knowledge-base/HYPERVISORS.en.md

🖥️ Hypervisors and Virtualization Platforms

Hypervisor Types

Type	Description	Examples
Type 1 (bare-metal)	Runs directly on hardware	VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, Xen
Type 2 (hosted)	Runs on top of host OS	VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, Parallels

Platform Overview

Platform	Hypervisor	License	Note
VMware vSphere	ESXi	Proprietary (Subscription from 2024)	Market leader, wide adoption. After Broadcom acquisition (2023), switched to per-core subscription, perpetual license discontinued
Microsoft Hyper-V	Hyper-V	Windows Server / standalone	Integration with Azure, SCVMM
Proxmox VE	KVM + LXC	Open source	Debian-based, web UI, low cost
Red Hat OpenStack / oVirt	KVM	Open source	Open alternative, complex
Nutanix AHV	KVM (fork)	Part of Nutanix	Integrated HCI solution
XCP-ng / Xen Server	Xen	Open source	Successor to Citrix Hypervisor
Oracle VM	Xen	Proprietary	Oracle ecosystem

Key Concepts

• VM — Virtual Machine — full virtualization, own kernel
• Container — shared host kernel, lighter (Docker, LXC)
• Paravirtualization — guest OS knows it runs in a VM (better I/O performance)
• NUMA — Non-Uniform Memory Access, CPU/memory allocation optimization (see SERVER-HW.md)
• Overcommit — allocating more vCPU/RAM than physically available (ratio management)
• Live Migration — moving a running VM between hosts (vSphere vMotion, Hyper-V Live Migration)
• HA (High Availability) — VM restart on another host upon failure
• DRS / Load Balancing — automatic VM distribution based on load

VMware vSphere

VMware licensing (post-Broadcom 2024+)

Since 2024, VMware only sells subscription licenses; perpetual + SnS (Support & Subscription) have been discontinued.

Product	Metric	Price (indicative)	What it includes
vSphere Standard	Per core (min 16 cores/CPU)	~$140/core/year	ESXi, vCenter, vMotion, HA, DRS basic
vSphere Enterprise Plus	Per core	~$220/core/year	All above + DRS advanced, SIOC, NIOC, Big Data Extensions
vSphere Foundation	Per core (bundle)	~$350/core/year	vSphere Enterprise Plus + Aria Operations, Aria Operations for Logs, Aria Automation
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)	Per core (bundle)	~$700/core/year	vSphere + vSAN + NSX + Aria full suite. Required for vSAN and NSX from 2025
vSAN	Per core (only as part of VCF from 2025)	No longer standalone	Storage virtualization, dedup, compression, encryption
NSX	Per core (only as part of VCF from 2025)	No longer standalone	SDN, micro-segmentation, firewall, load balancing

Key changes after Broadcom acquisition:

• Discontinued perpetual license sales (May 2024)
• Discontinued standalone products: vSAN and NSX can no longer be purchased standalone (only within VCF)
• Desktop and ROBO variants cancelled (migrated to VCF)
• Average cost increase: 2–5× compared to the previous model (depends on size and product mix)
• Impact: Many customers are migrating to Proxmox VE, Nutanix AHV, or Hyper-V

Per-core calculation:

Server: 2× EPYC 9654 (96C each) = 192 cores
  vSphere Standard: 192 × $140 = $26,880/year
  VCF: 192 × $700 = $134,400/year (incl. vSAN and NSX)
For comparison: previously perpetual + SnS ≈ $15,000 one-time + $3,000/year

VMware Exit Strategy (post-Broadcom 2024+)

Context

After Broadcom's acquisition of VMware (completed November 2023), the virtualization market experienced the biggest upheaval in its history. Changes include:

• Discontinuation of perpetual licenses (February 2024) — mandatory subscription model
• Forced bundling — 8,000+ SKUs reduced to 4 bundles (VCF, VVF, vSphere Standard/Foundation)
• Minimum 72-core commitment (from April 2025) — small servers can no longer be licensed economically
• 20% late renewal penalty — no tolerance
• Price increase of 150–1,500% depending on size and product mix
• Standalone products discontinued — vSAN and NSX only within VCF
• Collapse of the partner ecosystem — from 4,500+ partners to ~300 Premier

According to Foundry/CIO.com survey (2025): 56% of organizations plan to reduce VMware usage, 71% are actively looking for on-premise alternatives. Gartner predicts a loss of ~35% of workloads within 3 years.

Three Strategies

Strategy	Description	Suitable for
Stay	Accept new pricing, renew VCF/VVF subscription	Large organizations with deep integration where migration costs more than new licenses
Reduce	Reduce VMware footprint, migrate part of workloads to alternatives, optimize the rest	Medium and large enterprises with heterogeneous environments
Exit	Complete migration to an alternative platform	SMEs, organizations facing 3–6× cost increases, greenfield projects

Target Platforms — Comparison

Criterion	Proxmox VE	Nutanix AHV	Microsoft Hyper-V	Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
Hypervisor	KVM + LXC	KVM (fork)	Hyper-V	KVM (KubeVirt)
License	Open source (free), support ~€500/host/year	Per node subscription (30–60% savings vs VCF)	Windows Server license (Standard/Datacenter)	OpenShift subscription (core-based)
Live Migration	Live Migration (Proxmox 8+)	AHV Live Migration	Live Migration (SMB/RDMA)	KubeVirt (VMI live migration)
HA	Proxmox HA (watchdog, fencing)	Built-in HA (Prism)	Hyper-V HA (WS Failover Cluster)	OpenShift HA (self-healing)
Storage	ZFS, Ceph, LVM	AOS (hybrid/SSD, erasure coding)	S2D, CSV, ReFS	OCS, Ceph, LSO
Backup	Proxmox Backup Server (free)	Native snapshot + DR	Windows Server Backup / Veeam	OpenShift APIs + OADP
Price (3 years, 3 hosts)	$0 + support $1,500	~$45,000–60,000	$0 (Hyper-V Server free) or Windows Server license	~$90,000+ (OpenShift)
Price (3 years, 10 hosts)	$0 + support $5,000	~$150,000–200,000	Windows Server Datacenter for unlimited VMs	~$300,000+ (OpenShift)
Migration difficulty	Medium (VMDK → QCOW2, VirtIO drivers)	Low (Nutanix Move tool)	Medium (V2V converter, SCVMM)	High (Kubernetes learning curve)
Linux support	Excellent (native KVM)	Excellent (KVM-based)	Good (LIS drivers)	Excellent (KVM + OpenShift)
Windows support	Good (VirtIO drivers)	Excellent (ALAS drivers, svpd)	Excellent (native)	Good (KubeVirt + VirtIO)
GPU passthrough	VFIO (excellent)	GPU passthrough	DDA (Direct Device Assignment)	VFIO + GPU Operator

Migration Tools

Tool	Source Platform	Target Platform	Method
Proxmox VMware Import Wizard	VMware ESXi	Proxmox VE	Web GUI import via NFS/ESXi API. Limitation: snapshots must be removed, UEFI not supported before Proxmox 8.1
Nutanix Move	VMware ESXi, Hyper-V	Nutanix AHV	Virtual appliance, automated migration with minimal downtime, UEFI support, can retain IP/MAC
Veeam Backup & Replication v12.2+	VMware ESXi	Proxmox VE	Backup/restore via Veeam, hot migration, Proxmox support from v12.2
StarWind V2V Converter	VMware ESXi	Proxmox, Hyper-V, XCP-ng	Free GUI tool, VMDK → QCOW2/raw/VHDX, CLI support, hot migrations
virt-v2v	VMware ESXi, Xen, Hyper-V	KVM (libvirt)	Open source CLI tool, disk + driver conversion (virtio), suitable for bulk migration
Windows Admin Center VM Conversion Extension	VMware ESXi	Hyper-V	Microsoft WAC extension, free, GUI-based, bulk migration
Platform9 vJailbreak	VMware ESXi	OpenStack / KVM	In-place migration (no swing gear), open source

TCO Comparison — Example: 3 hosts (2× 20C CPU), 50 VMs

Platform	Year 1	3 Years Total	Note
VMware VVF (1-year rate)	$22,800	$68,400	120 cores × $190/core/year
VMware VCF	$42,000	$126,000	120 cores × $350/core/year
Proxmox VE (support)	$1,500	$4,500	3× €500/host/year
Nutanix AHV (average)	~$18,000	~$54,000	Per node subscription, estimate
Hyper-V (Windows Server Datacenter)	$12,400	$37,200	One-time license per core, without SA
Hyper-V (Azure Stack HCI)	~$7,200	~$21,600	~$10/core/month, 120 cores

Real-world example from Spiceworks (2026): A user reports VMware Essentials+ increasing from $1,900/year to $14,000/year (VVF) — a 7.4× increase.

Decision Framework

1. Audit VMware environment
   ├─ Number of hosts, core count, utilization
   ├─ Feature dependency (vSAN, NSX, SRM)
   ├─ Workload profile (Windows vs Linux, DB, GPU)
   └─ Hardware refresh cycle

2. Calculate TCO for VMware renewal (3 years)
   ├─ VVF vs VCF vs current model
   └─ Include audit risk, late renewal penalty

3. Select target platform (1-2 candidates)
   ├─ Proxmox: lowest TCO, Linux-heavy shops
   ├─ Nutanix: enterprise HCI, low migration difficulty
   ├─ Hyper-V: Windows-centric, Azure hybrid
   └─ OpenShift: Kubernetes-first, platform engineering

4. Plan migration phases
   ├─ Wave 1: non-critical (dev/test, 1-2 months)
   ├─ Wave 2: standard production (3-6 months)
   ├─ Wave 3: mission-critical (6-12 months)
   └─ Coexistence: VMware + target running in parallel

5. Allow 18-48 months for complete exit (Gartner)

Real-World Case Studies

Organization	Starting Point	Target	Scale	Result
Stanford University	VMware (60+ nodes)	Proxmox VE (6 clusters)	1,500 VMs	Completed 2025, increased automation, lower costs
Michelin	VMware	Platform9 + OpenStack	Dozens of nodes	Platform engineering team, production workload migration
Czech enterprise (50-100 servers)	VMware	Proxmox VE	~100 VMs	Annual savings of ~340,000–500,000 CZK on licenses

Timing — Key Deadlines

Event	Date	Impact
Discontinuation of perpetual licenses	February 2024	Already done
72-core minimum	April 2025	Small server licensing became more expensive
vSphere 7 EOS	April 2025	Upgrade to 8.x required
ESXi 8.0 EOS	October 2027	Last supported version, migration deadline
Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V	December 2025	64-host cluster, 2,048 vCPU per VM
Proxmox VE 9 + Datacenter Manager	2026	Enterprise features, vCenter alternative

Recommendations

Scenario	Action
Small company (< 10 hosts), Linux workloads	Migrate to Proxmox VE — immediate 100% license savings
Medium company (10-50 hosts), mixed workloads	Evaluate Nutanix AHV (easy migration) or Proxmox (lower TCO)
Enterprise (50+ hosts), deep VMware integration	Reduce strategy: optimize existing VMware + migrate selected workloads to OpenShift / Hyper-V
Microsoft shop	Hyper-V / Azure Stack HCI — native Azure hybrid, no additional hypervisor licenses
Kubernetes-native team	OpenShift Virtualization / KubeVirt — unify VM and container management
MSP / hosting provider	Nutanix or OpenStack — multi-tenancy, vCloud Director alternative

Cluster Design

• Max cluster size: 64 hosts (vSphere 8/9), 96 hosts (vSphere 8 + enhanced)
• Datastore limits: max 256 datastores per host, max 65 TB per VMFS-6 datastore
• vSAN ready capacity: recommended max 60–64 hosts per vSAN cluster
• Fault domains — cluster division into host groups (rack awareness), min 3 fault domains for stretched cluster
• Admission control — resource reservation for HA failover:
  • Host failures cluster tolerates — most common (1–4 hosts)
  • Percentage of cluster resources — reserve % of CPU/memory
  • Dedicated failover hosts — dedicated host(s) for HA
• Cluster limits (vSphere 8/9):
  • 960 VMs per host (vSphere 9 max)
  • 15,000 VMs per cluster (vCenter max)
  • 300 hosts per cluster (vSphere 8/9, hardware vMotion)

Microsoft Hyper-V Licensing

Variant	Metric	Price	What it includes
Windows Server Standard	Per core (min 16 licenses/server) + CAL	~$1,000/core (one-time) + $200/CAL	2 VM licenses (each with full Windows Server license)
Windows Server Datacenter	Per core (min 16 licenses/server) + CAL	~$6,200/core (one-time) + $200/CAL	Unlimited VMs, Storage Spaces Direct, Shielded VMs
Azure Stack HCI	Per core (monthly)	~$10–20/core/month (Azure hybrid benefit)	Hyper-V + S2D + Azure management, part of Azure subscription
Hyper-V Server	Free	$0	Standalone hypervisor (no management, no GUI, limited support) — no longer distributed as of 2025

Important:

• Windows Server Standard = 2 VMs per license. If you need 3 VMs on a 2-socket server, you need 2× Standard license (4 VMs) or Datacenter
• Azure Hybrid Benefit — if you have Windows Server with SA (Software Assurance), you can use licenses in Azure at no additional cost
• CAL (Client Access License) — every user or device accessing Windows Server must have a CAL (except Azure Hybrid Benefit)

Microsoft Hyper-V

Feature	Hyper-V	Note
Max hosts per cluster	64 (Windows Server 2025)	Shared Nothing Live Migration
Max VMs per host	1,024 (WS 2022+)	Generation 2 VMs
Max vCPU per VM	240 (WS 2022+)	64-host cluster
Max RAM per VM	12 TB (WS 2022+)	Dynamic memory
Live Migration	SMB, CSV, RDMA	Compressed or RDMA
Storage	CSV (Cluster Shared Volumes), ReFS	S2D for HCI
Nested Virtualization	Yes	Intel VT-x / AMD-V
SCVMM	System Center VMM	Enterprise management, fabric, P2V

Hyper-V vs VMware Comparison

Feature	VMware vSphere	Microsoft Hyper-V
OS	VMware ESXi (VMkernel)	Windows Server / Hyper-V Server
License	Per CPU (subscription)	Windows Server license / Datacenter
Storage	VMFS, NFS, vSAN, HCI	NTFS, ReFS, SMB, S2D
Live Migration	vMotion (cross-vSwitch, long distance)	Live Migration (SMB/RDMA)
Storage Migration	Storage vMotion (online)	Shared Nothing (data disk)
Replication	vSphere Replication	Hyper-V Replica (ASR)
Management	vCenter, vSphere Client	SCVMM, Hyper-V Manager, Admin Center
Linux support	Excellent (open-vm-tools)	Good (Linux Integration Services)
TCO	Higher	Lower (with Windows license)

KVM

Architecture

Hardware ──> QEMU (I/O emulation) + KVM (kernel module, virtualization)
                │
           libvirt (API + management)
                │
        ┌───────┼───────────┐
  virt-manager  virsh    openstack/proxmox

Tuning

• CPU pinning — virsh vcpupin vm1 0 2 (vCPU 0 → physical core 2), prevents context switching
• Huge pages — 2 MB / 1 GB pages instead of 4 KB, reduces TLB misses (VMs with large RAM): echo 2048 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
• NUMA affinity — VM pinned to one NUMA node (minimizes cross-NUMA memory access)
  • numactl --cpunodebind=0 --membind=0
  • virsh numatune vm1 --nodeset 0
• VirtIO — paravirtualized I/O (virtio-net, virtio-blk, virtio-scsi) for better performance
• IO threads — dedicated threads for QEMU I/O emulation

KVM Tuning Checklist

• Verify HW virtualization: lscpu | grep Virtualization
• Load KVM modules: kvm, kvm_intel/kvm_amd, vfio-pci
• Optimize storage: raw/LVM (avoid qcow2 for performance workloads)

Storage in Hypervisors

See also: STORAGE.md — detailed overview of storage protocols and configurations.

Type	Description	Protocols
Local storage	Disks directly in the server	SATA, SAS, NVMe
Shared storage	SAN / NAS accessible to all hosts	Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS, SMB
vSAN / HCI	Hyperconverged storage (server disks = single pool)	VMware vSAN, Nutanix, StarWind
Software-Defined	SDS separates storage software from hardware	Ceph, GlusterFS, MinIO

HCI Details

Feature	Nutanix (AOS + AHV)	VMware vSAN	Azure Stack HCI
Hypervisor	AHV (KVM fork), ESXi optional	ESXi (required)	Hyper-V
Min. nodes	3	2 (witness)	2 (witness)
Max nodes	80+	64	16 (typical)
Replication	2 or 3 copies + erasure coding	Mirroring (RAID 1), erasure coding	Mirroring + parity
Deduplication	Cluster-level (post-process)	Disk-level (capacity tier)	ReFS (real-time)
Compression	Inline (AOS 6+)	Dedup + compression combined	ReFS
Management	Prism (web UI)	vCenter + vSAN UI	Windows Admin Center
Licensing	Per node subscription	Per CPU subscription	Per core subscription
Ecosystem	Built-in DR, backup, security	Broad ISV ecosystem	Azure integration
Use case	Enterprise VDI, general VM	VMware-centric shops	Azure hybrid, branch offices

Virtualization Platforms — Comparison

Capability	VMware vSphere	Microsoft Hyper-V	Proxmox VE	Nutanix AHV
Live Migration	vMotion	Live Migration	Live Migration	Live Migration
HA	vSphere HA	Hyper-V HA	Proxmox HA	Built-in
DRS/balancing	DRS	SCVMM / AKS	HA groups	Built-in
Storage vMotion	yes	when VM is off	ZFS send/recv	Built-in
Snapshots	yes	yes	yes	yes
Backup API	CBT (Changed Block Tracking)	Hyper-V WMI / RCT	Proxmox Backup Server	Native
GPU passthrough	vGPU (NVIDIA Grid)	DDA	VFIO passthrough	GPU passthrough
Licensing	Per CPU / subscription	Windows Server license	Open source (free)	Per node subscription

OpenStack

• Distributions: Red Hat OpenStack, Canonical Charmed OpenStack
• Services: Nova (compute), Cinder (block), Neutron (networking), Glance (images), Swift (object)
• Use case: Telco, large private clouds, MNO (MANO, NFVI)
• Complexity: High — complex deployment and maintenance

---

Variant Hypervisor Configurations by Size and Storage Type

Platform Selection by Use Case

Use Case	Primary Choice	Alternative	Rationale
VMware shop, enterprise	vSphere 8/9	Hyper-V	Most comprehensive ecosystem, vSAN, SRM, broadest ISV support
Microsoft shop, Azure hybrid	Hyper-V / Azure Stack HCI	vSphere	Windows Server CAL already in place, S2D, Azure Arc, native Hyper-V Replica
SME / low budget	Proxmox VE	XCP-ng / Hyper-V (free)	Open source, built-in Ceph, ZFS, PBS, no license costs
HCI greenfield	Nutanix AHV	VMware vSAN	All-in-one, simple management, built-in DR and backup
Hyperscale / telco	OpenStack (RHOSP)	—	Multi-tenancy, NFVI, MANO, Neutron SDN, Ceph integration

Variant A: Small Deployment (2-3 hosts, local storage)

For small companies, branch offices, edge, dev/test. No shared storage — HA provided at the application level or via VM replication.

Parameter	Proxmox VE	VMware vSphere	Hyper-V
CPU	1× EPYC 9124-9224 / Xeon 4410Y (8-16C)	1× EPYC 9124-9224 / Xeon 4410Y	1× Xeon 4410Y / EPYC 9124
RAM	64-128 GB (DDR5-4800, 1DPC)	64-128 GB	64-128 GB
OS disk	2× SATA SSD RAID1 (240-480 GB)	2× SATA SSD RAID1	2× SATA SSD RAID1
VM storage	ZFS RAID10 (4-6× NVMe/SATA SSD)	VMFS local (4-6× SSD RAID5/10)	ReFS CSV (4-6× SSD RAID10)
Network	2× 10/25 GbE LACP	2× 10/25 GbE LACP + management	2× 10/25 GbE LACP
Management	Proxmox web UI (1× node)	vCSA / vCenter (1× appliance)	Windows Admin Center / SCVMM
HA	Proxmox HA (watchdog, fencing)	vSphere HA (1 host failure)	Hyper-V HA (WS Failover Cluster)
Backup	Proxmox Backup Server	Veeam B&R (Community)	Windows Server Backup / Veeam
License	Free (support ~€500/host/year)	vSphere Essentials (~$600/3 hosts)	Windows Server Standard (2 VMs)

Use case: Startup, branch office, dev/test, < 200 VMs, no SAN, minimal budget.

Advantages: Low cost, simple management. Disadvantages: Limited scalability, host failure = VM unavailability.

Variant B: Medium HCI (3-6 hosts, vSAN / Ceph)

Hyperconverged infrastructure — storage runs on the same hosts as VMs.

Parameter	VMware vSAN	Proxmox + Ceph	Nutanix AHV
CPU	1-2× EPYC 9334-9654 (16-32C)	1-2× EPYC 9224-9334 (12-24C)	1-2× EPYC 9334-9654
RAM	256-512 GB	128-256 GB	256-512 GB
Cache tier	1-2× NVMe cache (write buffer)	— (Ceph uses RAM/OSD)	1-2× NVMe (oplog)
Capacity tier	4-8× SSD (SAS/SATA)	4-8× HBA NVMe/SSD (OSD)	4-6× SSD (extent store)
Network	4× 25 GbE (vSAN + VM + mgmt)	4× 25 GbE (Ceph public + cluster)	4× 25 GbE (storage + VM)
Fault domain	Rack awareness (3 racks min)	CRUSH rack level	Rack awareness
Replication	RAID-1 mirroring (FTT=1)	3× replication / EC 8+3	2× copies + EC
Dedupe/Compress	Dedup + compression (capacity)	ZFS / Ceph compression (inline)	Inline compression
HA limit	1-3 host failures	1-2 host failures (replication)	1-2 host failures
Min. hosts	2 + witness	3 (MON + OSD)	3

Use case: Medium company, VDI, general virtualization, 50-500 VMs.

Recommendation: For vSAN → min. 4 hosts for FTT=1 with erasure coding. For Ceph → min. 3 hosts, ideally 5+, each OSD host = 1 OSD per NVMe for maximum IOPS.

Variant C: Enterprise FC SAN (6+ hosts)

Classic 3-tier architecture — compute (hosts) + storage (SAN) + network separated.

Parameter	VMware vSphere	Hyper-V
CPU	2× EPYC 9654-9965 (32-64C)	2× EPYC 9654-9965 / Xeon 8592+
RAM	512-2048 GB (DDR5)	512-2048 GB
OS disk	2× SATA SSD RAID1 (480 GB)	2× SATA SSD RAID1
Storage	FC SAN LUN (2× FC HBA 32/64G)	FC SAN LUN or CSV over SMB
App network	2-4× 25/100 GbE LACP	2-4× 25/100 GbE LACP
Storage network	2× FC 32/64G (multipath)	2× FC 32/64G or SMB Multichannel
vMotion / Live Migration	2× 25 GbE dedicated (vMotion)	2× 25 GbE dedicated (SMB/RDMA)
Management	vCenter (VCSA), NSX, Aria	SCVMM, Azure Arc
Cluster max	64-96 hosts (vSphere 8/9)	64 hosts (WS 2025)
Admission control	1-4 host failures	Nodes reserve
DRS / Balancing	DRS (fully automated)	SCVMM / AKS load balancing

Use case: Enterprise, databases, critical applications, 500-5000 VMs.

Storage variants: FC SAN (lowest latency), iSCSI (lower CAPEX), NFS (simpler management).

FC SAN topology:

                 ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                 │              FC Fabric              │
                 │   ┌─────────┐       ┌─────────┐    │
                 │   │ Switch 1│       │ Switch 2│    │
                 │   └────┬────┘       └────┬────┘    │
                 └────────┼─────────────────┼──────────┘
                    ┌─────┴─────┐     ┌─────┴─────┐
               ┌───┤ FC HBA 1  ├─┐ ┌─┤ FC HBA 2  ├───┐
               │   └───────────┘ │ │ └───────────┘   │
            ┌──┴──┐          ┌──┴──┴──┐          ┌──┴──┐
            │Host1│          │Host2   │          │Host3│ ...
            └─────┘          └────────┘          └─────┘

Variant D: Hyperscale OpenStack (20+ hosts)

For telco, large private clouds, MANO/NFVI environments.

Parameter	Red Hat OpenStack	Canonical Charmed OpenStack
Compute	Nova + KVM	Nova + KVM
Storage	Ceph (Cinder/RBD) + Swift	Ceph + Swift
Network	Neutron + OVN/OVS + DPDK	Neutron + OVN/OVS
CPU per host	2× EPYC 9654-9965 (64-128C)	2× EPYC 9654-9965
RAM per host	512-1024 GB	512-1024 GB
Storage per host	Ceph OSD (4-12× NVMe/SSD)	Ceph OSD
Network per host	4-8× 100 GbE (DPDK/VPP)	4× 100 GbE
Control plane	3-9× control node (HA)	3-7× control node
Orchestration	TripleO / OpenStack Kolla	Juju + charms
SDN	OVN, OpenDaylight	OVN
NFVI ready	Yes (SR-IOV, NUMA, huge pages)	Yes
Min. size	9 nodes (3 ctl + 3 compute + 3 ceph)	7 nodes

Use case: Telco (5G UPF, MNO), hyperscale private cloud, > 5000 VMs.

Connectivity Summary by Platform

Platform	App / VM Network	Storage Network	Replication / HA	Management
Proxmox small	2× 10/25 GbE LACP	— (local ZFS)	—	1× 1 GbE
vSAN (3-6)	2× 25 GbE LACP	2× 25 GbE (vSAN)	vSAN traffic	1× 1 GbE
Proxmox Ceph (3-6)	2× 25 GbE	2× 25 GbE (Ceph public)	2× 25 GbE (Ceph cluster)	1× 1 GbE
Nutanix (3-6)	2× 25 GbE	Dedicated storage VLAN	Replication traffic	1× 1 GbE
vSphere FC SAN (6+)	2-4× 25/100 GbE LACP	2× FC 32/64G multipath	2× 25 GbE (vMotion)	1× 1 GbE + SAN mgmt
Hyper-V FC SAN (6+)	2-4× 25/100 GbE LACP	2× FC 32/64G or SMB	2× 25 GbE (Live Migration)	1× 1 GbE
OpenStack (20+)	2-4× 100 GbE	2× 100 GbE (Ceph)	2× 100 GbE (OVN)	1× 1 GbE

Resources

Links, books and standards: sources/infrastructure/sources.md

Recommended Reading

Book	Authors	ISBN	Description
Virtualization Essentials (3rd ed., 2023)	Matthew Portnoy	978-1119481513	Practical guide to virtualization: from hypervisor basics (Type 1/Type 2), VM configuration (CPU, memory, storage, networking) to cloud computing and DevOps. "Learning-by-doing" approach with tutorials. Author is a Senior System Engineer at VMware/Splunk.
VMware vSphere Design (2nd ed.)	Guthrie, Lowe, Coleman	978-1119130312	Comprehensive guide to vSphere infrastructure design: hardware selection, network layout, security, storage and hypervisors. Describes a framework for design, decision analysis and best practices from experienced VMware architects.

Last revision: 2026-06-04