VMWare Server 2. What next?

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davidcole

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#107658 16-Aug-2012 08:35

So a bit of background.

I run WHS2011 as a host. I'm not intending to change this which means ESXi is out (well before the WHS route I tried ESXi and it wouldn't install anyway because of lack of hardware).

On my "host" I have VMWare Server 2 Acronis for backups, Plex, Crashplan etc.

When the host starts up (and it's shut down each night) 3 VMs start. A W7 (my primary desktop), An LBuntu Desktop (which is essentially a proxy server), and a Windows 2003 Server (for windows servery stuff).

There's a couple of other VMs I run on demand as well, another Linux Ubuntu Desktop, and other W2k3 Server, another W7 machine. Plus any random machines I find (smoothwall, unraid etc).

So everything is going fine, but I notice VMware server is end of life pretty much. Would I gain anything by moving to VMware Workstation 8 (as I understand it has a "server" mode now - that works like vmware server). Or something from virtual box?

BTW I tried Hyper-V - found it annoying to deal with.

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magu

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#673133 16-Aug-2012 08:40

Give XenServer a try, or stick with Virtual Box.

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davidcole

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#673136 16-Aug-2012 08:42

magu: Give XenServer a try, or stick with Virtual Box.

I didn't believe virtual box (for windows) was easy to get a server-ish model going. Mostly things like auto start machines, auto stop with host shut down.

And Xenserver is bare metal right?

magu

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#673139 16-Aug-2012 08:45

davidcole:
magu: Give XenServer a try, or stick with Virtual Box.

I didn't believe virtual box (for windows) was easy to get a server-ish model going. Mostly things like auto start machines, auto stop with host shut down.

And Xenserver is bare metal right?

I'm assuming you'd run Windows as the underlying OS for Virtual Box, as you would for VMware Workstation (don't think they do a hypervisor for anything other than ESXi now).

XenServer is bare metal, and a bit more relaxed on hardware specs.

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davidcole

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#673143 16-Aug-2012 08:48

magu:
davidcole:
magu: Give XenServer a try, or stick with Virtual Box.

I didn't believe virtual box (for windows) was easy to get a server-ish model going. Mostly things like auto start machines, auto stop with host shut down.

And Xenserver is bare metal right?

I'm assuming you'd run Windows as the underlying OS for Virtual Box, as you would for VMware Workstation (don't think they do a hypervisor for anything other than ESXi now).

XenServer is bare metal, and a bit more relaxed on hardware specs.

I tried for a while doing baremetal (hyper-v) but probably wouldn't attempt it now - maybe when I replace this hardware I'll try again. So at the moment kinda stuck (and prefer) something that will run on windows.

I should look at virtualbox and see if I can easily get it to start up the machines (and some basic scripts to start/stop/pause machines). Otherwise I'd either have to stick with what I've got, or shell out for workstation.

billgates

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#673145 16-Aug-2012 08:54

Windows 8 with Hyper-V client installed as add on? Put/Migrate all your VM's to that?

Big performance and features difference between Hyper-V 2.0/Server 2008R2 and Hyper-V 3.0/Server 2012.

Do whatever you want to do man.

nathan

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#674264 19-Aug-2012 16:10

davidcole: So a bit of background.

I run WHS2011 as a host. I'm not intending to change this which means ESXi is out (well before the WHS route I tried ESXi and it wouldn't install anyway because of lack of hardware).

On my "host" I have VMWare Server 2 Acronis for backups, Plex, Crashplan etc.

When the host starts up (and it's shut down each night) 3 VMs start. A W7 (my primary desktop), An LBuntu Desktop (which is essentially a proxy server), and a Windows 2003 Server (for windows servery stuff).

There's a couple of other VMs I run on demand as well, another Linux Ubuntu Desktop, and other W2k3 Server, another W7 machine. Plus any random machines I find (smoothwall, unraid etc).

So everything is going fine, but I notice VMware server is end of life pretty much. Would I gain anything by moving to VMware Workstation 8 (as I understand it has a "server" mode now - that works like vmware server). Or something from virtual box?

BTW I tried Hyper-V - found it annoying to deal with.

honestly curious to know what were the annoying things you found in Hyper-V that made you not like it?

davidcole

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#674285 19-Aug-2012 16:47

nathan:
davidcole: So a bit of background.

I run WHS2011 as a host. I'm not intending to change this which means ESXi is out (well before the WHS route I tried ESXi and it wouldn't install anyway because of lack of hardware).

On my "host" I have VMWare Server 2 Acronis for backups, Plex, Crashplan etc.

When the host starts up (and it's shut down each night) 3 VMs start. A W7 (my primary desktop), An LBuntu Desktop (which is essentially a proxy server), and a Windows 2003 Server (for windows servery stuff).

There's a couple of other VMs I run on demand as well, another Linux Ubuntu Desktop, and other W2k3 Server, another W7 machine. Plus any random machines I find (smoothwall, unraid etc).

So everything is going fine, but I notice VMware server is end of life pretty much. Would I gain anything by moving to VMware Workstation 8 (as I understand it has a "server" mode now - that works like vmware server). Or something from virtual box?

BTW I tried Hyper-V - found it annoying to deal with.

honestly curious to know what were the annoying things you found in Hyper-V that made you not like it?

I think I've covered this in another thread...but I'll see if I can remember...

Mostly the security was annoying, lack of a built in web site (and the one I found was pretty unfinished) and the fact you had to export/import you machines all the time for making clones etc.

Security, ie all the folders had really strict security permissions, pain in the butt it was. The lack of a web console was ok, but would have been nice if there was one there.

But the export/import one was really annoying, I think it was because of the security settings, you couldn't just copy a VM and do something with it, (clone a machine etc) bause the copy had the wrong folder permissions etc,m so everytime you had to export them import, and the way it bundled everything in that one folder was annoying as well.

Performance wise though it was much better than vmware server.

But for simple day to day mangement vmware server has it hands down (IMO). Need a backup of a machine, just copy paste it, and replace it if needed, need console access to a vm, vmrc does this (although most of my access is via RDP).

Just stuff like that. I'd imagine for an enterprise hyper v would be much better. But a SOHO arrangement vmware server is much lighter weight.

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amanzi

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#674368 19-Aug-2012 20:07

davidcole: But the export/import one was really annoying, I think it was because of the security settings, you couldn't just copy a VM and do something with it, (clone a machine etc) bause the copy had the wrong folder permissions etc,m so everytime you had to export them import, and the way it bundled everything in that one folder was annoying as well.

I'm pretty sure this issue has been fixed in Hyper-V 2012, or whatever the next version is called. You can just move folders around without having to export them first. You still need to import them into Hyper-V but it's a simple process.