Harvester vs Scale Computing Platform

Harvester is free, open-source hyperconverged infrastructure for bare-metal servers, combining virtualization and distributed storage. It is intended for VMs, Kubernetes running in VMs, containerized workloads on bare metal, and edge workloads. Its architecture uses Kubernetes, KubeVirt, Longhorn, Grafana, Prometheus, and SUSE Linux Micro. Users can create, edit, clone, and delete VMs, with SSH key injection, cloud-init, and graphical or serial consoles. Live migration moves a VM to another host without downtime, but requires matching physical CPU specifications. Storage includes distributed block storage and tiering; VM backups use NFS or S3-compatible targets and are limited to Longhorn volumes. Harvester installs directly on bare metal from a bootable ISO; new installations starting with v1.8 require UEFI boot. Three nodes are needed for multi-node features and high availability, while production recommendations call for at least 16 CPU cores, 64 GB memory, 500 GB disk, and 10 Gbps Ethernet. Laptops and nested virtualization are unsupported.

Scale Computing Platform combines virtualization, servers, storage, backup, disaster recovery, and fleet management for edge and distributed infrastructure. SC//HyperCore is a lightweight type 1 bare-metal hypervisor based on KVM components and integrated with the SCRIBE storage layer. SC//Fleet Manager centrally monitors and manages distributed clusters, including zero-touch provisioning. HyperCore is designed to recover from hardware failures and add nodes to a cluster. Automation is available through a REST API and a Red Hat Certified Ansible Collection. Azure Arc, Azure Monitor, and Azure Policy integrate with on-premises workloads. Scale positions the platform for edge sites and distributed enterprises, including locations with few or no on-site IT staff. Fleet Manager uses HTTPS public key infrastructure, encrypted connections, and tenant- and role-based access. Secure Link sends interface data to a browser over TLS 1.2 and closes its outbound connection when the session ends. The hybrid platform supports KVM, live migration, high availability, and disaster recovery. Phone support runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; email support is listed Monday through Friday. Pricing is on request.