# Advice please.... **URL:** \ **Category:** SLES Virtualization\ **Created:** [March 25, 2012, 7:03am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/advice-please/22415 "2012-03-25T07:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 7:03am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/advice-please/22415/1 "2012-03-25T07:03:43Z")
We’ve been using VMware on our SLED11 (a few SLES11 also) boxes for quite some time, clients love it. They happily work in their numerous desktops and occasionally flip over to Windows XP to use a specialized application. However, SP2 seems to have broken this. Perhaps moving over to KVM or XEN might stop the headaches of holding my breath every time I apply patches? VMware was much more mature years ago compared to the rest. I’ll assume by now things have changed. I’m willing to take a different path if it will lower my client’s costs. Would you advise this? KVM or XEN? Will KVM run on SLED or only SLES? We know XEN happily runs on both. Any advice here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Bob ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/advice-please/22415/2 "2012-03-25T08:45:00Z")
Update KVM installs on SLED11 SP2 fine. Articles seem to indicate that KVM can run already created VMware machines. Anyway, the fundamental question remains, is this a direction worth taking to make the future a little less dicey? Bob On 3/25/2012 12:03 AM, Bob wrote:[color=blue] > We’ve been using VMware on our SLED11 (a few SLES11 also) boxes for > quite some time, clients love it. They happily work in their numerous > desktops and occasionally flip over to Windows XP to use a specialized > application. However, SP2 seems to have broken this. Perhaps moving over > to KVM or XEN might stop the headaches of holding my breath every time I > apply patches? VMware was much more mature years ago compared to the > rest. I’ll assume by now things have changed. I’m willing to take a > different path if it will lower my client’s costs. Would you advise this? > > KVM or XEN? > > Will KVM run on SLED or only SLES? > > We know XEN happily runs on both. > > Any advice here will be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance. > > Bob[/color] ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/advice-please/22415/3 "2012-03-31T00:30:52Z")
On 03/25/2012 12:45 AM, Bob wrote:[color=blue] > Update > > KVM installs on SLED11 SP2 fine. Articles seem to indicate that KVM can run > already created VMware machines. > > Anyway, the fundamental question remains, is this a direction worth taking to > make the future a little less dicey?[/color] snip… KVM works really well. And the KVM ins SLED11 SP2 is fairly contemporary. You’ll find it much faster in general when compared to VMware and/or VirtualBox. With that said, it is under very active development. That’s probably not a big issue, just pointing that out. I’ve had no problems running SLES11 SP1 based KVM nor have I had problems with RHEL 6.2 based KVM… and that one is considerably newer (has some extra features… most of which will be in SLE11 SP2). Realize that no matter what you choose, if you’re running Window desktops under a hypervisor you may be subject to Microsoft’s VDA license (annual tax). You might want to explore that just to make sure. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/advice-please/22415/4 "2012-04-02T20:18:12Z")
Thanks for the info. Appreciate it. Bob On 3/30/2012 5:30 PM, cjcox wrote:[color=blue] > KVM works really well. And the KVM ins SLED11 SP2 is fairly > contemporary. You’ll find it much faster in general when compared to > VMware and/or VirtualBox. > > With that said, it is under very active development. That’s probably not > a big issue, just pointing that out. I’ve had no problems running SLES11 > SP1 based KVM nor have I had problems with RHEL 6.2 based KVM… and > that one is considerably newer (has some extra features… most of which > will be in SLE11 SP2). > > Realize that no matter what you choose, if you’re running Window > desktops under a hypervisor you may be subject to Microsoft’s VDA > license (annual tax). You might want to explore that just to make sure.[/color]