Virtualisation List

Networking

Hypervisors and virtual machines

Ontop of the great VMware resources below there are other hypervisors for running containers and virtual machines.

Hypervisors are classified as Type 1 or Type 2 hypervisors. Type 1 are often known as bare metal hypervisors. It’s installed on bare metal, e.g. it is not installed as an application on top of an operating system. A Type 2 hypervisor is an application which is installed on the operating system. Type 2 Hypervisors can be SLOW. In most reviews and experience, they perform at roughly 30-40% hardware capability. That means an Guest Operating Systems in a virtual machine hosted on a Type 2 hyperviosor will likely perform at best like it has an 800 MHz CPU if you have 2 GHz physical CPU.

If you use a Type 1 Hypervisor, you get much better performance (based on experience and reviews) typically get 80-90% hardware capability - so that same virtual machines hosted on the same 2 GHz CPU should operate more like it has a 1.6 GHz CPU instead of 800 Mhz.

Here are some type 1 and type 2 hypervisors.

Type 1 (Bare Metal Hypervisors)

Proxmox - A Free version of the commercial Proxmox hypervisor
Nutanix CE - A free version of the Nutanix HCI platform
Oracle VM Server - Commercial Type 1 hypervisor
XCP-ng - Based on Xen Server - Available on GitHub.
Citrix Hypervisor - Originally based on Xen Server. Commercial version by Citrix.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 - Hyper-V can be enabled as a role in Windows Server. This is a Type 1 hypervisor. - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server - Not to be confused with Windows Server. This is a Type 1 Hypervisor, and is just server core Hyper-V with no GUI. - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology.
Microsoft Windows 10 Client Hyper-V - Hyper-V can be enabled in Windows 10 Pro and above. This is a Type 1 Hypervisor. - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology.
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) - Available for free, or full version - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology. All this software is FREE here - VMware IT Academy Program Sadly on the 15th August 2024, Boradcom terminated the VMware IT Academy Program.
KVM - KVM is built into the linux kernel, just like Hyper-V in Windows
QEmu

There are many frontends / management tools for KVM, including but not limited to

furthermore, if you’re system supports VT-d you can pass through your video card, or other pci device to use within your vm

GPU Passthrough

Type 2

Oracle Virtualbox - A Free alternative to VMware Workstation for all platforms
VMware Fusion for Apple Mac - Type 2 Hypervisor for Apple Mac - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology. All this software is FREE here - VMware IT Academy Program Sadly on the 15th August 2024, Boradcom terminated the VMware IT Academy Program.
VMware Workstation - Type 2 Hypervisor for Linux and Windows - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology. All this software is FREE here - VMware IT Academy Program Sadly on the 15th August 2024, Boradcom terminated the VMware IT Academy Program.
VMware Player - Type 2 Hypervisor for Linux and Windows - Available for free if a Student of The Department of Computer Science and Technology. All this software is FREE here - VMware IT Academy Program Sadly on the 15th August 2024, Boradcom terminated the VMware IT Academy Program.
Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac - Type 2 Hypervisor for Mac.
Docker - Docker is a set of platform as a service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.

Andrew Hancock, Cyrus Computer Consultants Ltd

Andrew Hancock is VMware & Virtualisation Consultant in Apps, Servers & Storage at Cyrus Computer Consultants Ltd. He also has a long list of VMware and Virtualisations articles, a passionate VMware Technical Architect, and VMware vExpert ******* (2011-Present) and VMware vExpert PRO. He has won over 46 Experts Exchange Awards and is Overall Leader at Experts Exchange Experts Exchange - The Original Tech Community™ - Formed in 1996, Experts Exchange (EE) is one of the oldest online communities in the world. For 26 years, tech problem-solvers worldwide have gathered on EE to share knowledge and help each other succeed.

In 2010, I rekindled my relationship with Experts Exchange, the world’s premier tech community, after originally discovering it in 2003. What began as a simple search for help with an Outlook issue evolved into a transformative journey of learning, contribution, and recognition. Inspired by a close friend’s passion for the platform, I dove headfirst into answering questions, focusing on VMware and virtualization.

Over the years, I achieved numerous milestones, from earning my first “Genius” t-shirt to topping the VMware leaderboard and becoming the No. 1 point earner on Experts Exchange. This article outlines my experiences, achievements, and the pivotal role Experts Exchange played in shaping my career. Read on From Rookie to Elite: My 14-Year Journey at Experts Exchange to discover how a desire to contribute led to over a decade of success and personal growth within the tech community.

His articles are reproduced here for your reading pleasure. If you want to discuss anything VMware, then ask him! He will only be too happy to oblige. Unfortunately NFR and Evaluation software for VMware software products is coming to an end! Sadly on the 15th August 2024, Broadcom terminated the VMware IT Academy Program. It was annouced at VMware Explore, Barcelona in 2024, there would be significant changes made to the VMUG Advantage EVALexperience and VMware vExpert programs, from 2025, the only method to obtain NFR licenses would be to train and become certified with a VCP-VVF or VCP-VCF.

Hancock’s VMware Half Hour

Hancock’s VMware Half Hour HOW TO Video Series

Hancock's VMware Half Hour New Branding

Hancock’s VMware Half Hour Channel on YouTube

In this series based on VMware vSphere 7.0, which compliments the written articles above, Andrew Hancock demonstrates “HOW TO” on a variety of topics. All these videos are based on the previous written content at Experts Exchange.

In this short online course, there is a total of 40 hours of online videos from Part 1 to Part 75, taking you through the basics of VMware vSphere 7.0, from installation of the hypervisor (ESXi), creating Windows and Linux virtual machines, updating the ESXi hosts and installing and adding ESXi hosts to vCenter Server (the management server.) This course is split over 75 parts, in bit size chunks, hosted by Andrew Hancock. If you have any questions or issues, then please consider posting a question on Experts Exchange.

On 11th October 2022, VMware released VMware vSphere 8.0

This new series will focus on VMware vSphere 8.0, and will run in parallel with the Hancock’s VMware Half Hour HOW TO Video Series on VMware vSphere 7.0.

AwesomeResources

An awesome list of computer science related resources.