Sysadmin:VirtualizationComparison

For our new server/network infrastructure, were going virtual. We've been looking into several virtualization technologies. Here is some analysis of the ones we've been considering.

VMWare

Proprietary, but free hypervisor is available (for one server) with lisence key.

Pros

• Simple Install
• Well Known
• High pedagogical value
• Small Footprint
• Bare-Metal

Cons

• Proprietary
• Free Version is pretty crippled
  • Web configuration not available in free version
  • Has issues creating manageable VM's (need to find the evidence -broosa)
  • Only manageable from Windows tool

Xen

Free Hypervisor, runs under Debian/CentOS/Ubuntu kernel. Allows for Paravirtualization

Pros

• Free, open source (commercial support available)
• Manageable using separate VM image (Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc)
• Runs underneath the linux kernel
• Well Supported (bugfixes)
• Very farmiliar interface
• Integrates well with linux software (LVM VM backing, network shares, etc etc)
• Uses linux bridges for networking
• Adding VM's is quite simple
• May allow for live migration of VM's using networked FS

Cons

• Slightly more complex setup
• Needs some manual network config
• Also needs partition configuration to work well
• GUI management tools aren't as polished
• May have a larger footprint than VMWare

Virtualbox on debian

Cons

• Extremely gui orienated. In order to run Debian Virtualbox in "headless mode" (without a gui/windowing system) extra packages including third-party software must be installed such as Virtualbox extention pack 1, VDRE, and a RDP viewer.
• Accessing a vm requires port fowarding.

Pros

• Creating a new vm is easy.
• Duplicating a vm is easy.