Automatic creation and management of virtual machines is a topical issue for any company that provides VPS services. If you manage a large number of machines, a command line is definitely not the only tool you may need to perform various operations including client tasks, because such operations may be time-consuming.
In order to simplify routine tasks of server administrators and users, various companies develop control panels for virtual machines management, including interface-based solutions.
A control panel empowers you to perform any operation with a mouse click, whereas it would take you a good deal of time to complete the same task in the console. With a control panel, you will save your time and effort. However, it’s not all that simple.
Nowadays, VMmanager is the most popular software product for small and medium-sized businesses. VMware, in its turn, is a leading solution for large organizations. Both software products are commercial and rather expensive.
They deliver a large number of functions, however, some companies, especially, startups may need them. Besides, many of them cannot afford such an expensive product. For example, startups and companies in times of crisis may experience financial difficulties. Moreover, one can find interesting, outstanding solutions integrated with billing systems including tools for VM management.
How not to get lost among a great number of offers? We decided to help our users and wrote the following article, in which they will find answers to this question.
In this article, we will describe control panels for virtual machines management, both commercial and open-source, and help you choose the right solution to meet your personal needs.
1. VMmanager
VMmanager is one of the most popular commercial server virtualizations platforms based on QEMU/KVM technology. The solution has a reach feature set, that can suit both IT infrastructure owners and VPS services providers’ needs.
Virtual servers can be created within 2 minutes. Many routine tasks are performed automatically: including migration, cloning, reinstalling the OS, backups, adding and deleting interfaces, virtual server image creation, monitoring, statistics collection, server provisioning, etc.
The main advantages of VMmanager are:
- Centralized management of various clusters.
- Fault tolerance due to a microservice architecture.
- Overselling, which helps to improve VPS provider’s equipment efficiency.
- Complete control of the infrastructure thanks to a robust system of metrics collection.
- A modern and intuitive interface.
2. VMware vSphere
VMware vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform for building cloud infrastructure. With tons of its different powerful features, vSphere is a truely state-of-the-art software virtual machines management software. It is an ideal solution for large VPS providers with appropriate budgets and professional staff.
3. SolusVM – Solus Virtual Manager
Solus Virtual Manager (SolusVM) is a commercial VPS management solution. It provides full support of OpenVZ, Linux KVM, Xen Paravirtualization, and XEN HVM. SolusVM friendly GUI allows users to manage VPS clusters.
4. oVirt
oVirt is an open-source distributed virtualization management solution created by the Red Hat community, that allows you to manage your complete enterprise infrastructure from an easy-to-use web-based front-end with platform-independent access.
oVirt uses the trusted KVM hypervisor and is developed upon various other community projects, including libvirt, Gluster, PatternFly, and Ansible.
5. Proxmox Virtual Environment
Proxmox Virtual Environment is an easy-to-use open-source virtualization platform for running Virtual Appliances and Virtual Machines. The software itself is free, but support services (even access to Community Forum) are provided on a paid basis per month.
6. Virtkick
Virtkick is a commercial “all-in-one” tool, which combines a billing software and VPS management tools. The GUI is minimalistic and easy to use even for VPS clients. Virtkick developers promote this solution to be a perfect tool for small data centers or game hosting services.
7. Sadeem
With its simple and elegant design, Sadeem control panel is very close to Virtkick. The only difference is that Sadeem is designed for cloud hosting providers. However, it also includes a built-in support system and a billing platform.
8. Virtualizor – VPS Control Panel
Virtualizor is a commercial VPS Control Panel from Softaculous developers. It supports OVZ, KVM, and Xen: PV/HVM/Server virtualizations. VPS administrators and average users can easily manage their virtual machines using this software product.
9. Xen Orchestra
Xen Orchestra is a commercial web UI, which provides an intuitive, powerful, and completely web-based interface specially designed to manage XenServer (or Xen+XAPI) infrastructure (VM, servers, pools, etc.)
For more information on how to install XenServer with Xen Orchestra web interface, read our articles:
10. OpenNode Cloud Platform
OpenNode Cloud Platform is an open-source server virtualization and management solution, specially designed for government organizations. It offers an easy and flexible way of creating a private or hybrid cloud for public sector services.
We made an overview of 10 most popular control panels with web-interfaces for virtual machines management. We hope that our article helped you choose the best solution according to your specific needs, and made your business grow.