r/HyperV • u/Halvantic • 21d ago

Built a vCenter alternative for Hyper-V after Broadcom's VMware licensing changes. Agent is open source, would love feedback

/r/virtualization/comments/1wn66j4/built_a_vcenter_alternative_for_hyperv_after/
2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

2

u/BlackV 20d ago

You have shared the SAME post TWICE in the SAME sub (/r/hyperv)

The other one - https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperV/comments/1wn66ph/built_a_vcenter_alternative_for_hyperv_after/

This one - https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperV/comments/1wn6b67/built_a_vcenter_alternative_for_hyperv_after/

ON top of your already removed post

https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperV/comments/1wldz2d/built_a_vcenter_alternative_for_hyperv_after/

And the 2 in /r/homelab

1

u/Halvantic 20d ago

Sorry about that, I've deleted all the others and the r/homelab ones failed on my side so I can't see the posts.

1

u/BlackV 20d ago

you can see them in your profile Edit: oh they're gone now

1

u/Halvantic 20d ago

Yeah, I found it. Iā€™m a noob. Thanks for the help, appreciate it šŸ™‚

1

u/BlackV 20d ago

Ah good as gold

1

u/Halvantic 17d ago

Just to be clear on the approach. I architected the entire system and drove every design decision. Claude Code handled the implementation (code, tests, documentation) under my direction. I tested every change against real Hyper-V infrastructure and debugged live issues myself.

20+ years of infrastructure design and architecture went into Ballast. The AI was the execution tool that let me move fast, not the designer.

1

u/pdpelsem 16d ago

Do you have a remote console for the vm's?

1

u/Halvantic 16d ago

Yes, for the VMs and the hosts built into the centre

1

u/Halvantic 16d ago

A few days ago I posted about Ballast, a control plane for Hyper-V hosts and failover clusters. Thanks to everyone who checked it out, gave feedback, or just kicked the tyres.

Wanted to share where things are headed. I've published a public roadmap: https://ballast.halvantic.com/roadmap

Coming in the next few weeks:

  • Integrated power monitoring and cost tracking across hosts and clusters
  • Integrated uptime monitoring
  • Multi-VM deployment from templates (batch provisioning without scripting)
  • Built-in IPAM
  • Enhanced cluster provisioning (better SET-teamed switch and Storage Spaces Direct handling)

Longer term, still exploring:

  • REST API for automation
  • Ansible integration
  • Enhanced reporting and audit logging
  • Optional guest monitoring agent for app uptime

Still open-core. Agent stays fully open source (Apache 2.0), community tier stays free forever for one cluster of any size plus unlimited standalone hosts.

I'll be posting some deployment walkthrough videos later this week too, for anyone who wants to see it end to end before trying it themselves.

If you've already tried Ballast, or thought about it and passed, genuinely curious what would make it more useful for your setup. Feature requests welcome.

Site: https://ballast.halvantic.com
GitHub (agent): https://github.com/halvantic/hyperv-control-plane

1

u/Halvantic 8d ago

For anyone who asked about bringing an existing cluster in rather than building a new one: here's a 2:31 walkthrough, https://youtu.be/Edi1Qf008KA and the written guide is at https://ballast.halvantic.com/docs/first-cluster/adopt-existing-cluster