[NTLUG:Discuss] Lastest on Virtualization - Xen, VMWare or Microsoft - which to choose

[Chris Cox]

Lee Doran wrote:
> Thanks to all that have replied so far.  Please continue to give your
> thoughts and experiences on various VM solutions.
> 
> I had not heard of the KVM soulution, thanks, I am going to put it on
> our list of options.  The key though with a new technology like that is
> how quickly will the tools show up. 
> 
> So is it safe to say there are 4 primary sets of core technology:
> 
> 	1. Microsoft
> 	2. Vmware
> 	3. Xen - Citrix / Novell ( am I right that this is the same XEN)
> 	4. KVM 
> 
> Are there any major players that need to be looked at?
> 

kvm and Xen use the same api... same tools should be able to
manage both (for most things).  That's ONE of the big reasons
why Xen will likely die and kvm will take over.  I mean one
comes with the kernel (kvm)... the other does not.

Novell/SLES does use Xen right now.  Not sure if that will
continue.. likely will continue through SLES 11.  But would
not be surprised if SLES 11 manages Xen or kvm based guests.

Red Hat (for whatever reason) has told their enterprise 5
customers that they are dropping Xen support in favor
of kvm in the upcoming version 6.  IMHO, that means Red Hat
didn't have any virtualization customers.... probably ok.

VMware has different levels of products supporting different
levels of MAJOR feature functionality AND higher end DOES
NOT mean better.  For example, you won't have USB pass
through on VMware's high end product.... just very basic
USB storage support.

Microsoft's VM is known by most to the worst.  I'd avoid it.
VMware is the "standard"... it's safe... mature but can
be expensive and sometimes frustrating.  It's easier to setup
complex scenarios with VMware, but if you're a guru, depending
on the scenario, even more complicated things as possible
with Xen or kvm.  So with VMware you sometimes pay a lot
to get what you need vs. the complexity of setup for doing
something in Xen/kvm (and there are some features that
haven't been written there yet... cost of "do it yourself"
could be high).

If I had to choose TODAY and money wasn't that big of a deal,
I'd choose VMware.  However, this decision might change
radically even over this next year.