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I want to built a virtualised Server Environment using XEN or KVM. The virtual machines should be purely debian systems - so XEN or KVM should be a sane choice. Now while buying servers, I am confronted with the fact, that the vendors obviously only support commercial solution. I think, on a good server, one should be able to install uncommercial software as well - but of course sometimes systems have hardware, that requires drivers, that are not found in the OS Community.

So I am asked the question: Is it straight-forward to use Debian with IBM Server System x3650 M4 791562G with Debian - or even virtualising the IBM Server System x3650 M4 791562G using XEN or KVM.

I am sure there will always be a way to achieve this goal - but this way might have a high milage - so I am not asking, whether this is theoretical possible, but whether this should be straight-forward and practically easy to do, no major headaches to be expected.

ChrisZZ
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1 Answers1

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KVM can definitely work. Look at Red Hat's RHEV (expensive), Proxmox (free), oVirt (free).

Despite that, VMWare ESXi is the most straightforward and least troublesome platform (momentum and mindshare). I wouldn't be concerned about it being open-source or not, since the hardware-compatibility is well-documented and there's a very large user base. I've seen people do amazing and creative things with the free version before eventually graduating to the paid product.

Michael Hampton
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ewwhite
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