Hypervisor choice
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Tech Soup.
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I have to admit, I was wrong about 5nine previously licensing on a per core basis. Clearly though, from their price history, they want to position as enterprise class software. In fairness, there have been tremendous gains in functionality during this period.
5nine Manager prices:
2011: $119 / server (and sometimes discounted)
2013: $149 / server
2014: $199 / 2 cpu
2015: $299 / 2 cpu
2016: $350 / 2 cpu
2017: $749 datacenter and no functionality at license expirationAlso, @John Nicholson mentioned the ESXI HTML5 client as an option. I have been using that client in my homelab since it was a VMware fling created to quickly fill the gap when the old Web client broke due to removal of NPAPI in Chrome and FireFox. It's now in general availability and is quite good. Some posts in other forums claim it's still not at feature parity with the old thick client, but I haven't used it much in months, so I can't comment. The client situation was definitely a mess for a while, but seems to be getting better. I also really appreciate the VMware EVALExperience option for homelab use, though I haven't purchased.
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@Dashrender said in Hypervisor choice:
Tech Soup.
Yes, we use Tech Soup for our Windows desktop and server licensing. It's very, very generous. I don't think they offer VMware products, but SCCM-VMM and Hyper-V would be reasonable after discount.
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Xen has some performance updates this week: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xen-For-Linux-4.13
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You certainly have a few good choices. KVM does seem to be the one that has zero "I feel like I should pay someone" aspect to it.
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So after reading this thread, I logged into our old 5nine account to just check the pricing for myself... then magically, 30 minutes later, I get a call from a 5nine salesperson that wanted to inform me that the $400 option is definitely still available, it's just not on their website. So if you want to give them a call, that may be worth pursuing if you want to hold off changing your entire setup.
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@bnrstnr said in Hypervisor choice:
So after reading this thread, I logged into our old 5nine account to just check the pricing for myself... then magically, 30 minutes later, I get a call from a 5nine salesperson that wanted to inform me that the $400 option is definitely still available, it's just not on their website. So if you want to give them a call, that may be worth pursuing if you want to hold off changing your entire setup.
They just called me too
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@bnrstnr Interesting, I think I'll log in to get the call too.
I assume new versions still become completely non-functional after license expiration? Thats a problem for me because of the uncertain budget situation. -
@bnrstnr said in Hypervisor choice:
So after reading this thread, I logged into our old 5nine account to just check the pricing for myself... then magically, 30 minutes later, I get a call from a 5nine salesperson that wanted to inform me that the $400 option is definitely still available, it's just not on their website. So if you want to give them a call, that may be worth pursuing if you want to hold off changing your entire setup.
This is just so they can keep you for another year, then raise the rate to $700 next year.
If you're unhappy with the $700 now, might as well bail now.
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@jfath said in Hypervisor choice:
@bnrstnr Interesting, I think I'll log in to get the call too.
I assume new versions still become completely non-functional after license expiration? Thats a problem for me because of the uncertain budget situation.I never logged in, they just called me out of the blue. I have never actually used the product, I was about to and then they stopped offering it for free
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IF money is going to be spent, and you have a separate backup solution already, I'm seriously wondering why ESXi Essentials isn't the go to option here?
IF money isn't going to be spent, well, then the choice of free options is what it is.
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@Dashrender It definitely seems like a ploy to get people to linger for another year until the next bump in pricing. Why take the product off the website if they truly have any intention of keeping it around long term.
We paid for it and it was totally worth the $350 at the time I did it (managing HV 2012R2 w/ win10 wasn't working very well). I have no regrets whatsoever switching to XSXO though, which also saved me a Unitrends subscription. Everything is easier (IMO) on XS, even using XC before I tried XO.
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@bnrstnr said in Hypervisor choice:
@Dashrender It definitely seems like a ploy to get people to linger for another year until the next bump in pricing. Why take the product off the website if they truly have any intention of keeping it around long term.
We paid for it and it was totally worth the $350 at the time I did it (managing HV 2012R2 w/ win10 wasn't working very well). I have no regrets whatsoever switching to XSXO though, which also saved me a Unitrends subscription.
Unitrends subscription? You have more than 1 TB of data? I thought Unitrends was free for 1 TB and less?
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@bnrstnr said in Hypervisor choice:
Everything is easier (IMO) on XS, even using XC before I tried XO.
I agree that the lack of a single pane of glass for Hyper-V is extremely frustrating! XC is closer to the old vsphere client. And other than backups, handles my needs on XS.
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@dashrender said in Hypervisor choice:
@bnrstnr said in Hypervisor choice:
@Dashrender It definitely seems like a ploy to get people to linger for another year until the next bump in pricing. Why take the product off the website if they truly have any intention of keeping it around long term.
We paid for it and it was totally worth the $350 at the time I did it (managing HV 2012R2 w/ win10 wasn't working very well). I have no regrets whatsoever switching to XSXO though, which also saved me a Unitrends subscription.
Unitrends subscription? You have more than 1 TB of data? I thought Unitrends was free for 1 TB and less?
I didn't think Unitrends had a free option. Isn't that Veeam?
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@dashrender We have around 2TB of CAD data. We also have a nasty habit of hoarding old drawings.
@DustinB3403 Unitrends has always had a free option, whether it be through a SW promotion or other means.
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Unitrends had two different free options in the past. I don't recall the specifics though.
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@dashrender said in Hypervisor choice:
IF money is going to be spent, and you have a separate backup solution already, I'm seriously wondering why ESXi Essentials isn't the go to option here?
IF money isn't going to be spent, well, then the choice of free options is what it is.
Definitely an option. A big part of this problem is trying to spec a solution with complete uncertainty about future budget. Maybe, there will be money to spend this year but maybe not next year so I need a fall back in that case. At least Essentials doesn't cease to function if they don't buy support next year, and the free HTML5 client is getting better.
In the for-profit sector this would be unacceptable - even when I was involved in small tech startups on very tight budgets, we understood there was a certain IT cost involved in doing business efficiently. Unfortunately, a less tech-savy group, especially a non-profit, may not have that understanding so free is often the goal.
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@jfath said in Hypervisor choice:
Unfortunately, a less tech-savy group, especially a non-profit, may not have that understanding so free is often the goal.
Which of course often ends up costing them even more than the paid products.
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@jfath said in Hypervisor choice:
@dashrender said in Hypervisor choice:
IF money is going to be spent, and you have a separate backup solution already, I'm seriously wondering why ESXi Essentials isn't the go to option here?
IF money isn't going to be spent, well, then the choice of free options is what it is.
Definitely an option. A big part of this problem is trying to spec a solution with complete uncertainty about future budget. Maybe, there will be money to spend this year but maybe not next year so I need a fall back in that case. At least Essentials doesn't cease to function if they don't buy support next year, and the free HTML5 client is getting better.
In the for-profit sector this would be unacceptable - even when I was involved in small tech startups on very tight budgets, we understood there was a certain IT cost involved in doing business efficiently. Unfortunately, a less tech-savy group, especially a non-profit, may not have that understanding so free is often the goal.
ESXi Essentials is like $100/yr for updates. Come on, if they can't afford that, they really can't afford computers at all.
