VMware ESXi Reviews

The tool mainly serves the virtual machines for the development team and the production requirements.

The migration and combination of vCenter, where I can manage everything at once, has helped me do my job.

It would be really helpful if there were options to do things in one or two clicks rather than doing everything through more manual interaction.

I have been using VMware ESXi for six to seven years.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

Scalability is one of VMware ESXi's major factors. Compared to real hardware in virtualization, there are multiple options for scalability and other options on the OS level as well. More than 1,000 users are using the solution daily in our organization.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support team is good and responsive.

Positive

I also use the Hyper-V tool.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight out of ten.

I and the storage engineer at the data center deployed the solution in-house, which took only a few hours.

The solution has made a lot of major improvements, such as high availability and scalability. There are a lot of functions that make your life easier. The solution's integration with other tools in the infrastructure is very easy.

I would recommend the solution to other users. VMware ESXi is a very user-friendly solution, and it is now being adopted on the cloud platform. Instead of changing their infrastructure, people already on VMware can directly go to the cloud and use exactly what they use in the data center.

Overall, I rate VMware ESXi a nine out of ten.

We are using VMware ESXi for running various kinds of applications in our environment that use virtual machines.

VMware ESXi provides a reliable and stable environment, which makes us confident in our IT operations. We rely on it particularly in production environments where reliability is crucial.

VMware ESXi is very reliable, especially for our production environment. The ability to collapse its vulnerabilities swiftly adds to its reliability. Hyper-threading is a feature we use extensively.

For horizontal scalability, VMware ESXi is not the right product, and we have been evaluating alternative options. There are also some complaints about the web interface and licensing issues after Broadcom's acquisition.

I have been working with VMware ESXi for more than ten years.

VMware ESXi provides a very stable environment, making it a reliable choice for our operations.

Vertical scalability with VMware ESXi is very achievable, allowing easy upgrades to physical components like CPU and RAM. However, its horizontal scalability is not as flexible.

We have received good service from VMware technical support, though the need for assistance has been infrequent.

Positive

I have not had a chance to explore many other solutions in comparison to VMware ESXi.

The initial setup process is not complex and can typically be done in a little more than one hour with the help of one resource.

We are considering moving to another product for better cost-effectiveness, which might improve our ROI.

From a cost perspective, we are not entirely satisfied with VMware ESXi.

We are considering Kubernetes or OpenShift as potential alternatives.

Technically, VMware ESXi is a mature product, and I would recommend it for reliable, stable environments.

From a technical perspective, VMware ESXi's best advantages are its reliability and high availability features. It's a very mature and good environment.

The main disadvantage is that the tool requires a significant, expensive initial investment. VMware ESXi requires a large upfront investment that depreciates over three to four years compared to cloud solutions with pay-as-you-go models. You should only choose it if you plan to use it for at least three years. Its deployment process is complex and requires an experienced team. 

I have been using the product for 20 years. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

VMware ESXi is very capable regarding scalability. You can easily add more servers to double or triple the environment's capacity, so scaling the solution is not a problem.

The installation requires a skilled team with at least five to ten years of experience. It's complex to set up initially, but it's not too complicated once it's running. One person can install it, but having a couple of professionals is better, especially if managing installations across multiple countries.

I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. 

ESXi with Hyper Converged Infrastructure and Horizon for hosting virtual machines. There is also AHT for VDI environments.

It's a bare-metal hypervisor, mainly used for hosting virtual machines. The applications vary based on customer requirements. It can be used for running applications, database connectivity, infrastructure applications like software-based networks or firewalls, and managing on-premises applications.

The most beneficial features for me are DRS and HA (High Availability). In case of an interruption at the OS level, they ensure the virtual machine automatically comes back up. 

Another benefit is load balancing with the DRS feature.

Apart from that, it's the main source for us as consultants or architects to manage the infrastructure.

We follow the best practices as per Broadcom and VMware, and we do timely patching on ESXi to ensure security.

The license model has recently changed, which is a bit worrying for customers.

The only other issue is that since changing the portal, downloading patches or images for maintenance or deployment has become slightly more difficult because engineers are facing issues. 

I have been using it for more than ten years now. 

It's very stable because we do regular maintenance. It is not difficult to maintain at all. 

It is a scalable product. That's the reason it's number one, even after a decade.

I get a good response, but in a few cases, I have experienced delayed responses. I'm not sure, but maybe it's because of the transfer to Broadcom.

So, there is a slight delay in getting the support. 

Neutral

VMware is a leader with the new features they introduce on every major release. But regarding licensing, when I talk to Nutanix, they give it for free. With the Hyper Converged solution, we have to pay additional charges based on the core count. But feature-wise, I don't see any additional features that other hypervisors have.

The complexity of the initial setup is fine. We've been doing it for a long time. Compared to other hypervisors, it's very good. On average, it should be around 30 minutes to an hour.

Currently, we use version 7.0. We may upgrade to 8.0, but that will take a few months.

Deployment process: It's all internal discussions based on the load. We select the hardware vendor and do the installation via the ISO image. We do the configuration part ourselves. I take care of the ESXi infrastructure once the parts are delivered to the site.

I would recommend using it b, but it depends on their interest and budget.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

The solution is the hypervisor in our clients' IT infrastructures, serving as the foundational platform for their virtual environments.

This solution has significantly enhanced efficiency by enabling the consolidation of multiple servers onto a single host, optimizing resource usage and overall performance.

The platform's most valuable features include its role within the vSphere suite, requiring a vCenter Server for management. ESXi alone is just a hypervisor; effective management and optimization are achieved through clusters and vCenter Server.

The main challenge for the product concerns hardware choices, such as customers opting for cheaper CPUs and memory.

There is always potential for further refinement, such as improving the web interface or fine-tuning advanced settings.

I have worked with VMware ESX since its initial release, around 2001 to 2003.

I rate the solution's stability a ten. 

The solution's scalability is ten out of ten.

The technical support was excellent when VMware was part of Dell. Since the transition to Broadcom, I have yet to have the opportunity to assess the current support quality.

The initial setup is straightforward and typically takes about 10 to 20 minutes. However, additional customizations can be extended at this time.

The full deployment of the solution generally takes a few hours, depending on the customer's specific requirements.

The product pricing was reasonable before, but recent changes, including bundling, have complicated the cost structure. While prices were reduced, additional features have led to higher overall costs.

I rate VMware ESXi a ten out of ten. 

I recommend VMware ESXi to mid-level and mid-enterprise customers. I also recommend it to those who are looking for more Windows and Linux workloads.

VMware ESXi's most proven and beneficial area for our virtualization needs revolves around clustering.

I don't see any technical weaknesses in the product, especially after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom. There have been issues with the tool's technical support and pricing of licenses, making them areas where improvements are required.

I have fifteen years of experience with VMware ESXi.

For most of the customers, the SLAs have been down lately, and it may be because of the transition from VMware to Broadcom. I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

Neutral

I use VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Foundation.

I have used IBM PowerVM. I rate the technical support for IBM as nine out of ten.

I have worked with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Nutanix for HCI. In terms of cost, Nutanix will be advantageous. In terms of use cases, one of the direct alternatives to VMware will be a Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

My company has operated as a partner and reseller for Nutanix and Redshift for a bit less than ten years.

The tool has become expensive.

Over VMware ESXi, I can recommend Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Nutanix for HCI to my customers.

Considering how VMware ESXi has affected our customers' overall IT cost, most are now looking to move out of VMware.

There are no issues with the product's performance.

Right now, Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has impacted the cost plus support. Maybe the recommendation will be for a different virtualization technology, such as Nutanix and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

I rate the tool a five to six out of ten.

I have used the solution at home and in my company's departments.

When my company decided to go virtual, we chose VMware for the main reason, which was to comply with the other tools on our campus, like ZenSource and Citrix. My department was the lone runner of ZenSource and Citrix, so it was not the right thing to continue with them. The technology was great, but we didn't want to be the only department using such solutions, and so we moved to VMware. VMware and Nutanix have complex setup phases, especially in the beginning.

VMware ESXi has a complex setup phase, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using VMware ESXi for ten years.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

My company had worked with the limited capabilities of the tool's scalability features. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

A few hundred people use the tool in my department, but around 5,000 people use it throughout the organization.

The tool is used regularly as part of our virtual infrastructure.

I have had no issues with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have used ZenSource and Citrix.

VMware ESXi has a complex setup phase.

The installation of VMware and Nutanix was done together, and it took a couple of days. After the setup phase, you can fine-tune it, and it takes time for everything to run as you expected or as you want it, but it took a few days to get it up and running and back in production.

My company did not set up the tool by ourselves. After the initial setup, we ran it and managed it, but the initial setup was done by the company that we bought it from. It was a sort of a two-key solution until we got everything running. A third party was involved in the setup phase.

I am not sure about cost savings, but efficiency-wise, it has improved our company.

If one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight.

I have not faced any challenges while integrating VMware ESXi with existing infrastructure.

My company doesn't handle any AI-driven projects with the tool.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use it for virtualization. We have about 500 virtual machines that run on eight hosts running ESXi. It's pretty good and robust. It does what we want it to do. That's why we never change. We just stay with VMware and ESXi because it always works. I normally never have a problem with it. It's very stable.

I like VMotion. We can update hosts without affecting the VMs. VMotion would be number one.

It's a good product. For what we use it for, probably just the pricing. To make it cheaper. Pricing is always the first thing to look at for improvement.

Probably just integration of firmware updates could make life easier. But I think that comes with VxRail, not if you buy separate servers. It would be good to do the VMware and ESXi updates at the same time.

I have been working with this product for 15 years. A long time. Since the first version, maybe even more than 20 years.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

It's quite high. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We use it at an enterprise level.

The customer service and support are pretty good. If you've got a major problem, they come and fix it pretty quickly.

Positive

I also use VMware vSphere 7. It runs on the servers, and we have Fibre switches and Unity for storage.

We do ESXi, Cisco firmware, and Dell firmware.  

The initial setup is very easy. 

It's maybe 30 minutes to set up, and then it's working. It's really quick.

It is a hybrid model. 

It is suitable for medium to enterprise levels. 

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. The recommendation is very high. It's probably the best hypervisor we've used.