Is kvm with virt-manager better to use over virtualbox and vmware

gEEk_X99 · 03-24-2015, 02:02 PM

I appreciate the replies, but 3D acceleration isn't that important for me since I use VMs mostly for testing distros. I use my linux host operating system as my main production OS. If I like the distro, then I'll install it alongside my main distro and dual boot.

TobiSGD · 03-24-2015, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gEEk_X99

I appreciate the replies, but 3D acceleration isn't that important for me since I use VMs mostly for testing distros. I use my linux host operating system as my main production OS. If I like the distro, then I'll install it alongside my main distro and dual boot.

If 3D isn't an issue than I also would recommend KVM, but keep in mind that many desktop environments want to have 3D acceleration to work properly. Gnome 3 for example will bail out and direct you to compaitibility mode when it doesn't have 3D acceleration.

T3RM1NVT0R · 03-24-2015, 02:17 PM

Quote:

In fact, they handle snapshots in the exact same way, moreover, you can use vmdk formatted disk images with KVM/Qemu. What you probably mean is that the VMWare UI provides a snapshot management window which makes things nice and visual, while pure KVM does not. What you fail to realise is that KVM doesn't compare to ESXi or vSphere, it is only a hypervisor, and nothing else. If anything, it compares to vmkernel (as a Linux kernel module along with the kernel itself). Now, please tell me, how do you manage snapshots using vmkernel only, and nothing else? Oh wait, you cannot, another surprise, eh?

Now, if you want to compare apples to apples, and you insist on comparing vsphere or ESXi, you need to compare it to a KVM management solution, oVirt, RHEV and Proxmox come to mind then.

No I wasn't comparing VMware ESXi with KVM/QEMU. What I am comparing is VMware Workstation with KVM / QEMU. No vCenter / vSphere client involved. Yes I am referring to the UI provided by VMware workstation and I am comparing it with Virt-Manager's UI which I find difficult to handle compare to VMware.

And I hope you do realise that OP requested the comparison between VMware, KVM and Virtual Box. For Obvious reason I wouldn't be comparing an Enterprise level solution with KVM.

dyasny · 03-24-2015, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3RM1NVT0R

No I wasn't comparing VMware ESXi with KVM/QEMU. What I am comparing is VMware Workstation with KVM / QEMU. No vCenter / vSphere client involved. Yes I am referring to the UI provided by VMware workstation and I am comparing it with Virt-Manager's UI which I find difficult to handle compare to VMware.

And I hope you do realise that OP requested the comparison between VMware, KVM and Virtual Box. For Obvious reason I wouldn't be comparing an Enterprise level solution with KVM.

Still, even if you are comparing a desktop system to a simple UI frontend, designed to provide nothing but the basic functionality, it is not apples to apples. virt-manager is very far behind libvirt on features, and in turn, libvirt is behind kvm and qemu on features. On the other hand, if I want to do something slightly out of scope on VMWare workstation (which, btw, isn't free), there is absolutely no way to do that - only what the UI explicitly supports can be done. With KVM, I am only truly limited by the features of the hypervisor itself, which are way beyond the scope of a desktop solution.

This is especially true for the provided usecase - testing software.

T3RM1NVT0R · 03-24-2015, 05:23 PM

Quote:

virt-manager is very far behind libvirt on features, and in turn, libvirt is behind kvm and qemu on features. On the other hand, if I want to do something slightly out of scope on VMWare workstation (which, btw, isn't free), there is absolutely no way to do that - only what the UI explicitly supports can be done.

What you mean by this?

virt-manager is frontend for managing KVMs or Xen based machines. It is altogether a separate entity. How can virt-manager be in competition with libvirt and how can libvirt be in competition with KVM?

I know VMware workstation is not free but that is not the agenda of this discussion whether it has to be free or not.

dyasny · 03-24-2015, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3RM1NVT0R

What you mean by this?

virt-manager is frontend for managing KVMs or Xen based machines. It is altogether a separate entity. How can virt-manager be in competition with libvirt and how can libvirt be in competition with KVM?

I know VMware workstation is not free but that is not the agenda of this discussion whether it has to be free or not.

What I mean is that the KVM solution is layered, and you can hook into any of the layers. KVM and qemu get new features regularly. libvirt, and the layer above, is behind on adding those features into the management layer, and virt-manager is a side project of libvirt, meant to provide a basic UI, nothing else. It's not a complete product as such, and feature richness isn't the goal, it's just a basic tool for basic work. webvirtmgr seems to be a bit better at providing a showcase for libvirt's capabilities, oVirt is even more so. It's all a matter of picking the correct management tool, and virt-manager is far from being the most advanced there

T3RM1NVT0R · 03-25-2015, 01:26 PM

Ok, let me give it a try to any other front end tool and see how it works. If they can give me something similar to that of VMware workstation I will be more than happy to use it. For me it matters because I don't want to waste my time in fixing / tracking the version of each image, rather the OS / services in the image is more important for me.

dyasny · 03-26-2015, 08:00 PM

btw, I just noticed on my fedora laptop, that virt-manager does have a snapshot management UI, must be a recent addition. Only goes to show things don't remain static and develop all the time