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2012 r2 Core Hyper-V vs ESXI 6

F

fishie

n00b
Joined
May 30, 2013
Messages
42
Hi guys,

Im curious, any thoughts on this?

Im looking for a new platform for my home server, and i might go for a 2012 R2 core as from what i can gather it can passthrough drives without VT-D supported by the CPU.

Any pro's and cons? Im still a bit new to this kind of setup as i previously simply ran Win8.1 on my machine.

Thanks!
 
What are you using the VM for? If it's just for a home server you're normally just better off running on the base OS unless you have a real compelling reason to virtualize.
 
Im looking for a way to run a few linux based machines, and also a sophos home appliance..

Im still looking at running a win 8.1 machine for my fileserving, basically which isn't entirely optimal but it will allow my backblaze backups to keep running smoothly.

While the Win8.1 machine would be the primary machine i RDP into and use, i would love to be able to restart it without the other machines restarts aswell..

The wife might not be that hooked on me restarting the firewall while she's streaming stuff :p
 
I'm definitely a fan of VMware, I run esxi 5.5 at home. I maintain both environments at work and just don't like Hyper-V as much except for the cost. For home I don't think it matters, it's more about what you're used to and what you need as far as features.
 
ESX is better for linux VMs, but you lose the ability to also use it as a workstation. If you don't mind only remote access to the VMs, it might be a good choice.

Think about backup as well. An ESX host a a bit more complicated. For just a few linux vms, considering using virtual box on Windows 8.1 or 10. It will be better as a workstation and finding drivers for it will be easier.
 
The server is a headless machine standing in my basement, so im not really worried about only remote controlling as this is what i have done so far :)

Im merely looking for something that will fit my setup, is it correct that you cannot passthrough harddrives without VT-D on Esxi?
 
used to use VMWare, haven't looked back after trying Hyper-V and have almost all linux VMs...

use Zentyal linux as my DCs for the hyper-v servers

using hyper-v cluster and starwind free iscsi san... works great
 
I guess this is all about preference :p

I can get and use hyper-v for free since i can get the licenses from work at no charge, basically that's also valid for esxi, however i might just pull the trigger on a hyper-v machine..

No idea if i should go full core installation or i should atleast get the gui, i might need to install some drivers that i know are missing..
 
fishie said:
Im looking for a way to run a few linux based machines, and also a sophos home appliance..

Im still looking at running a win 8.1 machine for my fileserving, basically which isn't entirely optimal but it will allow my backblaze backups to keep running smoothly.

While the Win8.1 machine would be the primary machine i RDP into and use, i would love to be able to restart it without the other machines restarts aswell..

The wife might not be that hooked on me restarting the firewall while she's streaming stuff :p
Click to expand...

Were you going to run the Sophos UTM? I am thinking about doing the same thing. Are you going to run your wifi through the UTM?
 
ironforge said:
Were you going to run the Sophos UTM? I am thinking about doing the same thing. Are you going to run your wifi through the UTM?
Click to expand...

Im going to test it, as i might get the task to handle stuff like that at work (lucky to have gotten the chance to work with stuff like this).

Im not going to run WIFI through it for now, that will be handled by my former router which is an Asus RT-N66u which i will simply set to AP mode.
 
used to use VMWare, haven't looked back after trying Hyper-V and have almost all linux VMs...
Click to expand...

same, Hyper -V is very underrated, for home use i wouldn't use anything else

Sophos UTM runs just fine on it
 
FLECOM said:
used to use VMWare, haven't looked back after trying Hyper-V and have almost all linux VMs...

use Zentyal linux as my DCs for the hyper-v servers

using hyper-v cluster and starwind free iscsi san... works great
Click to expand...

IMHO Hyper V runs the show :) With 2012th release and SMB 3.0 protocol support it allows to set up the scale out server. I'm testing it on the rope with starwind virtual san free. No complaints for now. I`ve used internal SATA drives to create a fault tolerant shared storage for my VMs (a few linux based with the constant processing users requests). Even with my low throughput networks (1Gbit), the VMs migrate smartly :) However, what you REALLY need to consider is the technical details. Anyway, here it is manual I recommend to go with: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/te...Dedicated-SAN-scenario-Basic-2-node-Setup.pdf
 
peanuthead said:
I run both. They have their merits and down falls. I prefer ESXi overall but enjoy Hyper 2012 R2 GUI. The non-GUI/pure Hypervisor version = yuck to me.
Click to expand...

The Hyper-V Server (core version) works well once you sort out the WMI communication and security, which can be a nightmare from CLI. There are some inbuilt tools, but the best for non-SCCM environments are third party tools like 5Nines stuff.
 
also another thing I forgot to mention, one of the things that drove me crazy was how SLOOOOOWWWW vmware would transfer VM images on/off the vmware servers (like <100mbits, painful)... HyperV I max out my disk arrays moving VMs

it can also boot off onboard intel raid arrays (which is fine, I have 2x 60GB SSDs in a RAID1 for boot, all VMs are on iSCSI targets) so no need to waste a slot or $$$ on a RAID card if you don't need it
 
I prefer ESXi overall but enjoy Hyper 2012 R2 GUI. The non-GUI/pure Hypervisor version = yuck to me
Click to expand...

just use Hyper-V Manager remotely; im running Windows Server Core with Cluster and Hyper-V roles to avoid the frequent restarts GUI needs

I dislike ESXi due to hardware requirements / compatibility list ;Hyper-V with RemoteFX doesn't have those limitations

furthermore Hyper-V is faster, there i said it :D
 
you can also install the 5nine manager on the hyper-v free which gives you most of what you need in a nice GUI... or like you said, remove Hyper-V manager or Failover Cluster Manager
 
VonGriffin said:
same, Hyper -V is very underrated, for home use i wouldn't use anything else

Sophos UTM runs just fine on it
Click to expand...

I used to use Hyper-V at home. Mainly because I had all my music and movies on a Windows share and was streaming via SMB. Eventually I moved all my media to a NAS and installed ESXi. I seem to get more resources out of the server now. Plus it is much more stable. Knock on wood, I have yet to have ESXi crash, but Hyper-V did a couple of times. Although this is a home server it has been running 24/7 for about 5 years now. :D

Best part, this is my actual server. http://www.pcworld.com/article/182259/Electronics_Computing_Black_Mamba.html

Minus the video card and added RAID and hard drives.
 
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