few.

Integration

Integrates with Windows and Azure

Scheduling

Robust scheduling tools are built into Hyper-V.

Networking and Security

Uses Azure Container Service (AKS) or Azure Service Fabric to orchestrate containers.

Monitoring and Logging

Tools available through Hyper-V and Azure.

Pricing

Hyper-V containers within the service fabric are free.

Hyper-Z Overview and Features at a Glance:

Features	Hyper-V Containers
Supported platforms	Docker; Kubernetes. Windows and Linux.
Key features	Runs multiple container instances concurrently on a host. Provides kernel level isolation between each Hyper-V container and the container host. Encapsulates libraries, binaries, and the application inside a Windows container.
User comments	Generally high marks for implementation and integration with Microsoft products and tools. A few say that the product is difficult to work with and not as stable as other hypervisors.
Pricing and licensing	Within the service fabric the platform is free.

Features	Hyper-V Containers
Supported platforms	Docker; Kubernetes. Windows and Linux.
Key features	Runs multiple container instances concurrently on a host. Provides kernel level isolation between each Hyper-V container and the container host. Encapsulates libraries, binaries, and the application inside a Windows container.
User comments	Generally high marks for implementation and integration with Microsoft products and tools. A few say that the product is difficult to work with and not as stable as other hypervisors.
Pricing and licensing	Within the service fabric the platform is free.