Your favorite hypervisor and why?

[jzukerman]

What is your favorite hypervisor and why? I've been using Citrix XenServer for personal projects for the past 3+ yrs, and am looking to try out something else. Not really a fan of updating the host (have to upload the Citrix XS update packages, and reboot after each one... a pain in the butt). I've used Microsoft Hyper-V for my clients and that worked fine. I've never run any Linux VMs on Hyper-V so I don't know how well they perform. I have very little VMWare experience. I've never setup a Virtuozzo server but have a couple of VZ operated VMs. Never used KVM.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I tend to use Hyper-V for small setups, single physical server with 1-4 guests.
For larger setups, I lean towards VMWare, especially for those clients that need uptime. Having a *nix host, less need for updates, runs leaner, guests seem to run stronger than Hyper-V.
Hyper-V still feels heavier, (just a seat of the pants feeling), and you have that feeling that you have to update and reboot the host more. (even though I've had Hyper-V hosts run over a year without updates/reboot..I know it's stripped down and doesn't need updates as much..but...it's a MS product...)

What I like about Hyper-V for small setups, is that you still have local console right at the host, and some smaller client's it's easier for their staff that do minor things on the server to work with.

 

[Moltuae]

I always used VMware, until a few years ago, but I'm working more and more with Hyper-V now, both in the 'core' flavour and as an integral role of 2012 R2. I had played around with Hyper-V previously, in Server 2008, but I wasn't impressed.

Hyper-V really seems to be maturing nicely now though and it just seems so much more integrated, better designed and more stable than WMware's offerrings. I think they're probably still neck-and-neck in a lot of respects, but Hyper-V, for me, looks set to take the lead.

My experience is quite the opposite to yours, Sonecat; Hyper-V seems lighter, faster and altogether more snappier than WMware, although to be fair, I haven't really done a side-by-side comparison. Most of my Hyper-V setups are running on later, more powerful servers, so that may be a factor.

I have found that more advanced setups of Hyper-V can mean a lot of Googling of unhelpful error messages to get things running exactly as planned, but once over those hurdles, it's a pleasure to use. One setup I'm currently working on is a server cluster: 4 physical servers running the free Hyper-V 2012 R2 'core' edition and another server running the Hyper-V role under Server 2012 R2. After much swearing, googling and configuration, I have all the hypervisors managed centrally within the fully-fledged Server 2012 R2 machine. To be honest, I could've avoided a lot of the frustration and pain if I had taken the time to RTFM beforehand, but where's the fun in that, right? .... But, now that it's all working nicely, I'm loving the ease by which I can move VMs around, with zero downtime, from one server to another.

 

[Nerm]

VMware and Hyper-V are both the leaders in this area IMO. I can't really fault one or the other. I have a few more Hyper-V deployments than VMware just because of customer familiarity with M$ and more "out of the box" features. In comparison I personally have found VMware a little better at networking applications (eg. virtual routers) and Linux based guests and Hyper-V to be a little better at ease of backup/DR, HA, and live migrations.

 

[gpg]

We are using Proxmox VE (KVM), Windows Hyper-V and XenServer. Of the three if you use RAID you will find Hyper-V will have drivers and RAID management software readily available. I struggled with finding the driver and management software to work with both Proxmox VE and XenServer for an existing RAID card. I finally installed Hyper-V free version and installed the drivers and management software without issue. XenServer 6.5 is much better than 6.2 and Proxmox VE has a nice web interface and most importantly via the web interface you have a backup option for the VMs. Neither XenServer nor Hyper-V offer the backup option with their free offerings. Third party options are available.

Give Proxmox VE a try , just be sure if using RAID to check out the HCL. Best thing is to make sure the kernel version for whatever system you try is compatible with the RAID card. Ovirt is another KVM solution to try if you have time or just install a minimal CentOS 7 and install the necessary packages for KVM. Then try out Kimchi https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmvirtualization/?lang=en https://github.com/kimchi-project/kimchi or Virt-Manager http://virt-manager.org/ for management.

gpg

 

[ArtemusComputerTechnology]

First Hyper-V because it is built-in Server 2008\2012. No need to install other VM software like VMWare (which I also love).

 

[jzukerman]

....or just install a minimal CentOS 7 and install the necessary packages for KVM. Then try out Kimchi https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmvirtualization/?lang=en https://github.com/kimchi-project/kimchii

I tried installing CentOS 7 then Kimchi but couldn't get that going (ngnix kept failing each time kimchi was started). I don't have any experience with CentOS 7 (so many things changed, reminds me of Windows Vista). I wiped the host clean, installed CentOS 6.6 and got Kimchi installed. Very slick interface. Waaaaay easier to use than XenServer. However I can't find any initscripts to make Kimchi start on boot, plus sent any debugging output to a log and not the console. I see some files in the contrib folder of kimchi but can't figure out how to build them (if that's needed) or where to copy them...

 

[gpg]

I tried installing CentOS 7 then Kimchi but couldn't get that going (ngnix kept failing each time kimchi was started). I don't have any experience with CentOS 7 (so many things changed, reminds me of Windows Vista). I wiped the host clean, installed CentOS 6.6 and got Kimchi installed. Very slick interface. Waaaaay easier to use than XenServer. However I can't find any initscripts to make Kimchi start on boot, plus sent any debugging output to a log and not the console. I see some files in the contrib folder of kimchi but can't figure out how to build them (if that's needed) or where to copy them...

Did you update CentOS 7 before installing the KVM packages and Kimchi with "yum -y update"? If you need to find out what may have been causing Kimchi to not start did you check the /var/log/messages or /var/log/secure for more info. Here's a full list of KVM management tools. http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Management_Tools If you want something that will work on most hardware albeit minus the RAID try Proxmox VE based on Debian. It's super easy and gives you a excellent interface to manage the VMs. Just be wary of the RAID card compatibility. It's a real bugger with Linux. Also, if using CentOS or Ubuntu or whatever you favorite Linux distro be sure the dependencies are met. Also, you may want to turn off the firewall for testing purposes and disable selinux, especially for Kimchi because the ports for accessing Kimchi will be blocked.

 

[jzukerman]

Did you update CentOS 7 before installing the KVM packages and Kimchi with "yum -y update"? If you need to find out what may have been causing Kimchi to not start did you check the /var/log/messages or /var/log/secure for more info. Here's a full list of KVM management tools. http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Management_Tools If you want something that will work on most hardware albeit minus the RAID try Proxmox VE based on Debian. It's super easy and gives you a excellent interface to manage the VMs. Just be wary of the RAID card compatibility. It's a real bugger with Linux. Also, if using CentOS or Ubuntu or whatever you favorite Linux distro be sure the dependencies are met. Also, you may want to turn off the firewall for testing purposes and disable selinux, especially for Kimchi because the ports for accessing Kimchi will be blocked.

I did. Didn't help. Issue was with ngnix kimchi.conf and user couldn't run as kimchi. But that doesn't matter. Got it running on CentOS 6. Just need init script. Have a dirty hack by running it from /etc/rc.local. I've tried Debian in the past but didn't like it. I'm so used to Redhat's universe.

 

[vlad]

I did. Didn't help. Issue was with ngnix kimchi.conf and user couldn't run as kimchi. But that doesn't matter. Got it running on CentOS 6. Just need init script. Have a dirty hack by running it from /etc/rc.local. I've tried Debian in the past but didn't like it. I'm so used to Redhat's universe.

I know it's a bit late but for future references you can find how to start kimchi as a service on CentOS 7
use goole translate as the page is in german, but it is something like

systemctl enable kimchid
systemctl start kimchid

http://ononon.de/kimchi-kvm-management-software-auf-centos-7/

you also need to add kimchi to firewall

 

[BlackLabTechs]

I tend to stick with VMWare but have a few Hyper-V's in. The biggest downside I see with Hyper-V (not it's fault) is most times there are applications running on the host as well. When one of these crash and brings down the system, well, there goes the guests as well. Performance wise, I have no real tests to prove it, just a gut feeling that VMWare seems a bit faster. Anyone I've talked to about vmware performance issues - I ask them if they've adjusted their NIC Teaming settings from default and once they do, performance issues go away. I just need to install a test Hyper-V to play with, push all the buttons and break it and once I'm comfortable using it blindfolded, I'm sure I'd give it more kudos.

 

[WillieEverlearn]

Another vote for VMWare...but I work with loads of Hyper-V servers that were preexisting. I work for a shop that is hardcore Windows and it is difficult to show them anything that doesn't say "Microsoft" on the box.