I must say I am a newbie in terms of virtualization, I'm planning to study one of this (proxmox, vmware).

What should I study first? For the pro and experienced users what would you recommend or any tip/advice? thanks.

Hi nejnej25,

I would recommend a 3rd alternative: Virtualbox. Second choice for me would be VMWare. If you are using a Linux host (I assume you are, otherwise you wouldn't be asking your question on this particular forum ...), you can also try KVM with QEMM and libvirt. I have had experience with all 3 of these solutions, and they all work as advertised. I list them according to my perception of ease of use for an inexperienced user just starting to experiment with type 2 hypervisors (OS-dependant virtualization solutions).

I have only briefly heard of Proxmox so I can't offer any useful advice on it. However, there are members here that have experience with it - they may chime in.

Cheers and good luck.

Hi, thanks for your input. Well I used VirtualBox everyday because I run my VM guests OS on it. I just want to learn type 1 virtualization for me to upgrade my skills and so I can use it in work/industry. I'm confused about the two but I found first the VMWare because I thinks its the most popular virtualization in an enterprise?

Hey nejnej25,

Ah - OK - so you're looking for Type 1 (bare-metal) hypervisors (these don't require an operating system before installing on a server whereas as Type 2 does).

VMWare VSPhere / ESXi, Microsoft HyperV and Xen / Citrix XenServer are the 3 enterprise-level Type 1 hypervisor solutions I've come across most often in my career. Can't help you with usage as I've never actually experimented with them personally.

Cheers and good luck !

Yes exactly, is it good if I start first on VMWare? I think most of the companies rely on this virtual environment? Btw, thanks for the input sir!

VMWare would indeed be a good start - Happy learning !

... and you are most welcome for the suggestions.

Now, my experience is not extensive, but in the two enterprise environments I've worked in, I've seen VMWare. It seems, to me, to be the most prevalent bare metal virtualization solution out there.

I could be wrong. It's happened before, at least twice.

VMware Workstation is better then proxmox. That's widespeard and easier to learn.

Part I. I will be upfront and say I have extensive VMware experience from small portable transient deployments to multi-site, datacenter, clusters, etc... The reason I have more VMware experience opposed to the other options is that under real time operational environments VMware has proven to out perform and is extremely reliable. That's not saying the other options are a bad choice, but when is comes to mission critical workloads, VMware is favorable.....

Part II. That does not mean VMware is difficult to setup or run, it's actually quite self explanatory. ESXi is what you will want as a bare metal hypervisor you can download it for free after signing up with an account. For a free type-1 hypervisor, it provides plenty of room to grow and learn until something larger is required. VMware also provides optional sdk's for managing your vSphere environment. There's a bit of VMware jargon to understand but it doesn't take long.... e.g. vSphere is not the actual hypervisor, vCenter manages the hypervisors, but the actual software you'll put onto a server is called ESXi. This has gone through many iterations over the years as far as the true distro behind it. Essentially their own customized build but was at some time a derivative of enterprise linux. My advice is, if you need a type 1 hypervisor to play with and test, download the free ESXi, you can even run it on a laptop is very simple.

For study you may wish to use both.

There are many factors affecting a choice for use. Firstly is features. Some VM technology have some highly integrated hardware features. The software features are extensive and grow every day.

How you wish to interact with the clients is also a major issue. Some have almost no gui type interaction to some that are very gui oriented.