ESXI Replacemnt for Homelab / Small production use with Type 2 hypervisor image compatability

[acoustaman]

Hello,

 

I am running an ESXi server at my home for a few network services, and I use VM workstation Pro on my Windows box. I can migrate VMs seamlessly between ESXI and Workstation. With free versions of ESXI being phased out, is there a suitable replacement that allows running VM on type 1 and type 2 hypervisor? 

 

Thank you for the help.

 

 

[leadeater]

Windows Hyper-V Server is a free edition of Windows to host VMs. You can use that and Hyper-V in Windows Desktop to run and move VMs between them etc. Not sure if there are any others that do exactly what you want.

 

The other option is you could consider signing up to VMUG Advantage for $210/year and get access to full VMware Sphere aka VMware Cloud Foundation as well as other products as well. I know it's not free but the value is quite good for what you get.

 

https://www.vmug.com/membership/evalexperience/

[m9x3mos]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Windows Hyper-V Server is a free edition of Windows to host VMs. You can use that and Hyper-V in Windows Desktop to run and move VMs between them etc. Not sure if there are any others that do exactly what you want.

 

The other option is you could consider signing up to VMUG Advantage for $210/year and get access to full VMware Sphere aka VMware Cloud Foundation as well as other products as well. I know it's not free but the value is quite good for what you get.

 

https://www.vmug.com/membership/evalexperience/

That looks interesting. Tough it does say 365 day trial license. Do you know what happens after that year?

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, m9x3mos said:

That looks interesting. Tough it does say 365 day trial license. Do you know what happens after that year?

Well crap

 

Quote

Microsoft is ending mainstream support of the free version of Hyper-V Server 2019 on January 9, 2024 and extended support will end on January 9, 2029. [56] Hyper-V Server 2019 will be the last version of the free, stand alone product.

 

VMware and Microsoft playing the same game, arghhhhh

[m9x3mos]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

Well crap

 

 

VMware and Microsoft playing the same game, arghhhhh

You can just run it just any server version currently available or just on Windows pro though and debloat it. 

My setup has been running like that for years on a thread ripper system and it has been rock solid and I think it's still considered type 1. Might be wrong about that though. 

[acoustaman]

Thank you for all the info. I hope I am not the only one seeing this new gap in the market. Hopefully, Proxmox or KVM will offer a Windows based level 2 that  I could use.

[leadeater]

37 minutes ago, m9x3mos said:

You can just run it just any server version currently available or just on Windows pro though and debloat it. 

My setup has been running like that for years on a thread ripper system and it has been rock solid and I think it's still considered type 1. Might be wrong about that though. 

Yea true, just sucks the officially free server option is gone.