VMware to Proxmox Migration
Broadcom’s changes to VMware licensing have pushed costs up sharply for many businesses, often for the same servers doing the same work. Proxmox Virtual Environment is a mature, open-source alternative that runs the same workloads, with clustering, high availability and backups built in and no per-core licence fees.
We’ve been building and running Proxmox clusters since 2018, from a single host in a comms cupboard to multi-node clusters with replicated Ceph storage, and we know where migrations go wrong.
Should you move?
Usually, if your VMware renewal has jumped, your hosts are due for replacement, or you’re paying for features you don’t use. Sometimes it makes sense to wait: if you rely on a vendor appliance that is only supported on VMware, we’ll tell you and plan around it.
How a migration works
- Assessment: An inventory of your virtual machines, storage, backups and licences, with a written cost comparison
- Design: Hosts, storage, networking and backups sized for your workload, reusing existing hardware where it’s sound
- Pilot: A few low-risk virtual machines moved first and checked by your staff
- Migration: The rest moved in planned windows, usually out of hours, with VMware kept as a fallback until each system is signed off
- Handover: Documentation, monitoring, backups and training, so you know how it all runs
What we do
- Virtual machine migration: Windows and Linux virtual machines moved from VMware ESXi and vSphere, including drivers, network settings and boot changes
- Clustering and high availability: Multi-node clusters that restart virtual machines on another host automatically if one fails
- Ceph storage: Replicated, self-healing storage spread across your hosts, with no single storage box to fail
- ZFS storage: Snapshots, compression and replication between hosts, ideal for smaller sites
- Backups: Proxmox Backup Server with deduplicated, verified backups and an off-site copy
- Performance tuning: Storage, networking and processor settings checked so virtual machines run at least as fast as before
- Health checks: An independent review of an existing Proxmox cluster: disk choice, storage health, backups, failover and monitoring
- Ongoing support: Patching, upgrades between major versions, monitoring and alerting
Available as a fixed-scope project, or with ongoing support as part of our managed IT service. See how we built two-site high availability on Proxmox.
Common questions
Is Proxmox ready for business use?
Yes. It’s built on Debian Linux and KVM, the same virtualisation technology used by large cloud providers, and has been in production use for well over a decade. Support subscriptions are available from Proxmox for businesses that want vendor support as well as ours.
Can we keep our existing servers?
Often, yes. Most hardware that runs VMware runs Proxmox. We check RAID controllers, disks and network cards first, because some storage designs that suit VMware don’t suit Ceph, and consumer-grade SSDs are a common cause of slow, unreliable clusters.
How much downtime is involved?
Each virtual machine is offline while its disks are copied and converted, from minutes to a few hours depending on size. We schedule moves out of hours and keep the original on VMware until the new one is confirmed working.
What about our backups?
Backups are rebuilt on Proxmox Backup Server, or your existing backup product if it supports Proxmox, and we test restores before the VMware environment is switched off.
Call 04 282 0045 or send us a message to arrange a migration assessment.