VirtualBox vs VMware

I’ve deployed a number of VMware installations for clients and have been reasonably happy with the results. I recently spoke with someone who advocated using Xen for GNU/Linux servers and Windows Virtual Server for Windows servers. I would agree that in an exclusively GNU/Linux environment that Xen is my preferred solution. However, most of my clients need both Windows and GNU/Linux servers and I would prefer them to be hosted on the same server. I also think it’s advantageous to use only 1 virtualization solution for an organization, especially smaller organizations. At home I’ve been using VirtualBox OSE (even though I’d qualify for the full version under the Personal Use license). I’ve been considering why it might be a better choice than VMware for businesses.

If VirtualBox can run Windows Server editions without any problems then I will suggest it for a current client. Like VMware, VirtualBox is free to use for evaluation purposes which should help us find any critical problems. Interestingly enough the VirtualBox personal use license seems to include business use on servers (see VirtualBox Licensing FAQ and VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License).

Advantages VirtualBox has over VMware:

• Supporting innotek and using VirtualBox should benefit the highly useful VirtualBox OSE software which I think is the best virtualization solution for Ubuntu desktop users.
• The RDP server and USB over RDP functions will be extremely useful to clients who want to connect to their virtual servers using RDP clients.
• I’ve found VirtualBox OSE easier to install and configure than VMware.

Advantages VMware has over VirtualBox:

• VMware server has the ability to run the management console on a remote machine.
• VMware is much more well known, and thus a good choice for clients who may need support for the product in the future.

One question that I have not been able to answer is how much VirtualBox actually costs to license. I assume it would be comparable to VMware but I can not find any documentation on the costs. Given the broad scope of the personal use license it could be that most users are not purchasing a license. While I feel that is good in some senses I also think the project is worth supporting if the license cost is reasonable.

For now I think I’ll try running Windows Server 2003 on VirtualBox and see how that goes. I know to keep in mind a couple of caveats when running on Linux 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) which include disabling the tickless linux timer and to enable /proc/bus/usb/ support (see VirtualBox end user FAQ).