Which virtualizer does not require hardware virtualization?

Question

Virtualization

Hello. There was a question, the virtualizer which does not demand hardware virtualization is necessary. I understand that there will be performance limitations, but the task is to raise 2 OS on one PC.

While I look narrowly at Proxmox or Citrix Xenserver.

Hence another question: do the virtualizers above require hardware virtualization?

PS A virtualizer is needed that does not require a graphical shell.

Thank you.

Answer 1

I'm afraid now you will not find a hypervisor without the need for hardware support, yet it's some kind of perversion.
if there is a task to raise 2 OS on one machine, and you don’t want to spend money on a license for windows, then install ubuntu server and virtualbox headless.
in fact, everything that is needed will be ... though not as convenient as in a real hypervisor with its own console.

Answer 2

vmware (esx in your case), xen, xenserver, openvz, bsd jail - do not require hardware support.
but remember that you can only run Windows on vmware and with very large performance losses, on the rest - only linux or bsd, respectively.

Answer 3

All "container" virtualizers (OpenVZ, Lxc, FreeBSD Jail,...) do not require hardware virtualization. More precisely, they simply do not use it as unnecessary, since containers are executed as isolated groups of processes under the control of a common operating system kernel.
The main advantage: containers are “lighter”, you don’t need to pull the guest kernel even in paravirtualization. The main disadvantage: the isolation layer is "thinner", you cannot run Windows in a Linux container.

Answer 4

Install proxmox and you will be happy. A very reasonable decision.

Answer 5

Try WMware workstation (I can't give a link, it was a long time ago)

Answer 6

Citrix Xenserver. 100% need hardware support, well, here is Comparison of virtual machines

Answer 7

I know it's an old thread, but no answer.
VirtualBox does not require hardware virtualization and can be run without a GUI. At one time I kept several Windows virtual machines on a headless Linux host with processors without iron virtualization (some old Xeons).
There are a few small restrictions:
www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch10.html#hwvirt