Oracle VM Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Engineer at a local government with 501-1,000 employees

Feb 22, 2016

You get what you pay for

Oracle database licensing rules make licensing on VMware cost prohibitive. Instead Oracle prefers that you use their "enterprise" virtualization product, Oracle VM. Avoid it at all costs. Threaten to migrate to MS SQL... just don't use this thing.

Pros:

Free
Relatively inexpensive support

Cons:

Poor and buggy Windows client support. PVM network drivers have a serious performance bug that has not been resolved in more than a year (and three versions updates!). Luckily, there is a workaround where you can disable some features of the virtual NIC to get it working.
"High Availability" in the OVM world means that if you shutdown a VM from within the OS, OVM automatically restarts it. If you want to actually shut down a VM you have to disable high availability, in which case you lose the ability to automatically migrate a VM if a host fails. It also means that you need to give your server admins access to the OVM Manager. For example, our DBAs can admin their Oracle servers... people who wouldn't normally have access to that level of enterprise management.
It took three weeks and a set of consultants who knew little more than us to get storage and network working properly in a fault-tolerant manner.
Non-existent best practices and no real community of support. Some Googling will find you the occasional blog or commercial site with tips and tricks, but they are few and far between.
Poor management interface. In order to see the status of an individual VM you have to drill down to the correct host. There is no way to see the status of all VMs on all hosts.
P2V is a multi-step process. Boot the server from a CD to turn it into a web server. Import web server into an OVM template. Create VM from template. Delete template. Essentially you need double the storage to get through the process.
Minimal troubleshooting or diagnostic information without diving into the Linux OS.
Training (virtual classroom only) was sub-standard and inconsistent. One member of our team was taught only to use the command line and was never shown the GUI. I was taught the GUI and some command line. And if you mention VMware in order to clarify concepts, prepare to get your head bitten off.
Migrating VMs to different storage is an adaptation of the process for deploying from a template. Some inputs are ignored, and yet you are prompted for them anyway.
You need an Oracle database to run the OVM Manager, which you install on the OVM Manager. So a key part of the infrastructure is a single point of failure.
The SAN disk for the server pool is a single point of failure.
If the OVM Manager goes down there is no way to manage the individual OVM hosts short of the Linux command line. The database (even when using Oracle Enterprise instead of the included Oracle XE) is prone to corruption, leaving you dead in the water. This has already happened to us once and the only solution from Oracle was to rebuild. Apparently this corruption is rather common. I know of other installations at my employer that have run into this corruption three times in the past nine months, requiring a rebuild each time. I do not feel that I can trust this product for a mission-critical production environment.
Oracle is aware of these corruption issues but does not know the source and has no fix. They have reduced the incidence of corruption in version 3.2.3, but it is not a question of if corruption will occur, but when. The difficult thing is that the OVM manager will appear to run fine with this corruption.... until you restart the OVM manager, at which point it fails.
The whole networking / storage / repository / configuration setup is needlessly complicated. I know this is an Oracle flavor of XEN, but... Citrix based their virtualization product on XEN and it isn't nearly as painful. Maybe Oracle should buy Citrix so they can drop OVM.
Configuring storage that does not support their management plugins (entry-level EMC products) is an exercise in trial and error.
If you already have another VM environment (VMware, Hyper-V) you are essentially setting up a parallel VM environment to manage.
Cloning a VM (or cloning from a template) duplicates *everything* so be sure you don't have any ISO images attached, as they will be duplicated as well, chewing up storage.
When you clone a VM the new files use the same name as the old with a number after it. If you don't think to rename them you will end up with a lot of files named "Windows 2008 Template (1)" "Windows 2008 Template (2)" and so on. The properties of the file will tell you to which VM it is linked, but (trust me) renaming them will save you a LOT of confusion. Things like this VMware just handles for you under the covers.

In summary: Do not use Oracle VM. If you must run Xen there are much better and manageable implementations (Citrix XenServer). If any reviewer has given Oracle VM more than two stars I seriously question whether they really have hands-on experience with the product (or have experience with a real virtualization product as a basis of comparison).

Update: After talking with other enterprises we are dropping OVM and setting up a separate VMware cluster in order to meet Oracle licensing requirements. While we will incur the expense of VMware licenses it is well worth it.

The licensing argument you will hear from Oracle regarding VMware is a scare tactic. You CAN run Oracle on VMware without breaking the bank on Oracle licensing if you plan carefully. VMware also guarantees that they will work directly with Oracle on your behalf to resolve any issues that may be linked to running on VMware.

Further update: When we gave up on Oracle VM about 9 months ago the central office tried to stick with it due to the Oracle DB licensing issues. Last week they got fed up and ordered the hardware to create a new VMware cluster dedicated to Oracle instead.

Another update: While I have not used Oracle VM since I posted this review, it is interesting to note that they have not released a new version since 2014. The latest version 3.3, did not fix any of the issues I don't think they are really serious about advancing or enhancing this product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user516714Helpdesk level 3 at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Sep 20, 2016

It is free and not hard to install

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reviewer613782

Manager-Data Center at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 20, 2019

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A database solution that does not provide enough storage

Pros and Cons

"The stability of the product is fine."

"There is no memory over-subscription and CPU over-subscription. That has to be improved in terms of Oracle VM perspective. The other leading virtualizing software solutions have this feature."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use of this product is for a database. I use this solution because it can work together with our other Oracle solutions.

What needs improvement?

There is no memory over-subscription and CPU over-subscription. That has to be improved in terms of Oracle VM perspective. The other leading VM software solutions have this feature.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For me, the stability is fine. But, I only primarily use it for the database role.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There is a huge gap that Oracle VM needs to tighten in order to be more scalable, as well as more competitive with other VM products currently on the market.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is not perfect.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used VMware products. I have found VMware vs Oracle VM to be far superior in provisioning and deployment. Additionally, there is more storage availability with VMware products.

How was the initial setup?

It's slightly more complex to set up than other VM software.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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Agustin Caveda Mas

‎Senior Presales Engineer of DataCenter and Digital Transformation at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees

Jan 17, 2019

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Highly stable and scalable

Pros and Cons

"It is a stable product."

"It was a complex setup. It was very difficult for me."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use this for demonstrations for customers.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to use, and easy to start.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. For us, we do not have a need for a lot of servers, so it suits our needs. We have about 30 users of this solution.

How is customer service and technical support?

The tech support is good.

How was the initial setup?

It was a complex setup. It was very difficult for me.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you buy an Oracle server, this solution is free. You have to only pay for support.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user448731

Oracle DBA at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 30, 2016

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It’s helped to decrease hardware and software license costs. It's missing an option to create a snapshot backup.

Valuable Features:

For most customers we have is the main reason avoiding license issues with Oracle. Most customers already have VMware vSphere running. Another reason is to have the complete stack from the same vendor, if any issues occur then only vendor has to be contacted for support to help fixing the issues.

Improvements to My Organization:

It’s helped to decrease hardware and software license costs to use Oracle VM as most of our customers are running a lot of small applications and databases. They use Oracle VM to create small VMs to install Weblogic and the Databases on seperate servers. Also, to split the OTA database and application servers from the production databases and applications. Advantage: less hardware to buy, and most software licenses are CPU based, by using hard partitioning you can save on license costs.

Room for Improvement:

Backup: It's possible to clone a VM (Virtual Machine) or make a template from it, but the option to create a snapshot backup from OVM Manager is missing. This option is available in VMware vSphere If you want to make snapshots using Oracle VM then it must be done by the storage product.

Jobs, the OVM manager handles only one job at the time. For a lot of actions, for example, starting or stopping a Virtual Machine, a job is created. If I start a couple of VM's at the same time I only see one job for starting the first VM. The other five jobs are in an invisible queue, after finishing the first job the second job starts and becomes visible at that moment. What to improve: make at least visible which jobs are in the queue and make it possible to run multiple jobs at the same time.

Security: there is no role based access control available in OVM Manager, if it’s needed then you have to use Oracle Enterprise Manager with the right plugin.

Use of Solution:

I've been using it for years.

Deployment Issues:

There were no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

We've experienced no issues with performance.

Scalability Issues:

It's been able to scale for our needs.

Other Advice:

The product is good for the things we want to do with it, but there is room for improvement.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are an Platinum Oracle Partner.

Reviewer308

Senior Project Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Dec 13, 2018

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It is a useful product, but the price is high.

Pros and Cons

"It is very useful for the project management of our company."

"Integrating with the internal system is not very easy."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for project management.

How has it helped my organization?

It is very useful for the project management of our company.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Integrating with the internal system is not very easy.

How is customer service and technical support?

We reached out to tech support via email, and they responded to our inquiries.

How was the initial setup?

It was very easy to setup. We used the wizard to automatically setup the master data and the initial data.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of this product is high.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user181395

Systems administrator - Microsoft, Redhat, VMWare, Oracle VM at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 17, 2016

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Oracle VM was chosen mostly due to licensing issues and it is based on the stable Xen.

What is most valuable?

It reduces the licensing cost for other Oracle products, and because it's based on Xen, it has no performance problems.

How has it helped my organization?

We've been able to use it successfully for deployment of our online application.

What needs improvement?

It needs automatic migration that's similar to VMware vMotion. The DRS feature in VMware migrates virtual machines based on the load on the hosts. Oracle VM does not have this feature, and I don't want users complaining about the performance bottleneck due to the load on the host.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using it for three years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I deployed it within a week and didn't have any issues with it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Thankfully, everything was stable in spite of my limited knowledge.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had no issues scaling it for our needs.

How are customer service and technical support?

The customer service was good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use VMware products, which I personally prefer. VMware products are an administrator's dream. They have thought of everything, including DRS, HA, templates, and virtual machine deployment. It is very easy to do all these tasks.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a bit of both straightforward and complex, but it's easy if you know VMware.

What about the implementation team?

I carried out the implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It reduces the licensing cost for Oracle products, though I still prefer VMware.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Oracle VM was chosen mostly due to licensing issues and it is based on the stable KVM product of Red Hat.

What other advice do I have?

VMware is the best, but for saving license costs for Oracle products, Oracle VM is good and stable.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user181395Systems administrator - Microsoft, Redhat, VMWare, Oracle VM at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

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Oct 17, 2016

Thank you. It was an oversight.

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it_user446694

Senior Apps Database Administrator at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 30, 2016

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When we migrate physical servers to virtual ones, it reduces the amount of licenses needed.

Valuable Features:

Scalability
Administering/managing
Simplified network/storage operations.

Having these features in place, a DBA admin can easily able to build VMs, migrate on the fly, assign network ports, and segregate the networks according to levels.

Improvements to My Organization:

It's improved our licensing. When we migrate physical servers to virtual ones, it reduces the amount of licenses needed. Not only that, Oracle Linux on Oracle VM are certified to run, also UEL is tuned to provide fast performance compare to other Linux.

Room for Improvement:

There are some minor bugs with the manual admin from Hyp versus GUI Admin.

Deployment Issues:

There were no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

We have had no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues:

It's scaled for our needs.

Other Advice:

I personally like working on Oracle VM rather than other virtualization, because of the simplified setup, and probably I am attached to Oracle products maybe, as being an Ex-Employee of Oracle Corp.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Robin Saikat ChatterjeeHead of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Solutioning Technology and Architeture at Tata Consultancy Services

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Jul 4, 2016

Definitely the fact that oracle recognizes OVM as a trusted partition that can be used to reduce overall licensing is a major advantage compared to other x86 virtualization techniques.Since today's chips have insane numbers of cores sometimes this is the only way to keep licensing costs in check.

it_user1077

Developer at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Aug 4, 2012

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Oracle VM is an extremely feature rich, high performance product, which provides an environment to leverage the benefits of virtualization technology.

Valuable Features:

1) It allows deploying operating systems and the application software’s within supported platforms and environments.2) It includes VM Server which is designed to provide a secure, lightweight, server based platform to run and execute virtual machines. And also includes VM Manager which manages VM Servers.3) The product is freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Room for Improvement:

1) Drag and Drop feature is not stable, at times the UI becomes inconsistent, when using this feature.2) Connecting VM Manager in a web browser twice in a different tab or window provides unexpected display issues.3) When upgrading the VM server to newer version from ISO image and CD, though new entries are created in Oracle Linux grub menu, however entries from previous installation are not removed.All and all the product offers number of benefits to the users who often use multiple platforms. Though there are some disadvantages of the product which can be fixed with some workarounds.

Other Advice:

Though the latest release 3.1.1 is quite mature and has more to offer in terms of performance, usability, security, and scalability.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.