Why migrate?
Post-Broadcom acquisition (2024), VMware licensing increased 200-500%. Many companies seek alternatives. Proxmox VE offers: zero license, KVM virtualization (more mature than you think), Ceph hyperconverged, REST API.
Concrete migration steps
- Audit VMware infrastructure (VMs, storage, VLANs, dependencies)
- Setup Proxmox VE 8.x cluster (min 3 nodes for HA, Ceph on NVMe)
- Test migration with 1 small VM via OVF Tool
- Import to Proxmox:
qm importovf 100 export.ovf local-zfs - Driver validation: uninstall VMware Tools, install virtio (Windows) or qemu-guest-agent (Linux)
- Network: move VLANs to Linux bridge vmbr0 with tags
- Backup: deploy Proxmox Backup Server
- Mass migration: 10-50 VMs per night with planned downtime
- Decommission VMware: shut down vCenter, recover licenses for audit
Cost saving example
5-node Dell cluster, 200 VMs: VMware vSphere Standard 2026 ~50,000 EUR/year. Proxmox VE: 0 EUR (community) or 5,000 EUR/year (enterprise subscription). Savings: 90%.