MSI recently undertook a major migration from VMware to Proxmox Virtual Environment for their high-availability (HA) infrastructure. This transition was driven by the need to implement a cost-effective, open-source, and scalable virtualization solution without sacrificing performance or reliability. Since the migration, the company has experienced significant improvements in flexibility, operational efficiency, and cost savings.

MSI, leading distributor of flooring, countertop, wall tile, and hardscaping products in North America, runs its self-hosted IT services on premises in two separate colocation centers. The company has a cluster of 10 Dell PowerEdge R760 for production, 3 PowerEdge R750 for staging and 3 PowerEdge R630 for development and testing. All systems are deployed as a hyper-converged Ceph cluster, with about 150 VMs in total. The hosted services include web servers, load balancers, SQL servers, containers, and a whole suite of Windows/Linux servers that support the company’s daily operations.

Why MSI Surfaces opted for strategic diversification

Karan Vashi, systems engineer at MSI, explains the situation the company was in before migrating to Proxmox VE: “While VMware provided a stable virtualization platform, we encountered several challenges. High licensing costs escalated with scaling needs, vendor lock-in limited our customization and integration capabilities and the complex licensing structure required costly add-ons for full HA functionality.”

“While our production systems continue to run on VMware, we have strategically separated our infrastructure to reduce costs and avoid reliance on a single technology. Our high-availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), and test environments now run on Proxmox VE with Ceph, providing a scalable and cost-effective solution.”

HA and scalability with Ceph storage

The company evaluated various alternatives before selecting Proxmox VE for a number of key reasons. First, its open-source nature eliminates expensive licensing fees. Second, its built-in HA and clustering features provide robust failover mechanisms. Third, its seamless integration with Ceph storage ensures HA and scalability.

“We also opted for a subscription for Proxmox Backup Server in addition to Proxmox VE’s built in snapshot features to enhance our disaster recovery strategies”, says Karan Vashi. “Proxmox VE’s web-based management interface simplifies our operations and reduces our administrative overhead.”

Minimal downtime during migration

The transition was executed in stages to ensure minimal downtime. During the initial planning and testing stage the company deployed a test cluster to evaluate the performance and compatibility of the Proxmox products.

“When we started the migration of data and VMs we used tools like virt-v2v, manual VM exports, and, where possible, live migrations. Later, we leveraged Veeam’s backup and restore features to transition directly from VMware to Proxmox VE”, explains Karan Vashi. “For the Ceph storage deployment we implemented a scalable Ceph cluster for redundant and high performance storage. We achieved our highly available setup by configuring HA groups in Proxmox VE, fencing, and failover strategies.”

Reduced cost and improved performance

The migration to Proxmox VE brought several measurable results, as Karan Vashi points out: “Since the migration, we have achieved a 75% cost reduction because we are no longer dependent on expensive licensing fees. We also benefit from increased scalability and flexibility since it’s easier to expand with open-source technologies.”

The virtualization of Proxmox VE led to a better utilization of resources and to improved performance. Furthermore, Proxmox VE allows for simplified management with its unified web-based user interface. The company enhanced its high-availability infrastructure with seamless failover and redundancy with Ceph and the Proxmox HA features.

“Migrating to Proxmox VE has been a game-changer for our HA infrastructure”, says Karan Vashi. “We now enjoy greater control, reduced costs, and improved performance without vendor restrictions. Proxmox VE has proven to be a powerful, reliable, and scalable alternative to proprietary solutions like VMware.”

Karan Vashi
Systems Engineer

About MSI Surfaces
Founded in 1975, MSI is the leading nationwide distributor of flooring, countertop, wall tile, and hardscaping products in North America. Headquartered in Orange, California, MSI maintains over 50 state-of-the-art showrooms and distribution centers across the U.S. and Canada, with domestically sourced products for Q™ Premium Natural Quartz in Latta, South Carolina, and Premium LVT in Cartersville, Georgia. MSI imports products from over 37 countries on six continents and has grown to over $2.5 billion in annual revenues and 3,700+ employees worldwide.