From VxRail/VMware to Proxmox VE: Our Successful Migration Journey

Over the last few months, I led the Anacortes School District through a major transformation of our virtual infrastructure, migrating from a licensed VMware/VxRail environment to an open-source, high-performance Proxmox VE cluster. Here's a brief recap of how we made it happen, and why we had to make the move.

Why We Made the Move

Like many public school districts in Washington State, we’re experiencing serious budget shortfalls. Declining enrollment, reduced local levy capacity, and rising operational costs have placed pressure on every department. Technology is no exception—we’re being asked to do more with less, while maintaining reliability and supporting increasingly complex instructional systems.

At the same time, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware introduced sweeping and abrupt changes:

1. Perpetual licenses were discontinued.
2. Subscription pricing models became difficult to forecast.
3. Partner channels and support structures shifted.
4. Uncertainty became the norm.

In a K–12 environment, uncertainty is a risk—we can’t afford surprise licensing costs or vendor lock-in. We needed a solution that was cost-effective, transparent, and entirely within our control.

That’s why we turned to Proxmox VE, an open-source virtualization platform with a strong community, no licensing fees, and full enterprise-grade capabilities. Additionally, Veeam (our backup solution) added support for Proxmox VE last year, so the timing couldn’t have been better, and the outcome has been well worth it!

The Migration Process

Pre-Migration Assessment

• Comparison of feature sets between VMware and Proxmox.
• Tested Proxmox on repurposed hardware to confirm compatibility with existing VMs and workloads.

Cluster Planning

• Designed a 4-node Proxmox cluster using our former VxRail hosts.
• Reinstalled each node with Proxmox VE and removed Dell factory software and configurations.
• Selected ZFS as the storage backend for its built-in redundancy, snapshot capabilities, and performance tuning.

VM Migration

• Leveraged Veeam’s feature which allows a direct restore to Proxmox to move VMs directly from our existing VMware backup repository.
• Avoided re-creating or manually importing disks, reducing downtime and complexity.
• After restore, update and reconfigure drivers and network settings. 
• Reconfigured our Nagios Monitoring system and Veeam for the new Proxmox environment.

Post-Migration Optimization

Tuned ZFS memory usage with tools like arcstat to ensure system stability and efficient performance monitoring.

Challenges We Faced

While we are satisfied with the move to Proxmox, the project was not without its challenges.

• Windows VM Compatibility: Several systems needed post-restore attention, mainly driver installations and NIC configuration, to fully adapt to Proxmox’s virtual environment.
• Cluster Stability: We encountered quorum and corosync issues early on, which required a rebuild and highlighted the importance of DNS and cluster join order.
• Networking Complexity: Adjusting bridge and VLAN settings to reflect the previous VxRail environment took some switch-level coordination and testing.
• Dell refused to re-certify our hardware warranty if we stopped using VxRail, so we are going to be out of warranty after September of this year.

What We Gained

• Eliminated hypervisor licensing costs
• Full root access and system visibility in a standard Debian-based system
• ZFS-native snapshots and backup workflows
• Improved performance and reduced vendor reliance
• Peace of mind with an infrastructure we fully control

Most importantly, we aligned our infrastructure with budget realities—without compromising performance or reliability.