VxRail Reviews

The general use case for VxRail was to deal with the obsolescence because the current infra was not adequate to deal with the licensing and the support as we were running on the older hardware and the ESX version, and being a manufacturing site we didn't have a good level of redundancy.

We have two server rooms there. But if we lose one server room, we will not be able to run all our workload from the existing server room. So we deployed the V Service cluster during this deployment, wherein we have four modes in total in each room, and in the corporate data center.

We also deployed a backup solution with the Data Domain application. Then even if we lose one server room we have all the backup data in the other server room. So now at least we have local redundancy.

So the main use case is redundancy, obsolescence, better architecture, better throughput, and better back up time. Pfizer was not very responsive after we did the VxRail with the vCenter architecture with the upgraded styles. So we got feedback that Pfizer was responding well. Their help was good.

Also the backup time is good. Pfizer has the 1.5 PV. It used to take five to six hours on the back up but now it takes almost half of the time. So we are saving back up time and throughput is good. After deploying we have been getting some good benefits. Even the local businesses are happy with this solution.

So we are now deploying VxRail to more manufacturing sites.

The feature that I have found most valuable with VxRail is its upgrade. Because if you talk about the normal ESX process you have to upgrade the firmware, the bios, and you have to manage the compatibility. You have to do a lot of things. But in the case of VxRail, it's a single upgrade, end to end. You simply upload the bundle, click next, it will do some pre-checks, if those pre-checks pass, it will update everything one by one. It will put one ESX in the maintenance and move other VM's to another mode. There is no downtime to the VM's.

It will upgrade end to end infra, including bios from there, your ESX host, everything. So this is a really good feature. Then in new mode feature, they only have to configure it from the network standpoint and it can listen on a second mode. If they see a new mode in the network, the cluster will automatically have that mode as a new member.

VxRail has helped us with the automation. So we are happy with that.

As I said, one place for improvement would be the automated update for VMware Tools. Additionally, better integration with ServiceNow because if there are some issues, we could directly get the notification through IPS and Tools, so that integration is missing.

Somehow they did it, but it was not a very smooth integration because we have to use email features since they are sending emails. We contacted someone at ServiceNow at our end and we sent emails to ServiceNow and they converted it to some incidents or something. If we could have some out of the box ideas in integration, I think that would be a great feature.

VxRail provides more automation. For example, the process going from VMware to Tools is still a manual process where we have to manually update the VMware Tools. There should might be an option to upgrade VMware Tools automatically. We know that we need some downtime, but still, there should be a possibility to do this as an automated process.

I have been using VxRail for about six months. We deployed it back in September and did the migration, so it's been three or four months in the company.

I think we're using version 4.7 because we had some limitations with respect to vCenter and Vserver costing because ESX was the older version. So we went with VxRail 4.7 rather than going with VxRail 7, which is the latest.

We are maintaining this solution ourselves. We have some level of support from Dell, as well, but they are not directly responsible for the support. We are the ones who are supporting it.

Initially, it had some issues. As I said, the version we deployed had some known issues. But the stability is pretty good. There were some issues here and there, but that was not due to ESX, but due to some network fluctuation we had.

VxRail is especially useful for a manufacturing site. I can't really know many end users are there, but I know that they are participating in the manufacturing process. This is a pharma company and for us, VxRail is critical in our process.

So far, looking at its specifications, it looks good. It's scalable.

In general cases, technical support is good. They're pretty responsive. But besides that, there have been some issues with the cluster. For example, the version that we deployed had some bug which was a known bug. Later on we were advised to get this upgraded. But that advice came to us after two or three reassignments within their own IT section because one person evaluated it and they collected multiple logs. Then he transferred the case to somebody else, then she then collected some further logs and did some analysis. I'm not saying they were not good. They were pretty good. They had some good technical skills. They did all the analysis. Then they assigned it back to the IT guy. But as soon as the IT guy came in, he saw the version. He immediately said we have to update it because this version is having some known issues.

I would say they are pretty good. I'm not complaining about them, but this is the feedback that I personally have - that technician should have come in the very first place by just looking into the VxRail version and told us there is a known bug in this version and we should upgrade it. But that took almost two or three weeks to identify.

But still, I'm happy with the Dell services. No complaints. But just constructive feedback. The rest are good.

They are always helpful. If we join the call, they are very polite and knowledgeable. They bring more people as required, so overall, it's good.

We did not have a complete HCI product, but we had storage-defined software, like Datacode and EqualLogic. Now we are replacing Datacode and EqualLogic with this VxRail because we are using it in vCenter.

In terms of the initial setup, only the network part was a little complex for us. Maybe because we were doing it for the very first time because there is a very strict firewall applied there, being a manufacturing site. We had multiple firewalls there, so we had to open each and everything one by one. That was the only thing.

Once the network part was done, everything was smooth and we had a product life support from Dell. It was Dell who basically deployed it from a remote session with our presence. We only give them some input around the infra set up and they actually did the end to end deployment.

It took one day for rack and stacks and then two days for its set up, installation, and configuration as per our department. Later on we did the migration on our own based on the downtime that we received because we had to update the VMware Tools. We had to configure the backup, et cetera. We did it slowly, one by one, three, four servers a day.

In terms of pricing, I would say it's reasonable, not cheap and not too costly. If you compare it with some other HCI solutions, for example, there were a lot of discussions around Cisco UCS for one of the manufacturing sites. The local ITP had a preference for Cisco UCS because they had some prior experience working on it. We had already successfully deployed VxRail in some of the manufacturing sites and we found that Cisco UCS is much too costly. 

In the deployment, all the softwares were included, only the vCenterv was excluded because we were using an external vCenter, so we had to manage an external vCenter license. All the rest was included.

Some licensing, like vRealize was not included, so we have not taken it.

I would definitely recommend VxRail. But again, it depends upon the use cases. If they have a big data center, then you have to look for some other version of VxRail, maybe VxBlock, but for normal sites, for a small manufacturing R&D site, or for remote sites, they may go with VxRail.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give VxRail a nine out of 10.

We primarily use the solution for general computing. We have everything on it and anything that's licensed is on it. We have our file servers, database servers, applications servers, web servers, etc., on it. Anything that fits on it basically.

We were able to commission an old center and provide more computing to the environment.

I like the managed updates. They are really nice in VxRail. Everything comes packaged and the updates are much easier than with other solutions that I've had to work with. 

The fact that it's presenting you validated the design. Anything through the update manager will be guaranteed to work as VMware is integrated into the hardware side of it as well to validate that the patches that they're providing will work. There's less risk there. 

The storage, the hyper-converged storage, is a nice boon. We have a sort of isolated storage from our main sandbox so that we can put things on there if the sandbox is having problems or it's basically another fault domain. It's another place where things can be protected. 

The requirements need improvement. Some of the managers of VMs are a little sensitive to where they need to be placed in the environment and what names they need to have. I would like a little more control over that so that it fits into our naming scheme and it fits our organizational structure within vSphere. That's cosmetic, however. It's not a functional problem. It's just slightly disorganized. We have to put exceptions into our rules in order to check our rules.

I've been using the solution for less than six months. I don't remember the exact day, things have been blending together. I recall that it was right at the start of the pandemic. That was when our order was supposed to come in and things got delayed. We got it sometime over the summer.

The stability is good. We haven't had any issues. We don't suffer from bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's good.

We have not needed to scale up. It is less than six months old, so we have not needed to scale it, however, I have scaled other VSN clusters and it was easy.

My department is kind of interesting. We are the central IT provider for the university, we provide IT services for other IT departments. I can't actually answer how many people are on the solution at any given time. We're essentially an MSP for on campus, but that's sort of our role. Therefore, I am so far removed from what the end-user is doing with it. 

I haven't had a need to call tech support. One of my coworkers has, and it seemed to go well. I was not the one who took lead on that call. I can't advise on if they are knowledgeable or responsive. I don't have direct experience.

We also have a pair of Nutanix clusters and we didn't switch from it. They're running concurrently. They run different workloads. We wanted to make sure that a false in one hyper-converged did not bring down all of our environment. We wanted to make sure that we were not putting all of our eggs in one basket.

Our Nutanix runs some of our core services. Things that can never go down. That is why we have a pair of Nutanix clusters. They're essentially isolated from everything else. They don't rely on stories. I didn't realize they have their own hosts. They are as isolated as they can be from the rest of the environment so that a fault in one environment won't bring down everything.

As part of a VxRail deployment, you have to get professional services. It's an assisted install. I have experience with all of the components of VxRail. In terms of the VSN, the hyper-converged, some of my coworkers did not. That actually was a learning experience for them. They were able to learn from the documentation and that made it easier, however, it was still a learning curve. That was the only difficult part in terms of implementation -  the learning curve.

We're just a customer.

We're running an ESX 6.7. We're running the latest version of VxRail manager, but we're not running the latest version of ESX or V share. It can do for us. We want other people to find the bugs first.

My advice to other companies is to learn and ask lots of questions. Make sure that you understand the solution at the outset. Make sure the networking team is solid. Any hyper-converged solution like VxRail should rely on the network more than a traditional environment. You need to make sure your networking team is involved from the beginning.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten. VSN has come a long way, which is what the shell is based on for storage and the rest of the components are standard vSphere. You manage everything through the same vSphere interface. You're not using a different interface and it's fairly easy to maintain when you have problems. If you have problems, you will need to call tech support. They will have to walk you through it because it is a new thing for most people. That's why I recommend learning about the solution straight away.

Most users have experience with VMware, so they will find VxRail familiar and straightforward. Shared storage is a common use case, and compact rack units save space. VxRail offers ample capacity to run systems, which also helps reduce the network's footprint. Additionally, it's easy to upgrade existing deployments or set up new systems in testing environments.

The installation process is very quick. When you purchase it, it's up and running without much delay. Adding any additional components is simple, allowing for easy and fast scaling without adding complexity. The centralized management portal makes it easy to manage the entire system.

Support could be enhanced.

We have been using VxRail as a service provider.

VxRail is known for its stability, supported by a responsive support team that addresses any issues. Regular updates ensure that the hardware and software components remain optimized, minimizing disruptions to business operations.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

When a company scales its operations, such as expanding its business reach or adding more users, it often needs to integrate additional applications and computing resources. VxRail provides the necessary computing infrastructure to support such growth scenarios. It also ensures that the company's IT environment can efficiently handle increased demands while maintaining security. As the company grows, it becomes imperative to secure its infrastructure, making VxRail a crucial component for ensuring both scalability and security.

The solution is suitable for individuals, government companies, and the financial sector as they can purchase it.

I rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten.

We encounter challenges, which we escalate to our internal support team and engage for resolution. The process seems seamless as most issues are resolved within 24 hours, and even quicker for feature requests.

The support for VxRail is excellent. Anytime there's an issue, they create a support case and contact them. They can remotely manage system support and quickly resolve the issue. They need to address some bugs, such as occasional system glitches where certain details, like platform controller services, may crash, requiring a reboot. These issues can arise during power outages or unplanned shutdowns, causing system recovery and operation difficulties.

Positive

The initial setup is easy and takes a few weeks to complete. 

I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

The solution is expensive. 

I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

If there's a power outage, it's a big problem. Accidental reboots pose a challenge as well. The screen management and the flow machine get stuck during restarts.

I recommend the VxRail solution because it updates itself, minimizing the need for manual intervention. This makes deployment smoother and requires less support. Additionally, its user-friendly management interface simplifies operations, enabling businesses to focus on their core activities without disrupting their IT infrastructure.

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

The solution is used for companies using hyperconversion. If companies are moving towards hyper-converged infrastructure and want to consolidate everything to one single point of management or vendor, they can use this solution. 

VxRail is a unique product due to its adoption with VMware. It does work with PowerEdge servers from Dell. The hyper-converged software-defined storage is very good. The vSAN acts as software-defined storage. It offers very innovative features. It offers a very solid service alongside its innovative features and capabilities. 

There's an acquisition unfolding with Broadcom and VMware. We're waiting to hear what this will mean for VxRail. Until that happens, it's hard to say what the roadmap will look like. There are a lot of changes happening due to the acquisition, even from a licensing perspective, and we're waiting to see. Therefore, it's tricky to evaluate anything.

The Dell PowerEdge Servers are very good servers. VMware is also a very good product. However, we don't get a full picture of VMware cloud formation as an orchestrated data center. Maybe, Broadcom and VMware could bundle their products together. It's possible they could offer the same experience as a public cloud over the data center. VxEail should offer its own cloud platform. 

There can be a lack of functionality. There are limitations and restrictions of choice. There are only three modes of architecture. The hardware configuration is limited. Other vendors are more flexible.

I have about four years of experience using the solution. I still use it on occasion, although I do also use its main competitor, Nutanix.

The stability of VxRail is very good. However, for scaling, it's ideal to split the cluster into four domains if you have many nodes. This ensures stability. It will protect against data loss. 

The solution scales well. A single cluster can have 64 nodes. My largest project only uses 24 nodes. 

Technical support from Dell is very good. They've always offered very good. So far, we've been very satisfied. 

I also use Nutanix, which is VxRail's main competitor.

Review platforms such as Gartner and Forrester, et cetera, always have VxRail and number two next to Nutanix, which is number one. 

VxRail is adopting some of Nutanix's ideology in order to become even more competitive. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. We can handle it. All hyper-converged structures come pre-implemented. You simply open it, and you just have to do a few extra tasks, like attaching the management center and configuring it. It can be handled in a single day.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

We use VxRail for private cloud and running core applications.

VxRail is aligned with the VMware environment, and VMware is a stable product. Running a virtual machine on it is much easier and more accessible because it is a configured appliance. VxRail allows us to contain the sprawling of servers and provides visibility. With VxRail, we can manage the life cycle of a virtual machine.

The support charges for VxRail should be optimized and made cheaper.

I have been using VxRail for approximately six years.

VxRail is a stable solution.

Scalability-wise, VMware or Dell says the solution can go up to 64 nodes in a single cluster. We have gone to almost 48 to 50 server nodes, and it is stable. Around 30 customers are using the solution.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward. The solution's implementation is straightforward and presents no challenges. However, upgrading the versions of the solution requires some time.

The solution's deployment took 30 to 45 minutes per box.

We have seen a good return on investment with VxRail.

VxRail has a subscription model usually tagged with the appliance box only.

VxRail is a scalable and easy-to-use solution. Creating a private cloud helps us help our customers create a streamlined environment with fewer engineers. VxRail supports our virtual desktop infrastructure.

The initial setup of boxes is much cheaper than when we go for upgrades or add more nodes into the cluster. It is easy to manage VxRail.

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

Normally customers are looking to move to data centers that are modern. We have a request for upgrades from old storage and media to something new. We consolidate old solutions and simplify the way the client manages their data center. 

We have a customer, for example, that has a factory. Before they used the VxRail solution, tasks would take hours. With VxRail, a comport starts working in 30 minutes. It saves so much time. It's a competitive gain for the organization.

The solution allows a user to plan how they will be able to organize their data over the course of many months.

It's very easy to upgrade.

Simplifying network configurations is very easy.

The policies are very good.

The licensing needs to be improved upon.

For example, when we need to move your Oracle databases to VxRail solutions, we need to license the processor core and the solutions. This comes at a high cost to customers.

There needs to be better integrations with other products.

I've been working with a variety of Dell products for a while.

The stability is excellent. We don't have any issues with reliability. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's not buggy and we don't have to deal with glitches. We're happy with it.

We haven't had any issues with scalability so far. It should be pretty easy for a company to expand it out if they need to. We haven't received any feedback to make us assume otherwise. You can scale up on many things, including processors, discs, and nodes.

We don't sell to many large companies. typically we deal with small and medium-sized organizations.

Their technical support on offer is better than other products on the market.

As resellers, we don't just deal with Dell. We also resell products from HP, Nutanix, and Lenovo, for example.

The initial setup is not too complex. It's pretty straightforward, in fact. 

In terms of deployment, it typically takes less than a week, in some cases. Of course, it depends of the customers, however, in many cases it takes about a week.

The solution is pretty reasonably priced. It's not too expensive, and often less than the competition.

We're a reseller of the product.

We work with different versions including CEs, PCEs, FCEs.  What we use depends on the customer's needs. In most cases, we have sold VxRail to clients as it is cheaper than other options on the market and it's also a good way to consolidate support to one vendor.

I'd advise that those considering the solution make sure they size everything appropriately. 

We've been quite pleased with the product. On a scale from one to ten, I'd give it a perfect ten.

I use VxRail in my DR site, so it houses my virtual infrastructure. I also use it for storage.

One way VxRail has improved my organization is in the way that I am now able to replicate the virtual because I'm using vSAN. I use the code point for VMware. I'm able to replicate my Unity appliance in my production environment to the vSAN which I wasn't able to do when I was using the older solution. I can replicate my production servers into the vSAN which is in the VxRail using the recover points of a VM. That's a great improvement. 

The most valuable feature is the fact that the storage is integrated with the VxRail so I don't have to go in between systems when I have to monitor my storage.

The second valuable feature would be the space. Because they're all combined I save a lot of space when it comes to the rack. I was able to consolidate two racks into one and the one is only used in about half a rack. The storage and the VMware servers are all in the same infrastructure.

If they can improve the HTML client that would be great because the HTML client is a lot more responsive. It's a lot smoother than the flash that it comes with and flash updates every minute and every time flash updates I can't open my web client. You should update and make sure the HTML client works. If it does then you have a product that gives you an excellent 9.5/10 from most vendors with no problem.

Everybody complains that for 6.5 and 6.7 there's no desktop client for V7. Everyone misses the desktop client. I don't like the web client. If they can bring back the desktop client for the next release of the VxRail that would be great.

The solution itself is pretty stable. We've been using it for about two and a half years and I don't think it has ever gone down.

The only issue which is every now and again is that when you log in it will tell you that there's an issue with VxRail when there actually isn't. All that's required is a refresh or reload. The solution itself works but you may get some bad reports every now and again. Probably once every couple of months; there is no effect to the solution's capabilities. 

The scalability is pretty good. Currently, we are looking at expanding. We're down to 50 terabytes and we plan on bringing on a lot more storage. We're speaking to Dell EMC. We need to buy another add-on and we can expand, it won't take on a lot more space. With a few more drives it will be huge. It's pretty scalable; it's going to grow with no problem.

I have used technical support several times. I have two tickets open right now. They are usually pretty responsive. They know how to grasp and gather information. They do a lot of back and forth emailing. Sometimes I have to request a Webex so I can see what's happening. They tend to go back and forth for days.

Before VxRail we used the VNX system, which is old technology with a lot more discs. We were looking to consolidate space. We're off-site, so we have a couple of racks and we were running out of space. We needed something that would compact everything, so we started looking around. We looked at XtremIO. Then we looked into using VMware, and they have this solution that integrates with the storage, VxRail, which is VMware and vSAN. We decided to try it out. We took a look and figured we already use the product, we already have a million things with Dell EMC so we thought it would be easier just to keep going with Dell EMC. The integration purchase went smoothly. We negotiated a reasonable price, and then after that, we set it up and its been going for the last two and a half years without any issues.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. Once the storage was up, EMC did the actual deployment, configuring, and setting up the initial part of it and then the reseller took over and did the more advanced configuration. 

Deployment took a week to get everything set up with EMC, deployed, powered on and configured. Then the reseller took over and did all the migration and more complex tasks.

We used a reseller for the initial deployment. The deployment was good. It took around a month to get everything up and running. Then we had to copy the data from the old storage to the new one. That didn't take too long.

We have seen a return on our investment. We see it mainly in the fact that we are saving money in space and storage. We can use two and a half racks for something else, and we haven't had to replace discs which cost money. We also cut down on power consumption because now we have an empty rack that isn't powered on. Before we had VNX in two of them and you have to plug those into a power source. Power in those data centers isn't cheap and the fact that VxRail is dual power, it takes up probably a quarter of the energy than we were using before. That's a saving every month. We haven't had to replace it. We haven't had to fix it. We haven't had to do anything that has cost us any money.

We pay yearly for support. The cost was justified by now because it stays up and I don't have to constantly open tickets. I probably rebooted the system once or twice. We haven't replaced any discs in the storage, we haven't had to do any disc replacements, so it just runs. You pay a little more but you cut down on the maintenance. 

We evaluated XtremIO which is also a Dell EMC product. We chose this because of the integration with VxRail. It integrates the vSAN and VMware and that was the big selling point, the fact that we could run our own vCenter right off of the storage. We know the support and we know what they are going to give us.

I evaluated for a storage increase and it's an add-on whereas with VxRail it is built in and I'm not adding on anything. It's built for both V7 and the vSAN; it works well doing both things. 

On a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best I would give VxRail a solid nine. It's not something that has disappointed. Every time they have a release it's a new version and there are more features added. 

To make it a perfect ten they should improve the HTML client. There's an HTML client that works well in the web client since you don't have the desktop client. It works better than flash, and if they improve that, they might get a 10. Other than that, the product hardware is pretty good. 

I would tell someone considering this solution that it is a product to look over. You can test other solutions like Pure Storage and XtremIO. The fact that VxRail integrates with VMware gives it an edge. 

In my other office, I run VMware by itself and I use Unity which is another Dell product. We are thinking about turning our Unity and VMware into a VxRail, combining and saving space and storage. It's not the cheapest solution but sometimes cheaper is not always better. It's a solution that if you pay for it, you don't have to look at it again. I can't tell you the last time I got an alert.

We use VxRail for VDI and for our production environment hosted on VMware. Within our organization, there are roughly 3,000 employees that use this solution.

We enjoy the ease of management since all of the resources are located on one box — one single point of support. 

I host a lot of other clients on my premises, the ACR, and I need to charge them for the services I provide. I would like it if there were tools that provided the billing costs. In other words, this infrastructure or this resource will cost you X amount of dollars. In short, I would prefer it if each cell had a tool geared toward billing clients.

The initial setup for the VxRail economy requires a minimum of three nodes. We might consider building a new cluster with a minimum of four, as not all customers can sponsor for the sub-training number of nodes. In short, to implement VxRail, you need a minimum of three nodes for the initial setup; and the initial setup isn't cheap. 

I have been using VxRail for two and a half years.

VxRail is very stable — it scales up and spins out.

I am very satisfied with the customer support.

For the HCI it's quite straightforward; however, in regard to the switches, there is no GUI implemented with the top-rack switches which can make things difficult. Overall, deployment took one week.  

We evaluated HyperFlex and NetApp. The best part aboutHyperFlex is that it operates on the CDM layer to integrate the VM-ware reports which need an extra 20% of the resources that the box or the production data needs. However, I would say that HyperFlex is more complicated to install than VxRail.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.