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Help me choose a hypervisor

rufee
By rufee
in Networking
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Hey guys, i'm going to acquire a new server soon and im searching for a free virtualization tool.

Ive looked into ESXi which is now called vSphere for some reason, its supposed to be free but what are the catches (CPU count, max ram etc...)?

Id love to have a bare metal hypervisor to save on system resources. Maybe someone who has a virtual machines running can point me to the right direction.

Oh and im going to run mostly Debian distros on it and maybe one or two Windows systems if that matters.

Something wrong with your connection ?

Run the damn cable :)

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Posted

Hey guys, i'm going to acquire a new server soon and im searching for a free virtualization tool.

Ive looked into ESXi which is now called vSphere for some reason, its supposed to be free but what are the catches (CPU count, max ram etc...)?

Id love to have a bare metal hypervisor to save on system resources. Maybe someone who has a virtual machines running can point me to the right direction.

Oh and im going to run mostly Debian distros on it and maybe one or two Windows systems if that matters.

nope as far as i know esxi is GREAT i have had no trouble with it but you better ask @Ssoele and @looney about this stuff becaus they do a lot with vritualisation 

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed.

-Adolf Hitler 

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yea, i also want to know! thanks for this topic!

 [spoiler=CORMAC]CPU:Intel celeron 1.6ghz RAM:Kingston 400mhz 1.99gb MOBO:MSI G31TM-P21 GPU:Will add one later on! CASE:local ROUTER D-Link 2750U, D-LINK 2730U MOUSE:HP,DELL,ViP KEYBOARD: v7 SPEAKERS:Creative 245  MONITOR:AOC E970Sw HEADSET: Sony MDRx05s UPS:conex ups avr 500va PSU:idk OD:Samsung super writemaster STORAGE:80 gb seagate+ Seagate 1TB OS:Windows xp sp3 themed to Windows 7 + Linux |Rest all pc in my house will be updated from time-time

COMING SOON

 

 

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Hey Rufee,

 

I would go with ESXi, The only problem is what is the specs of the server going to be? They limit you to 32GB of RAM. But other than that you won't have any problems. You can have unlimited amount of CPU's (physical and virtual) and per VM they max vCPU count is 8.  The normal usage for the host without VM's is about 800MB of RAM and CPU is like 0.01%. Hard drives might be a problem but that's about it. ESXi might not like some hard drives. Anything else?

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Its a q6600 with 8gb of ram. Does RAID work with it ? I might throw 2*1tb in mirror mode.

Something wrong with your connection ?

Run the damn cable :)

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ESXi 5.1 free version is limited to 32GB, but the upcoming 5.5 wont have that restriction, that will let you go all the way up to 4TB on the free version.

Respect the Code of Conduct!

>> Feel free to join the unofficial LTT teamspeak 3 server TS3.schnitzel.team <<

>>LTT 10TB+ Topic<< | >>FlexRAID Tutorial<< | >>LTT Speed wave<< | >>LTT Communies and Servers<<

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I think that the CPU should be fine. It does support Intel visualization.You might have a problem with the setup of the RAID.

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What about Xen or KVM? They are both free and open source, I've never used them but i wouldn't mind trying them. I just wish i had the hardware to do it. The only Bare Metal hypervisor i've had experience with is ESXi, Which is good but the full version isn't free.

                 

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ESXi 5.1 free version is limited to 32GB, but the upcoming 5.5 wont have that restriction, that will let you go all the way up to 4TB on the free version.

 

 

What do you mean? vSphere  is on 5.5 now already. 5.1 u1 is limited to 32GB and 5.5 isn't. But that's not the problem. Making sure everything is supported is.

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What about Xen or KVM? They are both free and open source, I've never used them but i wouldn't mind trying them. I just wish i had the hardware to do it. The only Bare Metal hypervisor i've had experience with is ESXi, Which is good but the full version isn't free.

I agree. ESXi has many licensing plans but this is for a home lab so you do not need to go for the paid version. 

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I do intend to make money with this, however little but it still counts as profit, does that restrict me to Xen, KVM then ?

Something wrong with your connection ?

Run the damn cable :)

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I agree. ESXi has many licensing plans but this is for a home lab so you do not need to go for the paid version. 

True, good point.

 

I do intend to make money with this, however little but it still counts as profit, does that restrict me to Xen, KVM then ?

I'm not sure what exactly defines "commercial use". So i don't know.

                 

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I do intend to make money with this, however little but it still counts as profit, does that restrict me to Xen, KVM then ?

You can use vSphere Hypervisor, The free one. You just dont get all the extra's like HA, DRS. vMontion,DP and the list goes on but you aren't managing more than 1 host. If you were and you wanted HA and DRS and able to vMontion VM's over hosts then you would need the license and the vCenter license but other than that you can use it. They don't mind if you are making money from it. 

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oops didn't know 5.5 was out already :P

 

And yes, just make sure everything is compatible and then just get the free version, that should not have any limitations for a simple system.

Respect the Code of Conduct!

>> Feel free to join the unofficial LTT teamspeak 3 server TS3.schnitzel.team <<

>>LTT 10TB+ Topic<< | >>FlexRAID Tutorial<< | >>LTT Speed wave<< | >>LTT Communies and Servers<<

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oops didn't know 5.5 was out already :P

 

And yes, just make sure everything is compatible and then just get the free version, that should not have any limitations for a simple system.

 

 I know hay, I am a VMware freak and only found out 3 days after it was released :|:P Agreed 

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hyper v is compatible with more hardware where as esx isn't. but as long as your hardware is compatible then i think the differences are more in the advanced (paid for) features, so it really depends on what you want out of it. vsphere has support for older operating systems (ms dos and old linux distros). hyper v doesn't support systems before windows server 2003.

 

I don't think stats matter,for amount of ram and storage or how many processors it can handle unless your gonna buy 16 physical cpu's

 

 

My main point is i don't think it matters which hypervisor you choose.

In my opinion i would choose between hyper v and v sphere.

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