Apache CloudStack vs virt-manager

Apache CloudStack is free, open-source software for deploying and managing networks of virtual machines as a highly available, scalable IaaS cloud platform. Organizations can use it to build public, private, or hybrid clouds. Its features include compute orchestration, network services, account management, resource accounting, a web interface, and an open API. Operators can manage clouds through a web UI, command-line tools, or REST API, with optional AWS EC2- and S3-compatible APIs. Supported hypervisors include XenServer or XCP, KVM, Hyper-V, and VMware ESXi with vSphere. Storage options include iSCSI, NFS, Ceph RBD with KVM, volume encryption, snapshots, and storage tiering. Authentication options include OAuth2 single sign-on, two-factor authentication, TOTP, SAML, and LDAP. The project says CloudStack can manage tens of thousands of physical servers across geographically distributed data centers. Long Term Support releases receive bug and security fixes for 18 months after the main release. Operators remain responsible for protections such as monitoring, host security, and defenses against DoS and brute-force attacks.

virt-manager is a desktop interface for managing virtual machines through libvirt, chiefly for KVM, with support for Xen and LXC as well. It connects to local and remote hosts and displays live performance and resource-use statistics for running domains. Setup wizards help create domains and assign resources and virtual hardware, while an embedded VNC and SPICE viewer provides a graphical guest console. The interface also manages host virtual networks, storage pools, and network interfaces. Companion command-line tools handle provisioning, cloning, and editing virtual machines. virt-manager runs on Linux and OpenBSD hosts, supports both guest architectures, and includes snapshots and GPU acceleration. Installation options listed include Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, and OpenBSD packages, plus a source release. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License; current releases are GPG signed, with verification instructions. Documentation and a FAQ are available, support questions go to GitHub Discussions, and bug tracking is on GitHub.