VMware vCenter Reviews

We use VMware vCenter to monitor, administer, manage, and add virtual machines. You can add a virtual machine or make configuration changes through the vCenter interface. Within vCenter, you can navigate through ESXi hosts and manage single or multiple clusters, providing visibility into their status. If any issues arise, vCenter can give error messages for troubleshooting. Additionally, you can oversee the addition of new clusters and perform various tasks related to adding, installing, and managing virtual machines. You can monitor the status of virtual machines, including whether they are powered off or in a failed condition, as well as their utilization. In essence, VMware vCenter enables management, administration, and day-to-day tasks related to virtualization.

The alerting mechanism is very good. VMware vCenter simplifies infrastructure management with its intuitive interface. You can gain clear visibility into your entire setup without needing to switch between multiple platforms. Unlike Jira, which is used for issue tracking and project management, vCenter provides a comprehensive view of your infrastructure's current state and any alarm situations. Additionally, you can configure thresholds to receive alerts tailored to your needs.

If VMware integrates some features of their other solution into VMware vCenter, operational managers might find it beneficial. Many organizations prefer to maintain separate solution sets based on specific needs and data requirements. They are clear that while certain tools like VMware vCenter handle basic daily administration and monitoring tasks, more advanced functionality may require different solutions.

I have been using VMware vCenter for 12 years.

The tool is scalable and user-friendly, integrated with a suite of tools. Managing infrastructure becomes much more straightforward. Users can easily monitor and understand what is happening within their entire infrastructure. I can use a good number of APIs for integration.

The VMware vCenter ecosystem has a delivery phase followed by a maintenance phase. Depending on the scenario, your mock and first tenant teams may engage with the VMware support team for support.

The initial setup is very straightforward because we have a proven technology for over a decade.

The setup process involves obtaining a license and deploying a virtual or physical appliance for VMware vCenter. Once deployed, you can begin integrating it with your ESXi hosts. After integration, vCenter can manage the virtual machines associated with the ESXi hosts. It allows you to view and manage clusters, facilitating various management tasks.

VMware vCenter's deployment time depends on various factors, such as the volume of resources, the number of physical nodes, and clusters in the environment. Once vCenter is deployed, you can easily add the configured resources. While the initial setup may vary depending on the complexity of the environment, typically, configuring vCenter should not take more than a day. This process involves discovering and understanding the environment to ensure smooth integration with VMware infrastructure.

Server monitoring encompasses various solutions. For instance, managing tools like SolarWinds offers one approach. Additionally, Elastic provides a solution tailored for mobility monitoring.

VMware provides visibility into the deployed infrastructure but does not directly address security concerns. For security-related tasks, VMware offers a separate solution called VMware NSX. NSX provides micro-segmentation and visibility into East-West traffic to enhance security measures.

Maintaining VMware vCenter is cost-effective. VMware provides regular security updates. It's important to consistently apply these updates and patches to ensure the security and stability of the environment. Additionally, there may be optional add-ons available for specific requirements or enhanced functionality.

I recommend the solution.

VMware vCenter has several advantages: ease of use, site integration, simplicity, and excellent visibility into virtualized environments. It offers straightforward management and scalability.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

VMware vCenter's most valuable feature is high availability.

The product's technical support services need improvement. 

The platform's provisioning feature enables flexible scaling. The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.

Our experience with VMware's technical support has been challenging. Support is primarily command-line based, which makes it difficult to address issues efficiently. However, they do offer solid support for GUI and file-related matters. Unfortunately, their assistance may be limited during critical situations, such as ransomware attacks.

Neutral

We utilize a call API to assess system resources and inquire about available memory. Depending on the response received, we either proceed with the deployment or send error notifications. Additionally, we connect with external systems via APIs to verify compliance with internal policies and methodologies. This streamlined approach has enhanced our VM deployment and management efficiency.

Initially, we encountered challenges with local backups, particularly regarding efficiency and capacity limitations, notably with McAfee. We recently leveraged the function for recovery purposes, which uses an online snapshot copy. While this approach is effective for short-term recovery needs, it needs to catch up regarding long-term data retention due to the large backup capacity requirements. Additionally, while useful for capturing point-in-time data, the snapshot functionality may need to be more suitable for comprehensive backup strategies. Despite these limitations, we've found that application integrations, such as with SQL, have been beneficial in enhancing our backup and recovery processes.

I rate VMware vCenter an eight out of ten.

We use VMware vCenter for centralization and to manage all the VMs.

It is not easy to upgrade VMware vCenter from an old version to a new version. We have to work with the support to upgrade the solution.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for stability.

The initial setup of the solution is not easy, but it is not that complex either. It will be pretty hard for you if you don't have experience working with VMware.

You have limited features if you don't have VMware vCenter for virtualizations. From the infrastructure side, it is easy for my team to manage the server with VMware vCenter. My team has three resources working on support for virtualization.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.