My primary use of the solution is for testing distributions and installations.
Manager at Private Individual
Easy to install, but highly unstable
Pros and Cons
- "The installation is easy."
- "I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
While in the past I used the solution on Linux, which I no longer do, and FreeBSD, which is my daytime runner, I am not very happy with its use on the latter. For the past year or so, it slowed down upon its use.
I am not a great fan of Oracle's products. I have not been happy with these since version 6. I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Oracle VM VirtualBox on and off for five or six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly.
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How are customer service and support?
I have very little to do with technical support. As I have been doing things for nearly 30 years, I solve any issues which may arise on my own.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is easy, although I could not say how long it took.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license I use is free.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is on-premises as part of the labs.
As I am the one who tests the solution, I am the only one making use of it in my organization.
I do not believe that I would recommend the solution to others.
I rate Oracle VM VirtualBox as a six or seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
A flexible solution with good performance but it need to promote itself more effectively
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspects of the solution were the support and performance of the product and the flexibility it gives you to work."
- "The solution has to do a better job of promoting the product and its licensing capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
We have two primary use cases. We have one or two data bases. We were using it for our hospitality system and also for testing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspects of the solution were the support and performance of the product and the flexibility it gives you to work.
What needs improvement?
The solution has to do a better job of promoting the product and its licensing capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, if we would have used it in the production, then I would have been able to comment on that. Since we used it only for the development environment and just for the testing it would be difficult to comment. We only used the solution for three months.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. Nowadays all products are scalable. The scalability basically depends on the hardware and software. However, when you're talking about product, 90% of the products are scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We didn't need to reach out to technical support during testing, so I do not have any experience with them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup had a moderate amount of difficulty. We had to first study the product and then deploy it. The team didn't have hands-on experience on the product before. This was the first time we were trying it out.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the implementation ourselves.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises deployment model.
Whether I would recommend the solution depends on the preference of the person who is going to handle the environment. If they're more comfortable with a product they have worked on, then they may go for VMware or Hyper-V. But if they are open to having a more license controlled environment, then definitely they will want to go with Oracle.
I'd rate the solution six out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Oracle VM VirtualBox
January 2025
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IT Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
I can send a VM to a friend to test so they don’t have to install it or port it to my other computers.
What is most valuable?
VirtualBox can import and export virtual machines in a usable format. It’s also very easy to change settings to fine tune the VM. Also, I can send a VM to a friend to test so they don’t have to install it or port it to my other computers.
How has it helped my organization?
In my personal lab, it helps me explore new Linux distributions or updates before actually installing them.
What needs improvement?
I’d like to see Oracle make it easy to drag and drop files between a VM and the host PC. That would help a lot in saving time transferring files.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for about six years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I have had no issues deploying it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have had no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I've not had to scale it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
I haven't needed to use customer service.
Technical Support:I have not had to use tech support as there is plenty of information available online.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used VirtualPC before, but VirtualBox is much better. It offers more configuration options in its settings, and we wanted an alternative to Microsoft products.
How was the initial setup?
Getting used to working through the settings took some time to get the hang of, but after that, it flows smoothly usually.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As a home user, it’s free.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend that you use VirtualBox and experiment with different settings.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Systems Engineering at Atlantica Digital
It is stable and I can use it in an environment with several resolutions
Pros and Cons
- "I think VirtualBox has good stability because I use it in an environment with several resolutions."
- "The technical support needs to improve."
What is our primary use case?
I use Oracle VM VirtualBox mainly for testing guest environments and to test beta machines before they go in production environment. I also simulate configuration before the production environment to test some optionality.
What is most valuable?
I have found that cost metric manager is an interesting implementation of the network environment and it enables me to reproduce production environments.
What needs improvement?
The technical support needs to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for seven or eight years now on private cloud.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I think VirtualBox has good stability because I use it in an environment with several resolutions. VirtualBox is able to use the full functionality and the powerfulness of the server I installed VirtualBox on this environment. So I, at the moment, I'm satisfied with the stability of the VirtualBox environment. I'm able to run several guest environments on one node.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable because I can run several guest environments on one node.
How are customer service and technical support?
I very rarely need support in VirtualBox because I utilize the documentation provided by Oracle. In my experience, I have never opened a service request for VirtualBox functionality because I find myself to work around what I need to run my environment. This is also due to the fact that I use VirtualBox in a lab environment and not in a production environment. So, for me, the technical support is not critical.
What other advice do I have?
I will rate this solution an eight out of ten due to its environmental guide. For the next release I think the developer should work on reliability and security. But it is a good product.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
QA Sales Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Linux-wise, I go with the VirtualBox because of the simplicity.
What is most valuable?
I can manage the VirtualBox images. It's a VirtualBox. We work with both VMware and VirtualBox. Linux-wise, I go with the VirtualBox. I don't go with the VMware, because of the simplicity. Especially when you're using Oracle Linux, you are matching the products together. The manageability of the virtual images is much better. That's what I like.
What needs improvement?
If I could maybe have cloud images, that would be awesome. It's going to be hard to manage cloud with a cloud, or image with an image, but hey, if it can be done, we can do that, too. Why not? You have mobility, so you can use something. You can have a server with all of the VirtualBoxes there and the images there. For example, if you are managing an application, you can use it from a touch of a screen. Why not?
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been with this company since November 2015, and they've probably been using it for quite a longer time than I'm here. From my perspective, that's roughly a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has been consistently stable over the past year. We didn't have any down time. All of the images were always perfectly done.
It's funny; sometimes one of the IT departments would say, "Well, why don't you convert your VirtualBox to VMware?" That means I have to redo the whole thing. So, I said, "Forget it. I'll stay with this one." Don't add more fire to a fire. Just leave it as it is. If it isn’t working, then maybe you try to put it out with water, but that doesn't work sometimes. Just stay where it is. It’s meant to be like that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. It does what we need to do with our images for our production, especially for the Linux images.
How is customer service and technical support?
I don't really have any contact with support, because everything works fine. I haven’t had a chance to actually talk to them. Maybe not right now, but from previous engagements, I have some experience with Oracle support and also the community. I'm part of the OTN. I’ve been a partner of the OTN since before I joined my current company. Before that, for another engagement, they were using Oracle, and I decided I needed to know something. I logged in, I asked some questions, and people come on. That's how you learn. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
What other advice do I have?
What are your needs? What is the most important for you? Then, we can show you what you can manage. The benefits: It's Oracle, so there you go. You have a VirtualBox. It's well-known. It's stable. I use it. If it works for me, it might as well work for you. Simple.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
ERP System Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Using a virtual operating system simplifies the installation procedure, system maintenance, and system backup. It allows you to be hardware independent.
What is most valuable?
- It's easy to implement.
- It supports USB 3.0.
- It provides for cloning of images from real machines or VMs.
How has it helped my organization?
Having a virtual operating system has many advantages. Using such an approach simplifies the installation procedure, system maintenance, and system backup. It allows you to be hardware independent.
What needs improvement?
It needs better support for 3D. This would allow us to virtualize operating systems used by designers or architects. The base virtual disk (VDI file), which contains the state before taking the snapshot, should be aware if it has some related snapshots. This would help to eliminate issues when moving or migrating virtual machines to new hardware, e.g. if you move the base virtual disk file but forget to move the snapshots.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
For some Linux distributions, I had a high CPU utilization when running Oracle VM Virtualbox. Sometimes with Linux, there was a problem with freezing the host system.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were some issues with the toolbar menu when using two monitors. In the end, I managed to get those issues resolved either with changing the virtual machine configuration or by updating to a newer version of Oracle VM Virtualbox.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've had no issue scaling it to our needs.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have only used community support and there are a lot of technical guides and discussions that can guide you to a solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
For virtualizing desktop solutions, we did not use a previous solution. For server environments, we did. I have used Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESXi.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was clean and straightforward. There might be some additional task to do, e.g. installing the DKMS module on some Linux distributions, but this is rather a distribution-related issue. It is possible to have to change settings in the BIOS, but the software gives enough good information when starting, e.g. if something is not enabled in the BIOS. With Windows, it is very easy to set up a host environment.
What about the implementation team?
All implementations were done by me. I wrote some manuals and guides for my colleagues so they could do the roll-out afterwards.
What other advice do I have?
Be sure to have enough hardware resources to run the virtual machines smoothly.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeopleSoft Administrator at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
We like the fact that Virtualbox is easy to set up, it's ready to go, and we can install Oracle PeopleSoft images on a Linux OS.
Valuable Features
The biggest feature that we like and which is most valuable for us is the fact that Virtualbox is easy to set up, it's ready to go, and we can install Oracle PeopleSoft images on a Linux OS in a fairly quick and efficient time with minimal manual work.
Improvements to My Organization
Our ability to keep up with Oracle PeopleSoft images being installed on the Oracle VM has sped up our turnaround time and allowed us to save time for applying updates to a delivered environment to begin analysis\extraction of fixes and review of functionality.
Room for Improvement
There were some minor issues with the initial setup, such as if we forgot to reinitialize the MAC addresses of the network cards. Also, setting up the network adaptors was a bit tricky.
Use of Solution
I've been using it for about six months.
Deployment Issues
We went with a physical box, and our biggest issue was being able to get right amount of configuration/memory/disk space and CPU to be able to deploy multiple images on the VM. Realistically the restriction was on our end and not the software itself.
Stability Issues
We have had no issues with the stability.
Scalability Issues
We have had no issues scaling it for our needs.
Customer Service and Technical Support
The level of customer service and support has been very good to date. No complaints there.
Initial Setup
The initial setup was pretty straightforward with some minor items that needed to be logged. The biggest issue we came across was if we forgot to reinitialize the MAC addresses of the network cards. If we forgot to do that, we had to go back and re-import the image to the Virtualbox. Setting up the network adaptors was a bit tricky, in the sense where we had to make sure we had enough adapters to do Bridged Adapters.
Implementation Team
We implemented it in-house.
ROI
The ROI on it is obviously to our benefit as we are now able to deploy multiple PeopleSoft images to the Oracle VM and have everything (Web\App\DB\OSES) up and running normally in less than a day. That is a big time saver for us.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
In our situation, the product came as part of our ERP license, therefore we cannot comment on that as its not a separate cost.
Other Solutions Considered
We did not evaluate any other solutions as the Oracle VM was part of our ERP deployment with the new release. It was a requirement and, as such, we implemented it accordingly.
Other Advice
I would say that in terms of implementing this product, it is definitely a powerful tool and what we are using it for is probably less than what it can be used for to maximize the return. Being able to run multiple images on this (Windows, OS X, Linux, Solaris, IBM OS\2 etc.) allows for deployments of multiple OS's and version for testing multiple products\scenarios.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Service Area Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable feature for us was the speed of setup.
Valuable Features
The most valuable feature for us was the speed of setup. From zero to mere minutes, I can have something working.
Improvements to My Organization
It's nice that we can use it on Linux as we use it on Windows.
Room for Improvement
I'd like to see phpVirtualBox integration or something like that. VM Virtualbox lacks this feature and it would be nice to have web remote access on it.
Use of Solution
I've used it for many years. I think I started with v2 or v3.
Deployment Issues
I think Linux had a little problem installing it, but nothing so important that I remember the specific problem.
Stability Issues
There is an issue with stability only when I used it with phpVirtualBox.
Scalability Issues
We have had no issues scaling it for our needs.
Customer Service and Technical Support
I've never had to contact tech support, as the documentation was enough for me.
Initial Setup
The initial setup was very simple.
Implementation Team
We did it in-house.
ROI
As it's very simple and documentation is available, there are no problems with ROI in general.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
There is the enterprise version, which I did not test because I did not need it. I remember that it was an interesting way to bulk sell about 50 or 100 licenses at one time. Of course, the price was way over what I had in mind to do with Virtualbox, so I just skipped. I think, also, that the open source version will cover all your needs until you need 50-100 licenses.
Other Advice
It's excellent for the speed of setup, to install/deploy/test things, but for serious work I prefer to work on Proxmox. I just loved it.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're partners.
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Hi Jaari, it seems itcentralstation is the one who has lumped both solutions under the same category sine they come from the same vendor. ideally there should have been two separate categories.
Oops actually Oracel VM virtualbox is what Oracel calls virtualbox now :) www.oracle.com