[Info-vax] VMWARE/ESXi Linux

[Matthew R. Wilson]

On 2024-11-28, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:24 +0000 (GMT Standard Time), John Dallman wrote:
>
>> In article <vi84pm$6ct6$4 at dont-email.me>, ldo at nz.invalid (Lawrence
>> D'Oliveiro) wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, 27 Nov 2024 16:33:56 -0500, David Turner wrote:
>>>
>>>> I keep being told that VMWARE is not an OS in itself.
>>>> But it is... based on Ubuntu Kernel....  stripped down but still
>>>> Linux
>>> 
>>> And not even using the native KVM virtualization architecture that is
>>> built into Linux.
>> 
>> History: VMware ESXi was released in 2001 and KVM was merged into the
>> Linux kernel in 2007.
>
> In other words, VMware has long been obsoleted by better solutions.

Please explain how ESXi is obsolete, and how KVM is a better solution.

Both KVM and ESXi use the processor's VT-d (or AMD's equivalent, AMD-Vi)
extensions on x86 to efficiently handle instructions that require
hypervisor intervention. I'm not sure how you'd judge which one is a
better solution in that regard. So the only thing that matters, really,
is the virtualization of everything other than the processor itself.

KVM is largely dependent on qemu to provide the rest of the actual
virtual system. qemu's a great project and I run a ton of desktop VMs
with qemu+KVM, but it just doesn't have the level of maturity or
edge-case support that ESXi does. Pretty much any x86 operating system,
historical or current, _just works_ in ESXi.  With qemu+KVM, you're
going to have good success with the "big name" OSes...Windows, Linux,
the major BSDs, etc., but you're going to be fighting with quirks and
problems if you're trying, say, old OS/2 releases. That's not relevant
for most people looking for virtualization solutions, and the problems
aren't always insurmountable, but you're claiming that KVM is a "better"
solution, whereas in my experience, in reality, ESXi is the better
technology.

(As an aside, VMWare's _desktop_ [not server] virtualization product,
VMWare Workstation, looks like it's making moves to use KVM under the
hood, but they have said they will continue using their own proprietary
virtual devices and drivers, which is really what sets VMWare apart from
qemu. This is a move they've already made on both the Windows and Mac OS
version of VMWare Workstation if I understand correctly [utilizing
Hyper-V and Apple's Virtualization framework]. This makes sense... as I
said, the underlying virtualization of the processor is being handled by
the VT-x capabilities of the processor whether you're using VMWare,
VirtualBox, KVM, etc., so when running a desktop product under Linux,
you may as well use KVM but you still need other software to build the
rest of the virtual system and its virtual devices, so that's where
VMWare and qemu will still differentiate themselves. None of this is
relevant for ESXi, though, because as has been pointed out earlier in
the thread, it is not running on Linux at all, so VMKernel is providing
its own implementation of, essentially, what KVM provides in the Linux
kernel.)

qemu and KVM have the huge advantage that they are open source and free
software, of course, whereas ESXi (and vCenter) are closed source and
expensive (barring the old no-cost ESXi license).

But ESXi just works. It's solid, it has a huge infrastructure around it
for vSAN stuff, virtual networking management, vMotion "just works," I
find the management interface nicer than, say, Proxmox (although Proxmox
is an impressive product), etc.

It's sad to see Broadcom is going to do everything they can to drive
away the VMWare customer base. VMWare will lose its market-leader
position, FAR fewer people will learn about it and experiment with it
since Broadcom killed the no-cost ESXi licenses, and popularity of
Proxmox is going to skyrocket, I suspect. Which isn't a bad thing --
when open source solutions get attention and traction, they continue to
improve, and as I said earlier, Proxmox is already an impressive product
so I look forward to its future.

But make no mistake: VMWare was -- and I'd say still is -- the gold
standard for virtualization, both on the server (ESXi) and the
workstation (VMWare Workstation). VMWare's downfall at the hands of
Broadcom will 100% be due to Broadcom's business practices, not
technology.

I'm a bit of a free software zealot, yet even I still use ESXi for my
"real" servers. I do look forward to eventually replacing my ESXi boxes
with Proxmox for philosophical reasons, but I'm in no rush.

-Matthew