vCenter Orchestrator Reviews

My usual use cases for vCenter Orchestrator involve managing all the ESXi hosts from the US, as we have almost 1200 to 1500 ESXi hosts.

The most valuable features of vCenter Orchestrator are its user-friendly operation and capabilities. We have been using it for the past 15 years and it has been excellent. All the options we need for our environment are available, especially for DBs and DB servers.

The positive impact I have seen from using vCenter Orchestrator includes benefits such as cluster and versioning, frequent updates, and updates on the Dell side. It is very flexible.

For our environment, I do not see any areas of vCenter Orchestrator that could be improved or enhanced. We are currently satisfied with the orchestrator. If any improvements are needed, I will provide feedback. There are no limitations at present. As administrators for vCenter Orchestrator, we can perform any task, and since our environment has very strict policies, we follow their instructions through standard operating procedures (SOPs), which is why we don't encounter any significant issues.

I have been working with vCenter Orchestrator for 15 years.

Regarding stability, vCenter Orchestrator performs well in our environment on the DB side. Everything is functioning properly, and we do not require any optimization at present. We have all systems on-premises, with no OpEx budget.

I would evaluate vCenter Orchestrator's scalability as excellent. It is flexible, and as previously mentioned, we work according to SOPs. There are no regrets or issues currently, and if any issues arise, we connect to vCenter and work with the vendor to resolve them promptly.

The technical support and customer service for this tool are good. They respond immediately to priority or critical issues and resolve them quickly. I rate the support as 8 out of 10, though the service is not always consistent.

Positive

Before vCenter Orchestrator, I did not use a different solution for these use cases. It has always been this orchestration system.

When choosing vCenter Orchestrator, I did not evaluate any other options. When I joined the organization, vCenter Orchestrator was already implemented.

We currently use vCenter Orchestrator's pre-built workflow templates for our IT processes. The templates are flexible, allowing us to create and convert processes simply and manage patches.

Regarding integration capabilities, we do not integrate any third-party tools. We exclusively use VMware products. The integration within the VMware infrastructure is limited to Single Sign-On (SSO).

I have not created any workflows in vCenter Orchestrator as workflows are only used for change management. I have not encountered any drag and drop interface.

The version control and logging features of vCenter Orchestrator have significantly improved the reliability of our automated processes, particularly during upgrades or patching to the cluster-wise. Previously, it would be done on a one-to-one cluster or one-to-one host basis, but now we only need to monitor it for upgrading or patching the entire cluster.

I cannot comment on the pricing and licensing of vCenter Orchestrator as these aspects are managed by our onsite counterpart.

Overall, I rate vCenter Orchestrator 8 out of 10. The rating reflects occasional delays in support response times and portal stability issues.

I use vCenter Orchestrator for automation purposes, specifically to run automation workbooks.

The most valuable features are the graphical UI for designing the workflows and the interfaces that come out of the box. Additionally, it is included in the VMware Vitalization Stack, which means there are no additional costs associated with it.

The solution has a limited count of parallel executions, which can be a bottleneck for larger environments. The PowerShell interface could be improved since it currently does not run directly, which is a limitation when used in a Windows environment. A native PowerShell integration would be beneficial.

I have been using vCenter Orchestrator for about two to three years.

I would rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, as there are nearly no stability problems.

I would rate the scalability as six to seven out of ten. The solution has limitations in the number of parallel running tasks. While it fits our purposes with a three-cluster node, larger cloud solutions might require more parallel tasks for larger environments.

I would rate technical support as eight out of ten. It is quite good, but there is room for improvement. Generally, documentation is good, but it sometimes lacks certain details, especially with upgrade topics where you cannot jump directly to the newest versions.

Positive

We used smaller tools like Ivanti Automation, but it was missing features and workflow design capabilities. For more complex tasks, we switched to vCenter Orchestrator.

The initial setup was easy because it is a virtual appliance provided by VMware. It involves downloading it in your environment and starting it up, which requires no installation or database work.

Calculating the exact return on investment is difficult, however, we decided to use vCenter Orchestrator since it fit our use case and was licensed, eliminating the need to evaluate other solutions.

Currently, if it is included in the VMware license, it is basically free to use. However, if you had to buy it separately, the price is too high.

If vCenter Orchestrator is licensed and it fits the requirements, I would recommend its use. 

Overall, I rate the solution eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company as it is very useful in virtualizing every physical environment that our company has. In our company, we enhanced the resources, and with less costs, we could have a single point of governance. The tool was really helpful for our company's environment.

There are some update-related issues with the product. The tool's updates are released on time, so there was continuous improvement from vCenter's end. The product also has an extended community and forums with questions and answers.

I have experience with vCenter Orchestrator since 2016.

The stability of the product is very good. My company had more issues when we used to deal with everything physical in our environment.

It is a scalable solution. If you have open hardware, you can have more hooks and make it more scalable.

In my company, we have around 20 users of the tool in each environment, considering that we have several environments in the organization. For VDI, my company has around 500 users because we add engineers and end users from every plant of our organization. Overall, there are around 500 end users for a single VDI environment.

I did not face many challenges during the setup phase of the tool because my usage was more as an end user than that of a technical user.

For deployment and maintenance, my company currently has a team of three people from industrial computing and four people from hosting, making it a team of seven people for our whole region.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

My company needs to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product.

For automation, I did not evaluate other products available in the market. For locations in the Asia Pacific region, I would prefer Ansible, but I am not familiar with it.

In my company's IT environment, we use the tool to deploy production environments for products, including live manufacturing systems.

The product improves my company's IT automation processes since we can use fewer resources currently. In my company, we need to spend less time considering that vCenter Orchestrator monitors everything. In general, we don't have to be present in our company to do active monitoring. Automatic monitoring is available for everything with vCenter Orchestrator, so we have proactive alerts in our company.

The most valuable feature of the product in streamlining our company's workflow stems from the fact that we need to spend fewer resources and less time in general. Our company can spend time on more effective tasks like working with the plans to improve processes and so on, instead of taking care of the systems.

The benefits of the product's integration capabilities were useful for HPE. My company has HPE infrastructure, and we are keen to integrate everything into the host, VMware ESXi. It is really important to have an easy integration method that allows for everything to be installed easily in a matter of minutes.

I was not involved in the product's setup process. My colleague took care of the product's setup process. From what I know, I can say that the product's setup phase was straightforward. Some custom setups were to be done manually in the tool, but everything was well documented.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.

One of the benefits of the product is that it is a low-cost and stable solution that offers a lot of resources.

I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

Our solution is built in VMware. All VMs are in the Orchestrator because we have multiple sites, and we connect with vCenter to Orchestrator.

With the Orchestrator, I can manage all my vCenters from one console. This allows for centralized management and streamlines operations.

I find that managing all my vCenters from one console is the most valuable feature. Additionally, the automation capabilities like VMotion, which is integrated with Orchestrator, are highly beneficial.

I think it's working fine for me. I don't have any specific areas for improvement. The only point for improvement is the price, which has increased by 135%, making it very expensive.

I have been working with vCenter Orchestrator since 2018.

It is a stable product, and we trust its reliability. I rate its stability as ten out of ten.

I rate the scalability of Orchestrator as eight out of ten.

The initial setup was simple because we had help from a vendor.

We had a vendor that assisted us with the implementation.

The pricing for vCenter Orchestrator is high. After the move to Broadcom, new pricing was applied suddenly without any notice. This has caused budget breakdowns multiple times to cover the increased costs.

We are currently searching for other solutions because the price for vCenter Orchestrator has become very expensive.

I recommend vCenter Orchestrator to other users. However, be aware that the pricing has increased significantly. Many of my colleagues who also work with Orchestrator are facing the same issue and are searching for other virtualization solutions.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I use vCenter Orchestrator in my company, as it is one of the prime components for virtualization management, and it's pretty much used for most of our customers' landscape. Whoever is using VMware is bound to use the vCenter for sure.

The tool is quite simple on the management side and offers many features, like vMotion, that help our company's customers manage their VMs all across their landscape, including areas like DR and on-premises situations. Regarding vCenter Orchestrator, it can be quite a handy tool, and I think it's the core of the whole stack.

If you ask me, I believe vCenter Orchestrator should be part of VMware vSphere's basic bundle. As a product, vCenter Orchestrator should not be licensed at all because the world has progressed way beyond what it can offer. Although VMware has a lot of licensing models and benefits from the licensing part, I think vCenter Orchestrator should be the core component of VMware ESXi. If one looks at the hypervisors or other products compared to vCenter Orchestrator, like Hyper-V, then one can see how other products offer the virtualization manager for free. I am not talking about the overall situation an enterprise faces, but I feel it should be free for VMware ESXi users. VMware has its own stack to build on top of vCenter Orchestrator, and when it comes to BDC, having vRealize stack or suite in position is the area that provides VMware an edge over its competitors. Tanzu is also getting in the line for its use of components.

I have been using vCenter Orchestrator for seven to eight years. My company operates as an implementation partner of VMware.

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

My company deals with enterprise-sized businesses that use vCenter Orchestrator. In general, my company deals with large-scale customers, like banks. My specific area is the UAE region, so I deal with mostly UAE customers who use the solution, like RTA, common customers, and DIB. There are a lot of customers that operate on a large scale and use the solution.

Though it is a scalable solution, there are certain limitations. If I consider the areas of the solution, which include the implementation phase and ease of use, then I would rate its scalability a seven out of ten.

If you have a good bundle and a good package from VMware, then obviously, the technical support would not be an issue, especially if you have premium support. If you have base-level support, then the tool definitely gets you on your knees.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The product's initial setup phase was easy. Even in a complex environment, the installation is quite well documented, making it pretty easy to install.

For a cloud deployment, there are a lot more complexities as you need to have the details as to which cloud it is and specifically what kind of protocols your company follows, so there are a lot of things that get considered, which I also include the details of the type of network you use.

I rate the product's initial setup phase an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The solution can be deployed on an on-premises model.

The time taken to deploy the solution depends on the kind of complexity the customer wants. If you talk about the base installations and base configuration, those can be done in two or three hours. Suppose you talk about the full configuration or the full utilization of vCenter Orchestrator. In that case, it requires a whole planning and training session, after which one gains the ability to get it onboard.

VMware was initially the leader in the market when it came up with virtualization and vCenter, after which many realized that VMware was always on the leading side in the market. The other vendors in the market caught up very quickly with VMware and started to offer more than what VMware was offering. If you look at the suite offered by Microsoft, you will see that it comes with a lot of breadth in terms of offering on the virtualization side, and most of the things are free. Maybe Microsoft does charge some fees, but it is very easy to understand why they charge your particular amount from the users. VMware charges its customers on different factors, which actually brings the customers' expectations for the product pretty low.

I rate the product price a seven to eight out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price.

I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.

I use VMware for critical services, running virtual PCs and some sandbox services. I have some sandbox environments running on Linux for testing and deploying. 

Additionally, I have NAS environments, which are the most productive in the virtual environment. I want to replace the hardware and consider another alternative rather than VMware. I work with a medium-sized insurance company.

The main use we had for vCenter Orchestrator was to perform tasks of updates on different machines. It facilitated the administration and management of the resources we had. 

Snapshots and similar features were managed well. However, I am planning to consider another alternative to VMware to have a feature backup with a low cost and low profile, avoiding extensive licensing.

After the change from perpetual licensing to subscriptions, the cost model changed. We are considering alternatives since we lost the perpetual aspect, and support is changing.

vCenter Orchestrator was pretty stable.

It is not a scalable solution and does not apply as a scalable product.

During the last three years, we haven't required any support from them. I've never had any issue with it and any need to request support.

Positive

I have heard many good things about Proxmox, so I want to try it.

The initial setup is not a complex thing. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the easiest, I would rate it as a five. It is not difficult but not so easy either.

Although we do not have major considerations, for that kind of solutions, we are not seeing a return on investment more than software upsell situations.

We're running a low-profile budget. This is not our main focus on investment technology, so we're trying to reduce costs due to the change from perpetual to subscription licenses.

I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate vCenter Orchestrator eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company for the virtualization of all the virtual machines in our environment.

The solution's most valuable feature is its good automation features.

The scalability option provided by the solution is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.

In future product releases, my company expects the solution to be made more feasible enough to be used with different hardware products.

The automation and pricing are areas of concern where improvements are required, especially after Broadcom acquired VMware, so the hot topic in the market revolves around the licensing cause attached to the product.

I have been using vCenter Orchestrator for two years, though my company has had it for eighteen years.

It is a stable solution and doesn't crack under pressure. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

On an admin front, it is possible to scale up and scale down the product since it is a user-friendly tool.

In the market, there are around 500 to 1,000 uses of the solution.

Even without any plans, the number of users using the product is increasing daily, so my company does not have a specific number to provide, and we can't plan how many users will use it in the next three or six months.

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

The time required for the deployment of the solution depends on how big your environment is, but in general, to get vCenter fully functional, it won't take more than a week, which does not include areas like site readiness and other things.

I did seek third-party help from VMware and Dell to take care of the implementation phase of the product.

From an ROI perspective, the product is easy to manage, and it is compatible with multiple products in the market.

There are many features available in the product that we don't use in our company. In the future, when we explore the rest of the features of the product in our company, we will use them if we find them to be feasible enough to be implemented in our environment, especially if such features revolve around the areas of AI, cloud, and automation.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it since it provides a lot of feasible features for any environment.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.

We use the product as a main server for deploying mid-range applications, including critical national-wide residence services, onto a hyper-converged infrastructure. Our banking sector client has a system, typically comprising three or four servers in a block, where virtualization and storage pooling are utilized for recovery purposes.

The most valuable feature of vCenter is its capability to manage virtual machines and storage. Moreover, integrating storage management on top of vCenter enhances its utility. We can manage and relocate resources easily. Additionally, it provides a valuable fault-storage data center feature.

We encounter challenges related to the renewal of support subscriptions. Their technical support team reports the queries within an hour or two, according to SLA. However, they take six hours or even the next business day to resolve the issues.

We have been using vCenter Orchestrator for the last four years.

The platform needs to work more efficiently for critical applications within VMware platform. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

Our organization caters to various sectors, including banks, corporate houses, and governance industries. From a global perspective, the product is scalable to meet the needs of SMBs. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

We used Microsoft Hyper-V before. VMware has its terminal to function independently without relying on additional operating systems to initiate or manage the server pool. The platform is more self-sufficient, allowing for easier server boot-up than compared to Microsoft's Hyper-V, which required a server-first approach and dealt with hypervisors separately.

vCenter Orchestrator is easy to deploy and maintain. It takes a day to complete the setup for one or two virtual machines. The number of deployment executives depends on the client's requirements. We have three designated engineers monitoring the project remotely and from the site. We require more than five executives to work on a larger site. The overall complexity depends on client requirements and the technical expertise of the vendors and resellers.

The product is expensive, and the pricing needs improvement. They provide licenses every year.

I rate vCenter Orchestrator an eight out of ten. I advise others to evaluate the solution depending on the client's ecosystem. For critical applications, it is advisable to opt for hypervisor products. However, less critical applications like email or ERP systems with HCI solutions with converged features could be suitable. Ensure it has a fault tolerance system and administrative servers to prevent downtime.

We operate two critical data centers, Data Center A and Data Center H, in an active-active setup. These centers serve 300 remote sites, with all our applications and local servers sending data to both. We prioritize data security using protections like IPS, IDS, and XDR. Data distribution is handled by load balancers through DNSX in our virtual cloud, connecting to application servers. We also have Backup Data Centers ready to take over if A and H encounter issues, ensuring uninterrupted data services.

The most valuable feature for us is the performance stability of vCenter Orchestrator, especially in complex situations, making it excellent for managing virtual machines. For smaller to medium-sized data centers, we also use Proxmox, a German software for server virtualization. Additionally, we prioritize data backup and recovery, with independent data centers located about 200 kilometers away from our main centers, Data Center A and Data Center H. These main centers operate in an active-active mode, while B and C serve as backups.

There are a few areas that could use improvement. Firstly, the pricing could be more competitive. Secondly, we would like more flexibility in sizing data storage and virtual machines, as the current options aren't very adaptable. The management of vCenter could be less automatic and more transparent for our experienced technicians. Lastly, our data stores could be better integrated with third-party options, as they don't fully meet our high-end requirements. vCenter has limited management capabilities, causing problems when you have plenty of space and memory but can't monitor their usage well. The main issues revolve around data storage and management, driven by an overly automatic and simplistic approach that is not ideal for complex or expanding setups.

I have been using vCenter Orchestrator for two years.

It is a scalable solution. We have approximately 4,000 users of the solution. We also have a team of five people who maintain the solution 24/7.

The technical support is customer-oriented but not excellent in terms of speed and knowledge. It is reasonably good but not outstanding. I would give it a six out of ten.

Neutral

We have previously used Proxmox but switched to vCenter because Proxmox is not suitable for larger applications. In addition to using vCenter, nowadays we also use OpenStack.

The initial setup was extremely easy because vCenter handled many things automatically. However, it is not ideal when you need specific configurations, as it may not give you the level of control you require. We obtain licenses through a digital locker or VMware purchase orders, and deploying them is easy. However, there are some issues with data store management. While the system is generally stable, it lacks flexibility for configuration and monitoring. This can be problematic when adding many VMware machines and increasing data store capacity, as it doesn't provide clear warnings or limits.

I have definitely seen ROI with vCentre.

VMware's licensing can be complex with many products, making it hard to find a cost-effective solution. Handling costs, support, and efficiency can be expensive and challenging, so it is an important aspect to think about. Sometimes it seems like VMware offers many products just to generate more revenue, even if some of them end up being unnecessary.

My recommendation for those starting with vCenter is that once the automatic installation is complete, the graphical user interface is user-friendly and easy to use. Overall, I would rate vCenter a seven out of ten.

I use the solution for automation purposes.

The solution has the best workflow creation feature.

The solution's analytics feature could be better.

I have been using the solution for four years.

I rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten.

The solution's scalability is a seven or eight out of ten.

The solution's technical support team takes a long time to escalate the issues.

Neutral

The solution's initial setup process is a seven or eight out of ten.

I rate the solution's pricing an eight or nine.

I recommend the solution to others and rate it a seven out of ten.