We primarily use the solution to test our virtual infrastructure.
System Engineer for core infrastructure at JP Posta Srbije
An easy to set up solution good for testing virtual infrastructure that needs better flexibility
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup was straightforward."
- "The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution works quickly.
We can install Oracle VM Manager and from this manager, we can create our VMs on the machine.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for about four months now.
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Oracle VM VirtualBox
November 2024
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How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
We use the private cloud deployment model.
We're currently in the testing phase, but we're hoping to go into production soon.
We moved to using Oracle VM because we have a small license. We did not enough have licenses for all server cores. Oracle VM has an advanced feature for hard partitioning.
We're using the solution for the Oracle database but only on the Oracle application server.
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.
Sr. Systems Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I'm sure their tech support's really good. I got into it and it was buggy enough that I didn't want to continue using it.
Pros and Cons
- "The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
- "One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that."
How has it helped my organization?
Everything, because we are the customer for database ... all our applications not only JDE, ERP or some third party applicants APK's also have the backend for Oracle. Because of the flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored. So, other database cannot provide that kind of flexibility.
What is most valuable?
One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that. The shop that I'm in and the shops that I've been in, I've never been in a shop that was standardized on Virtual Box.
What needs improvement?
I think part of the reason is, is a lot of people do not trust Virtual Box because they think it's buggy. It seems to be a theme here. I got into it and it was buggy enough that I didn't want to continue using it.
How is customer service and technical support?
I'm sure their tech support's really good.
How was the initial setup?
It's easy.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM VirtualBox
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle VM VirtualBox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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?
My primary use of the solution is for testing distributions and installations.
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.
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.
Founder at a retailer with 1-10 employees
A stable solution with useful Pause and Snapshot features, but we should be able to use Hyper-V Windows subsystems with Linux and VirtualBox on the same instance
Pros and Cons
- "The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable."
- "It would be good if we could use Hyper-V Windows subsystems with Linux and VirtualBox on the same instance. Currently, to be able to use VirtualBox, we have to restart the machine into an instance of Windows where Hyper-V is disabled, which is understandably very inconvenient."
What is our primary use case?
I use it for experimenting with different operating systems in user environments. I also use it to have a backup to the Windows so that I can access Windows, and it is up and running. I don't have to worry about building a system from scratch.
What is most valuable?
The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable.
What needs improvement?
It would be good if we could use Hyper-V Windows subsystems with Linux and VirtualBox on the same instance. Currently, to be able to use VirtualBox, we have to restart the machine into an instance of Windows where Hyper-V is disabled, which is understandably very inconvenient.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. It is more stable than it used to be.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't have any experience with their technical support.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is straightforward. The duration depends on whether you're using it on Windows or Linux. It takes slightly longer on Windows than Linux.
What about the implementation team?
I deployed it myself. Currently, I am the only user of this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I plan to keep using this solution. I would rate Oracle VM VirtualBox a 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.
Pr. Scientist at PIEAS
User-friendly, good documentation, and cost-effective
Pros and Cons
- "This product is very user-friendly and easy to use."
- "When I select the Ubuntu operating system from within the virtual machine, it sometimes hangs."
What is most valuable?
This product is very user-friendly and easy to use.
It has a good user manual and it's easy to find information about it.
What needs improvement?
When I select the Ubuntu operating system from within the virtual machine, it sometimes hangs. There are times when I need to reboot the system to resolve the problem. I have 64 gig RAM in my machine, and an i7 processor, so there is no issue as far as memory is concerned.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle VM VirtualBox for approximately six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are not very many bugs in the application.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are between 15 and 20 students using this product. This is going to be expanding in the future because we are doing several migrations in the environment.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not been in touch with technical support. Since it's open-source, I just downloaded it from the internet and we are using it fine.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is an open-source product and it can be used free of charge.
What other advice do I have?
This is a product that I suggest to people because it's free of cost, open-source, very user-friendly, and all of the information for the end-user is available in the manual.
In summary, this is a good product but there is always room for improvement.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Systems Engineer at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
A simple solution with an easy deployment but requires more enterprise-level features
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very stable."
- "The solution should have more enterprise features, like migration, high availability storage, disaster recovery, and the ability to deploy to enterprise-scale usage. They should not just offer desktop usage."
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is the fact that it's enterprise based, especially the virtualization platform.
The cost is very appealing.
The simplicity and ease of deployment are great as well. It's a very versatile solution.
What needs improvement?
VirtualBox is more of a desktop deployment, so we don't really use it in production workloads. For improvement, compatibility with other virtual machine systems would be helpful. The ability to deploy the imagine of other virtual machines and convert it to a virtual desktop environment needs to be better.
The solution should have more enterprise features, like migration, high availability storage, disaster recovery, and the ability to deploy to enterprise-scale usage. They should not just offer desktop usage.
For how long have I used the solution?
I haven't been using the solution for very long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never had to reach out to technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
We're partners with Oracle.
We use the on-premises deployment model. We're in the process of testing the solution currently, so it is still new to us.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It's not an enterprise suite. Some of the light load applications I can't deploy.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project Manager at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
We can try our software in virtual machines so that we can find errors, fix them, and then re-test.
What is most valuable?
From our use of it, the most valuable feature we've found is that it can quickly deploy new virtual machines.
How has it helped my organization?
We need to test our new features in virtual machines before deployment. With VM Virtualbox, we can try our software in virtual machines so that we can find errors, fix them, and then re-test, and we can do this over and over again. Because of this, the Snapshots feature is particularly useful and valuable for us.
What needs improvement?
If the system that you want to use for virtualization has no 64-bit support, you need to give it instructions on how to enable it through the Intel virtualization technology in BIOS.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for seven years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We had no issues with the deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very good. We can find everything we need to resolve our issues in the support pages online.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used different products from different vendors, but we chose VirtualBox because it's easy to use and is very stable.
How was the initial setup?
It was very simple to setup.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it with our in-house team.
What was our ROI?
We gained a lot of time in the testing phase of free software.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's free.
What other advice do I have?
I can't do everything I need for virtualization, for example like with vMotion or another solution. You will easily be able to use the software.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Assistant Design Manager with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable feature for us is deployment of VMware (VMDK) as well as non-VMware (VDI) VMs because most of the test VMs run on ESXi.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature for us is deployment of VMware (VMDK) as well as non-VMware (VDI) VMs because most of the test VMs run on ESXi. In our case, we can just switch back and forth by exporting the VM as a VMDK file, which can then be deployed on the ESXi/ VMware player.
Second valuable feature for us is the Virtual Media Manager where we can see all the disks attached to all the VMs and manage them at one place, which is not there in the commercial products as well.
How has it helped my organization?
A major improvement we've seen is in the testing of the applications before production deployment. Previously, we used to search for physical machines, install OS, and then install application. Now it runs as a VM where I have a OS exported and saved deployment is clean and easy.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see VirtualBox as an OS in itself. It boots first and then we get an option to load whichever OS we want on top of it. However, I am unsure if this already exists in some capacity.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for close to six years, starting at college. I use it on both Windows and Linux and keep it updated.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
There was no issues with the deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Sometimes on the Windows version, the product hangs for reasons unknown, but the Linux version is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have had no issues with the scaling.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never interacted with the customer service. All the information required was available in the documentation or in forums.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We we also use the VMware workstation, VMware Player.
How was the initial setup?
It's very straightforward, I would say. Just click next couple of times and you are ready to go.
What about the implementation team?
We did it in-house.
What other advice do I have?
Go ahead and try all you can with this product, provided your hardware has enough juice as you can play around a lot with the product.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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