00:00hey everyone I'm Brandon Lee and welcome
00:02back to virtualization out 2 today we're
00:05diving into a Hot Topic in the
00:07virtualization landscape and Technology
00:09landscape in general in case you haven't
00:12heard which is doubtful VMware esxi free
00:15edition is no longer available and many
00:18are searching for a free hypervisor
00:20solution that will allow them to not
00:23only experiment and run software and
00:26apps in their home lab environment but
00:28also organization worldwide are looking
00:32at their options following the broadcom
00:34purchase of VMware and the absolutely
00:38tectonic massive changes that they have
00:42made and continue to make in this
00:45episode we're going to explore what I
00:47think are the best free hypervisors
00:50available for your home labs and for
00:53production outside of the VMware vsphere
01:09so rest in peace VMware esxi free
01:11edition uh it's definitely a a
01:14virtualization hypervisor to remember
01:17but let's now pivot to the topic at hand
01:21let's look at the first free hypervisor
01:24that you may not be familiar with well
01:26first up is nanic Community Edition now
01:30many do not realize this but new tanx
01:32has a free edition of its Enterprise
01:34hypervisor that I have covered in a blog
01:36post recently uh new tanx Community
01:39Edition has very few limitations uh in
01:43fact way fewer limitations than VMware
01:45free edition you can build up to a four
01:47node cluster with the free edition of
01:50nanic and this is something you can sign
01:53up for download for totally free also
01:56something that I wrote about recently
01:57that I I feel is a key part of what you
02:00want to migrate to is that nanx has a
02:04move utility and that's what it's called
02:06the nanic move utility and this nanic
02:10move utility is a great tool that has
02:12the Enterprise polish as well uh just
02:16hypervisor you can simply add the source
02:19of your move and the destination of your
02:21move and it has all the integration and
02:23automation that you would expect from
02:26and with VMware VSS spere environments
02:29and and it allows you to move VMS
02:32flawlessly uh in fact it will automate
02:35the entire move process it will uh
02:38create the snapshots and V Vere it will
02:40pull the data over then it will automate
02:43the process of shutting down the source
02:45virtual machine and bringing up the
02:47target virtual machine inside of nanic
02:50so uh has that automation so that's
02:53something that you want to think about
02:54not only how awesome is the hypervisor
02:57that I want to go to how easily can I
03:00get there so it's a super slick solution
03:03and I think it's a really great one to
03:05have on the list now I know many May
03:07disagree with me to have a Enterprise
03:10solution like nanx on the list it's not
03:12free and open source however I think
03:15it's a really great solution to check
03:17out and also I think we will see huge
03:20adoption of nanic in the SMB and
03:23midmarket now with VMware going the way
03:25that it has um so spinning up a nanic
03:29and environment at home is going to be a
03:31great way to build skills with nanic if
03:35you've never had your hands on it before
03:37getting that in your home lab and you
03:39can do that totally free and the nanic
03:42move utility is also totally free well
03:46next on the list we have one that needs
03:48no introduction especially in the home
03:50lab Community it's proxmox ve uh proxmox
03:54is a robust and very scalable Solution
03:57that's built on the free and open source
03:59hyper visor konel virtual machine or kbm
04:02and it's gaining massive popularity for
04:06uh the features the capabilities
04:08including clustering live migration
04:11failover uh snapshots uh also with
04:14proxmox one of the cool things that you
04:15can do and I've blogged about this uh
04:18and created videos about the free HCI
04:22solution called Seth and this
04:25integration is built right into the
04:26proxmox interface you can spin up a seph
04:29HCI cluster and it has all of those
04:32features built in so that you can run
04:34hypercon converge storage on top of your
04:36proxmox cluster now one of the hurdles I
04:39see with proxo especially migrating
04:41virtual machines from VMware is that
04:43there's not really a slick utility that
04:46is provided by proxmox to do this uh
04:49you'll see a lot of processes out there
04:51that are successful however you must
04:54export your virtual machines and VMware
04:56to ovf files you've got to copy those
04:59obf files over to your proxmox server
05:02you've got to run a con a conversion of
05:04those discs before you spin those up as
05:07new virtual machines uh so I love the
05:11solution however I I do see that as a
05:15hurdle uh when we look at just the pure
05:17context of migrating uh virtual machines
05:20it may not be for the faint of heart
05:22especially when I think about migrating
05:24dozens or even hundreds of virtual
05:26machines from VMware to prox mod
05:30um that is really going to be uh tricky
05:33especially for larger environments
05:36however again it is a great solution uh
05:39with many great features including a
05:41backup solution that comes along with
05:44the hypervisor that's a free download so
05:47you can potentially go to a free
05:48hypervisor free backup software so you
05:52you're not tied to an Enterprise backup
05:54solution like we find ourselves being
05:57with the VMware vsphere ecosystem system
06:00now next on the list is xcp NG now xcp
06:05is a really excellent free and
06:08open-source project that was started in
06:102017 by a company called Vates and I
06:14will say that xcp and offers perhaps one
06:17of the most VMware like management
06:21experiences uh when you look at
06:22operations and how things are managed
06:25and carried out in VMware xcp and uh
06:28really sticks closely with that
06:30management model uh in fact the company
06:33behind xpg Vates uh they provide not
06:36only a hypervisor for free but they
06:39provide this management Appliance called
06:41Zen Orchestra now Zen Orchestra or XO
06:45for short as you'll hear it referred to
06:49it's very Venter like in its operation
06:52uh and the capabilities that it provides
06:53for the environment so you will stand up
06:56the hypervisor first and then much like
06:58VMR here you're going to stand up your
07:01Exo management Appliance on top of the
07:05xng host and then it unlocks other
07:09features uh that allow you to uh do many
07:13really cool things if you're using this
07:15for a production environment now one of
07:18the cool things that I think stands out
07:20about xcp uh when compared to other
07:23Solutions as we've already mentioned it
07:25has a built-in migration utility from
07:28VMware vsphere here so you can connect
07:31xcp or Zen Orchestra to your vcenter
07:35server then you can pull over those
07:37virtual machines that you want to
07:39migrate to your xpg environment and then
07:42literally power those up as new virtual
07:44machines inside of xcp and that's
07:48something that you can do much easier
07:50than you can migrating virtual machines
07:53uh with proxmox and its solution and it
07:55has all the enterpris features that you
07:57would expect built in backup solution
08:00just like proxmox so it's kind of an
08:02all-in-one all-encompassing solution
08:04that I think is going to be a great
08:06solution not only for home lab
08:08environments but also for production
08:11business organization uh scenarios and
08:14Enterprise data center next on the list
08:18hypervisors now the world of kubernetes
08:20based hypervisors like cubt and one that
08:23is especially wellknown Rancher
08:26Harvester those Solutions are are
08:28emerging as a uh hypervisor solution
08:32that many are giving serious attention
08:34to and these platforms offer flexibility
08:38and innovation in handling virtual
08:40machines alongside containers really in
08:43some ways better than the traditional
08:45hypervisors that we've seen in
08:47Enterprise data center however one thing
08:49I will say about these is they still
08:51feel very new kubernetes the underlying
08:54technology that powers couvert is a
08:57technology that's still not well stood
09:00uh in the Enterprise by uh traditional
09:03admins and so that in itself is going to
09:05add a layer of complexity to that
09:08underlying solution for troubleshooting
09:10for management life cycle management Etc
09:13going from where many are today with VMV
09:16sphere some of the more uh traditional
09:19open- Source hypervisor Solutions like
09:22uh proxmox xcp and G I think those are
09:25going to be safer options instead of
09:27diving off into cu and kubernetes based
09:31virtualization however you guys may
09:33disagree with that and and please do in
09:35the comments let me know if you're
09:37seeing some really slick Solutions out
09:39there utilizing Solutions based on
09:41kuvert running on top of kubernetes the
09:44last solution that I want to mention is
09:47vanilla KVM so we've mentioned KVM based
09:50distributions like proxmox actually new
09:53tanic was originally built from kbm now
09:56for those that prefer a straightforward
09:58approach and you don't want to go with a
10:01prepackaged KVM like proxmox or nanic or
10:05other KVM based Solutions you can
10:07actually roll your own Solution by
10:10simply just installing a Linux drro and
10:12then adding KVM to that Linux drro so
10:15you could pick a a Dr like a buntu
10:18Debian or one of the others that you
10:21want to make use of with the solution
10:23add KVM and then you can start running
10:25virtual machines but with something like
10:27this you're not going to have all the
10:28built-in tools that you're used to with
10:31something like proxmox on the free and
10:33open source side of kbm or nanx on the
10:36interprise clo source side of KVM those
10:40are very slick they've they've got
10:42maturity uh they have those uh really
10:45nice bells and whistles that already
10:47built in so when you roll your own KVM
10:49and install that package uh you're going
10:52to not have a lot of those fancy tools
10:55and dashboards that you may be used to
10:57now there are a lot of great open-
10:58source Solutions out there for
11:00dashboards and for other Integrations
11:02with KVM don't get me wrong however just
11:06keep that in mind that it is something
11:08that U maybe will be a challenge as
11:10opposed to going with one of the
11:12pre-built KVM Solutions well keep in
11:15mind these are only a few of the free
11:17hypervisor Solutions out there uh the
11:20community that I'm seeing and the
11:22conversations that I'm seeing happening
11:25remains vibrant and everyone is is being
11:28extremely resourceful
11:29as a look at options so whether you're a
11:32veteran or new to the Enterprise
11:34virtualization scene there's no doubt a
11:37solution out there for you and for your
11:40organization don't forget to like share
11:42and subscribe for more insights and
11:45tutorials got a lot of great content
11:47coming your way and join the
11:49conversation our Forums on the VHC
11:51Forums on virtualization howto or in the
11:54comments for this video well I'm Brandon
11:57Lee please do stay safe out there keep
11:59on home labbing and I will see you guys
