[SOLVED] RHEL Virtualization vs VMWare ESX

I work on VMWWare ESX for running VMs.. now as RHEL also claims that RHEV is as same as VMWare ESX..

Just curious to know is it really RHEV works as VMWare ESX in the area of virtualization.

VMWare is really a high cost product for virutualization and as per RedHat they say it is free with RHEL License??

Can someone help me here to compare these two product??

If it is really useful then why not i should migrate my VMs and host to RHEL Virtualization to save money

Any help would be really appreciated??

Thanks
VJ

Hi VJ.

I can offer what I know which, most likely, is not that much.

This info is good as of Q4 2012 (Oct-Dec 2012)
-I remember when Red Hat was gaining market penetration based on their price model and then VMWare changed their pricing model as to not lose any more customers.
-I had a chance to play with RHEV and the learning curve was def a bit higher than ESX
-RHEV only supported Linux and Windows VM's
-If you have a Red Hat rep ask them for a 30-day eval and some information on benchmarks

Hope that helps

There are several types of virtualization Red Hat provide, the one that comes free with a RHEL subscription, is basic localhost KVM, managed by virt-manager and libvirt.
RHEV is for datacentre virtualization, like vsphere, and it requires additional subscriptions, the good news being, if you use RHEV-H you don't need to buy RHEL for the hypervisors.
For IaaS cloud management, there's yet another product, essentially, Red Hat's version of Openstack.

Originally Posted by dyasny There are several types of virtualization Red Hat provide, the one that comes free with a RHEL subscription, is basic localhost KVM, managed by virt-manager and libvirt. RHEV is for datacentre virtualization, like vsphere, and it requires additional subscriptions, the good news being, if you use RHEV-H you don't need to buy RHEL for the hypervisors. For IaaS cloud management, there's yet another product, essentially, Red Hat's version of Openstack.

Thanks for all replies..

Does it mean that RHEV-H is a separate OS / kernel like VMWare ESX? Right now i use ESX servers for my internal VMs required , so which product i should use from Redhat side ? RHEV with bundles with RHEL or RHEV-H if is a separate host?

Thanks
VJ

RHEV-H is a stripped down RHEL built to only run VMs and nothing else, just like ESX. It will not work for you as a standalone host, you need to manage it with RHEV-M.

RHEV-M, the manager (similar to vcenter in vmware terms), can manage RHEV-H and RHEL hypervisors. For standalone unmanaged hosts, your only option is RHEL

Originally Posted by dyasny RHEV-H is a stripped down RHEL built to only run VMs and nothing else, just like ESX. It will not work for you as a standalone host, you need to manage it with RHEV-M. RHEV-M, the manager (similar to vcenter in vmware terms), can manage RHEV-H and RHEL hypervisors. For standalone unmanaged hosts, your only option is RHEL

Thanks i got the concept now , one more quetion , could you please let me know the link if i want to download RHEV-H and RHEV-M or does it come with RHEL main ISO? then i have RHEL 6.4 ISO.

Thanks for your all help.

You need two subscriptions - one for RHEL x64, because that's where RHEV-M gets installed, and the RHEV subscriptions, which allow you to install RHEv-M on a RHEL box, and download the ISOs of RHEV-H.

Best to talk to your Red Hat sales rep, or, if you're going through an evaluation, sign up for one and follow the installation guides.

Originally Posted by dyasny You need two subscriptions - one for RHEL x64, because that's where RHEV-M gets installed, and the RHEV subscriptions, which allow you to install RHEv-M on a RHEL box, and download the ISOs of RHEV-H. Best to talk to your Red Hat sales rep, or, if you're going through an evaluation, sign up for one and follow the installation guides.

Thanks for all your help..