I'm moving away from VMware - VMware alternatives

I have an esxi 6.5 server that I have to either upgrade or migrate away from esxi/VMware. My current thoughts are to either to go Microsoft Hyper-V, straight KVM on Ubuntu managed with Cockpit, Proxmox, XCP-ng, Citrix, Xen, or Harvester. What platform are you running on? Remember a type 1 hypervisor runs on the bare metal and a type 2 hypervisor is nested in the OS.

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[ivanmaglica]

Proxmox for 11 years. 0 regrets. You can use traditional VMs with KVM and also containers with LXC. We use fat KVM VMs and deploy docker containers inside them, plus some Windows and Linux VMs that were virtualized from physical machines. If you need trubleshooting, you have whole arsenal of linux utilities, since it is a traditional Debian underneath it.

[ChadCyr]

Proxmox has been solid for me for 4 years running 11 VMs ranging from UniFi Controller, 3CX PBX, PiHole, Quickbooks, Door Access Control, FTPBackup, Windows Depolyment Server, Minecraft Server with zero downtime. I was a virtualization noob and I was able to set Proxmox up with little effort.

[HowardYoung]

Just moved to Proxmox. Love it. Able to create VM snapshots, create clusters, etc. Very prosumer if not Enterprise. Used XenServer about 15 years ago. Can't say much other than it was difficult to deploy compared to vmware.

[christian]

XCP-ng with Xen Orchestra is a great option, Proxmox has been great for me as well. Moved from VMware and after a short learning curve I’m a fan of PVE (especially using backup server) and have slowly migrated all of my old nodes. Make sure if you cluster to use an odd number. Even if one is just a witness.

[xyipher]

Transitioning from VMware to Hyper-V as a type 1 hypervisor involved a slight learning curve. I've built and manage an entire university campus on Hyper-V, running over 90 server VMs. About seven years ago, I migrated everything from VMware to Hyper-V. As we are primarily a Microsoft environment, this shift saved us approximately $40, 000 annually and has proven to be one of our best decisions. I also implement Hyper-V for smaller businesses I manage on the side. For personal projects, I run multiple instances of Proxmox in my home lab. I've experimented with XCP-ng but didn't quite take to it.

[ColbyPerry]

I've been using Proxmox at home for probably 2 years now with minimal issues. I recently did a fresh install of it on the same h/w so I could build a mirror zfs boot-pool instead of the default single disk.

[rogejedib]

I run proxmox. If you want/need hyperconverged storage, proxmox with ceph is the way to go. If you have a separate shared storage solution or want your vm data separate, xcp-ng will be the most familiar.

[d_must]

I've always used HyperV for this exact reason. To avoid changes of policies, ownership, billing plans etc, from third party companies. I use Windows Server anyway, so I've always went with the built-in solution for my VMs

[AlainMartini]

I have installed proxmox on many bare metals and created clusters, just great. Easy moving vms from one server to another to for maintenances. Easy scheduling of vm backups. Migrating from esx was relatively easy.

[TimBertram]

Proxmox with Proxmox backup server. The combination is spectacular.

[Wahinies]

I use both types, VMW Workstation, Virtualbox, and Windows Sandbox. Most extensive use for Type 1 of Hyper-V and FOC, with some of ESXi, Proxmox, and Xcp-ng. My favorite has been Hyper-v and VMWW followed by Proxmox.

Proxmox HA cluster with ceph storage, Proxmox backup server.

[chrisboyce]

Interesting no mention of Nutanix HCI. There's a community edition as well. Their no-added-cost AHV/AOS combo is solid and runs well on their own branded hardware (but you have choices there, including running VMWare on it). Supports KVM/Qemu images underneath. Easy to build VMs with baked-in support for cloud-init. Easy to add more nodes and/or blocks as demand grows. So many add-ons but requires a budget. It's not a complete discussion without at least mentioning them.

[spearheadconsulting]

What do I use in a business case that will be most solid. As consultants, do you use Proxmox or XCP-NG for your clients?

[TheDarkWayne]

Proxmox all day every day. Been running proxmox for more than 5 years clustered and standalone, was never disappointed. A staple of my lab and IT work.

[JamesGreen-gvyn]

Not only have I been running Proxmox for years now, I have lead my employer to start using it as well and use a couple of Ansible Collections that have several roles that make setting up a cluster and spinning up VMs and LXC containers easy and quick compared to other stuff I have used in the past.

[umka]

Proxmox is great for server setup. I run there few Linux VMs, Windows 10 and Windows 11 VMs and a bunch of LXC containers.
On my PC I moved to Linux few years ago, therefore I use KVM/QEMU with Virt Manager.

[tom]

What about maintaining your enterprise backup and replication software such as Veeam?

[wiziek]

I'm trying proxmox on my very small homelab, it is mini pc with ryzen 7 4800uh and 16gb ram, 512 gb and single network card, was wondering about xpc-ng or xen/citrix fork.

[TVJAY]

I run XCP-NG at home because of the built in backup tool.