Alternative to ESXi 5.1

Hi
I've been running ESXi 5.1 on an old computer for a few years now. I had Windows 8.1 mostly but sometimes I put other OS to experiment with them. Now the drives are running out of space. I tried to migrate to larger hard drives using Macrium, but that didn't work. Now I am looking to move over to something completely open source and preferably Linux based so it is light. I also would like to be able to run Windows VMs on it as well as linux. If there is something that will allow me to import my ESXi VMs that would be great, but not a big problem. I can just reinstall and copy my database.

What would be a good alternative. I can provide the machine specs later today, but it is 8 years old.

I see KVM and Xen are popular options, but the reason I am here is I want to make sure that whatever I pick I don't find myself stuck with limitations down the line.

Thanks

Originally Posted by linux69 Hi I've been running ESXi 5.1 on an old computer for a few years now. I had Windows 8.1 mostly but sometimes I put other OS to experiment with them. Now the drives are running out of space. I tried to migrate to larger hard drives using Macrium, but that didn't work. Now I am looking to move over to something completely open source and preferably Linux based so it is light. I also would like to be able to run Windows VMs on it as well as linux. If there is something that will allow me to import my ESXi VMs that would be great, but not a big problem. I can just reinstall and copy my database. What would be a good alternative. I can provide the machine specs later today, but it is 8 years old. I see KVM and Xen are popular options, but the reason I am here is I want to make sure that whatever I pick I don't find myself stuck with limitations down the line. Thanks

I've used VirtualBox for several years now (on RPM based distributions - RH/SuSE). No problems that I have encountered so far (figures crossed - hopefully didn't jinx myself )

I've not had to try this but checkout this document for migration from VMWare to Virtualbox:
https://www.maketecheasier.com/conve...re-virtualbox/

Proxmox VE

Originally Posted by jefro Proxmox VE

Thanks. This looks like exactly what I am looking for. Based on what I read it seems to run on its own without requiring an OS and the hardware requirements seem to match what I have on my old PC. The problem I had the last time I tried to install ESXi was that they needed a true server hardware not a regular workstation.

As promised, my hardware below:
Dell Optiplex 960
Intel Core Quad Q9400 @2.66GHz
5G RAM DDR2 800MHz
Intel EM64T
2NICs

Yes, ESXI did have some very strict requirement. Think they relaxed them a bit. I haven't used proxmox in a while but it was really good back when.

Let us know how it goes.

Originally Posted by linux69 The problem I had the last time I tried to install ESXi was that they needed a true server hardware not a regular workstation.

That must have been several years ago, because it has not been true for a long time. I've been running ESXi on a NUC (i5 laptop CPU) since mid-2015.

They will let you download and use the latest version for free on a standalone computer. The cost comes in when you want to cluster a bunch of ESXi servers manage them centrally.

The thing I don't like about ProxMox is that it's based upon Debian... and Debian uses systemd... which is less than ideal where high levels of stability are required.

Even if it didn't have that flaw, I'd probably stick with ESXi simply because it has proven itself to be damn near bulletproof. After ~6 years of hammering it daily, I've never once seen a failure that was caused by ESXi. It just keeps on truckin'.

Now I am tempted to try ESXi again It is also linux based from what it seems to me. If it runs on my hardware that would be nice.

Re-reading what I wrote, I certainly did not intend for it to come across as the sales pitch it seems to be.

From what I've read, it most certainly is not Linux based, but it is compatible with Linux userland and can use (for example) NIC drivers written for Linux.

Originally Posted by rkelsen Re-reading what I wrote, I certainly did not intend for it to come across as the sales pitch it seems to be. From what I've read, it most certainly is not Linux based, but it is compatible with Linux userland and can use (for example) NIC drivers written for Linux.

It doesn't really matter. I am here for the best solution that suits me, not necessarily a linux one. I did check the requirements of ESXi, but it doesn't seem compatible with my hardware. I hope proxmox is. It will be my weekend project.

I have managed to run ESXI on a computer with the following specs:

Dell OptiPlex 755
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8600 @ 3.33GHz
8 GB RAM

I installed ESXI to a USB thumb drive and used my internal disks as vmfs volumes to store my virtual machines. Depending on how many drives you can add to your machine you can always add more storage and also with ESXI you can attach virtual hard drives to your virtual machine across different storage volumes. You have all kinds of options.

Which ESXi are you using? I ended up using the same one I had before. I initially started with Proxmox and was able to migrate my old esxi vm, but then it would crash right after login, so I decided to play it safe and use the same environment I was using. The only thing I don't like is I wanted to have my data drive in raw format, so if the VM crashes I can just take the data and access it from any computer. I don't want to get in too much detail because it is no longer a linux question at this point.

I originally installed ESXi 5.1 on the system but it has been updated to ESXi 6.0 Update 2. It's been running for years. I am not really sure of how long.

Recommend Xen, an open source virtual machine used by many people now

VirtualBox - open source software and has many benefits. I have used VirtualBox and I will never use VMware again. VirtualBox advantages:

Open source software, free
Much smaller than VMware
Simple and practical installation and configuration, active community