ESXi or Hyper-V for my applications

J

Jesse B

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 30, 2010
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I am in the midst of collecting hardware for my new virtualization server. I was originally planning on using ESXi, but recently have come across an offer I'm finding difficult to refuse. The Microsoft rep at my school gave us a list of free software we're able to use. Included in this was Windows Server 2008, both Standard and Enterprise editions. I realized that I would have access to Hyper-V if I did this, which I've heard great things about.

Basically this is down to my lack of experience and education. I'm fine with using either product, as long as it best suits my needs. The following is what I plan on hosting at this point:

- File server (OpenIndiana, PCI-passthrough required)
- Web Server (Debian)
- Media Server (Ubuntu probably)

Eventually I plan on adding some other OS's as well, but these will be the core 3. I do plan on adding an XP/Win7 install as well (as I also get them for free), but that will be when I can buy more RAM.

So to recap, I'm just wondering if it's worth taking advantage of this offer, or just going with the (originally) free solution. I'm just worried about how Hyper-V would handle virtualizing Linux/Solaris. I'm also not aware of what limitation either may offer.

Thanks,


- Jesse
 
You can't passthrough PCI devices via Hyper-V. You can passthrough volumes or physical disks however, as passthrough Disks.

Go ESXi. It doesn't look like you're looking for a HA solution so ESXi free should do the trick. Also, there is better Linux support on ESXi as well.
 
Go with ESXi.

All your clients are Linux/Solaris based. Hyper-V will "virtualize" them just fine, but the tools that integrate with with the hypervisor don't exist for those guests. Without the tools you don't get things like smooth console integration, clean "start/stop" controls, full benefit of the virtual memory manager, and weak network integration. Unless your guests are mostly MS-based there is little benefit to running Hyper-V over ESXi.

ESXi's integration tools support all three of your main clients. You can still run that "free" copy of Server2008 under EXSi if you want to play with it.
 
Alright, thanks for the input guys. Again, was just asking to make sure I made the right decision. At least I can just play with some toys in VM's :)

Thanks again,


- Jesse
 
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