VMware vSphere Reviews

• The HA functions
• vSphere Distributed Switch

It gives us a good consolidated overview of hundreds or thousands of servers at a time.

It gives us the ability to easily manage those from a centralized point, and a lot more reliability because we can easily migrate between hardware and consolidate workloads.

The web client, the GUI, could use some improvement. It’s pretty clunky and slow. Some things are only available in the web client, some are only available in the fat client so it would be nice to have them in both in one interface.

I've used it for about two years.

No, we’ve been using vSphere for a long time so we’re quite familiar with it, and we have a good relationship with VMWare. Deployment was easy.

We don’t see many crashes, if any, on the vSphere side.

Again, it’s simple as popping extra hosts in. Quite easily scalable.

Customer Service:

They’re very good. We’ve got a good relationship with VMware, and they’re always available - they give us previews on upcoming tech or quickly connect us with someone we need to speak to.

Technical Support:

It’s good. It’s usually quite easy and quick to log calls and get support services. The vSphere client has a built-in means of pulling logs which logs which we can send directly to VMWare technical support. We can get tier two or three support quite readily.

Not since I’ve worked here, so at least 10 years. We started with vSphere.

It kind of depends; we work with a number of different customers. It’s relatively straightforward, but for complex implementations there can be some complications. They publish all of the necessary installation information so it’s quite easy to find support for deployment.

We do it in-house.

It’s not something I really deal with as an engineer. Because of the types of service we offer, we don’t sell customers vSphere licensing.

I’d grab the software from their site - you can deploy it and use it for 60 days free of charge, so whether you’re doing a large or small deployment try it out and see if it works. You can also engage with technical support services. The software is free, so grab it and play with it.

• High Availability
• Distributed resource scheduling & vMotion
• Robust management toolset for automating routine tasks

vSphere provides the infrastructure framework to manage server and client systems in a multitude of user environments, from dedicated virtual workstations to short-term use systems. vSphere makes the provisioning and deployment of virtual servers and clients quick and predictable, centralizing the customization process while removing common hardware problems.

Fault Tolerance, which was introduced in version 5.5 and improved in 6.0, is a promising feature that has potential to ensure highly critical system availability in the enterprise environment. It presently has vCPU limitations which makes its deployment scenarios limited, but VMware has made great strides between the two versions, indicating that its usefulness will continue to improve.

I've used it for four years.

ESXi has some specific hardware requirements that administrators should make sure they are able to meet before deploying. While the platform can run on a considerable range of hardware, various features make use of specialized virtualization instruction sets in the hardware CPU that make the hypervisor suited to only a fraction of the common server hardware on the market. This is not a bad thing, as the benefits from these advanced features are well worth the cost of more advanced hardware. This is the only circumstance in which I have encountered obstacles to deployment.

No. The vSphere hypervisor is exceptionally stable, and the higher-level vSphere environment is quite adaptable to a fluctuating datacenter environment.

No. The ability to expand the capacity of the vSphere environment is one of the core capabilities of the product.

Customer Service:

Efficient and knowledgeable.

Technical Support:

Good value, particularly considering a support contract is required with the purchase of vSphere licenses.

No previous solution was used.

It's straightforward, as vSphere is a mature product with well-rounded documentation, and an easy-to-understand interface.

Our system was installed by a vendor team, but was configured in-house. Our vendor team provided a solid architecture solution, but it was insufficient for our requirements.

Licensing is not a major obstacle to adopting this product in an enterprise environment. VMware does offer some specialized vSphere editions for small business environments in which cost may be a considerable factor. There is a wide range of options provided by VMware with suitable price points for each license.

We did not evaluate other options.

Have a plan for system virtualization before pursuing vSphere. Often, the actual needs of an organization, particularly small and medium sized, are overestimated which leads to spending more for a product or product license than is necessary.

Of course there are several valuable features that have grown in time since the product came out, but the most basic and critical features of this product that I find valuable is the High Availability (HA) and the vmotion technology. vMotion has expanded to the Storage vMotion as well. This is very beneficial for uptime of servers and still maintaining updates on the hardware.

With the ability to create multiple server guests on one physical host platform, we were able to create servers in a faster response time, at a cheaper cost, less operational time and the ability to automate tasks to name a few. Also, this infrastructure gave us the capability to expand into a separate self provisioning development environment by utilizing the vCloud technology.

VMware has a good sight for what businesses are looking for. They have been ahead of the curve since the beginning. They have good support and quick response. I don't see too many improvements with vSphere itself.

I have used this product for 9 years. I have tested the old GSX and ESX version 2 years prior to this.

When I first tested vSphere against other competitors 9 years ago, there was no question on which product our company would use. It was easy to deploy and is easier today than it was back then. With a small OS footprint, the install was quick and configuration was straight to the point.

I have only ran into 2 issues where stability was an issue. One is more of a performance that affected the NUMA nodes and how ESXi handled guests in each NUMA node. (this was isolated to the CPU make/model). The other stability issue was due to a patch that affected some physical hosts causing them to "purple screen" or to not respond.

Again, VMware has been very good with staying ahead of the curve. As the demand grew for virtualization from businesses , VMware increased functionality to cope with growth at the hardware level. The ability to "scale out" or "scale up" physically on the host with zero downtime is very easy or scaling up on the guest is very easy with minimal downtime.

Customer Service: When I first used VMware, I had to use customer service often. They were very quick to resolve the issues. They have a team that knew the "Ins and Outs" of the product. I would give them 4 out of 5 stars. I didn't give 5 due to the fact that VMware grew faster than they were able to keep the support engineers trained to handle the large growth over the years. So the times for resolution went down just a little. But still very good compared to other customer support.Technical Support: I would give them a 4 out of 5 here as well. They have teams for each operational architect and at times a problem may need to have the collaboration of multiple teams to resolve an issue.

I did not use any other product prior to VMware.

The install was quick and the configuration was straight to the point. I was up and running with a working platform in 25 minutes from start to finish once I rack mounted and cabled the server. It would be even faster with a converged infrastructure or blade system.

This was done all in-house.

As an engineer, I don't have those numbers and wasn't part of sharing those numbers to other management and higher.

When I decided to test the virtualization architectures, I ran tests with several architectures to determine important factors that would affect our business and operations in a positive aspect for growth while still maintaining low ROI. Microsoft and Citrix were the other competitors.

Definitely have a plan before implementing. Don't rush. It is crucial to think years out so you don't have to redo any architecture because you didn't plan for growth, DR/BC or working out of the cloud. If resources are tight to gather, it would be beneficial to reach out to your favorite consulting team to gather advice.

- Enterprise class solution - Live Migration (both server and storage) - High Availability and Load Balancing - Disaster Recovery - Lots of 3rd party vendor support - Excellent technical support

- Cost - Lack of support for virtualization (all hypervisors) - Licensing- Started with VMware ESX ver 2.1 in 2004. Currently using vSphere 4.1i and working on upgrade to 5.1 - Chose VMware for several reasons (1) Had experience with Desktop and GSX products (2) Ran on bare metal (3) No other real competitors at the time

Advice: - VMware is not the only game in town anymore - Look at your requirements: - If you are a small to medium shop other server virtualization products may provide what you need - If you are a large shop I would recommendVMware

We are using VMware vSphere to manage the virtual environment. We use it for visibility and for managing the host.

What I want to see, I can get easily from VMware vSphere, because I know how to navigate it, as I've been using it for years. I also don't have issues with its operation, stability, and security. I also find the VMware support team diligent when they assisted me with the issues I raised.

Before the latest versions of this software, we used to work with versions 5.5 and below. We used VMware vSphere as a client, as an application, e.g. it was not web-based. Now that has changed, because they've moved it from the application to the web-based version. It's the only change I've seen which I found very difficult because it was challenging to connect to the web, particularly because it can be very slow. It freezes, unlike the app version which was absolutely perfect.

The performance was better with VMware vSphere as an app, but not with the web-based client. The web-based client could be improved, in terms of its speed. It could be faster, but I also just learned that since everything is moving to cloud, there's a reason why there's a web-based client now.

I have been using VMware vSphere for almost 10 years.

I don't have any problems with the stability and security of VMware vSphere.

I had to engage with the VMware technical support team once or twice last year because we had a disaster, and they were able to assist me diligently.

The installation for VMware vSphere was a one-time installation. You do it once,  and that's it.

I had a consultant do the VMware vSphere installation for me.

We pay for the license of VMware vSphere yearly.

We are using VMware solutions. We are running the VMware standard edition. We also have VMware vSphere and VMware ESXi.

We are running the latest version of VMware vSphere: 7.0. We started with version four of this software.

I wouldn't say that there are features that I like the most about VMware vSphere, because it's just a normal management console. It's a default client management software for the virtual environment. It's just a console that we use.

We have been using the software since we enrolled into the virtual CRR, so we are used to it. I can't say whether it's easy to use or not, because I've been using it forever. I can't do any comparison. To say it's easy to use or it's not easy to use would not suffice, because I've been using it for years, so I know how to navigate the platform. What I want to see, I can get easily from VMware vSphere.

I don't recall the last time we installed the software, and even if it was a difficult process, I wouldn't know, because that would best be answered by the technical team, who keeps installing it for different lines. For me it was something that was done once.

We only have one engineer who takes care of the deployment and maintenance of VMware vSphere. The software is only used by fewer than five people, e.g. just the administrators. We're not increasing the number of users, because there are only just a few people needed to man the environment.

I would recommend VMware vSphere to others, particularly because when I contacted them about some issues, they assisted me diligently.

From one to ten, I'm rating VMware vSphere an eight.

When you talk about performance improvement of VMware vSphere, you have to look at other factors. You look at the whole infrastructure. You can't look at the software alone, because when it comes to performance, you also have to look at your hardware. You have to look at your storage. It isn't just the software, e.g. VMware vSphere, that you are using. For example, the last time we had an issue, it wasn't only because of the VMware side. It was also because of our storage, e.g. Our storage capacity was full, so we had to engage VMware. To improve performance, the VMware infrastructure as a whole should be improved, which means changing the storage, storage accessories, etc. VMware vSphere is only connected, and it's only a software that is running on the hardware, so to improve performance, we also need to talk about and look into the hardware aspects of the solution.

I use VMware solutions every day. We use VMware 6.7. We are unable to update because of hardware compatibility concerns.

Our day-to-day operation is building virtual machine applications. 

We are a small company. We are moving to the private cloud along with the VMware solution, starting with building computers, then storage virtualization, and then network virtualization. VMware vSphere has helped us create our infrastructures and provide services for our customers.

The UI could use some improvements, especially in dark mode. There are some features not enabled or do not function as expected.

I would like to see VMware try a new service like Blockchain.

I have been using VMware vSphere since 2009.

VMware has been stable. The performance is good.

All the features of VMware vSphere fit our organization and are compatible.

We had a problem one month ago. Technical support was really able to help us.

The initial setup of VMware was easy. I did not experience any problems or have any difficulty. It took two days to deploy.

We used a local partner to implement the solution.

The solution has standard licensing fees. Support is the only additional cost.

VMware vSphere are leaders in virtualization. The capital investment is high, but it is efficient.

I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

Private Cloud

Microsoft Azure

In the organization where I have worked for the past nine years, there are multiple virtualization platforms. Virtualization software includes Microsoft Hypervisor, Red Hat KVM, Oracle virtual machine, and Oracle virtual cloud.

vSphere is optimized for a specific type of virtualization.

There is the simplicity of management, accessibility, and availability.

The interface is really user-friendly.

The only concern that I have with VMware is the support. It is very limited and can be better.

When you get support from the VMware global team or support locations, customer complaints are not entertained or taken seriously by the VMware global team or support centers. Other OEMs, such as Microsoft and Oracle, would make you a priority.

I have been using VMware vSphere for three years.

We recently upgraded to the latest version.

It's a very stable solution. In fact, when it comes to virtualization, you can tell anyone to use the system.

In our organization, we have 600 users. 

My previous organization had a population of approximately 35,000 people.

The support is the only negative feedback, they need improvements.

I'm familiar with all of the virtualization platforms that are now available on the market.

The initial setup and installation are straightforward. It is something that can be done by anyone.

In one hour, we can complete the installation and configuration.

Admins are only required to look after the VM portion of the new VM creation as well as the configuration or modification. Aside from that, we have a team of two or three admins to deploy and maintain this solution during their shift time, such as in the morning and afternoon shifts.

The organization pays the licensing fees.

We looked at a few alternatives and compared them to vSphere.

The freelance experience for the platform is excellent.

I would recommend this solution to other users.

I would rate VMware vSphere a ten out of ten.

On-premises

We are an IT company and VMware partners.

VMware vSphere is used for virtualization in all situations and for all businesses.

This solution's most valuable feature is its High Availability.

The only concern I have with VMware vSphere is that the level of support is inadequate. It's not very fast. The support is good, but it's slow.

When we need help, we require someone to answer the phone quickly.

I've been selling VMware vSphere since it was launched.

We have no issues with the stability of VMware vSphere. It is very stable.

VMware vSphere is a scalable product.

Technical support is good but not very fast.

We have customers who use Sangfor, as well as customers with VMware. 

vSphere is used by all VMware customers.

A small infrastructure installation can take up to eight hours.

The teams are always the same. We have five technicians, three of whom specialize in networking and virtualization, and one who is a management engineer.

Our customers have the option of paying the licensing fee when they purchase the solution or renting it from us.

If a customer chooses to rent the solution, the customer pays us and we purchase the solution.

The vSphere serves as the system's control center for managing virtual machines (VMs). VMware vSphere is present in all installations.

Our solutions are all deployed on-premises.

As a company, we advise, supply, and install products for our clients. We provide two solutions, one of which is Sangfor and the other is VMware.

As a reseller of vSphere, I would recommend this solution to anyone who is interested in using it.

I would rate VMware vSphere an eight out of ten.

On-premises