VMWare (ESXI) Alternative

[Schmarvin]

Hello everyone,

 

I have another dilemma here. I currently run VMWare's ESXI (free) on my server. At one point, I was thinking of buying it, because I'll be adding an additional CPU to the second socket. Right now, it is just the one CPU and 32GB Memory. But, I want to expand and add more raw power. Anywho, the following is the issue: Cost. It would cost me over $2000 to buy VMWare and another $3000 per year for the required/mandatory support license. That is insane. The server is the central hub for my small business (IT Company). It harbors our website on redundant VMs, monitoring tools, patch management, VPN, and support desk. Not a lot. We use Google Apps for our e-mail and no hardware heavy apps like SQL. I don't see the cost effectiveness of VMWare to us. I don't mind paying for a solution, but the cost of VMWare outweighs the benefits, since we don't use 90% of the features.

 

What I'm looking for in terms of a system is the following features:

- Support for Windows OS up to Server 2016

- Support for Linux (mainly Ubuntu Server)

- Support for up to 64GB memory

- Support for over 8TB of disk space storage (I do like the feature for VMWare's storage pools)

- Preferably a web-based remote management feature (not required, but I don't much fancy VMWare's vSphere, it is too clunky and slow)

 

I've looked into unRAID, but not a fan of it.

[Unhelpful]

6 minutes ago, Schmarvin said:

Hello everyone,

 

I have another dilemma here. I currently run VMWare's ESXI (free) on my server. At one point, I was thinking of buying it, because I'll be adding an additional CPU to the second socket. Right now, it is just the one CPU and 32GB Memory. \

What? That limit was removed with 5.1, was it not? Just upgrade.

[Schmarvin]

I'm on 6.0. There is a 1 socket maximum still.

[twisties]

Look at ProxMox for an alternative. I've only just started fiddling with it myself but it holds promise (found it mentioned on this forum actually).

 

As far as ESXi goes though, Are you sure that's how the license works?

I have a Dell T410 with 2 Xeons in it and I've been happily running ESXi without any license issues.

Edit: 

Just did a quick bit of googling and as far as I can see, the free limitations are (including 5.x and 6)

- 2 x physical CPU's

- 8 x vCPU's per VM

[Schmarvin]

Odd, might be a quirk on my machine then.

Thanks for that.

[twisties]

Are you seeing the limitation when you look at the details of the installed license? I'm going to fire mine back up in a minute and have a look what mine says as I'm very curious now.

[Schmarvin]

Yes, it says limit to 1 physical CPU.

I'm Running on a Dell Poweredge 2900.

[twisties]

Is the license a recent one? Or was it created a long time ago?
I'd contact VMWare and ask them, there shouldn't be any limitation on using 2 physical CPU's on the host and they should be able to confirm that / sign you up for a new free license which you can then install 

 

EDIT: 

Just double checked mine.
"VMWare vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 2 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)"
"Expires: Never"

[Heller64bit]

I suggest switching to Proxmox, it's cheaper. Support for the basic level will be $142.56/yr for two CPU's, or $0 for no support.

 

I've run Proxmox VE as my Hypervisor running 4-5 VM's for almost three years, had no issues thus far, thinking of expanding it. The one thing I love about Proxmox is the management is mostly done via the Web GUI, you can even open a VNC or Spice-based console session to the direct host, plus you can cluster a master to multiple slave hosts or just cluster a few masters. It has Container support as well.

[twisties]

I must admit, the container support was the first thing to draw my interest in proxmox, secondly was the management from WebGUI. vSphere's reliance on a windows based client (unless you pay for vCentre) is a limitation, especially considering I've moved to using a Macbook for everything non-gaming and I don't want to install vSphere on my gaming windows PC just for that purpose. I also like that you can get very cheap support plans for it (not a concern for me personally but definitely a plus). I very quickly got two hosts setup the other night and into a master/master cluster. I haven't yet had a chance to dive into it's High Availability options yet though.

[1823alex]

Umm... just use ESXi it's free for 2 sockets. I'm literally running a HP DL360 G5 with ESXi 6 right now which does have 2 sockets with 2 CPUs installed and I've got no errors or issues and it's been running fine for 6+ months.

[leonard_sun]

The VMWare ESXI license prices are as good as a highway robbery for sure. Though the support does comein handly at times. If you can forego the premium support and rely more on Community support, it might be interesting to check out xen project (here)

[twisties]

14 minutes ago, leonard_sun said:

Though the support does comein handly at times.

I can vouch for that as I remember experiencing a serious outage spanning more than 24 hours where we had IBM tech's onsite troubleshooting for us, along with countless hours with VMWare's tech staff as well to get us back up and running. 

[Sunshine1868]

ESXi is licensed per socket (its been that way a while now)

 

XenServer is a good alternative. it actually has more features in its free-form than ESXi does.

[Jarsky]

32 minutes ago, Sunshine1868 said:

ESXi is licensed per socket (its been that way a while now)

 

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted.html

 

Number of cores per physical CPU: No limit

Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit

Number of logical CPUs per host: 480

Maximum vCPUs per virtual machine: 8

 

They've removed most of the limits, but the biggest restriction it has is it cant be added to a Virtual Center or use vStorage API's

vmWare now has an embedded host client though for ESXi 6.0 which looks interesting: https://labs.vmware.com/flings/esxi-embedded-host-client