Proxmox VE 9: What is it and is it worth switching from ESXi?

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Proxmox VE 9: my view on an alternative to VMware

📌 Note Type: Guide / Review 🗂️ Category: Virtualization | Operating Systems 🏷️ Tags: #proxmox #virtualization #kvm #lxc #ceph #esxi

What is Proxmox VE?

Proxmox VE is an open-source Type 1 virtualization platform that installs directly on bare metal. It combines two technologies in one convenient web interface:

KVM - full-fledged virtual machines with hardware virtualization.
LXC - lightweight Linux containers.

Plus built-in functionality: clustering, High Availability, backups, Ceph, SDN and much more.

Why I started to consider migrating from ESXi

Currently, the working infrastructure is based on the classic VMware ESXi stack, which provides the usual stability. However, my experience using Proxmox in home labs and test environments has shown that the platform provides functionality comparable to ESXi without the strict licensing restrictions.

The decisive factor was not the technical choice in favor of Proxmox, but the natural fit of its architecture to our tasks: in scenarios where support for a massive vendor stack is not required, Proxmox provides the same level of functionality without unnecessary complexity. The transition is due to the following reasons:

Optimization of licensing policy: Changes in the Broadcom model after the company’s acquisition made the platform less attractive in the long term. Proxmox is completely free, with no hidden fees or limits on the number of sockets, cores or virtual machines.
Technological independence: The transition to Proxmox provides complete transparency and control over the infrastructure without being tied to proprietary solutions and vendor lock-in.
Ecosystem flexibility: The open nature of Proxmox allows you to build more flexible and manageable systems for projects where independence and ease of administration are important. The platform offers a modern web interface, a built-in backup system, clustering, live-migration, as well as support for both full-fledged virtual machines (KVM) and lightweight containers (LXC).
Transparency and predictable costs: No dependence on vendor policies and sudden changes in licensing conditions.
Active development: Regular updates, a rich ecosystem and the possibility of deep customization for specific tasks.

When maintaining the “vendor stack” remains justified

At the same time, it is important to soberly assess the limits of applicability of both platforms. VMware continues to be the benchmark in large enterprise environments where Proxmox may face limitations:

Certification and support: Business-critical systems (for example, SAP or Oracle) often require official vendor support with a strict SLA and hardware certification.
Deep integration with hardware: VMware’s long-term partnerships with hardware manufacturers (Dell, HPE, Lenovo) provide deeper integration of drivers and monitoring at the BIOS/Firmware level.
Managing huge scale: vCenter remains a more convenient tool for managing hundreds of servers distributed across different data centers. In Proxmox, such tasks require more manual automation efforts through Ansible or Terraform.

Bottom line

For projects where transparency, control and the absence of a rigid connection to changing vendor policies are important, Proxmox becomes a logical and economically sound choice. This is a transition from a “boxed” enterprise product to a flexible, open system in which the administrator truly owns his infrastructure.

Real tests in a laboratory environment

I deployed Proxmox VE 9 in a test environment and ran typical tasks that I regularly solve on ESXi:

Start Windows Server + MSSQL Works stably. After installing VirtIO drivers, disk and network performance is good.
Live Migration of a running VM Without shared storage, migration occurs over the network. The result is tolerable.
Clustering I assembled a cluster of two nodes. I checked HA - when one node is turned off, the VMs are automatically restarted on the second.
Storage I used local disks with ZFS. For fully synchronous shared storage, I plan to raise Ceph in the future.
Backups Built-in vzdump + Proxmox Backup Server with deduplication and encryption. Significantly more convenient and economical compared to Veeam.

Key differences from ESXi

LXC containers out of the box are what I always lacked in VMware.
Everything in one interface - hypervisor, storage, backups, cluster, network.
Open ecosystem - the server runs on Debian, you can install any packages and freely script.
Flexibility - easily scales from a small homelab to a full-fledged cluster.

What difficulties did I encounter?

ZFS and memory - if you enable deduplication, RAM is consumed very actively. I had to switch to compression.
Network - built-in SDN is powerful, but sometimes it’s easier to configure VLANs through standard Debian tools.
Support - in case of serious problems in production, rely mainly on yourself and the community.

Yes, it’s worth it if:

You want to get away from vendor dependence.
Build infrastructure from scratch or update the old one.
LXC containers and maximum flexibility are needed.
Transparency and control over the system are important.

Stay with VMware if:

You have a large corporate environment with strict requirements for certification and vendor support.

My immediate plans

I would like to prepare a series of practical materials:

Setting up a cluster of 2–3 nodes
Organization of reliable backups
Migration of VMs from ESXi to Proxmox (P2V)
Real scenarios for using LXC in production

Everything written is from personal practical experience. If you are already working with Proxmox or are just planning a transition, I will be glad to hear your opinion in the comments.

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