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I run esxi on my (admittedly beefy), home server. It is a fantastic piece of software that can be completely controlled through a web browser. I can easily sp

by influx 4y ago

I run esxi on my (admittedly beefy), home server. It is a fantastic piece of software that can be completely controlled through a web browser. I can easily spin up a couple of VMs, interact with the install without having to use a remote virtual keyboard/video switch, and the whole thing is rock solid. I could probably do a lot of the same thing with Linux itself, but the web interface is so nice, I'm keeping it as long as it continues to be free for home use.

stormbrew 4y ago
I’d be really interested in an “i used both” comparison between esxi’s free offering and proxmox for this sort of purpose. I imagine esxi might be more polished, but also more limited.
- pkulak 4y ago
  I use Proxmox and can do everything OP just described. I would assume the esxi is more polished, but I don't spend a heck of a lot of time on my hypervisor; mostly on what it's hypervising.
- nyx 4y ago
  I've used both, though not for anything especially complicated. Your guess about the polish level is correct; ESXi blows Proxmox out of the water interface-wise, especially for some specific tasks like configuring networks or managing PCI passthrough devices. As far as "more limited" goes, I can't say I noticed much of a feature discrepancy, although being open and just sitting atop KVM, Proxmox doesn't have any of the artificial limitations imposed by VMware (like a cap on number of vCPUs in the free version, eugh). One pretty big one, if you're looking at homelab use, is that Proxmox is just Debian, so it's waaaay more likely to run on crap-tier commodity hardware, whereas VMware has all the usual enterprise-level support commitments and so you're very much on your own if you try to force it to run on hardware that isn't on their official compatibility list.
  - stormbrew 4y ago
    > Proxmox doesn't have any of the artificial limitations imposed by VMware (like a cap on number of vCPUs in the free version, eugh). These were what i was thinking of yeah.
  - influx 4y ago
    Excellent point on hardware support. I'm running several years old Xeon chips in my server, and ESXI is already complaining they might not be supported in a future release.
  - koyote 4y ago
    > One pretty big one, if you're looking at homelab use, is that Proxmox is just Debian, so it's waaaay more likely to run on crap-tier commodity hardware That was my first (and last) hurdle when wanting to try out ESXi... I booted up the installer only to be greeted by a "not enough RAM" message. I believe it's 4GB minimum, which my tiny machine had, but ESXi read it as 3.9GB instead of 4.0GB and refused to budge. Very happy with Proxmox on the other hand! Having access to the underlying Debian is also quite nice if you need to do something that's not supported by the interface.
  - unixhero 4y ago
    Proxmox also has native container workload virtualization with LXC container support built right in and ZFS filesystem. Two killer features.
    - halo37253 4y ago
      You are better off running a VM for dockers. That way that entire VM is portable. The ZFS Filesystem is a nice feature
bityard 4y ago
You can do the same thing with Proxmox VE. IMO, Proxmox is a much better choice for stand-alone VM hosts. The UI alone is certainly miles better. Where VMware shines is when you want to virtualize multiple datacenters and manage them all from a single browser window. Getting hundreds of hosts and datastores managed all under one vCenter umbrella all while eliminating single points of failure, while not trivial, is the bread and butter of VMware and it works very well once it's all up and running.
- andyman1080 4y ago
  not super critical but is there a terraform provider for proxmox? I looked at proxmox a while back when building my home server but went with esxi free because of the community provider - https://github.com/josenk/terraform-provider-esxi https://github.com/josenk/terraform-provider-esxi
- halo37253 4y ago
  As Someone that runs Proxmox and ESXI. That is hardly true. The ESXI UI is vastly cleaner and more VM Focused. The network stack is easier to work with, and setting up passthrough is dead easy. A big plus to ESXI is how easy it is to export a VM and move it to another machine. The Export/Import method on Proxmox sucks, and all CLI. Plus there are a lot of premade VMware images out there that spool up in minuets on ESXI, getting them up and running on proxmox is a chore. Proxmox is not bad if doing everything from scratch in Proxmox, and you don't need to move VMs arount. Plus don't get me started on lack of a filebrowser on proxmox. Performance is better with ESXI anyways. Only downside to ESXI is hardware limitations.
- phpisthebest 4y ago
  Proxmox fall down on Enterprise tooling and integration with other software enterprises use to run the business Things like Monitoring Platforms, Backup Solutions (veeam), Automation tool kits (powershell), etc. I like Proxmox, I use it personally, but in its current form I do not see how any medium or large enterprise that has is management tooling around VMWare could just drop in proxmox.

by influx 4y ago

stormbrew 4y ago

I’d be really interested in an “i used both” comparison between esxi’s free offering and proxmox for this sort of purpose. I imagine esxi might be more polished, but also more limited.

pkulak 4y ago
I use Proxmox and can do everything OP just described. I would assume the esxi is more polished, but I don't spend a heck of a lot of time on my hypervisor; mostly on what it's hypervising.
nyx 4y ago
I've used both, though not for anything especially complicated. Your guess about the polish level is correct; ESXi blows Proxmox out of the water interface-wise, especially for some specific tasks like configuring networks or managing PCI passthrough devices. As far as "more limited" goes, I can't say I noticed much of a feature discrepancy, although being open and just sitting atop KVM, Proxmox doesn't have any of the artificial limitations imposed by VMware (like a cap on number of vCPUs in the free version, eugh). One pretty big one, if you're looking at homelab use, is that Proxmox is just Debian, so it's waaaay more likely to run on crap-tier commodity hardware, whereas VMware has all the usual enterprise-level support commitments and so you're very much on your own if you try to force it to run on hardware that isn't on their official compatibility list.
- stormbrew 4y ago
  > Proxmox doesn't have any of the artificial limitations imposed by VMware (like a cap on number of vCPUs in the free version, eugh). These were what i was thinking of yeah.
- influx 4y ago
  Excellent point on hardware support. I'm running several years old Xeon chips in my server, and ESXI is already complaining they might not be supported in a future release.
- koyote 4y ago
  > One pretty big one, if you're looking at homelab use, is that Proxmox is just Debian, so it's waaaay more likely to run on crap-tier commodity hardware That was my first (and last) hurdle when wanting to try out ESXi... I booted up the installer only to be greeted by a "not enough RAM" message. I believe it's 4GB minimum, which my tiny machine had, but ESXi read it as 3.9GB instead of 4.0GB and refused to budge. Very happy with Proxmox on the other hand! Having access to the underlying Debian is also quite nice if you need to do something that's not supported by the interface.
- unixhero 4y ago
  Proxmox also has native container workload virtualization with LXC container support built right in and ZFS filesystem. Two killer features.
  - halo37253 4y ago
    You are better off running a VM for dockers. That way that entire VM is portable. The ZFS Filesystem is a nice feature

bityard 4y ago

You can do the same thing with Proxmox VE. IMO, Proxmox is a much better choice for stand-alone VM hosts. The UI alone is certainly miles better. Where VMware shines is when you want to virtualize multiple datacenters and manage them all from a single browser window. Getting hundreds of hosts and datastores managed all under one vCenter umbrella all while eliminating single points of failure, while not trivial, is the bread and butter of VMware and it works very well once it's all up and running.

andyman1080 4y ago
not super critical but is there a terraform provider for proxmox? I looked at proxmox a while back when building my home server but went with esxi free because of the community provider - https://github.com/josenk/terraform-provider-esxi https://github.com/josenk/terraform-provider-esxi
halo37253 4y ago
As Someone that runs Proxmox and ESXI. That is hardly true. The ESXI UI is vastly cleaner and more VM Focused. The network stack is easier to work with, and setting up passthrough is dead easy. A big plus to ESXI is how easy it is to export a VM and move it to another machine. The Export/Import method on Proxmox sucks, and all CLI. Plus there are a lot of premade VMware images out there that spool up in minuets on ESXI, getting them up and running on proxmox is a chore. Proxmox is not bad if doing everything from scratch in Proxmox, and you don't need to move VMs arount. Plus don't get me started on lack of a filebrowser on proxmox. Performance is better with ESXI anyways. Only downside to ESXI is hardware limitations.
phpisthebest 4y ago
Proxmox fall down on Enterprise tooling and integration with other software enterprises use to run the business Things like Monitoring Platforms, Backup Solutions (veeam), Automation tool kits (powershell), etc. I like Proxmox, I use it personally, but in its current form I do not see how any medium or large enterprise that has is management tooling around VMWare could just drop in proxmox.