VMware alternative

[Red Squirrel]

Is there an alternative to VMware Server for Linux? I have yet to try VirtualBox so I'm wondering if that would work well. How good is it, and does it have remote console capabilities? VMware 1.0 was great, 2.0 simply sucks, and 1.0 wont install on newer distros.

 

[Crusty]

I'd save up and build an ESXi box, but you can always try Xen I guess.

 

[Brazen]

I've tried them all, and I've chosen to use KVM. If you don't have a cpu with the virtualization extension, you can use qemu instead. If you manage them through libvirtd, they will behave identically anyway, but kvm would have a tad better performance. I've had an Ubuntu Hardy box with KVM running 3 virtual servers in production usage for about 6 months now, and it's been great.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Crusty
I'd save up and build an ESXi box, but you can always try Xen I guess.

I want to be able to still use the host machine for other stuff, as well as I want to use software raid, so rather something that runs on top of Linux.


I'll check out KVM

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Brazen
I've tried them all, and I've chosen to use KVM. If you don't have a cpu with the virtualization extension, you can use qemu instead. If you manage them through libvirtd, they will behave identically anyway, but kvm would have a tad better performance. I've had an Ubuntu Hardy box with KVM running 3 virtual servers in production usage for about 6 months now, and it's been great.

what are the specs on the box and what do the servers do? im hoping to get a dekstop soon and want to run a hypervisor, but havent decided yet what ill run. I was leaning towards Xen, and then I realized i can try KVM on my laptop to test it out (ubuntu doesnt have a xen kernel, meh).

 

[Brazen]

It's a Dell desktop system with Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM. It's really overkill, but the Core 2 Duo is nice because they are very power efficient. One vm is an Apache webserver, one vm is a Samba file server, and one vm is a MySQL database server, all running Ubuntu Hardy JEOS.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Decided to check out virtualbox as based on some reading it looks like it's the most polished one out there and it's owned by sun which tends to make decent software. I don't think it has remote console capabilities but I'll just use VNC to get into the server. Running into dependancy hell but it does not see that bad so far. *crosses fingers*

 

[Scarpozzi]

There's also Xen. It's fairly stable and a lot of companies are working on it.

I'm not familiar with Virtualbox, but as for VMware, it's the most supported and has a lot of good software if you switch to Virtual Center 2.5 & ESX 3.5.