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it_user416094 - PeerSpot reviewer
Web Developer at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
It's given us the ability to spring up test environments quickly and in a reliable manner.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ability to spring up test environments quickly and in a reliable manner.

How has it helped my organization?

Oracle VirtualBox has enabled me to build testing and development environments which we could not have otherwise built.

What needs improvement?

From the host side, the Oracle VirtualBox could use more automation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Oracle VirtualBox for two years now.

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Oracle VM VirtualBox
November 2024
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We have not had any deployment issues so far.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has been able to scale for our needs without issue.

How are customer service and support?

The documentation for technical support is excellent.

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

I chose Oracle VirtualBox because it is easily available, free, and open source. It is also the industry standard for web development virtualization software.

How was the initial setup?

Initially, the setup was straightforward with the exception of setting up the network. Documentation helped me to solve the problems though.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented the solution using a vendor team. Make sure to reserve enough space for the virtual hard drive and make sure to set up the network settings correctly.

What was our ROI?

Our Return on Investment has been excellent.

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

Oracle VirtualBox is free.

What other advice do I have?

If you are running multiple virtual machines at the same time, please make sure you have enough resources to do this.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Awesome Virtualization Software developed by Sun Microsystems

Valuable Features:

OracleVM is an excellent alternative to Virtual PC and other client-side virtualization tools.It's mostly open source, and supplies the ability to run virtualized OS's from a lightweight and incredibly user friendly environment.It provides comparable features to other solutions that target the same market, and goes above and beyond in some aspects.Like I said in one of my other reviews, one of the biggest "sellers" for this software, is that it's free. You really cant beat free from a price perspective.

Room for Improvement:

Even with the "add-ons" tools that come with OracleVM, some features that are available in other solutions, are simply not there.One mentioned in another review, is the dragging and dropping of files between host and VM. Another major issue, is that you technically cannot use this software to host a remotely accessible virtual machine without using alternative access software such as VNC or RDP, depending on your virtualized OS.Back when I started using OracleVM, Sun Microsystems was a separate company and it was called Virtualbox. I stopped using it for one reason and one reason only, because Oracle closed off portions of the code, creating an OSE (open source edition) and a CSE (closed source edition) of the software.

Other Advice:

This pushed me away, as it used to be wholly open source.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor

Nice Post !! Please advise what additional features can we get in CSE (closed source edition) which are not available in OSE (open source edition) ?

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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.
PeerSpot user
Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It works, and there is active development of the product by Oracle so that it handles OVM templates.​

Valuable Features:

There are several features we've found valuable, the most valuable of which are --

  • the simplicity of the solution;
  • the fact that it's multi-platform; and
  • it has easy-to-install applications.

Improvements to My Organization:

It works, and there is active development of the product by Oracle so that it handles OVM templates.

Room for Improvement:

An area of improvement would be the added ability to create the Oracle RAC clusters we now need to edit a properties file in order to make a VM disk sharable. It would be nice to be able to do that from the GUI.

Use of Solution:

I've been using it for personal use for self-education and training for Linux and Solaris administration, as well as for Oracle products like Database and WebLogic.

Deployment Issues:

We've had no issues with deployment.

Stability Issues:

We've had no issues with stability.

Scalability Issues:

We've had no issues with scalability.

Cost and Licensing Advice:

As it's free, the price-per-performance ratio is a big plus.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Analyst with 51-200 employees
Vendor
I value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.

What is most valuable?

The ease-of-use and versatility are among the good qualities of this solution. I also value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.

How has it helped my organization?

We can test and evaluate software and systems in a controlled environment before the roll-out to production.

What needs improvement?

It would be great to have a hypervisor version of VirtualBox running on servers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I’ve been using VirtualBox since it was launched many years ago by Innotech.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We found no problems deploying it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

VirtualBox is a very stable product and we found no problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has been able to scale to our needs without any issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have never ever had the need to use technical support.

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

We tried VMWare VMPlayer in the beginning, but VirtualBox outperformed it and so it became our choice.

How was the initial setup?

It’s a very simple and straightforward process.

What about the implementation team?

It was an in-house implementation.

What was our ROI?

We use the personal licensing option as we use it on a few machines.

What other advice do I have?

In my opinion, this product is the best available option for testing virtual appliances and operating systems. I use it also as a means of running multiple virtual machines without changing my business desktop environment. We recommend VirtualBox as an excellent product for evaluating new systems or softwares.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Simple and quick to install, but the interface could be improved and could be more flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support is good."
  • "Oracle VM VirtualBox is not flexible, It's not like VMware."

What is our primary use case?

We use Oracle VM VirtualBox for testing.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is like a virtual machine.

it helps to run multiple operating systems.

What needs improvement?

They have to improve the user interface and the installation.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is not flexible. It's not like VMware.

They could also improve the market position. Customers are more familiar with the VMware brand and prefer to use it.

Because they don't push the market a lot, the customers are not aware of Oracle VM VirtualBox, and its capabilities. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Oracle VM VirtualBox for one month.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. We don't have any issues with the technical support.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to install Oracle VM VirtualBox and did not take a lot of time.

For one engineer who has two to three years of experience, it is simple to implement.

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

There are no licensing fees.

What other advice do I have?

At this time, I cannot recommend this solution to others.

I would rate Oracle VM VirtualBox a five out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
e-Learning Systems Developer Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall.

Valuable Features:

Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall. Running Virtualboxes with individual stacks clarifies use cases and minimizes risk while users test different partial solution elements. 

Virtualboxes can also run in different physical machines so that the relative demand of processing power can be met while maintaining optimal usage of each physical machine. This ensure that the risk of overloads is minimized during peak demand times.

Improvements to My Organization:

It's helped us utilize spare capacity on servers and test new platforms and frameworks. It has also improved the staging of our apps before implementations.

Room for Improvement:

Managing virtual machine stacks on an individual and stacked basis needs work. It also lacks the ability to perform auto-recovery switchover.

Moreover, they should define Virtualbox stacks as groups of virtual machines working together as solutions. It would also help if they could define auto-backup/mirroring and failover configurations.

Use of Solution:

I am still evaluating the methodologies with the current free versions.

Deployment Issues:

We've had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

We've had no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues:

There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.

Initial Setup:

I set it up myself and tried to configure it to the extent of my knowledge.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user104151 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Vendor
We're able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware.

Valuable Features

Being able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware is the most valuable feature for us.

Improvements to My Organization

With this solution, we need to have less hardware and we're able to to perform faster testing.

Room for Improvement

I've had networking issues when I travel with my laptop. Switching VMs from NAT to bridge is a nuisance.

Use of Solution

I've used it for five years.

Deployment Issues

We have had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues

We had no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues

We've not scaled it at all. I just run three different versions of Linux and three on Windows at different times.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

I've not had to use customer service at all.

Technical Support:

I've not had to contact technical support.

Initial Setup

The setup is always straightforward.

Implementation Team

I implemented it myself.

ROI

It saved me five whole computers.

Other Solutions Considered

I've not had to look at any other solutions as it does exactly what I need without fuss.

Other Advice

Go for it, and make sure to add plenty of RAM to the host.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1451859 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Staff; Programmer at a university with 51-200 employees
Real User
Free to use and easy to set up, but needs to use less memory
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring."
  • "The memory and hardware usage could be a little bit lighter. Right now, it's quite heavy on the usage. The CPU usage should be lower."

What is our primary use case?

We use VirtualBox for client purposes. It's a legacy software.

What is most valuable?

The fact that it is free is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The management and interface are pretty good. 

It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring.

Integrations are pretty easy to implement.

What needs improvement?

I would like there to be a web version of the solution, wherein I can access it over my network. It would be ideal if it was more web-based.

The memory and hardware usage could be a little bit lighter. Right now, it's quite heavy on the usage. The CPU usage should be lower.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for more than five years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. It doesn't have bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is okay, however, it is limited. It's only about 50% as scalable as I expected it to be.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've only ever had minor issues in the past, and, when I did reach out to technical support to get assistance, they were able to help. They seem to be quite knowledgeable and responsive. So far, I am satisfied with the level of service provided to my organization.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex. It's very straightforward.

Deployment only takes a few hours. It's quite a fast process.

We had it on just one server. It wasn't a big deployment.

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

We use the solution for free. We don't have to pay for licensing.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution we are using.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

If you're going to use VirtualBox on a small scale, I would recommend it, especially if you are using it for a legacy application.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle VM VirtualBox Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle VM VirtualBox Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.