I work at an IT company in real life, and my task for next week is to find, order, and install a virtualization package. This is what my supervisor needs: 2 operating systems running at once - one will be Linux, the other will be the latest version of Solaris. The Solaris install will be on a SEPARATE partition from the Linux install, but they both need to be able to run at once. We looked at the following software packages: -VMWare ESX -Xen -Virtuozzo We are seriously considering VMWare ESX, but I am not too experienced on virtualization and neither is my supervisor, so I figured I would ask here to find out what the best virtualization package is in terms of security and speed. Note: The server we're using for this is *very* powerful, and money is not an issue for us, so I'm just looking for the best one possible.
Hi, I'm currently working with Virtuozzo but I can't see any Solaris templates there but I've locally here vmware and i can install any OS , tried Solaris 10 + Centos 5 + Windows XP and all are working great.
So you would reccomend VMWare? Are you using VMWare ESX or just VMWare Server (Server is free, ESX costs a few grand for a license)?
VMware Esx got lots of better options to take care of hypervising rather than VMware server, thats why it costs something . If you are considering a windows hypervisor, Hyper-V is quite a better choice with low investment, and Xen is a better choice to provide true vps as it is some type of bare metal technology. Virtuozzo allows OS based Virtualization which is good in case you are going to host additional vps over the guranteed with bursting capacity. For hosting business, Virtuozzo technique is better while Xen is better in case you need true dedicated environment for your business under the VM.
We are not using Windows at all. The server is going to have some Linux distribution on one partition, and Solaris on another partition. The thing that is going to be on the server is some sort of application which requires a lot of processing power. Anyway, do you think VMware ESX is a good choice or should I tell them that Xen might be better because of the "true dedicated environment" you mention? One thing about Xen - I have heard that it is unstable. The main things we're concerned about are speed, security, and stability, so if Xen is unstable maybe I should not consider it. :X
I strongly disagree with that. You can find most of the vps provider are not offering Xen virutalization with their old virtuozzo packages as people are now understanding they need more stable and true dedicated environment under the VM. Definitely, Xen is better choice then any other for Linux.
Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll pass that information to my supervisor. I have a feeling he'll want to go with VMWare ESX anyway simply because the support is probably better since we will be paying customers, but I will try to see if he will consider Xen. Maybe we can evaluate both and see which one is better for us.