Migrate Xenserver to VMware - Good idea?

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Stril

Member
Sep 26, 2017
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Hi!

At the moment, I am using Xenserver with 8 hosts and about 100 VMs (50:50 Windows/Linux). Everything is working as it should, BUT:

I am really worried about the future of Xen and Xenserver. As the biggest player amazon stopped using Xen, I think, it has not enough background-supporters to be competitive in the future.

What do you think?

Would you recommend to go to VMWare?
What do you think about the performance of both solutions?

Thank you for your thoughts

Stril
 

maze

Active Member
Apr 27, 2013
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We just migrated about 50 servers (all windows) from xen to vmware. We went from guys wanting Xen to new guys wanting Vmware which was basically the reason.. And our inhouse skills are not for xen, but rather vmware.

Also my experience with running on vmware is better than what on xen - but might be due to shitty setup etc.. cant say for sure :)
 

markpower28

Active Member
Apr 9, 2013
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Hypervisor becomes commodity since Windows 2008 R2. Performance is not much difference with modem CPU/RAM/SSD, the main difference is the management piece. VMware has the best management suite and ecosystem for backup, AV, etc. MS Hypervisor has a very good ecosystem as well. Xen/KVM on the other hand not so much.

Then it comes with software cost and hard cost.

Hard cost:
VMware is more expensive compared to others. MS datacenter edition entitles licenses to all VMs on it which is very attractive. Xen/KVM is almost cost nothing.

Soft cost: VMware is the most stable platform with minimum knowledge and effort to make it run smooth. MS Hyper-V does require more attention since it's still Windows in nature. Xen/KVM will require manual scripting/tunning to make it more usable.

It goes down to where you wan to spend the money. (more expensive solution on hard cost vs. more labor to maintain it)
 

ecosse

Active Member
Jul 2, 2013
463
111
43
Hi!

At the moment, I am using Xenserver with 8 hosts and about 100 VMs (50:50 Windows/Linux). Everything is working as it should, BUT:

I am really worried about the future of Xen and Xenserver. As the biggest player amazon stopped using Xen, I think, it has not enough background-supporters to be competitive in the future.

What do you think?

Would you recommend to go to VMWare?
What do you think about the performance of both solutions?

Thank you for your thoughts

Stril
I'm not familiar with the lifecycle of Xen but I'd move because of a solid feature set I require not because some undefined future state. For example, if your SAN is also coming up for renewal then it could be a trigger to go down the VSAN route. Maybe the enhanced network features of VMware are compelling. It doesn't come cheap though.
I'd also take a long hard look at a docker based solution and depending on your usage model cloud.
 

Stril

Member
Sep 26, 2017
191
12
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Hi!

Thank you!

Today, Xenserver is great, but I do not see much future. Hyper-V is "out" because of the licensing problems (running Linux VMs on Hyper-V can be a problem with CALs).

Do you have any experiences with VSAN? The alternative would be a "non-Windows-based" storage like a ZFS-storage.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Today, Xenserver is great, but I do not see much future. Hyper-V is "out" because of the licensing problems (running Linux VMs on Hyper-V can be a problem with CALs).
Istn't Hyper-V free like free beer?
I thought you need cals only when you use windows server with the hyper-v role.
 

Stril

Member
Sep 26, 2017
191
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Hi!

Yes, Hyper-V is free as beer, if it is not installed as Windows-role, BUT:

Hyper-V is only interesting, if used with any management-console and best with windows-storage.

One example:
Windows-Cluster as storage-server for Hyper-V
Linux VM is using that storage -> Users on Linux VM are using the storage "indirect" --> user need CALs.

My Microsoft-licensing-man has warned me, that I could get into trouble, because microsoft could see CALs everywhere...
 

SGN

Member
Oct 3, 2016
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There is still XCP-ng. XenServer fork with all features enabled and tottaly free. It has possibility to move from XS with no down time.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Linux users need not have a share mounted from windows uninf samba, just as easy to provide a Linux VM a block device and share via NFS for example.
Cals never come into the picture.

Not the comment about clustered storage (s2d and even failover) is correct it has costs (so does VMware with vsan), management tools for both cost $$

Best think for an all Linux shop is probably migrate to KVM when it makes sense for you (eg hardware refresh time so you can test really well and migrate slowly)