VMware vSAN Reviews

We are an implementation partner for VMware vSAN and we use it alongside our hyperconverged infrastructure solutions with products such as Nutanix, HyperFlex, and SimpliVity. It is currently implemented in key areas off-site for over seven customers.

The most valuable thing about vSAN is that all of its features have been working well for us for the past two years. We haven't had an issue with them.

When designing the implementation for vSAN, I have noticed that it requires a minimum of six nodes, and this creates a problem when it comes to maintenance. If, out of the six nodes, I put one node in maintenance mode, then vSAN does not create other VM components. I think the reason for this is that the minimum configuration is a six node arrangement. If any one of the six nodes is put into maintenance mode, we're simply unable to create a VM, but if there are seven nodes in that cluster, then we are able to put one under maintenance. That's one thing that should be looked at.

More generally, the features of vSAN as we see them are dependent on the quality of the storage, since each different storage technology has its own separate features that go along with it.

I have been working with VMware vSAN for at least two years. 

It is a stable product, especially now that we have it fully implemented. However, if any two or three of the nodes go away, vSAN goes down. I think we've had a few VMs where the data has been lost for this reason. I guess that the way it works would be similar to other technologies, but that's what we have observed.

You can increase the compute capability as well as the disk storage, so it is scalable.

I've already escalated the issue regarding the six nodes, which I've mentioned. This has been escalated to VMware and they know that it is a limitation, because apparently it is normal behavior for any nodes that are put in maintenance mode.

The setup is easy.

We have been working with vSAN for the last two years, and we haven't seen too many issues overall, but because of the troubles we have faced with the fact that vSAN doesn't let you put a node in maintenance mode unless you have six or more nodes, I would rate VMware vSAN a six out of ten.

vSAN is fully integrated with VMware vSphere, as a distributed layer of software within the ESXi hypervisor.

One of the use cases is that, vSAN can gather the local or direct-attached data storage devices, to create a single storage pool shared across all hosts in a vSAN cluster.

Another use case is that vSAN designed for the software-defined data centers (SDDC), thus you can build and architect your own private, public or hybrid cloud environment based on the vSAN software.

the come feedback always I here from our client is that vSAN Simplified Operations and ease of administration.

Manage both of virtual machines (VM), containers and cloud ready solution

Traditional infrastructure, Private cloud and the hybrid cloud

I am always recommend the vSAN technology when it comes to power a Hyperconverged infrastructure as well the traditional and cloud native applications.

We are a solution provider and VMware vSAN is one of the products that we implement for our clients.

The most valuable features are productivity and data storage.

I have been working with VMware vSAN for between one and two years.

vSAN is a stable solution.

This is a scalable product.

I have not dealt with them directly but my understanding is that they have good technical support.

We are trying to support Nutanix, so I have some experience with it.

The suitability of one solution over the other depends on the use case.

As a system architect, I have not deployed it myself.

The price of vSAN could be lower.

The licensing fees are paid quarterly.

My advice when it comes to products like vSAN or Nutanix is that these are products for new customers. Existing customers have a classic architecture and they have no reason to implement a hyper-converged infrastructure.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our primary use case is the consolidation of compute and storage for VDI and Virtual Servers. 

VMware vSAN has greatly reduced refresh spending. 

The most valuable features are the reduced rack space, reduced power consumption, reduced cooling, and reduced support costs.

This solution is not great for large file shares/object/rich media repository.

I have been using this solution for two years.

The vSAN is similar to other VMware products that are quite popular in Thailand. Everyone uses virtualization to more efficiently utilize hardware resources. That's the main point of vSAN and VMware.

The UI falls short compared to other solutions. It needs some development to make it more user-friendly. 

I've been using vSAN for six years. 

vSAN isn't easy to install, because it's separate from VMware. You have to install vSAN and monitoring separately. Configuration is not straightforward. You have to define the policy first and then allocate through the virtual machine.

We used the VMware professional team to install, and it took them around two days. After it was deployed, we used one engineer to maintain the system.

The license for vSAN is a yearly subscription. 

I would rate vSAN seven out 10.

We use the solution for data storage virtualization.

The solution is easy to use.

In a future release, they can bring in the object storage capabilities to this solution. Currently, there is not any compatibility.

I have been using this solution for a couple of years.

I have found the solution to be stable.

Technical support could be better for this solution, the response time is too slow.

The initial setup is easy but the deployment can take some time, approximately six hours.

We did the implementation of the solution and we do not need many technicians for the implementation.

I would like to use more advanced models of the solution but the price needs to be reduced. There are some extra costs for this solution including a license.

I rate VMware vSAN a nine out of ten.

We primarily use this solution for consolidation on the cloud.

The most valuable feature is the ability to continue our business needs and have higher visibility. It has definitely increased our business productivity levels. 

I would love for this product to be cheaper and easier to configure.

It is a very stable and strong product that is easily deliverable to our users.

I know it can scale up or scale out but I have not had the need to do so.

We also evaluated Dell EMC before choosing this solution. 

For a new full site, vSAN was used instead of going with the usual fibre SAN. Since vSAN requires SSDs, it was a great way to introduce that tech to the company. If we would have gone with a traditional SAN SSD, it would have been an option, so a debatable feature.

We gained fantastic performance with the benefit of simplifying the whole hardware stack requiring less sum of knowledge to run and maintain.

The simplicity of everything, even though it was a new technology at the time with some quirks. The lower skill cost of maintaining it meant that we could do more with the people that we had.

When it was implemented, we were one of the first to jump into using vSAN for production use. The main problem we had was hardware compatibility, finding the right hardware that was certified. This caused further problems because the hardware reseller had little knowledge of the requirements and we even had issues with firmware from the hardware vendor. This delayed the implementation time by a few months. This should not be a issue today, but still be cautious when choosing the hardware.

Standard fibre SAN infrastructure. We switched due to fibre switches, fibre cards, and fibre SAN.

The setup was very easy if you have the correct hardware and firmware.

Factor in operational costs.

Compared it to a similar sized fibre SAN.