A lot of people use the VMware vSphere solutions because most operations are virtualized. Small and mid-range companies are using VMware vSphere for all their infrastructure virtualizing applications, this is what the solution is mainly used for.
Engineer at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
vSphere 5.1 – Lesser publicized, neat improvements.
There are a lot of neat improvements in vSphere 5.1, but it’s worth mentioning some of the neat features that may not be getting as much publicity. Below are some of the features in the release documentation that aren’t in the “What’s New in vSphere 5.1” one-pager, and so-far I haven’t seen nearly enough excitement about thus far. These are features that an engineer will enjoy, but the engineer’s boss might not care so much about.
- 32 Nodes Accessing VMDK Simultaneously on VMFS: This is an important improvement for VMware View workloads using Linked Clones as it allows for higher density clusters. Previously, VMFS only supported 8 nodes accessing a VMDK, and to overcome that then the architect had to use NFS. VMFS and NFS now support the same number of nodes to a read-only file with View 5.1 and greater.
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Virtual Machine Hardware Compatibility: Instead of simply relying on the virtual hardware version number, virtual machines are now given a Virtual Machine Compatibility. For example, VM Hardware Version 4 is now labeled as “Compatible with VMware ESX 3.x and later“. In addition, Administrators can select a “Default Compatibility Level,” which will be a great feature in mixed version clusters.
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Parallel “Multi-threaded” Storage vMotions: Storage vMotion is now capable of performing four simultaneous disk copies. When migrating a virtual machine with five VMDK files, Storage vMotion copies the first four disks in parallel, then starts the next disk copy as soon as one of the first four finish. This will dramatically increase svMotion processes with many disks.
- All Paths Down (APD) Events No Longer Break Hostd: Prior to vSphere 5.1, an APD event could cause hostd to become unresponsive as it would permanently retry failing I/O, which would cause hosts to disconnect from vCenter, etc. A new timeout is now being implemented via the Misc.APDHandlingEnable and Misc.APDTimeout global settings. In the event of an APD, after the default 140 seconds subsequent I/O is met with a quick “No_Connect” response preventing hostd and other processes from hanging.
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Better Latency Monitoring within Storage I/O Control: A new metric ‘VmObservedLatency’ is available that replaces the datastore latency metric within SIOC. This metric measures the time between receipt of the I/O by the VMkernel from the virtual machine and receipt of the response from the datastore. Previously, SIOC only measured the latency after the IO had left the ESXi host, but it now measures and controls storage workload latency throughout the whole virtualized storage stack.
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vCenter Inventory Tagging: Virtual machines can now be tagged with labels for more granular, advanced grouping. For example, Tier-1 applications can be tagged as such while also being tagged as a ‘Sharepoint’ server. This is a relatively simple additions that gives much better sorting capabilities for Virtual Machines.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Systems Engineer-Consultant at Blue Bridge Bond, UAB
Feature rich, high availability, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "VMware vSphere has a lot of features that are valuable, such as multiple clusters, VM mobility, VDI, and virtual desktop."
- "The support for VMware vSphere can be fast or it can be slow. Recently it has been slow, they need to decrease the wait time and quality of their support."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
VMware vSphere has a lot of features that are valuable, such as multiple clusters, VM mobility, VDI, and virtual desktop.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of VMware vSphere is great. It has high availability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is scalable.
I am in Lithuania and we have approximately 100 customers. Most companies use some kind of virtualization. It can be VMware or Citrix, or something else. Our clients mostly use VMware vSphere.
How are customer service and support?
The support for VMware vSphere can be fast or it can be slow. Recently it has been slow, they need to decrease the wait time and quality of their support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of VMware vSphere is simple. However, I have been using similar solutions for 15 years making the process simple.
The installation took approximately 15 minutes. However, the installation itself is very easy but you need to do the configurations and integrations which can be more difficult depending on the customer's needs and their infrastructure.
What about the implementation team?
We use one person for the implementation of VMware vSphere. For the maintenance and support of the solution, the amount of people needed depends on the infrastructure and size of the customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our customers typically use permanent licenses, not subscription-based. However, there are subscript-based licenses.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate VMware vSphere a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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IT & Security Team Leader at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Versatile, extremely stable, and very scalable with useful DRS and resource pooling features
Pros and Cons
- "It is very versatile. All features are beneficial and very good, especially DRS and resource pooling."
- "They can maybe review its price. They can also consider offering a free public version for development for a certain number of users."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for the virtualization of server infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
It is very versatile. All features are beneficial and very good, especially DRS and resource pooling.
What needs improvement?
They can maybe review its price. They can also consider offering a free public version for development for a certain number of users.
I am using version 6.7, and it would be good if it has support for SaaS storage. They might already have this feature in the latest version 7.1.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution in our company for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is extremely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. Its usage depends on each customer. We have small, medium, and large customers.
As a company, we are not a big consumer of VMware solutions. We do VMware deployments in other companies. We sell it to other companies, and we have a partnership with VMware.
How are customer service and technical support?
Based on my experience, they are very good. Their support used to be best, but it also depends on the number of subscriptions for each contract. Generally, their process is very good.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not a pricing or budgeting person, but I know that its price is a little bit high, and they can consider reviewing it. Its price is probably the highest in this domain.
What other advice do I have?
I personally do not recommend Hyper-V based on my experience, but I can recommend others to also look at Proxmox. There is also a solution from IBM. They are, for sure, very good contenders.
I would rate VMware vSphere a nine out of 10. It satisfies our needs.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Software Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
A straightforward setup with good stability and the capability to scale
Pros and Cons
- "The solution can scale well."
- "The solution is quite expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We are primarily using the solution as our virtualization platform.
We procure some licenses for vSphere Standard and we are using it to replicate to VM so that we can have at least that level of redundancy. On the upcoming project for VxRail, we'll be using it for a hyper-converged platform, where you can have high availability and failover capability in real-time.
What is most valuable?
The solution has been quite stable.
The solution can scale well.
We found the initial setup to be pretty straightforward.
What needs improvement?
The solution is quite expensive.
I haven't evaluated or looked at any other solutions for the most part and therefore can't speak to any aspect that is really lacking compared to what else is on the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for about five years at this point. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. The performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is quite scalable. We ordered a solution where the initial number of nodes is just three, however, after the design, it can grow up to 64 nodes.
If it's deployed on a hyper-converged solution, yes, it will be scalable.
Only the system admins use the solution. There are around not more than 10.
We plan to continue to use the solution and to scale it up, as we build out our infrastructure.
How are customer service and technical support?
We bought the solution through a Dell partner and we get support through them if we need it. We don't deal directly with VMware. I can't speak to how their technical support services are. Our Dell partner connection acts as a middle man between our company and VMware, therefore, they deal with VMware directly.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is pretty simple to set up if it's a stand-alone.
We have two departments that have technical teams that can handle maintenance on the solution.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator that was a VMware partner and they assisted us with the implementation process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are currently buying some more licenses to be able to move to version 7.
The solution is expensive, however, due to the criticality of the features on offer, for us, it's worth the cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I haven't really looked at too many other solutions, other than Hyper-V. VMware seems to be way better overall if you compare just those two.
What other advice do I have?
We are currently in the process of moving to version 7 of the solution.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've been mostly quite satisfied with the solution overall. I'd recommend it to other companies.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of Professional Services at Axians ICT Austria GmbH
A transparent and independent solution
Pros and Cons
- "It's very transparent and independent."
- "The management could be simplified for base-level customers, but of course, it would be difficult to match all customer needs."
What is our primary use case?
Our deployments were formerly on-prem, but we have the role of a cloud provider. We have a distributed solution in our data center and several international cloud providers.
We use VMware vSphere for most of our business processes, including HR.
What is most valuable?
We like a lot of the features, but none really stand out. It's very transparent and independent.
What needs improvement?
We are very close to VM, all of our pain-points involve direct discussions. There are no special pain-points. This solution allows us to handle our system. It's required in business processes.
The management could be simplified for base-level customers, but of course, it would be difficult to match all customer needs.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using VMware vSphere for over 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is absolutely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We expand VMware vSphere daily. It's very scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is great.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. The complexities lie on the TITO solution on-top.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price could always be lower, but I think it's fair.
What other advice do I have?
I would absolutely recommend using this solution. It's clear-based, straightforward, and includes all of the options required in business.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
CEO at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
An easy-to-use and stable solution that can reduce the manual cost of your infrastructure
Pros and Cons
- "It is very easy to use and very stable."
- "The cost can be better."
What is our primary use case?
We have co-located our servers in different data centers, and these co-located servers are in a cluster. For storage, we are using vSAN, and for compute, we are using vSphere 6.7. We will be upgrading to version 7 in due course.
What is most valuable?
It is very easy to use and very stable.
What needs improvement?
The cost can be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for almost eight to nine years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. You can use a cluster with 216 nodes. I believe it can be scaled much more.
We use vSphere to create virtual machines and give them to our customers. Most of the applications are on it, so we have around 8,000 to 10,000 users on five different clusters. In terms of our plans to use this product in the future, we are currently thinking about whether to continue using this solution or not.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their support could definitely be better. They can put more experienced and more intelligent people on support. I would rate them a seven out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
I won't say it is straightforward, but it is also not complex. If the hardware and net securities are there and you have the hardware configuration, then the installation takes 24 to 48 hours.
What about the implementation team?
We have a team of infrastructure users who are experts in VMware. They do the installation. Two persons can do the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend this solution to others. It is a very good product. It is very stable, so your infrastructure uptime can be better. The manual cost of your infrastructure can be less if you use vSphere.
I would rate VMware vSphere an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Infrastructure Senior Specialist at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Leverages the migration with unshared storage. Helps manage main and DR sites simultaneously.
What is most valuable?
VMware is the market leader in virtualization. I like the following vMotion improvements in the current version:
- vMotion across virtual switches: There are no restrictions now to migrate VMs across switches (standard/distributed). It is valuable to me for an upgrade or when moving my datacenter.
- vMotion across vCenter Servers: This leverages the migration with unshared storage. In simple terms, VM1 is running on a certain host/cluster, which runs on a certain datastore and is managed by vCenter 1. It can be vMotioned to different ESXi hosts, which have different datastores managed by another vCenter server, called vCenter 2.
- Long Distance vMotion: I can now perform reliable migrations between hosts and sites that are separated by high network round-trip latency times. This is an official definition. For me, it helps me to manage main and DR sites simultaneously and in an effective way.
How has it helped my organization?
- Reduces the data center footprint: Fewer servers and less power consumption
- Reduces the overall footprint of your entire data center
What needs improvement?
They still have restrictions on fault tolerance features and managing snapshots.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using VMware products since 2009 and this version for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not encountered any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not encountered any scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am satisfied with the technical support. Some support cases needed to be escalated, but overall it is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used different solutions from different vendors. VMware products are the most stable/scalable products on the market. VMware can integrate easily with other vendors.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was easy. Some basics should be taken into consideration first.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Just focus on the features you need. Sometimes we misunderstand feature and pricing equations.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I tested it myself in my lab. Also, I visited some companies which work with this product to see it in action.
What other advice do I have?
This solution has lots of features. Just be aware of all of them and you will get the most out of it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IS Director at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
We're able to rapidly provision servers due to the decoupling of servers from physical hardware. Recent releases have had significant bugs, which delays new-version deployment.
What is most valuable?
- DRS
- High Availability
- Overall reliability
How has it helped my organization?
The best improvement overall is the ability to rapidly provision servers due to the decoupling of servers from physical hardware. We have saved countless hours of time at the data centers racking and stacking servers.
What needs improvement?
Recent releases have had significant bugs, which ends up significantly delaying the deployment of new versions. In particular, with vSphere 6, there is an all-paths down related bug that is preventing us from upgrading. The VMware Update Manager component of vCenter desperately needs to be deployed as part of the vCenter Server Appliance, not requiring Windows Server and SQL Server.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for six years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues with deployment. It is almost too easy. The same with subsequent upgrades.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not encountered any issue with stability, however, this is a direct result of watching for reports of others experiencing issues. We take a very cautious approach to upgrades so that we don't experience some of the issues that would impact stability
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not had any issues with scalability. We have seen significant performance improvements over time allowing us to increase our consolidation ratios.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
All aspects of being a VMware customer have been excellent. We have a very engaged sales team who will bring the correct resources to the table when we need to discuss solutions.
The technical support is excellent. The few times we have engaged technical support have resulted in the appropriate engineer being assigned quickly and the person has followed through to resolution of the issue.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used VMware Server. We switched to vSphere ESXi because of the scalability and management enhancements. Additionally, it didn't need a separate operating system to manage.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward. It was almost too easy. Once vCenter is up and running, creating the first cluster was simple. There is very good documentation from VMware and many other resources available online to assist with selecting the correct configuration options.
What about the implementation team?
All aspects of our VMware environment have been implemented using in-house resources.
What was our ROI?
As a small organization, we don't track specific ROI. What I can say is that we most definitely would have spent a significant amount more money and time if we continued using physical servers instead of virtual servers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For rapidly growing organizations like ours, virtualization is critical to meeting internal and external customer demands. The licensing might seem to be expensive, but the stability and excellent technical support make up for the costs
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We considered Red Hat's KVM offering. The different subscription models (license plus maintenance for VMware vs annual support for Red Hat) would have resulted in more money spent on Red Hat in year six, and every year thereafter.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise anyone who is interesting in implementing virtualization using VMware's products to try it. We started using the free licensing without support and were extremely satisfied with the ability to rapidly provision resources. We then purchased licensing and support to better manage the environment and have grown to 50 licensed hosts.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.

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