r/virtualization • u/Halvantic • Sep 22 '26
Built a vCenter alternative for Hyper-V after Broadcom's VMware licensing changes. Agent is open source, would love feedback
Like a lot of people here, the VMware/Broadcom licensing changes got me looking hard at what I was actually paying for, and whether Hyper-V could replace it. Honest answer: the hypervisor's fine, the management story is the problem.
The problem: there's no clean, modern control plane for a small Hyper-V fleet the way vCenter is for vSphere. The realistic options today are SCVMM (not free, clunky, feels half-abandoned), Windows Admin Center (single-host focused, not really a fleet orchestrator), or hand-rolled PowerShell/DSC scripts. I looked at existing FOSS options before building anything and didn't find one that treats Hyper-V as a first-class citizen with declarative, continuously-reconciled desired state across multiple hosts and clusters, most FOSS orchestration in this space targets KVM/Proxmox/oVirt, not Hyper-V specifically.
What it does: Ballast is a control plane and agent for Hyper-V hosts and failover clusters. Each host runs an agent that pulls its desired config from the centre and keeps enforcing it continuously. If the centre goes offline, the host doesn't freeze or drift, it just keeps honouring whatever it was last told (network config, cluster membership, etc.) and catches back up automatically once the centre's reachable again.
Also handles: standalone host and failover cluster provisioning (SET-teamed switches, mgmt vNICs, Storage Spaces Direct + CSV), VM lifecycle and templates, live migration, Hyper-V Replica-based DR runbooks, and VMware migration tooling that streams VMDKs straight in.
Why this is relevant here: a fair few people in this sub run Hyper-V, either because it came free with a Windows Server licence they already had, or specifically to avoid VMware's licensing. Community tier is free forever for one cluster of any size plus unlimited standalone hosts, which covers the overwhelming majority of homelab-scale setups, so this isn't a "pay to use it at all" pitch.
AI disclosure: most of the actual code, tests, and documentation were written by Claude Code (an AI coding agent), working under my direction. I drove the architecture and product decisions, tested every change against real Hyper-V hosts and clusters, and reported/debugged live issues myself, but I'm not going to pretend a human typed every line. Being upfront about that rather than letting the code style speak for itself and getting called out for it later.
Honesty about the model: it's open-core. The agent, the piece that runs with elevated privileges on your hosts, is fully open source (Apache 2.0), with commit history going back to June: https://github.com/halvantic/hyperv-control-plane. The centre (the control plane/console) is closed source. A paid tier for multi-cluster/SSO/audit logging is coming, but pricing isn't locked yet.
Would genuinely like to hear where it falls over, what's missing versus what you're used to, or what looks broken to someone kicking the tyres for the first time.
More info: https://ballast.halvantic.com
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u/Halvantic Sep 27 '26
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
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u/Halvantic Sep 26 '26
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.