Editing Homelab Hypervisor Choices (section)

= KVM =

KVM is a versatile beast and ships with virtually every Linux distribution, making it incredibly widely available. KVM supports live migration and together with other Linux tools can provide the same base features as both VMware and HyperV. The key point to realise about KVM is that KVM just runs VMs, it's not a monolithic product like ESXi and instead of trying to do everything the Unix philosophy is to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Do_One_Thing_and_Do_It_Well do one thing and do it well]. So, KVM runs VMs but for networking you have a pick of tools from basic linux bridging with brctl for simple sharing of the host network to OpenVswitch with VXLAN for complex NFV use cases.
Similarly with storage, you can either use the same disk you installed Linux on to store your VMs, or setup a clustered storage system akin to VSAN using popular alternatives like Ceph or GlusterFS.

== Proxmox ==

Proxmox acts as a layer above KVM to include network, storage and host cluster services under one roof. Open source and free with a paid-for support model.

== oVirt ==

The open-source branch of Red Hat's RHV product oVirt is similar to Proxmox in functionality.

== KVM w/ libvirt ==

If you are willing to get your hands dirty then you should read a primer on virsh ([https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Virsh Ubuntu] or [https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Virtualization_Administration_Guide/chap-Virtualization_Administration_Guide-Managing_guests_with_virsh.html Red Hat]), a simple shell to start/stop and configure VMs on the command line. Configurations are stored and retrieved as XML and support includes starting/stopping/migrating VMs managing virtual disks across a wide variety of backends and managing virtual networks.

If you already run Linux on the desktop then the excellent [https://virt-manager.org/ virt-manager] tool is available to you.