VMware vSAN Reviews

I use the VMware vSAN in my company for its capabilities, such as HCI, redundancy, and stretched clusters.

The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have been using VMware vSAN for a couple of years. My company is a reseller and partner of VMware.

My company consists of consultants, so many of our customers use VMware vSAN.

The solution's technical support is good.

My company plans to switch to another solution from VMware vSAN. Many of the customers who use the product are unhappy with the current situation involving VMware vSAN and Broadcom.

The product's pricing model is not competitive anymore, specifically considering the situation involving VMware and Broadcom in the market. The product's price has been increasing lately. My company's customers started to switch from VMware vSAN to other products because of the increase in its prices. Compared to the products offered by its competitors, VMware vSAN is expensive.

I evaluated Red Hat Ceph Storage and VMware vSAN.

Against VMware vSAN, my company has started to consider other solutions in the market, like XCP-ng and other discounted products.

Speaking about whether my company evaluated any other product against VMware vSAN, I can say that many of our customers use Nutanix.

Though I am not sure, I believe that our company's customers use Nutanix since it has some advantages over VMware vSAN.

The tool's redundancy feature has greatly impacted our company's operational efficiency.

The integration capabilities of the product with the existing products in our company's IT infrastructure save a lot of time, especially when deploying a new server.

The scalability features of the product have supported my company's business growth in a very critical manner.

The product has been reliable. The performance level of the product has also been good.

The product is already advanced enough to meet our company's customers' use cases.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

I use the solution in my virtual environment for storage purposes.

The most valuable feature of the solution is vROps, along with the monitoring part.

There needs to be an increase in the supported memory and hard disk space, as it is an area where the product currently has certain shortcomings. Only 32 TB RAM is supported in vSAN Ready Node R740 and vSAN Ready Node R750.

I have five years of experience working with VMware vSAN.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

The scalability offered by the product is very simple. If you face any hardware issue, you can simply remove that part and purchase a new one, which may even include parts like the hard disk.

The scalability features offered by the product are highly used and are very popular nowadays. I rate the product's scalability a ten out of ten.

The solution's technical support was very good. The product has a lot of documentation on its website. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have experience with HPE ProLiant Servers, which are installed through manual configurations.

The product's installation phase is easy.

The product's price is not high. The tool is available at a normal price.

VMware vSAN is better than its competitors.

The greatest impact of the tool on my operational efficiency stems from the fact that it serves as a software-based storage solution, specifically for Dell computers, and integrates well with VMware vCenter while offering availability and pre-configured DRS functionalities. VMware vSAN also integrates with vRealize Suite and VMware SRM for monitoring and DR.

I have manually integrated VMware vSphere with VMware vSAN. I have also manually integrated VMware vSAN with Dell and HPE servers. Dell has a pre-configured set of tools with VMware vSan, like vSAN Ready Node R740 and vSAN Ready Node R750.

The integration of VMware vSphere with VMware vSAN has benefited our company's IT infrastructure since it has made it faster than many other storage solutions. The performance offered is also very high.

The reliability offered by the product is very high since everything comes under one system. With the storage solution, you can easily set up a huge number of virtual desktops in your infrastructure.

I recommend the product to those who want a reliable storage system to store their data, specifically in the cloud.

There needs to be an increase in the capacity offered by the product, considering that thousands of products are used in the corporate sector.

It is easy to use the product. You can also use it online through its web interface.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for VDI and SBC Citrix.

With this solution, less time is needed to install three-tiered infrastructure.

The main advantage is that it's all in the box, with VMware vCenter Server product.

Compatibility with the previous version, stability, performance, and upgradeability of the solution with the previous version all need to be improved. 

In future releases of the solution, I would like to see more HCL compatibility lists, less hardware requirements, better performance, and the ability to upgrade from the previous version.

I have known vSAN for five years. We deal with the latest version. 

I would rate the stability a six out of ten. It is less stable than Nutanix. 

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten. It is less scalable than Nutanix. 

The customer service and support are poor and not very responsive. We face delays with responses. 

Neutral

We prefer to use Nutanix but if the customer wants to use VMware vSAN, we have no choice.  

The initial setup is very simple. It takes around a few hours to deploy, around two to three hours. It takes more hours than Nutanix takes. 

We do the maintenance for the solution. We have a team of seven engineers for the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

The hardware price is expensive cause of new vSan 8 Hardware compatibility list. I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap. 

I would rather prefer Nutanix over this solution. Overall, I would rate vSAN solution a six out of ten. 

The use case is when someone is a fan of VMware. No. They can use this technology when they don't want to have an extra storage library. It's integrated into the VMware server. 

And if the employees are familiar with the VMware environment, it's a good storage solution for VMware.

vSAN is integrated into VMware. So you can manage and configure it within the VMware console. That's good. 

There is room for improvement in vSAN's ability to debug. When it's not working well, debugging becomes quite challenging. Identifying issues when it's lagging or not functioning properly can be difficult.

In future releases, I would like to see the ability to debug as a solution.

Other areas of improvement include pricing and support. 

We have deployed vSAM two times for our customers. 

It's very stable, though slightly less than ideal due to the challenge of debugging.

Scalability is not as simple as expected. While it's okay, there are restrictions and complexities. For instance, you need a minimum number of servers for certain functionalities, making it less flexible to adapt. I don't know the prerequisites listed by VMware that are not allowed. 

Initially, you need to have three servers, for example, when deploying the solution. If you want a backup solution, you need to have three servers for that. And if you want to have a mirror of the room, you need to have three more servers. You can't have just two. You need to have three. So, it's not as simple to expand, adapt, or modify due to these strict requirements.

We have around five customers using vSAN. 

The customer service and support are okay. It is not quite good. The support should be faster and more qualified. 

Neutral

The setup is quite easy. It took us around half a day to deploy the solution.

For the deployment process, first, we needed a VMware installation. Then, we identified servers for this solution. License keys were crucial. After that, we proceeded with the setup and configuration.

We need three engineers for the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

It's quite expensive, even too expensive.

There are some extra costs, which can be quite pricey. But overall, not too many additional expenses.

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

I would advise ensuring that the VPN destination is a good one and reliable. VMware-listed prerequisites on the websites are important, and clients should confirm services are good before deployment.

I use the solution in my company for the security patches. I just use it to upgrade the security patches and be secure.

The product's complex setup phase is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I want the solution to be made available at a lower price since it is currently expensive.

I have been using VMware vSAN for two years. I use the solution's latest version.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

You can say that everything about VMware vSAN is that it is very scalable, making it more than a perfect solution.

Around 500 people in my company use the product. My company manages 90,00,000 endpoints of our clients who use the product.

The product is extensively and regularly used in our company.

The product's initial setup phase was very complex.

During the deployment process, my company ensures that the product is deployed on an on-premises model, which takes about a day to complete and has 13 to 14 steps to be followed.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in a day because it was implemented with Dell VxRail. All the solutions from Dell VxRail, including the virtual machine and VMware, were implemented in one day. My company implemented the solution with the help of a third party for the implementation of all the solutions, including Dell VxRail, VMware, and VMware vSAN.

One person is required to take care of the implementation process.

My company had implemented the solution with the help of a third party.

The licenses are very expensive. The renewal of licenses has extra costs attached to it.

The tool does not make much of a difference in improving data center storage efficiency as it only shows some changes in appearance and offers a few additional features.

When it comes to the projects managed by my company, I think VMware vSAN is very good for our organization's infrastructure, as it can add big value for us because in the past, we had used some traditional solutions, like Hyper-V from Microsoft. At the present time, I can't even compare Hyper-V and VMware since VMware vSAN is the black horse of virtualization.

The specific feature of the product that has had the largest impact on our company's operations stems from the use of its virtualization capabilities. I don't need the tool for anything more than the virtualization part it offers.

The product's scalability has been good and supportive of my organization's growth.

I don't have any issues with the setup phase since I don't deploy it on the systems but I know that it is a complex process.

The management of the product is very straightforward. I haven't had to handle any issues related to product management.

VMware vSAN is a very good solution which is also very handy. I think the implementation isn't easy enough for someone to figure it out. You have to seek help from professionals to take care of the implementation because one mistake can cost you a lot.

My company had no budget plans, so the implementation did not affect our company's overall IT budget and cost efficiency.

The product has had a very good impact on our business since it has improved our overall speed and response time.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

VMware vSAN is a highly scalable solution. We can start with as few nodes as possible and scale up according to our needs. Another advantage is deploying a stretched solution across two sites, with data synchronization between the two data centers. Setting up a stretch cluster is made easy with vSAN.

VMware vSAN provides seamless integration within the hypervisor core, providing stability and eliminating the need for additional VM gateways per node, as required by solutions like Nutanix. This integration simplifies the ecosystem, making it easier to adopt and manage.

The main improvement in VMware vSAN is its licensing mode. Its acquisition prioritizes doubling the EBITA rather than focusing on technological advancement. This is a common issue in the IT market, where companies may be acquired by financial entities, potentially leading to stagnation in technological innovation. The technology is mature and stable, with no significant improvements currently evident.
The new feature allows for the use of only two nodes in an active-active setup.

I have been using VMware vSAN for eight years.

The performance is up to our expectations. The initial performance is high solution because we use flash storage. The complete solution is good.

The solution’s scalability is good. 200 users are using this solution. We have a private cloud with many intelligent users who can connect to the cloud.

We can manage the solution ourselves. 

There may be an opportunity for vSAN to explore new avenues for open-cycle solutions with the recent reorganization of Broadcom impacting VMware.

We use VMware vSAN with 50 instances, but we must change the licensing. Broadcom buys VMware.

We had been using the Dell VxRail solution. Due to Dell's cessation of collaboration with VMware and Broadcom's decision to overhaul the licensing model, our future with VxRail is uncertain. We can purchase VxRail with vSAN, which is integrated into Dell's portfolio. We lack assurance now that Dell and Broadcom are separate entities.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

The solution is relevant for organizations with legacy setups. They’re running a single application in their infrastructure and utilizing physical servers. Customers can leverage their existing resources efficiently. They maximize their utilization through virtualization. Both platforms offer similar functionality, with the main difference being vSAN's integration with VMware's ecosystem. Recent technology trends emphasize the consolidation of components, extending to both network and storage resources. You no longer require third-party storage solutions; instead, software-defined technology enables efficient resource utilization. This approach focuses on consolidation rather than introducing additional standalone components. It offers the same level of personalization while advantageously consolidating network, storage, and other resources.

VMware vSAN is using its perpetual capability. All orchestration and monitoring are routed to the cloud. There are some features like vSAN Plus available for monitoring. You can utilize this web-based solution, which operates on a subscription basis. This allows for easier budgeting compared to always making capital expenditures. New managers must budget to manage infrastructure efficiently. Everything comes at a cost.

VMware vSAN is for simple consolidation. The hard drive itself is defined through VMware's software-defined technology. You need to buy hardware compatible with nodes from different brands. You can use vSAN with HPE or other brands. Compared to third-party solutions, vSAN reduces the baseline. It's already enabled in the system, making it faster in terms of performance. Using protocols like Fibre Channel and iSCSI is a more efficient way. You can configure many VMs with vSAN, depending on the supported capacity. Then, you just enable vSAN through VMware, purchase the software, and it will work right away.

There's already a concern with VMware with ransomware and security issues. VMware could focus on improving security.

I have been using VMware vSAN for 10 years.

The product is stable.

There is no problem with the stability since it has been in the market for 20 years.

The solution is scalable.

VMware vSAN offers a robust architecture with various scaling capabilities, enabling organizations to scale up their storage infrastructure efficiently. It provides both capability and performance for different workloads, automatically increasing IOPS based on workload requirements. Scalability is crucial when it comes to allocating resources, and vSAN supports future-proofing up to 64 clusters.

Deploying VMware vSAN is seamless. You simply need to add nodes or increase the capacity of existing ones. Migration processes may vary, but configuring full capacity per node simplifies the addition of nodes, ensuring a seamless experience.

VMware doesn’t have Windows 10 support. Dell has the number-one support in the industry. I've worked with other brands, and their support sucks. VMware’s support is very great for technical support.

Positive

The initial setup for VMware vSAN involves two key components. Firstly, we offer our flagship product which utilizes VMware's leading vSAN technology. The major components are included in the package upon purchase, making it a straightforward setup compared to building it from scratch, such as with vSphere 7. We provide pre-configured vSAN ReadyNodes for convenience, although they may lack specific branding. This option allows for a more DIY approach based on ReadyNode servers.

Deploying vSAN ReadyNodes is automated, requiring minimal manual intervention. Setting up a custom solution can be more complex. The process remains relatively straightforward with some necessary intervention. It's also possible to integrate vSAN ReadyNodes with Azure setups on a large scale.

Customers opting for the automated setup merely need to ensure they meet the prerequisites, including switches, and various other requirements such as NTP configuration. Once these prerequisites are met, deploying vSAN becomes relatively easy, as VMware handles most of the configuration automatically.

Deployment is very easy and takes less than an hour.

If you're willing to have good infrastructure, you need to invest first. Ensuring a stable network and meeting computing requirements ensures proper workload distribution to end users. VMware vSAN offers peace of mind by utilizing applications despite its higher price compared to free or cheaper alternatives. It is expensive but its reliability and technological advancements justify the investment.

There are pros and cons. As long as there's VMware vSAN active in the business, the support team along with the hardware and the software services, are good. We've recently implemented vSAN in our Hypervisor. It's already proven on the infrastructure.

The con is that VMware vSAN is no longer perpetual. You need to manage your budget on how everything is going to the cloud, and everything is paid for. If you're using proxmox or Hyper-V or other free redundancies when using VMware. VMware vSAN is the most wonderful hypervisor platform. It is the industry standard and is very prominent in the market.

For advanced users, I recommend using Big Data with VMware. I suggest using vSAN because for automation for startup users. We can provide support for customers with lower budgets who are willing to get support from the system developer. VMware vSAN requires some human intervention.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Our clients primarily use vSAN for general-purpose workloads, such as web servers and application servers, though not as much for databases.

We have a customer who is successfully running VDI on vSAN.

Our customers also use vSAN for storage consolidation. 

We have customers who previously relied on separate servers and storage solutions but wanted to transition to Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI). 

We proposed vSAN for this purpose and utilized its standard features to migrate their existing infrastructure to vSAN.

vSAN Health is a good feature. It is a vCentre portal. 

vSAN Health is a feature designed to monitor the health and performance of the vSAN environment. It's crucial for us and our customers to frequently check on this to ensure everything is operating smoothly.

A more user-friendly GUI for troubleshooting and resolving issues would be beneficial. 

Now, addressing problems often requires opening support tickets and command-line interventions, which can be cumbersome for customers and partners alike.

For example, a server might disconnect from vSAN because we didn't realize we needed the command line to check certain things. Ideally, they should develop a web portal that allows users to diagnose and fix errors on their own.

So, I would like to see a tool in the web portal to address vSAN issues. A tool to fix recent issues.

There are some additional features I would like to see but it's not directly related to vSAN, but I'd like to touch on the vCLS feature. In the past, there was no such feature, but they're planning to develop this feature and integrate it. 

This creates challenges for our sales team and sometimes even difficulties in maintaining service on other servers. Ideally, they could develop something that allows authorized users to check out a server, essentially take it offline for maintenance, before doing so and notifying others.

The VCLS feature is confusing for your customers. It would be better to develop a feature that helps authorized users check out and disable this feature before taking a server offline for maintenance.

I have been using it for five years now.

I would rate the stability a six out of ten because sometimes everything looks all green, and healthy. 

But the next day, vSAN shows something red, and the host just disconnects from the cluster with a recent issue. We have to open a ticket to resolve it.

So the stability can be inconsistent.

Scaling vSAN is manageable; however, upgrading the entire cluster to a new version can take a lot of time and challenging for our customers.

It is easy, but it takes time to upgrade the cluster.

I would rate the scalability capabilities a seven out of ten. It should be improved.

We have small and medium-sized businesses as our customers. 

The quality of the customer service and support depends on the vSAN case. For example, if I open ten cases, maybe two or three get resolved quickly. But the other cases have a slow response. 

Maybe they end their shift and don't transfer it to the next, and no one picks it up. I have to wait until the original owner comes back to work.

Neutral

For successful business continuity, we have to use Site Recovery Manager. However, customers are pushing for more options. They'd like to see other solutions that might be a better fit for their specific needs. So, they use different third-party tools for disaster recovery.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being very easy.

Deployment can be done within three hours if we prepare all the information beforehand. We can set it up in two to three hours.

With the new pricing model, it's expensive for the customer. The old cost model was X, and the new model might be 50% more.

Comparing vSAN to traditional infrastructure solutions like those from VMware or SolarWinds, I don't see a distinct advantage.

For now, I wouldn't recommend it because of the price. There are other products on the market that work well like Nutanix. 

In your opinion, these are better options. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.