Tripp Lite 15ft KVM Switch Daisychain Cable for B020 / B022 Series KVMs 15' - stacking cable - 15 ft
$90.00
$37.99
Mfg # P772-015
CDW # 1002799
Quick tech specs
- 15-ft Daisychain Cable for NetDirector KVM Switch B020-Series and KVM Required to daisy-chain multiple B020/B022 NetDirector KVM switches DB25 Male to DB25 Female
- PVC jacket and double shielding (foil and braid) for Max EMI/RFI protection
- KVM Switch Cable/ Daisychain Cable/ DB25 to DB25
- Expand the number of computers/servers that can be controlled by a single keyboard mouse and monitor
- DB25 connectors molded w/ integral strain relief and easy-grip
- Tripp Lite is now part of Eaton
Know your gear
Tripp Lite's 4.57 m (15-ft.) daisy chain cable is designed to connect a B020 / B022 NetDirector KVM switch to another NetDirector KVM switch, allowing for the expansion of the number of computers/servers that can be controlled from a single keyboard, mouse and monitor. This premium cable features a PVC jacket and double shielding (foil and braid) for maximum EMI/RFI protection. The cable's DB25 connectors are molded with integral strain relief and easy-grip textured overmold.
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Tripp Lite KVM Switch Daisychain Cable 15ft for B020 / B022 KVMs 15' is rated
4.20 out of
5 by
38.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Lan Tuong from
Useful to manage the virtual environments
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of KVM for us are the console, which allows us to build or clone VMs quickly, and the ability to take snapshots and recreate new VMs rapidly. That's one of the things we love about KVM.
The built-in management console, Auto KVM, is the most valuable tool for managing our virtual environments. We use it most to create and fire up new VMs or clone them for customers based on requests.
The migration tools have worked quite well for us. We're moving from an Oracle Solaris platform for KVM logical domains, upgrading, and using KVM from Red Hat. It's slightly different but very similar to Oracle Unbreakable Linux, which is basically a clone of Red Hat. Oracle's console is easier to use than Red Hat's, though.
What needs improvement?
I think the management console has room for improvement. It could be more straightforward and user-friendly, like VMware's Console Management. This would make it easier for system admins to use and reduce training needs.
Regarding new features, we'll see when we have a chance to upgrade to a new version. We don't have any projects planned as we just upgraded to Red Hat 9.4 for some customers. Our environment is quite stable, so I don't expect any big changes until at least June next year.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the tool's stability an eight to nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability between eight and nine out of ten. Our clients are primarily enterprise businesses.
How are customer service and support?
Regarding technical support, I don't need to call support often as we have a strong internal team. Support for Linux is pretty good, but support for Windows on KVM is more complex than VMware.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
On a scale of one to ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy, I would rate our experience with the initial KVM setup as eight. From my experience, it's very easy if you're doing it a lot. But for beginners, there might be a learning curve.
We currently deploy the tool more on-premises and in private clouds for our clients' organizations.
The deployment time depends on what you're asking. To set up a brand new server with KVM, I would say it takes about half a day. But if you're just building a KVM from an existing setup, it depends on the user's method.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product's pricing is above average but cheaper than that of VMware. I can't provide specific licensing costs, but we have a contract with Red Hat for client support that covers everything. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend KVM for virtualization needs, especially for Linux environments. However, it may not work as well with certain software licenses like Oracle or IBM that control the entire server instead of by VM.
I rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2024-09-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Buddy Parker from
Stable, easy to set up, and very easy to use
What is our primary use case?
I've used it a little bit for virtualization. I've been messing with it for the past month and a half, in an actual environment that goes to the outside world, anyway.
I have a cloud server running. I also have a web server. I'm using it mostly for hosting websites and basically having a cloud service, such as OneDrive or Google Drive.
How has it helped my organization?
The product overall has been useful, however, the solution is still too new to really give a concrete example as to how it's changed how the organization functions.
What is most valuable?
The solution is really easy to use. Basically, it takes just a few command-line statements to install and have it set up and running. From there, you can use the virtual manager, which is command-line. However, there's also a graphical user interface for it. It's just really easy to use. all-around
If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options. You can pretty much run and manage all of the virtual machines straight from the command line, or you can use the practical user interface and do the same thing.
I noticed that there are even other services like Multitask. You can use Multitask on KVM.
What needs improvement?
From my skill set and what I'm capable of, I wouldn't know how to say what could be improved as it works exceptionally well. I know that things can always be improved.
One thing that maybe could be improved is making it easier to scale. It needs to be more clear on how to scale the storage space for virtual machines. That's one thing that's a little bit confusing. That's more systems administration, in general. If they would make it a little easier to do, then you wouldn't have to have so much systems admin knowledge in order to use one feature.
I tried to follow the information provided, however, then the partitions were added, the logical drive, and it didn't actually end up being initialized correctly. I'm pretty sure it's due to my own error, and not using it correctly. However, if they would have been clear on how to do it, or if they could even build a command that literally executes the necessary commands for you, just by typing, or using the virtual manager, that would have been helpful.
I've only used the solution for a short period of time, so maybe it's there, however, I'd like it if maybe they could combine some network manager type item in there to be able to bridge connections a little easier. Then, you wouldn't have to do it as a separate task. Perhaps their existing network management already includes that. I'm not sure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I haven't used the solution for very long at all. I started using it about a month and a half or so ago, since I've had this server. It's all very new to me right now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution seems to be quite stable. I haven't had any crashing, or any bugs or glitches so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm not sure if the solution can scale well or how easy it can scale as right now I'm having trouble figuring out how to do it correctly. It seems like it is a bit of a confusing process.
Basically, I'm a freelance contractor. Therefore, it's just me using the solution at this time.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't used technical support yet. I haven't been on the solution for very long.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I didn't previously use a different solution. I just recently got this server.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's not too complex. There are just a few commands from the command line, and then you're good to go. It's very easy and very quick.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just a customer and an end-user. I don't have a business relationship with KVM at this time.
I'm using what should be the latest version of the solution right now.
I would advise other organizations that this solution is definitely a good choice. It's definitely something that's easy to use, however, you can have it on a fully functioning operating system that you're familiar with. Or, if you have a little less experience, it's something that you can get up and going really quickly. That said, it is still a type 2. That is a great thing. It functions, and it's under two pounds. It's basically like being on bare metal, which is really nice.
Overall, I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-12-23T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Vinícius Melo from
The performance, scalability, and security are valuable.
What is most valuable?
* Low cost, if not lowest.
* Great performance and scalability.
* Security is top-notch.
* Free.
What needs improvement?
Networking configuration might be annoying depending on how you want to set it up; usually works fine, though.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for one year.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have not encountered any deployment issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not encountered any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not encountered any scalability issues.
How is customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: Well, none.
Technical Support: Unless you can count open forums?
Which solutions did we use previously?
I previously used VMware VM VirtualBox and then Workstation Pro. I switched because VMware is not free.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented it in-house.
What was our ROI?
Since I invested 0 dollars on KVM and just as much time as you would think is worth... you do the math.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-06-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ernesto Hern�¡Ndez from
Easy to manage with a central interface, but the setup process can be improved
What is our primary use case?
We are an integrator and this is one of the solutions that we implement for our clients. I have more than twenty years of experience working with these kinds of technologies.
We are using this solution for virtualization on IBM servers.
What is most valuable?
KVM is a very good solution for the user ecosystem.
The KVM service is well managed with a central policy interface.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved.
I would like to be able to see virtual networking integrated with the virtual machine.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using KVM for more than five or six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have experienced some strange problems with instability using KVM. If you install a new driver, HBA, or a new PC network adapter, then you can have problems because of the process of certification for these devices. It happens because KVM is a solution that supports many different kinds of hardware, unlike VMware which is much more restrictive in terms of what it is compatible with. The problem with having such an open solution is that it can also be the cause of issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of KVM is not as good as that of VMware.
We have approximately twenty people who are using this solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using VMware prior to KVM. It is a very reliable and very strong solution, but it is also very expensive. We are switching to try and reducts cost both in terms of licensing and managing.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is more difficult than some other products, such as Nutanix. However, it is easier and more compact than the VMware setup.
What about the implementation team?
We implement KVM for our clients and we have a technical support team of about fifteen people.
What other advice do I have?
The most important thing for people to do when they are researching this kind of solution is to try and understand the main reason and concerns behind virtualization. They should learn the strong points and weakness of this technology, and try to have a base knowledge to understand the concept and how it can be used and managed on a daily basis.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-12-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
MahdiBahmani from
Good performance, but better management features and integration are needed
What is our primary use case?
We are a consulting company and I work with a lot of solutions to compare them and find out which ones are good for my customers.
The primary use case for this solution is virtualization.
I use this solution in on-premises data centers.
What is most valuable?
The GUI interface makes the management of KVM easier than ever before.
The performance of this solution is great.
What needs improvement?
This solution is lacking in features such as management and integration.
* This solution needs better integration with desktop virtualization.
* Better integration with storage solutions is needed.
* Business continuity features need to be added.
* The live migration needs to be improved.
* You cannot run this application in a data center using only the GUI, so you have to have some knowledge with Linux in order to best manage it.
* Better network management software is needed.
* Features like vSAN are not available on KVM.
* Integration with Kubernetes would be an improvement.
Generally, this solution should be made easier to use. Many customers don't have enough experience with Linux or a deep understanding of operating systems, and they just want to use the product. This together with a lack of features has led customers to choose VMware.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for more than ten years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is limited in terms of scalability. I think that it is suitable for a mid-range company, but for a larger company, it is not quick. It does not have features for companies that need expandable solutions.
This solution is not used directly by the end-users. If KVM is installed in their data center then they just use the virtual machine. Users don't care about infrastructure, they're just looking for stability and use the operating system for their service. It is the administrators who use this product. Typically, there are two or three administrators in each data center. In terms of end-users, I have seen more than one hundred concurrent users.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do not have access to Red Hat support from our country.
For technical support we depend on the internet and the knowledge of our administrators.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
I have used XenServer and VMware, and the performance of KVM is better than these.
When it comes to management, integration, business continuity, and live migration, KVM is lacking features and VMware is better in this area.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution is not hard, but when you want to use this product in your data center, you have to use the command-line interface to better manage it. You cannot run this application using the GUI alone, so if you don't have enough knowledge with Linux then you may have some trouble.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluate options such as XenServer, VMware, and KVM every six months in order to choose the best product for my customers.
What other advice do I have?
I have been using this solution since before it was owned by Red Hat, when it was community-based. It is easier to manage than ever before because you used to have to use the command-line interface, instead of the GUI.
I do not recommend this product for those looking for a stable and scalable virtualization solution because they will ultimately have problems in their data center. Just two weeks ago, I helped a friend of mine to migrate from KVM to VMware.
I think that if Red Hat worked on some business continuity features and add them to KVM then it would receive a better grade and be a more competitive solution.
I would rate this solution a five out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-10-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Andre Ruppert from
I like the ability to execute live migrations
What is our primary use case?
Running virtualization clusters with more than 300 VMs.
How has it helped my organization?
The platform changes from hardware to virtualized whenever possible.
What is most valuable?
* Open source
* The ability to execute live migrations
* Linux, a base OS.
What needs improvement?
Management of underlying volumes.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-04-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Matias Sundman from
This solution integrates nicely with other soft-open-software components.
What is our primary use case?
The main use case is, of course, to run virtual machines. The specific use case is to run virtual network functions (VNFs) and the performance is very good on KVM.
What is most valuable?
A big strength with KVM is that it is an open-source component. It gets improvements from Intel, for example, and the other semiconductors. It can be sized-down to a very small package. It can be used in embedded systems as well, so it has a very good performance and it is suitable from embedded IT to big servers and supercomputers.
This solution integrates nicely with other soft-open-software components.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a separation, so you could have KVM running in a few cores, and then you could have a real-time operating system running another core, so there is a hybrid environment with real time operating systems and Linux.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good. It has not crashed once since we have been using it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think nine out of the ten supercomputers in the world use Linux KVM, so I think that attests to the fact that it is a scalable product. It scales really well.
How is customer service and technical support?
Technical support is not top-notch.
How was the initial setup?
I think this solution is in need of an easier installation process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is cheaper than other competitors like VMware or Hyper-V.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We compared KVM vs VMware ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/kvm_vs_vsphere ) and did a proof-of-concept, but we decided that KVM was best suited for our needs when it came to device drivers, etc. We also considered Oracle and RedHat.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2018-12-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Software512a from
I find the density of the product most valuable.
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case for KVM is running multiple VMs and containers on the one node.
What is most valuable?
I find the density of the product most valuable. It is because of kernel same page merging technology (KSM) that is integrated into Linux kernel. That high density makes KVM one of the important players of the virtualization market.
What needs improvement?
In the future release of KVM, I would like to have improved support for Windows guests.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of this solution is less than other products in the same category. But, it is OK.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the product is really high because of architecture. Since KVM is part of a Linux kernel, it gets a lot of the benefits of its location. It has a nice strategy of memory virtualization, which is also part of the kernel. Kernel location makes possible schemes of a vhost that boosts device performance.
We currently have 300 users of KVM, with about two people as support staff. We do plan to increase usage in the future. So, we will be scaling up in the future.
How are customer service and technical support?
The KVM technical support is really bad. It has a number of empty channels for support. We have tried emails, as well. But, if you are not part of the community, they will not answer your request.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
We previously used VMware.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was simple because KVM is used in Linux, so to get it out of the box is a simple task. But, the deployment is not an easy task. It takes a lot of installation suites. You could use a lot of additional products or improvements, like Red Hat virtualization that makes deployment of virtual machines simple. But, out of the box deployment is not that good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution came with the Linux license.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2018-12-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user302112 from
KVM allows me to run virtualized environments for my customer projects and to modify the code as it's open-source, although there were stability issues when running I/O intensive tasks.
Valuable Features:
KVM runs virtualized guests with its own kernel, which is very important to me.
Improvements to My Organization:
I mainly use it for customer projects, as KVM allows running virtualized environments for free in a very efficient way. Furthermore, it is an open source solution so modifying the code is possible. One might think that this is never necessary for most projects; however, when a specific customer requested an enhancement of the functionality, I was able to provide that. The customer was very impressed that KVM is such a professional solution although it is free.
Over the years, many customers were happy that they were able to choose between VMware, Xen and another alternative - KVM.
Room for Improvement:
Setting KVM up and running it with dozens of parameters can be annoying. However, there is a control interface called Virsh (and also a GUI called virt-manager) which allows running KVM guests with a simple config file.
Use of Solution:
I have been using KVM since 2010, so for fives years in total.
Deployment Issues:
So far, no issues.
Stability Issues:
When running I/O intensive tasks, or having a very high amount of network packages which need to reach the guest(s). However, all issues were under control after tuning the config of the KVM guests.
Scalability Issues:
No issues yet.
Customer Service:
There is no customer service, only the community. It is a free product, based on open source software. However, one can use RHEV (the enterprise virtualization product from Red Hat), then you will be able to contact the Red Hat support.
Previous Solutions:
I used Xen in the past and switched because the customers requested a solution which allows running a guest with its own Kernel. This is also possible with Xen, but not a common use case, though.
Initial Setup:
The initial setup, when done manually, is complex because you need to be an experienced Linux user or admin, especially as the networking part can be challenging.
Implementation Team:
I always deploy it on my own.
Cost and Licensing Advice:
It is free! Use it and if you need enterprise support, make sure to use RHEV, the virtualization product from Red Hat.
Other Solutions Considered:
No, because in the open source world, there are not many hypervisors which have the same feature set as KVM.
Other Advice:
Make sure to gain a lot of knowledge about virtualization and the way KVM works. Then implement it with libvirt and virt-manager because this makes running KVM guests a lot easier.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-10-04T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Georges ESSOMBA from
A solution with an easy initial setup that's scalable and stable
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use it to write the payroll solution fort Windows Server 2012 and 2018.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very light when you are putting your Operating System on it. You forget that there's a virtual layer on your solution. You are using it as if it was a whole computer. It's like having an entire computer that you've launched and have running with the Operating System that you need to work with.
What needs improvement?
The solution should be more user friendly despite that some interesting graphical solutions are available to manage the VMs. it would be usefull that the solution integrate the VM snapshot features and make it graphical, so we have a VM infrastructure more complete and easy the backup/restore in case of issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution since 2014.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. It's been stable since I started using it in 2014.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling the solution is easy. You just have to add more hardware.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never needed to contact technical support. To me, that's a sign of a good solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. There is a lot of documentation online, so if there is a problem the online information will help you.
Deployment only took one hour.
What about the implementation team?
I handled the implementation myself.
What other advice do I have?
We're using the on-premises deployment model. We're using the community version of the solution.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-10-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user239358 from
I had lots of issue with it.
I have used KVM with centos 7. Unfortunately, I had lots of issue with it. First of all, I wanted all the VMs to share the same network. I had to modify the centos network interface files myself. I had to do it with every single VM.
At some point it created lots of issue in the module firewalld which also act as the nat to connect the VM with the physical interface. I could read "command failed" for rules of a VM that was already deleted in KVM.
Then, I had issues with virsh the command line of KVM. Among other things, it exports and imports VM. I wanted to move a Virtual Machines from kvm on centos bare metal server to kvm on debian bare metal server and I discovered that in order to do so, I had to modify the XML configuration inside the VM file.
I have also been unable to clone VMs meaning they when i tried to run some VMs after cloning, they refused to start. I have also crashed the Centos host. At that point, I have decided to stop and move to my old friend Vmware workstation on Linux. I didn't have to modify any interface files and I could use a "bridge" mode by choosing it in the options so that all my VM were on the same network. Ok, Vmware workstation isn't a bare metal hypervisor but it is reliable.
By the way, I prefer to spend time on developing stuff than spending my time setting up KVM or learning the commands of virsh to do basic stuff with it.
On the internet, many geeks pinpoint the performance of KVM. It is true but it is futile issue as compared to issues related to a production environment.
I am sorry to say that online propaganda made believe that KVM is a mature product that should be considered for production. I think KVM may be good for a lab where the VMs aren't critical.
Now, when I see Web hosting providers who run the Vps on top of KVM, I don't see them the same way.
This made me aware of the issue related to the Type 1 hypervisor. Since a type 1 is a bare metal type hypervisor, it deals with masquerading (NAT), security, kernel, memory, data IO... Because of that, every module has to extremely stable and bug free. As I said before, I have been able to crash a centos 7 bare metal host (meaning it didn't reboot) without tweaking any packages or renaming any files. Just by doing heavy normal maintenance over Virtual machines. (Deleting, adding, cloning, changing virtual hardware, changing network data, Changing name...).
On the other hand Vmware workstation is a Type 2 hypervisor meaning that this software is going to interact with the host without really modifying it. I did the same things as with KVM without any crash.
I am a MCSE and i have started "hypervising" with Ms Hyper V which is way better than KVM. As i am writing this, I think about all the good things, people write online about KVM. It makes believe that KVM is as good as Hyper V. However, it is not close to the truth. Hyper V is more stable. Its files are more portable. The migration features are robust. More importantly, it uses hardware better than Linux based KVM.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-06-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer849252 from
A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead
What is our primary use case?
Great support for many types of hardware, disks, memory, RAID controllers, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
In the Linux world, KVM is a very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead. Reliable and extensible have a tight integration with Linux security facilities, like SELinux, KVM does the job.
You will unlikely see KVM if you are using a cloud solution because of it is a seamless integration. If instead you are a Linux desktop user, KVM is the solution to go with if you have to start virtual machines with Linux or other operating systems with almost zero extra configuration needed.
KVM has a rich options set which can be directly used or via wrappers, such as libvirt.
What is most valuable?
Our infrastructure is based on KVM and Linux Containers (LXC). We had a lot of VMware legacy, but it was converted to Ubuntu and KVM hypervisor for about the last year. Management and backup is a lot easier with with Ubuntu and KVM, especially combined with ZFS and snapshotting.
What needs improvement?
The support of virtualization in the recent generation of x86 processor is almost a must have, so the only negative aspect of needing hardware support is a fully functional KVM can be dropped. It would be nice if the support for other platforms, like ARM or Risk, were as good as the x86 one. However, with the democratization of Chromebooks based on these chips and mobile devices, it will not take long for that to happen.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is free and can be run from your laptop, if needed, unlike VMware.
Disclaimer: I work for the vendor.
Date published: 2018-04-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer807690 from
Simple to set up and has good Linux support
What is our primary use case?
We are no longer using this solution. We evaluated it, but I have not used it in a production environment.
This solution is used for virtualization.
We have an on-premises deployment.
How has it helped my organization?
same features that vmware have concerning disaster recovery, high availibility and live motion of vm
What is most valuable?
simplicity of installation
What needs improvement?
full interoprability with vm format (ova, ovf, ..) for been aable to move forward or backward to another virtualization solution
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not test scalability during our evaluation.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
We are currently using VMware in our production environment.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution is quite simple.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
no.
Vmware fitted best with our technolgy stack (DELL/EMC hardware and software)
What other advice do I have?
----------------------------
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-10-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
VascoCampos from
Open Source Virtualization that works with Linux
What is our primary use case?
I am using this solution in my home lab because I don't know this solution well enough to put it into production. I have many clients, and by putting KVM into production it would require several changes, which would require more experience.
In the meantime, I will continue to use VMware and ESXi.
I use both on-premises and cloud-based deployment models. I typically use this solution on the cloud because I have many dedicated servers. However, I also use it on low-powered hardware machines, like old laptops, to create a firewall, access the router, or use as an access point.
What is most valuable?
I like that this is an open-source solution. It is very powerful, and it's easy.
When you install Hypervisor with KVM, you can transform it into a server with the graphical QEME in minutes, then look at what you have and remove all graphical things and then you can restore what you had originally.
What needs improvement?
The virtual manager and the graphical QEMU for KVM need some improvement.
In the next release, I would like to see some changes made to the dashboard as it would be nice to see some icons and some graphics when you are showing this solution to clients.
MOP made some changes to the dashboard, but it made it more difficult and it's a bit complicated. Maybe this was done intentionally because this is an open-source solution with technical support as an additional fee.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is very stable.
It's straightforward and recoverable, it's easy to do anything.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. Ubuntu is the best version to scale because with the MAS you can set load balancing, and they offer a free account to manage the load balancing for up to ten servers.
Currently, I am the only user.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't contacted technical support.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
I have been using VMware, ESXi, and Linux and will continue to use them while I get more experience with KVM.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
There is a lot of information available online. You can do it all by yourself, you just need the time and the will to do it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution is an open-source, free platform with paid support.
What other advice do I have?
You can virtualize anything now, but in my experience, they are good for Linux and Unix systems. I have also used Windows.
Even if you are using another platform hypervisor, as I do with VMware, you may get yourself in a situation where you want to install the KVM or at least the key tools. You can access RAM drives, or broken virtual hard drives, or migrate them to another type of hard drive.
KVM is very complete, it is very powerful, but people are used to graphical QEMU and that is an issue.
The solution performs well and has many tools. It offers everything that all other paid versions have. Everything is in your hands, all you need is the internet to access all of the information on KVM.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-10-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Matias Sundman from
Provides a freedom that you do not have with other solutions on the market
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this product is server virtualization.
What is most valuable?
There is a lot of value with an open source solution because you have some freedom of changing how the system behaves and looks because it's open source. You can modify to your requirements which you cannot really do with VMware.
What needs improvement?
The management of the whole system, could be improved. VMware is better on the management tools, for example, Red Hat is when it comes to the KVM.
In addition, we would like to have a software lifecycle solution included in this solution. We can handle the software needed for KVM, but also the software that we provide. A lifecycle component would be very beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a verty stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have over 1000 users using the solution currently.
How is customer service and technical support?
If I were to rate the technical support on a scale of one to five, I would give it a four. We received good support and there is an on-site presence, as well.
Which solutions did we use previously?
We previously used VMware but switched to KVM because it is an open ecosystem and we see there is a benefit in open source solutions.
How was the initial setup?
It's very straightforward because there are a lot of examples of how to use it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also evaluated Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical(Ubuntu), and other Linux providers.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-01-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid from
An affordable open-source virtualization technology that's easy to manage
What is our primary use case?
We're a system integrator company, and we implement solutions in these categories based on the requirements and related solutions. Sometimes our logic and security concerns are feature-oriented. Due to that reason, we're working on a case-to-case basis, and we use KVM for some clients.
What is most valuable?
I like that it's easy to manage. It's also more powerful when it comes to security than others. That point of view is the one consideration. The other consideration is that it's cost-effective.
What needs improvement?
Technical support could be better. In the next release, I would like to see an improved user interface and dashboard. This type of improvement will make it easy or help our engineers understand the solution from a requirement point of view.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with KVM for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. I haven't had any complaints from the customers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support could be better. If I compare it to other systems, support services need to be upgraded. For example, VMware provides support instantly. That's our previous experience. If a client asks for support, they give a prompt response. They even try to connect to a remote expert and solve the problems that way.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It's quite user-friendly and easy for those who are used to Linux and Oracle environments. But if they're not used to it, then it could be a little complex.
What about the implementation team?
We are an integrator, and we implement this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is fair compared to others. But in our local market, it's a problem to get budget approval from management. That's why they are trying to get those products so we can give them the price benefit. But if you consider the international market or other products, it's sometimes better than their price.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution, especially for the banking sector, hospitals, and NGOs.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give KVM an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2021-06-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1556802 from
Very easy to configure, stable and open source
What is our primary use case?
I'm a senior Linux system administrator and we are customers of KVM.
What is most valuable?
I like that this solution is open source, it was easy for me to configure and I haven't had any problems with it.
What needs improvement?
I think the UI could be developed more in the future because there are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex. A GUI for controlling the VMs would be a good additional feature. It's easy for us but it's difficult for others working with CLI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for over three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM is stable, but the product from VMware E6 is not stable and I sometimes have issues with it and then the usage of RAM and CPU is costly in my experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We did not initially have support but when I have used it recently it's been good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite easy for me, I use CentOS.
What other advice do I have?
KVM is good and I recommend it. In the future, containers will be substituted by virtual machines and KVM need to adapt to be able to support that.
I rate this product an eight out of 10.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
SonuSingh from
Simple configuration, helpful support, and intuitive interface
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of KVM is the hypervisor environment and how we can configure it with ease. Additionally, the interface is intuitive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found KVM to be scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been good, we are able to receive help for complex environments.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used VMware and KVM is easier to use. However, they both have their strengths depending on their use cases. They are mostly equal. One of VMware's advantages is it has better support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of KVM is simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM is priced reasonably.
What other advice do I have?
I rate KVM an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-04-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1012473 from
Cost-effective, stable and scalable; support for snapshot and revert could be improved. HA features can be improved.
What is our primary use case?
We integrate KVM as part of our product. I'm the CTO of our company.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very cost-effective. VMware is exorbitantly priced and compared with other products KVM is much cheaper especially in the public cloud scenario.
What needs improvement?
Their support for snapshot and revert could be improved. I'd also like to see the product achieve high availability across clusters and to have more support for Apache CloudStack.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is fine, no problems at all.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have worked with certain support vendors and they're fine. In particular, we work with one of the Red Hat partners and we're quite happy.
How was the initial setup?
The complexity or otherwise of the initial setup depends on the situation but generally it's not too difficult. We offer our customers maintenance support which generally involves update patching.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM offers both an open source and licensed version.
What other advice do I have?
Before deployment, it's worth checking whether the solution fits your use case and how it would be used across various large deployments. Test it before implementing.
I rate the solution seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2021-08-22T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1651380 from
Stable functionality, but implementation could be easier
What is our primary use case?
We are using KVM across our company for virtualization.
What needs improvement?
In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used KVM within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM is stable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used Baremetal.
How was the initial setup?
There are different types of implementations and the current implementation we had, we did not spend enough time to optimize it for a highly demanding production environment. We were not running the most sensitive applications in that environment. Where we needed performance we run Baremetal. In the near future, we are going into cloud-native Kubernetes space as well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We had some problems with the licensing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have evaluated Kubernetes.
What other advice do I have?
We have had a lot of problems with the solution but it is not the fault of KVM. It was our fault for not doing a full suite deployment.
I rate KVM a seven out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-10-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1455690 from
Free, easy to use, stable, and mature
What is our primary use case?
It is useful for everything for which you would use VirtualBox. It is the kernel virtualization model in Linux. I am using the 5.10 kernel. It comes with the Linux operating system.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use, stable, and flexible. It is a pretty mature product, and it is faster than VirtualBox.
What needs improvement?
Its resource usage can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for several years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
There is no support for it except in the community. If you want support, you have to pay a company that provides support for this platform.
How was the initial setup?
There is no installation as such.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is free for everyone.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. If they were using Linux, this is a requirement.
I would rate KVM an eight out of ten. If KVM uses less resources, it might improve my score.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-04-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Gio Ramirez from
A very stable and powerful solution that has valuable documentation
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used as an additional solution for small and medium enterprises in many configurations from just a stand-alone server with some VM's to a few nodes' clustered virtualization service with hundreds of VMs. Currently, In KVM I have one server for ten to fifteen machines and a three-node cluster with all the features and capabilities.
How has it helped my organization?
KVM is my second alternative to virtualization, it complements other things I cannot do with my main virtualization service.
What is most valuable?
Documentation and problem-solving troubleshooting are the most valuable features. Performance (when fine-tuned and with "special" HW) is awesome, equal to or more than other enterprise closed-source solutions.
Performance-wise it's very similar to other hypervisors, and it is the hypervisor core for other virtualization solutions (just like Proxmox).
What needs improvement?
The networking with wireless devices needs improvement. If I want to mount KVM on a laptop, it is very difficult to work with wireless devices. Which in contrast, is very easy and transparent in other devices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is highly stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
KVM is a very scalable solution. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is good but I use the support from the open source community. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used to use another hypervisor, but licensing just bored me, so I found KVM. It is powerful and open source and it has a very big support community.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is difficult and requires some effort. But since the solution is so powerful, it is worth the effort. I've been working with KVM mostly on-premises but I've deployed it also on private and public clouds. I rate the initial setup's easiness a five out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
I've always worked on KVM by myself and with support of the KVM community.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I previously evaluated VMware, almost all variants, and Oracle VM Enterprise.
What other advice do I have?
KVM is not easy to configure and has some minor issues. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.
Apart from being difficult at its installation and initial setup, the rest is wonderful!
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-08-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Martin-Potgieter from
Performs well, saves time and money, and integrates well with operating systems
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for production systems. We use it a lot in the Kubernetes environment. We are investing in microservices and Kubernetes. The tool enables virtualization.
How has it helped my organization?
Our whole microservice environment runs on the solution. We have quite a few Windows environments that run on it.
What is most valuable?
I've never had an issue with the tool. The performance is great. The product runs on Linux. KVM comes in as a standard with Linux. It integrates perfectly with Linux. KVM is written in Linux.
What needs improvement?
The product must provide better performance monitoring features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is very stable. Since we provisioned the box, it hasn't been rebooted yet. It has been 1400 days. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I've never had any issues with scalability. It doesn't even occur to me. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We have around 1000 users in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple. I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten. If the systems are already virtualized, the deployment takes a few minutes. To deploy the product, we must unload our previous virtual environment and reload the tool. It does the migrating for us.
What was our ROI?
The solution saves us time and money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool is free.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
KVM is similar to products like Acropolis and Nutanix. Nutanix’s virtualizer is based on KVM.
What other advice do I have?
We use another security tool on top of KVM. It checks for encryption. We must go online and find a solution if we have any issues. People who want to use the solution must ensure they have a technical team. We are on our own. We should not use the product if we do not have the infrastructure expertise. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-04-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Fausto Kenji Natsumeda from
Helps to deploy application servers and host websites
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use KVM to deploy application servers and host websites. We aim to explore its features further to enhance our projects and implement diverse environments within this virtualization software.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting.
What needs improvement?
I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with stability. Since I installed and started using it, the system has been working very well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My company has five users for the product.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't contacted technical support yet.
How was the initial setup?
KVM's initial installation was a bit challenging for me, but I believe it's more manageable for those with Linux expertise, especially given the available documentation. It took me approximately five days, working about three hours per day, to fully implement it.
What about the implementation team?
I did the deployment myself.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall product a seven out of ten. You need to have good knowledge of Linux and networks. I would recommend the product to my colleagues.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-03-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Dimitar Kavrakov from
A stable solution that can be provided to customers who want a virtual machine for a certain purpose
What is our primary use case?
The use cases for KVM depend on the customer's needs, and I deliver different customer services. For example, if a customer wants a virtual machine for a certain purpose, I give them a finished solution.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s user interface could be improved and made more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate KVM a nine out of ten for stability.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I provide other solutions like VMware virtual desktop and ESXi server.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed the solution through an in-house team in 10 to 15 minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use the free version of KVM, and I'm not sure if there is a paid version.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend KVM to other users.
Overall, I rate KVM a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-12-04T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Nayan Gohel from
Useful for virtualization and doesn't require third-party applications
What is our primary use case?
We use KVM for virtualization.
What is most valuable?
The tool's most valuable feature is backup. The product makes it easy to manage virtual machines. Other tools require third-party applications like VMware and vSphere. However, KVM doesn't require these applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The data is in high availability. If my servers undergo maintenance, we switch to another virtual machine host. We delete the maintenance activity, restoring it to the original state, ensuring the users have no downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can add multiple hosts. Currently, we have three physical hosts with 30-40 virtual machines running. If there is a requirement change, we can easily add more rules or expand the cluster without any issues.
How are customer service and support?
We rely on community support since we use the tool's open-source version. Tech support is available for subscription-based versions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with VMware before KVM. You need a subscription and license to work with VMware. VMware has features like vMotion and storage vMotion. KVM has the same features as well. The main difference between the two is in licensing costs.
How was the initial setup?
KVM is easy to install and manage. After installing the hypervisor, you can manage changes easily from the web console. You can modify policies, adjust settings like high availability, and access other advanced configurations by logging in. You can complete the deployment in one host in 10-15 minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM is an open-source solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mamadou Diatta from
Very easy to use, with everything built-in, even when writing command lines
What is our primary use case?
We deploy KVM in our lab. Our use case is container deployment in a virtual machine, where we create communities. We work with containers through KVM.
What is most valuable?
What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines.
What needs improvement?
The grid interface of KVM needs improvement. It could be more beautiful compared to VMware.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using KVM for a long time. I have a lot of experience with it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM is very stable. I can't compare it to Oracle VM as that's never stable, so Oracle dropped that product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of KVM is ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I never had a chance to call the KVM tech support team because the solution is perfect, so everything works. In case something doesn't work, that's usually an OS issue.
How was the initial setup?
KVM is straightforward to set up. Compared to other solutions, it beats everybody in terms of installation. For example, creating VMs or installing an Oracle VM is complicated. In KVM, however, that's very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have no information on the cost of KVM because I downloaded it for the lab and not for production. It's free, but I don't know if that's the case for people using it in a production environment. I believe you have to pay for it if you use it in production, but I don't know the actual KVM cost.
What other advice do I have?
I have experience with many virtualization technologies, including KVM. Virtualization is simple for me.
My company has many labs—one in Texas, then Chandler, then Folsom in California. There's a lab in Germany and Poland, so I can't give you the number of KVM users in the company, but that would be a significant number.
I'm giving KVM a ten out of ten because it's the best.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-02-04T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Georges ESSOMBA from
Reduces OpEx and is easy to maintain, along with low memory usage and a minimal interface
What is our primary use case?
We are using KVM on-premises with Ubuntu 20.04 for the primary purpose of reducing operating expenses (OpEx) and to make maintenance and security easier for us. Of note, with this kind of virtualization technology, you can very easily create backups and restore data in case of disaster.
The services that we have running on our virtualized KVM environment are currently being used by everyone at the company, numbering in the range of thousands of end-users.
We also make use of Proxmox VE and, less often, VMware.
What is most valuable?
The most helpful aspect of KVM is the fact that the interface is so minimal. It includes just what you need to set up the VMs and manage them, and it's very simple to do so. You don't need to go with the typical black-screen command-line interface; instead, you just have a small graphical interface with which you can create VMs, edit them, upgrade calculations, and perform other administration tasks. And, because the interface is so lightweight, it has very low memory usage.
KVM, as a native virtualization solution, is a complete and fully adequate system for small businesses that need to reduce costs, and also to make maintenance easier.
What needs improvement?
One problem I have is that it's not very scalable when it comes to resizing the VM disk dimensions. For example, if you have initially set a virtual drive to 10 GB and you want to upgrade it to 15 GB, it's not that easy. For this kind of task, you have to get behind the command-line to set it, and this process isn't easy for a newcomer. However, if you have planned your virtualization project well and you know exactly how much RAM and storage space you will need for each different VM, you can simply set it and forget it, because everything you set is permanent.
Another improvement I would like to see is better functionality when it comes to making snapshots automatically while the VM is still running. For example, when a VM is running and you want to back it up, occasionally the VM backup that you obtain is not usable. Thus, I would propose that in the next edition of KVM there should be better "hot" backup features (as opposed to "cold" backups which are performed when the VM is powered down).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for about six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM is extremely stable, to the point where I would give it 5/5 stars for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of expanding the dimensions of your virtual disks, KVM is not easy to scale. Let's say you have a 10 GB disk, and you want to scale it up to 15 GB, the process requires that you enter a basic console and use the command-line interface to set the new size. It's not always an easy process for beginners. On the other hand, it is easy enough to scale other resources such as the CPU and RAM.
However, in general, when it comes to supporting a large number of users, it is scalable enough for us as we have thousands of users in the whole company using the services that are being virtualized with KVM.
Additionally, it's not hard to scale when talking about labor and maintenance. For example, I'm the only one administrating the infrastructure, by setting up and managing the VMs (e.g. adding VMs, editing configurations, etc.), for all these thousands of users in all different positions of the company.
How are customer service and support?
I provide support for the system myself and I have not yet needed additional support, mainly because I only use it for basic operations.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
KVM is a perfect alternative to commercial solutions in the market such as VMware, especially when it comes to stability. In my experience, KVM is more stable than VMware.
How was the initial setup?
I performed the initial setup and I did not need to contact support. Instead, I provided the support I needed by myself, in order to become comfortable with the basic operation of KVM. Compared to Proxmox, the setup is very similar, although admittedly Proxmox offers a more user-friendly interface to manage VMs.
In all, the setup took about two hours. If the internet connection is good, I install the operating system, then set up the hypervisor and perform the updates before installing the VMs. Two hours is about enough for this entire procedure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no cost involved in the use of KVM, as it is open source.
What other advice do I have?
On the whole, I would certainly recommend KVM to new users. Going further, I would give the following advice: although it's true that deep administration can be a bit difficult for newcomers who are not used to Linux, if you just follow the tutorial on KVM deployment and plan your deployment properly, you will be able to set up a stable virtualization system with ease. That's one of the perks of KVM — it's natively very stable once it has been set up correctly.
I would rate KVM an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-09-18T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Konstantin Anisimov from
Excellent features that sets itself apart from the competition, open source, with sizable monthly return on investment
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use cases are for regular hosting and traditional hosting VPSs. We are a provider of VPSs on the market. And the second use case, cloud offer, is also based on KVM.
How has it helped my organization?
KVM is pretty good hyper-vision technology and is pretty much the same as VMware and Microsoft.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is hypervisor. I can host at the same time different operating systems in Linux Windows.
What needs improvement?
The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for the past two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is better than Red Hat. I find that it is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We currently have more than ten thousand servers operating on KVM and thirty thousand customers. We do have plans to increase usage.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Red Hat but the Hypervisor is excellent with KVM and more stable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy and straightforward and takes about fifteen minutes to deploy by pushing a button.
What about the implementation team?
We did our implementation in-house and deploy it ourselves.
What was our ROI?
We see savings every month of around twenty thousand dollars.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM is an open-source product that works well for us.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did look at the Virtuals option but decided to go with KVM.
What other advice do I have?
KVM is one of the best in virtualization, and I would rate KVM an eight on a scale of one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-12-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Bilal Inamdar from
Stable and scalable solution
What needs improvement?
KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations. It's also too dependent on other solutions and has no backend customization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using KVM for five to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
KVM's stability is fine, assuming it's running on decent hardware.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
KVM is scalable, but it requires a certain amount of technical knowledge to understand how it can scale to other locations.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented KVM myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM is free.
What other advice do I have?
I would give KVM a rating of eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-12-17T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Christophe JOBARD from
While being inexpensive and scalable, the solution offers a useful functionality called hard partitioning
What is our primary use case?
I use KVM for my data center, test environment, architecture, and integration environment.
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
Regarding features, you can update your system without products. So, it's probably the product's main feature for hospitals and critical systems.
What needs improvement?
KVM is better than Oracle VM since it is better to manage. Oracle VM is terrific when you update it. Also, Oracle VM is not stable. In fact, KVM is better. KVM did an audit last week on the performance. According to the audit, KVM is 40% better than Oracle VM.
The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery. If you have two data centers, which are very, very far from each other, when your latency on the network is very high, you may have some problems. So, sometimes it is better to deploy a cluster on the first data center and use some technologies which are valuable, like Data Guard, between the two data centers. It's better than using a storage application because the console has some constraints with the latency. When you have more than 100 milliseconds of network latency, it is not possible to use disaster recovery. So, the aforementioned details can be taken into consideration for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for a few years. Also, I am a partner, especially a partner for Oracle products.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a very stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product's scalability is good. I work in a very small company. I have only three agents.
How are customer service and support?
I use Oracle Knowledge Base and Oracle's technical support.
In fact, Oracle Knowledge Base is very good, and you always have a response or answer.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I use Oracle Linux Virtual Manager, which is KVM-based, and oVirt console.
How was the initial setup?
The solution could be deployed in a day.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
One only needs a subscription to Oracle Linux. So, it's cheaper with Oracle Linux's subscription. It is not very expensive. In short, the solution is open source, and you need only a subscription.
What other advice do I have?
I use the solution mainly for Oracle Database because there is a functionality or feature called hard partitioning, which VMware does not provide.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Date published: 2023-05-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
AshutoshKumar4 from
Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization
What is most valuable?
We have not explored the solution much. Once we start using the solution, we might explore much more things, like or figure out what is required to improve the solution.
What needs improvement?
We are not getting good support from KVM, and it is not that user-friendly. So the systems are stuck, and we are not getting much help online. The online support is very less. We are not getting any kind of blogs and other things. So it is difficult to check out, like, how if some problem is coming, how we can fix it out. So that is not known to us. Hence, we are planning to get into a support contract with Oracle. Also, the Linux support we will get can help us technically with our problems and difficulties because we need to configure the cluster. We are not able to configure the cluster. So, I believe we needed some technical support or help to configure the cluster. In future releases of the product, I would like to see features and improvements in the solution that can make it have a user-friendly interface, better technical support, and easy cluster configuration. Also, blogs, and technical write-ups should be there. We should get the maximum help so that we can maximize the solution's usage.
Also, some kind of help tutorials should be made available so that the new users who are trying to install it can get help.
The fact that it is not a user-friendly tool should be considered for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have started using KVM in my company for a couple of weeks now. It's new for us, and we are not able to utilize the solution. I am using KVM Version 9.1.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I can't comment on whether it is stable or not since I have not yet used it to that extent.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution around one to two out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We are not getting any technical support, maybe because it is kind of an OEM they are providing support for over Oracle or Red Hat platforms. There are a lot of write-ups I can see available, but the useful write-ups are very few.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Earlier, we were using Oracle VM, which was a little better than KVM, especially in terms of user-friendliness and implementation.
How was the initial setup?
The installation part of the solution was okay. The problem is that we are targeting the cluster part, and we are not able to configure it. It took us an hour to install the solution.
The solution's maintenance is the next step. First of all, we have to figure out the clusters. Then we can think about any kind of maintenance requirements.
What about the implementation team?
I was involved in the process since I am a technical person.
What other advice do I have?
KVM is a common license tool, which can be utilized on any other tool, like Red Hat, Oracle, or Linux platform.
Until I'm not familiar with the solution, I cannot recommend the solution to others because we have taken a risk by switching over to KVM, and we are still in the process of configuring it. Probably, after we can take advantage, I can recommend it to others.
KVM is a little better than Oracle VM since it has been made with some better thoughts behind it to bring it out in the market. One can get good performance because of kernel-based virtualization. So it should be able to provide a performance-oriented template.
The product is really good, but the only thing is that we are not able to get the things we need in the product.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-05-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1977888 from
Open-source with good virtualization and good online forums for troubleshooting
What is our primary use case?
We use KVM virtualization on which Red Hat works very actively. We run Windows servers from it and some of our other machines as well. We also use it as a container in the way others may use Docker.
How has it helped my organization?
We can use the solution the same way we use Red Hat, even though we don't use Red Hat itself.
What is most valuable?
It offers a high-availability environment. We like the way everything is distributed. If one node dies, another resource is automatically enabled.
It offers good virtualization.
The solution, generally, is very familiar to VMware. The difference it is free to use. It has all of the main features you would find on VMware.
It works 24/7 without fail.
The setup is very simple.
It is stable.
The solution can scale.
We have found the solution to have good forums for troubleshooting.
What needs improvement?
If it would work a little faster, that would be ideal. It's run on a 10GB network, so it is relatively slow.
Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for ten years or more.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a completely stable solution. While there may be a few bugs, in general, we didn't face any special issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. You can have as many servers as you want to run as a deployment. I'd rate the scalability nine out of ten. We use CEPH storage that is extremely scalable and can go up to petabytes, although we don't have a use case for that sizing.
We likely do not have plans to increase usage. Our basic needs are covered.
How are customer service and support?
I've never used technical support. There are forums, however, that are available if people need assistance. Typically, if something comes up, you aren't the first person dealing with it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used VMware and Microsoft Hyper V, among others, and then changed to KVM. I was not happy with Hyper V at all as we didn't want to use any Microsoft domain, and Hyper V needed us to use it. KVM allows us to avoid Microsoft.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup process is pretty simple and straightforward. Even in high availability mode, the setup is simple.
If you have, for example, three servers and all of them can run the restore machines, and one dies, and everything moves to the others, for that step, you do need some sort of storage.
The deployment takes two or three days, at least if you need to start from scratch.
If you are doing the implementation in combination with setting up separate networks and everything, you need to program the hardware and so on, and that takes a little bit.
I'd rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. Sometimes it doesn't work as you expect at the outset. We just need one person to handle the setup as we are a small company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is free to use and open-source. You may have to pay for support, however. There is an enterprise option that can be accessed as well.
What other advice do I have?
I am an end-user.
I'm not sure which version number of the solution we're using.
I'd warn users that if they do not have experience with systems, then it may not be suitable. You need a bit of knowledge. Most companies use system integrators, and it is hard to sell free software. You can sell your services, yet not the solution. It's easier to sell VMware. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to customers who don't have technical skills.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-03-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer2291406 from
A flexible tool that supports multithreading and parallel ports
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is that KVM is much more flexible than Oracle VM. Multithreading in KVM is also a very good feature. Oracle VM supports only serial ports, so executions happen one after the other, while KVM supports parallel ports, allowing you to do multiple tasks at the same time, which also makes it a more flexible choice.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, my company has some issues with the storage part, which is mostly not the fault of KVM but a problem with the storage. In general, I don't have any downsides or negative points related to the tool.
In KVM, snapshots and cloning are areas where there could be a little more sophistication, like VMware.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using KVM for five years. My company recommends KVM to potential customers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is an easily scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
My company communicates with Oracle Linux's technical support, and sometimes the support is good, while sometimes it may be a bit less.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company has experience with Oracle Linux VM and Oracle VM apart from KVM. KVM and Oracle Linux VM are more stable and flexible compared to other products in the market. My company does not recommend products from KVM's competitors since we have an Oracle-centric environment, and most of the time, we get VMs with Oracle licenses only. Oracle VM will not do anything to improve the product since it can be described as an end-of-life product.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-10-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mostafa Shoaei from
An open source virtualization technology lets you turn Linux into a hypervisor
What is our primary use case?
KVM is quite lightweight, not burdened by excessive resource demands. It's straightforward and convenient. Personally, I find it uncomplicated due to its limited graphical user interface (GUI) and reliance on the command line.
What is most valuable?
The key aspect is that the KVM directly interacts with the Kronos. There's no clear indication of indirect communication with Kronos. It is not linked to Kronos, and interaction is straightforward without any intermediaries.
What needs improvement?
I believe KVM offers a unified answer, while ProxMark addresses orchestration. KVM lacks orchestration. If the aim is to centrally oversee multiple KVMs – let's say to freeze them – a centralized management solution is absent.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with KVM for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is guaranteed due to its open-source nature, ensuring reliable deployment. KVM's internal deployment is secure. The primary aspect is its upcoming release of significant features. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution, and I would rate it six out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is provided by the community, which is the foundation of open source, rather than through subscription-based support.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to setup this solution. The relevance of KVM varies based on your situation. It significantly differs between scenarios. Some individuals utilize it for retail, implying a compact setup with a few VMs, perhaps around four. The scenario determines the specifics. For instance, if there are twelve VMs, the setup process consumes an hour.
You simply need to click the address or follow the sequence. Initially, download the necessary packages, including KVM and others. If you're using a KVM distributor, running 'App Get install KVM' suffices. Once the packages are installed, verify the live web services. Then, confirm the services are operational before proceeding with commands. Deploying KVM is straightforward
This process can be managed by a single individual. The involvement is primarily on the software side, not the hardware aspect of deployment. It's a user-friendly software deployment process.
What other advice do I have?
This solution holds significant importance because when considering payment for products in a smaller setup, clarity might be lacking. However, as your organization expands and adopts numerous solutions, the financial expenses escalates. In contrast, a free pre-established solution seems genuinely sensible in this regard. It is stable and quite affordable so I will rate it 9 out of 10.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
GiovanniRamirez from
Provides ease of management and has good stability
What is our primary use case?
I have used KVM in production, testing, and development environments. Additionally, I have configured it in both normal and high-availability environments.
What is most valuable?
The platform's most valuable features are stability and ease of management.
What needs improvement?
They could provide a more comfortable and easier-to-manage interface for the product, whether text-based or graphical. It can be challenging to manage without the support of additional tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with KVM for around three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. I rate the stability a ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is scalable. I rate the scalability a seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I have resolved any issues I encountered through the KVM documentation and user forums without needing to ask direct questions to the community.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
KVM is superior to VirtualBox regarding stability, scalability, and high availability capabilities. While VirtualBox is also a good tool, KVM, especially with Proxmox, offers better deployment options and more flexibility in licensing compared to other virtualization solutions like Hyper-V or VMware.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is complicated. Depending on the environment, it typically takes two days to one week to complete.
I rate the process a three.
What about the implementation team?
Typically, deploying KVM requires only a single individual. However, this person must possess specialized skills in virtualization, Linux, and potentially programming environments such as Bash.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use KVM for free through Proxmox, which offers a free license alternative. If I needed direct technical assistance, I could purchase a Proxmox subscription at an affordable price.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend KVM to others and rate it a ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-08-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Rohail Aslam from
Affordable but lacks scalability and often causes stability issues
What is our primary use case?
We use KVM for virtualization needs across various clients, allowing us to run different operating systems and machine types, including Windows and Linux. It serves as a flexible solution for creating and managing virtual environments tailored to each client's requirements.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features of KVM is its user-friendly interface.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvement, I would like to see more focus on microservices and integration with Kubernetes or OpenShift. This would enhance scalability and management capabilities, aligning KVM with industry standards and providing clients with more comprehensive features and options.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with KVM for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of KVM as a six out of ten. There have been stability issues and occasional crashes with KVM, especially if incorrect commands are executed. Unlike VMware or Proxmox, which offer additional management tools, KVM is more sensitive to command errors and requires precise handling to avoid disruptions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of KVM as a six out of ten. In our small to medium-sized enterprise, we cater to various clients, including larger companies with over 500 employees and sometimes even up to 1,000 employees.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as an eight out of ten. Deployment of KVM is quick and straightforward, usually taking only a short time. However, managing ongoing operations, especially for new team members or those unfamiliar with KVM, can be challenging and may require additional time and training.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
KVM is quite affordable.
What other advice do I have?
KVM has been a reliable solution for our on-premises virtualization needs, but as we transition to the cloud with Azure or AWS, its role becomes less significant. We are focused on migrating our workloads to the cloud platforms for scalability and flexibility.
The performance and scalability of KVM have impacted our operations positively, allowing us to efficiently manage workloads and accommodate growth. However, when onboarding new clients or managing dynamic workloads, it can sometimes pose challenges in workload management.
KVM can integrate with our existing infrastructure with some configuration adjustments. However, managing existing workloads on bare metal with KVM can be challenging and requires careful optimization of specific parameters during integration.
I wouldn't recommend KVM to new customers or clients. While it serves as the foundation of virtualization, there are other Linux flavors and applications like OpenShift that offer easier workload management, optimization, and scalability.
Overall, I would rate KVM as a five out of ten. While I have experience with it and have worked on various environments like KVM, HVM, PVM, and LVM, it hasn't consistently met all my expectations over time.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Implementer
Date published: 2024-03-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Arvi Limpadanai from
Good virtualization transition that cuts costs but needs better adaptability
What is our primary use case?
We moved from VMware to KVM and now use KVM for server virtualization.
How has it helped my organization?
Since we use a Docker, the virtualization works fine whether it's KVM or VMware. We don't use this feature much, our developers use Docker to create a container.
What is most valuable?
The solution overall is just okay. We moved since we are sharing the commercial term from publisher to subscription.
What needs improvement?
I have no comment. I just use it, and it's okay. However, the scalability part should be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I started using the solution some years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is just okay. We haven't experienced any major glitches or downtimes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd rate scalability maybe seven or eight out of ten. It could be better.
How are customer service and support?
We use community support and search for help on the internet.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used VMware before switching to KVM.
How was the initial setup?
For us, the initial setup is okay and simple. We can live with it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's just a small setup, which helps save the operation cost.
What other advice do I have?
For basic functions, it should be okay. It helps save operational costs.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00-04:00