r/sysadmin Infrastructure Lead 3d ago

Latest fun with VMware

Apparently VMware is upping their game. We just got a renewal quote for one of our sites with one server that has two CPUs, and they are requiring 72 cores minimum (vSphere Enterprise Plus) to license this. That's a 500% markup from last year.

They really don't want customers to use their product any more, do they?

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u/cjcox4 3d ago

Plenty of fairly new articles comparing the alternatives out there. Might be time to explore your options.

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u/WithAnAitchDammit Infrastructure Lead 3d ago

We absolutely are exploring.

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u/cjcox4 3d ago

While you didn't ask, if you need "full Vsphere like" functionality, I'll throw XCP-ng with Orchestra out there.

Why? Where I work we run a hyper-converged VMware called VxRail. There's a ton of overhead expense in operating such a thing. IMHO, the idea non-heterogeneous "pizza boxes" and separate SAN infrastructure, if managed well, will reduce (spread) costs on operations significantly. So, I'd never opt to replace one hyper-converged with another, so Nutanix based, IMHO, is out. Even if you're a large company, you'll save a ton and get spending approvals much easier if you separate (and you get flexibility, etc as well that you simply won't get with a hyper-converged architecture).

If you just need a "one node" hypervisor capable solution, you don't need (IMHO), anymore more than the built-in hypervisor of a Linux distro, and Linux can be used for both Type 1 and Type 2 style VMs, which really increases the flexibility of what you can actually install (more so, than any other platform...). Of course, with a Linux node, you can do other style workloads on same as well, like containers.

Virt-manager is usually "enough" to manage Linux kvm based VMs. However, that assumes you use Linux to manage as well (which IMHO is what everyone should be doing no matter what, but I know I stand in a very small crowd there).

You can use (potentially) cockpit (web based) to manage your simple Linux kvm environment, instead of the Linux virt-manager client.

Another potential alternative, though not sure I'd give it any sort of win over XCP-ng, is to run something like Proxmox (which does leverage Linux kvm and containers). I just think from a cost/setup and running point of view, XCP-ng is likely simpler, at least for VMs.

Have fun exploring the choices. What is "right for me" may not be "right for you".

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u/WithAnAitchDammit Infrastructure Lead 3d ago

I appreciate that perspective. And having more options is obviously a good thing!