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Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

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Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#41

Post by rufugee »

matthew-wegner wrote: post #21

I'm in game development, and I run ESXi for two reasons: * Unmodified macOS guest VMs can run under ESXi (if you're reading this on macOS, you have an Apple-made VMXNet3 network adapter driver on your system--see /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVmxnet3Ethernet.kext ) * Accelerated 3D has reasonable guest support, even as pure software. You wouldn't want to work in one of those…

Does this work with VMWare Workstation as well? I'd love to run macOS in a VM on my Linux desktop for the few apps I have to use on macOS...

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#42

Post by mavhc »

bluedino wrote: post #38

It's the ecosystem. Sure, your organization is spending another million dollars on VMware this year, but what are the options? * Your outsourced VMware-certified experts don't actually know that much about virtualization (somehow) * Your backup software provider is just now researching adding Proxmox support ( https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/22/veeam_proxmox_oracle_... ) * A few years ago you 'reduced storage cos…

Your outsourced experts are actually just people with google.

Proxmox on zfs means zfs snapshot send/receive, simple. I made my own immutable zfs backup system for £5

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#43

Post by mavhc »

nolok wrote: post #31
zettabomb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't concur. VMware was the leader in virtualization technology for a long time, and honestly nothing is quite as simple to start with as ESXi if you've never used a type 1 hypervisor before. I'm not so familiar with the APIs, so perhaps you're correct in that sense.

> nothing is quite as simple to start with as ESXi if you've never used a type 1 hypervisor before Not sure about where ESXi is at lately on that level, but latest proxmox is really, really simple to start with if you've never used an hypervisor. You boot on the usb drive, press yes a few times, open the ip:port they give you and then you can click "create vm", next next next here is the iso to boot from and that's i…

also does zfs raidz boot in the installer

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#44

Post by zerkten »

rufugee wrote: post #41
matthew-wegner wrote: post #21

I'm in game development, and I run ESXi for two reasons: * Unmodified macOS guest VMs can run under ESXi (if you're reading this on macOS, you have an Apple-made VMXNet3 network adapter driver on your system--see /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVmxnet3Ethernet.kext ) * Accelerated 3D has reasonable guest support, even as pure software. You wouldn't want to work in one of those…

Does this work with VMWare Workstation as well? I'd love to run macOS in a VM on my Linux desktop for the few apps I have to use on macOS...

It has in the past for me, but I haven't run it since 2021.

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#45

Post by moondev »

matthew-wegner wrote: post #21

I'm in game development, and I run ESXi for two reasons: * Unmodified macOS guest VMs can run under ESXi (if you're reading this on macOS, you have an Apple-made VMXNet3 network adapter driver on your system--see /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVmxnet3Ethernet.kext ) * Accelerated 3D has reasonable guest support, even as pure software. You wouldn't want to work in one of those…

Nested virtualization also works great on ESXi for macOS guests ( so you can run docker desktop if so inclined ). I believe this is possible with proxmox as well with CPU=host but have not tried it.

For graphics, another cool thing is intel iGPU pci passthrough - I have had success with this when running esxi on my 2018 mac mini https://williamlam.com/2020/06/passthrough-of-integrated-gpu...

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#46

Post by F00Fbug »

I spent 15 years managing a VMware-centric data center. I ran the free version at home for at least 5 years. When I ran out of vCPUs on my free license I switched to Proxmox and the migration was almost painless. This new tool should help even more.

For most vanilla hosting, you could get away with Proxmox and be just fine. I've been running it for at least 5 years in my basement and haven't had a single hiccup. I bet a lot of VMware customers will be jumping ship when their licenses expire.

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#47

Post by mianos »

candiddevmike wrote: post #11
blaerk wrote: post #7

I really hope the crazy prize increase of vmware products will end the use of esxi and the rest of the vsphere suite, it is one of the worst applications and apis i have ever had the displeasure of working with!

VMware has a track record of pretty great reliability across a vast array of hardware. Yes, the APIs suck, but they're a case study on tech debt: vSphere is basically the Windows equivalent of datacenter APIs. They chose the best technology at the time (2009, which meant SOAP, Powershell, XML, etc) and had too much inertia to rework it.

Not to mention how flakey it is at scale. There is always some vmware guy who replies to me saying how good it is, but if you have thousands of VMs it is a random crapshoot. Something you just don't see with say AWS and Azure at similar scale. It reaks of old age and hack on hack over many years, and that is saying something when compared to AWS.

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#48

Post by gruturo »

shrubble wrote: post #9

I am researching whether to buy puts on AVGO (Broadcom, owner of VMware) since I believe their Vmware revenue will crater in 12 months or so. They took on 32 billion in debt to buy VMW also, which will tank their stock price, I think.

It never takes as little as you (or others, myself included) think it should. Big companies have a lot of inertia and changing anything which is working today, even if it saves a lot, attached your name to the risk it will fail horribly, so you'd be reluctant to suggest it, esp. since it's usually not your own money (your budget maybe, but not your own money).

Broadcom knows this very well and likely turned the price screw exactly right - just before the breaking point for the critical mass of their customers.

What I think will lead to the eventual implosion of VMware's market share, on a longer timescale, is the removal of free ESXi. Many people acquire familiarity with small scale/home/demo labs or PoC prototypes, then they recommend going with what they're familiar with. This led Microsoft where they are now, by always giving big discounts to students and never going too hard on those running cracked copies. They saw it as an investment and they were bloody right. If the product had been better it would completely dominate now, but even as shoddy as it is, it's a huge cash cow.

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#49

Post by kazen44 »

c0l0 wrote: post #34
kazen44 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i would disagree with you there, especially because there is very little on the sdn front which matches NSX-T in terms of SDN capabilities, this is something in which vmware has been ahead, the only other people with the same capabilities seem to be hyperscalers.

Take a look at Proxmox SDN features: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-pvesdn.html (some of it is still in beta, I think). I think it comes pretty close - close enough for probably most but the very largest of users, who, I think, should probably have tried to become hyperscalers themselves, instead of betting the farm and all the land around it on VMware (by Broadcom).

the thing it is mainly missing is multi-tenancy self service. (ipam integration seems very nice though).

NSX allows you to create seperate clusters which hosts VM's which run the routing and firewalling functionality.

Re: Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs

#50

Post by gonzo »

bityard wrote: post #13
shrubble wrote: post #9

I am researching whether to buy puts on AVGO (Broadcom, owner of VMware) since I believe their Vmware revenue will crater in 12 months or so. They took on 32 billion in debt to buy VMW also, which will tank their stock price, I think.

All of AVGO/Broadcom's moves with VMware have been to keep revenue somewhat steady by focusing on their biggest customers locked into their ecosystem, while drastically cutting back everything else to lower expenses. This should produce excellent short-term financial results which the market will very likely reward with a higher stock price over the next year or two. The board and C-suites know what they are doing. O…

so they sell the husk of VMware back to Dell when they're done.
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