Which hypervisor to use?

J

jtvd78

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
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I'm kinda new to virtualization, so I'm not the most knowledgable on the subject, but...

I want to virtualize my home server, but there are a couple of different hypervisors to chose from. I've looked up comparisons on google, but all the results were for the full licensed versions.

So, what exactly are the differences between different hypervisors like ESXi, Hyper-V, Xen, KVM and others? I don't have the money to throw down for the whole licensed version.

Any help would be great,

Thanks.
 
I would say use ESXi as it is free, and most companies are using VMWare stuff so the experience you gain from using it at home can/will be applicable to a job if you want.
 
Here's a gross oversimplification that sorts it out pretty well:

If you are going to working with Windows/MS/MS-Server only as guest OS then stick with Hyper-V. Hyper-V only supports specific Linux versions as guest and is a PITA for anything other than Windows-derived guests. But if you are sticking with Windows based guests it has some pretty solid features not easily duplicated in ESXi. BTW, you now get Hyper-V included at no extra cost in Windows-8, but the bundled version requires a specific CPU feature that you won't find in pre-i3/5/7 processors. There is also a bare-metal version that is free - so you don't have to buy anything to use it.

If you are going to have a variety of guests (Windows/Linux/Solaris/etc) then ESXi offers the best support. There is a free version that will run on single-socket machines and supports up to 32Gb. To get some of the more advanced management and orchestration features or to go beyond 32GB you've got to pay-up...and the first paid step comes at a hefty price. But ESXi is lightweight and yet feature rich. It is fabulously simple to understand and manage.

Xen & KVM are interesting but not for the feint of heart. If you are a N00b you should probably look at Hyper-V or ESXi. They are the choices mature enough to pick up easily and use "out of the box". Once you have some mastery of these then go ahead and branch out.
 
PigLover said:
Here's a gross oversimplification that sorts it out pretty well:

If you are going to working with Windows/MS/MS-Server only as guest OS then stick with Hyper-V. Hyper-V only supports specific Linux versions as guest and is a PITA for anything other than Windows-derived guests. But if you are sticking with Windows based guests it has some pretty solid features not easily duplicated in ESXi. BTW, you now get Hyper-V included at no extra cost in Windows-8, but the bundled version requires a specific CPU feature that you won't find in pre-i3/5/7 processors. There is also a bare-metal version that is free - so you don't have to buy anything to use it.

If you are going to have a variety of guests (Windows/Linux/Solaris/etc) then ESXi offers the best support. There is a free version that will run on single-socket machines and supports up to 32Gb. To get some of the more advanced management and orchestration features or to go beyond 32GB you've got to pay-up...and the first paid step comes at a hefty price. But ESXi is lightweight and yet feature rich. It is fabulously simple to understand and manage.

Xen & KVM are interesting but not for the feint of heart. If you are a N00b you should probably look at Hyper-V or ESXi. They are the choices mature enough to pick up easily and use "out of the box". Once you have some mastery of these then go ahead and branch out.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I plan on testing out some linux distros, so Ill look into ESXi. Thanks
 
After i failed to run solaris (testing ZFS replication) on Hyper-V i went to ESXi and i'm happy now. Bare hypervisor is completely free (and free features & restrictions is more than enough for home lab). Well, you can always reset trial by simply removing two files...
RAM deduplication will save you some ram. Also overhead is pretty low (my ESXi install fit on 2GB USB drive, 100 mhz cpu and 50-100mb of ram (that's usage of hypervisor)), while M$ server 2012 takes 1gig of ram just after starting when there is no features/roles installed - that's more than disappointing.
 
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