Options for Free Hypervisors?

[Handlex84]

Hey guys-

  My only expierence in Hypervisors comes from VMware vSphere 4 & 5.  Most recently our company got a new host and stripped our Lab VMware Host of it's license.  I now have a nice box that we used to use for testing purposes, sitting around doing nothing.

I want to install a free HyperVisor on the box if possible.  What are my options for Free Hypervisors?

Any recommendations would help.

[a_p_]

What are the specs of the host?

With no more than 32GB physical memory you can use ESXi 5 (free). With more than 32GB but less that 6 cores/CPU you could use ESXi 4 (free).

André

[Handlex84]

Thanks for this quick response and helpful information!  Couple more questions.

1.  When you say free , is there a specific version of ESXi (4 or 5) that I would have to download?  If so, what/where is it?

2.  Let's say I place the ESXi 4 on this host, could I connect it to a vCenter Server (we have a license) and place it into a cluster?  Or is this not possible with the free version?

3.  Last question, is there a free version of vCenter Server for ESXi 5?  Or is only the hypervisor free under these hardware restrictions?

[memaad]

Hi,

Here is download link

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2184522#2184522

Free hypervisor cannot be added to vCenter server

No free version of vCenter .

Also Free Hypervisor support only 32GB of physical memory,

Regards

Mohammed

[aravinds3107]

When you say free , is there a specific version of ESXi (4 or 5) that I would have to download?  If so, what/where is it?

Download the latest version of ESXi5 hypervisor

Download link - https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi5&lp=default&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CEAQFjAC&url=http://www.vmware.com/go/get-free-esxi&ei=yZADUYT6LvLyyAGP3IDQDw&usg=AFQjCNELF7MNwSUlf1kuW2AkBZLd2vLCCA&bvm=bv.41524429,d.aWc

Let's say I place the ESXi 4 on this host, could I connect it to a  vCenter Server (we have a license) and place it into a cluster?  Or is  this not possible with the free version?

Its is not possible to add Free ESXI version to vCenter, If you want to add to vCener then you need to purchase the license version of ESXi

3.  Last question, is there a free version of vCenter Server for ESXi  5?  Or is only the hypervisor free under these hardware restrictions?

Only free ESXi version is avilable not vCenter, and Free ESXi is limited to 32 GB

You could take a look at SMB license if you want utilize more RAM

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/compare-kits.html

[Handlex84]

Well, I would still like to know the answers for the above questions.  But it appears that I won't be able to utilize this on the host in question.

The Host's specs are:

Dell PowerEdge R905
16 CPUS x 2.393 GHz

Quad-Core AMD Opteron (tm) Processor 8378

4 CPU Sockets

4 Cores per socket

16 Logical Processors

132GB RAM

With that being said, are there any other free Hypervisors that you would recommend?