KVM or VMWare
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
You later clarified that KVM skills includes performance tuning, automation, monitoring, etc. I'm arguing that these skills are not "widely available".
Here's how my experience (okay, just my personal experience) went last week...
On a call with a major vendor talking about a customer solution (no customer on the call.) All of the managers kept saying "We need VMware because who is going to support KVM?" And the support team kept saying "What are you talking about, you are a KVM vendor will a full KVM support organization and we don't have those skills in VMware and will have to farm it out." Even inside of an organization that specifically does KVM and not VMware, the sales people and managers were so set on how we buy support, forgetting that IT does support itself, that they couldn't understand the concept that they themselves actually did things. They perceived the ability to hire VMware to deal with some limited issues as being support, and their own support infrastructure ready to support the entire stack from application to cablling as being.... who knows what. Support to them was always something you bought.
This was a dramatic example, but it's what I see a lot. People and orgs look at support differently based on what they want to sell or what they want to hear or just how they are emotionally tied to the decision. In this case we had worlds more KVM support than we did VMware support and yet they couldn't even accept it when the CIO nearly blew his top yelling at them about what the heck they were on about. But to them, sales people for VMware (literally, I don't mean people at VMware but actual sales people) products were more support than the IT people who do KVM day in and day out. We couldn't even get them to explain how VMware was going to support all the non-virtualization parts, to them the entirety of IT was wrapped up in VMware and they weren't aware of the workloads!
This is how I feel the industry goes. People say "there is no support for KVM (or very little) and we'll never be able to get it" and yet if you look for KVM people, I've never heard of anyone, ever, looking for KVM resources and failing to find them at any size. I've never heard of someone failing to find VMware resources, either. But there is a strong trend to repeat the "there is no KVM support", which is just the new "there is no Linux support" which was never true. On Wall St. hiring Linux was way easier than hiring Windows after about 2006. It's easy to say "we couldn't find anyone", but if you really ask, not many ever looked.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
And what does it hedge against, an OS install is only a few minutes anyway.
This discounts any specific setup. Sure you can install an OS in a couple minutes but when you need any customization it adds up exponentially.
Absolutely. But if you are using some kind of OS automation it doesn't necessarily make any real difference. If you lack the automation, then cloning / templating because much more important. But you have to keep it up to date.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
Because people are too busy selling VMware to those SMBs because almost no one is out there protecting them. Telling them that those KVM resources won't help them or cost too much and that they need "dumbed down" systems because they are small shops.
Out of the box VMware is more powerful than KVM. There's no one claiming that VMware is dumbing down the virtualization.
No. the implication is that the use of the product is dumbed down so that SMBs need fewer / simpler skills and knowledge to run it.
I mean VMware is simpler to use but it's also more powerful right out of the box.
I don't agree with simpler to use. I don't know of any tech that has used both to any degree that spends less time on VMware. I'm not saying VMware is hard. I'd put it as easier than Hyper-V. Hyper-V is likely the hardest. But VMware with a web GUI compared to KVM options with web GUI, I'll take KVM for pure ease of use.
If you are going to pure CLI, maybe VMware is easier. Not done either with only CLI enough to truly compare. Both easier than Hyper-V again, I'm sure.
But the number of companies I"ve dealt with that couldn't even get to the VMware install because they had licensing issues beyond their ken isn't a statistical anomaly. That alone adds a lot of overhead before there is any money involved. Everyone tends to ignore licensing as part of the support and workload, but it's often the most significant part. We get called in sometimes only for that!
That's only because KVM has about 20% of the options through a web gui. You specifically said before you weren't talking about Proxmox, so we must be talking about through Cockpit. And at this point, clicking around in a gui is not KVM expertise. If you can build a VM in one web UI, you can do it in almost any web ui. They are very similar.
The two things that bring us in most for VMware is people having licensing issues, or having lost access to the GUI. If the GUI is up and working and licensed, mostly people muddle through. Maybe at great cost, maybe at huge risk, etc. but they make "something happen".
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
Taking a clone is fine, but now you either have to maintain that template or it gets old and you have an ancient template sitting somewhere that is just as out of date as the initial OS install, or nearly (sure it'll have SOME updates.)
This is one place where KVM shines, but only libvirt/QEMU. You can update templates without spinning them up through libguestfs and the next time the template is cloned, the clone has all of the updates.
KVM has a lot of features like this, but it needs automated, is limited to libvirt (which cuts down the number of places KVM is deployed), and needs separate tools installed which are only cli based.
If KVM had APIs (not just REST APIs) like VMware, the whole landscape would change, but they don't. The APIs are hard to use and don't have all of the features you would expect. You can't even clone a system with virsh. You need a separate tool to do a lot of manual work behind the scenes.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
On a call with a major vendor talking about a customer solution (no customer on the call.) All of the managers kept saying "We need VMware because who is going to support KVM?" And the support team kept saying "What are you talking about, you are a KVM vendor will a full KVM support organization and we don't have those skills in VMware and will have to farm it out."
Who was this? People don't believe things you say because you make statements like this and never say who it is. It sounds completely made up.
I could say yesterday I talked with a client who said they wanted to run SQL server on a Mac pro. If I never give details who these places are no one will believe me.
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
Who was this? People don't believe things you say because you make statements like this and never say who it is. It sounds completely made up.
In IT rarely can you disclose the players involved.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
And what does it hedge against, an OS install is only a few minutes anyway.
This discounts any specific setup. Sure you can install an OS in a couple minutes but when you need any customization it adds up exponentially.
Absolutely. But if you are using some kind of OS automation it doesn't necessarily make any real difference. If you lack the automation, then cloning / templating because much more important. But you have to keep it up to date.
Right. This specifically helps you in the case where you don't have automation. You create a template and don't have the automation. The next time something happens. Just redeploy from the template. Apply updates to the template periodically and you're fine.
This scenario helps in both cases. Arguably moreso for people who don't have any existing automation.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
Literally anything. I can tell you that I am working with one of the big four right now. Can't say which one, but I can tell you that.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
Who was this? People don't believe things you say because you make statements like this and never say who it is. It sounds completely made up.
In IT rarely can you disclose the players involved.
That's just not true. Everyone blasts their customers on their sites. The number of times you can't give any information is very low.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
Literally anything. I can tell you that I am working with one of the big four right now. Can't say which one, but I can tell you that.
The big four vendors? This isn't a vendor THAT big. I'm not sure how to give away anything about this vendor without it being obvious quickly. Nothing like the size of the big four. But a vendor that has an IT arm.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
Literally anything. I can tell you that I am working with one of the big four right now. Can't say which one, but I can tell you that.
The big four vendors? This isn't a vendor THAT big. I'm not sure how to give away anything about this vendor without it being obvious quickly. Nothing like the size of the big four. But a vendor that has an IT arm.
Big four accounting.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
Who was this? People don't believe things you say because you make statements like this and never say who it is. It sounds completely made up.
In IT rarely can you disclose the players involved.
That's just not true. Everyone blasts their customers on their sites. The number of times you can't give any information is very low.
When I worked for the big Wall St. firm, you could never mention them, even in a position context. Red Hat threw a shit fit when I posted that we never needed to call the vendor (Red Hat) for support because their stuff was always able to be fixed by internal IT. They were furious because it suggested that you could get by without paying for support.
They brought reams of papers to the bank and demanded that I be fired. Legal went through and pointed out that I never mentioned the bank so they could go F themselves. That it was positive or negative wasn' the point, few companies are okay with their IT teams discussing them. Most have NDAs. And especially when they make mistakes or do something embarrassing.
No professional IT person is going to disclose customers making mistakes, NDA or not.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
Literally anything. I can tell you that I am working with one of the big four right now. Can't say which one, but I can tell you that.
The big four vendors? This isn't a vendor THAT big. I'm not sure how to give away anything about this vendor without it being obvious quickly. Nothing like the size of the big four. But a vendor that has an IT arm.
Big four accounting.
OH, okay. I do work for someone in the Fortune 10. But this isn't them. So that doesn't help, lol.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
Taking a clone is fine, but now you either have to maintain that template or it gets old and you have an ancient template sitting somewhere that is just as out of date as the initial OS install, or nearly (sure it'll have SOME updates.)
This is one place where KVM shines, but only libvirt/QEMU. You can update templates without spinning them up through libguestfs and the next time the template is cloned, the clone has all of the updates.
KVM has a lot of features like this, but it needs automated, is limited to libvirt (which cuts down the number of places KVM is deployed), and needs separate tools installed which are only cli based.
If KVM had APIs (not just REST APIs) like VMware, the whole landscape would change, but they don't. The APIs are hard to use and don't have all of the features you would expect. You can't even clone a system with virsh. You need a separate tool to do a lot of manual work behind the scenes.
What does the method of automation matter to making decisions on what to use? One uses an API, the other standard UNIX based tools, both accomplish the same thing.
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
I understand NDAs but you have to at least be able to give some more information than "major vendor".
What information would that be? LOL.
Literally anything. I can tell you that I am working with one of the big four right now. Can't say which one, but I can tell you that.
The big four vendors? This isn't a vendor THAT big. I'm not sure how to give away anything about this vendor without it being obvious quickly. Nothing like the size of the big four. But a vendor that has an IT arm.
Big four accounting.
OH, okay. I do work for someone in the Fortune 10. But this isn't them. So that doesn't help, lol.
If it was a vet clinic, and we service hundreds, I could say more specifically "a vet clinic with five doctors in the north east" and give nothing away. But more unique businesses, especially those that are known throughout the industry, you can't.
-
@travisdh1 said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
Taking a clone is fine, but now you either have to maintain that template or it gets old and you have an ancient template sitting somewhere that is just as out of date as the initial OS install, or nearly (sure it'll have SOME updates.)
This is one place where KVM shines, but only libvirt/QEMU. You can update templates without spinning them up through libguestfs and the next time the template is cloned, the clone has all of the updates.
KVM has a lot of features like this, but it needs automated, is limited to libvirt (which cuts down the number of places KVM is deployed), and needs separate tools installed which are only cli based.
If KVM had APIs (not just REST APIs) like VMware, the whole landscape would change, but they don't. The APIs are hard to use and don't have all of the features you would expect. You can't even clone a system with virsh. You need a separate tool to do a lot of manual work behind the scenes.
What does the method of automation matter to making decisions on what to use? One uses an API, the other standard UNIX based tools, both accomplish the same thing.
Because one is easy to write integrations with, the other is not. The landscape would change because people and companies could easily create integrations and tools.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
The landscape would change because people and companies could easily create integrations and tools.
did you mean... If?
-
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
The landscape would change because people and companies could easily create integrations and tools.
did you mean... If?
Yeah I said that earlier here:
If KVM had APIs (not just REST APIs) like VMware, the whole landscape would change, but they don't.
-
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM or VMWare:
@stacksofplates said in KVM or VMWare:
The landscape would change because people and companies could easily create integrations and tools.
did you mean... If?
Yeah I said that earlier here:
If KVM had APIs (not just REST APIs) like VMware, the whole landscape would change, but they don't.
I thought so, but you typed "because" and it didn't quite make sense. Yes, I agree, cool APIs that make loads of automation easily consumable by third party applications would be a great upgrade and make it even more broadly applicable.
