Oracle VM Reviews

We primarily use it in our PCI industry solutions and for Oracle middleware, which connects applications to Oracle databases and provides web services.

The product's most valuable feature is the ability to run multiple instances of the same product in testing environments before moving them to production.

The product's user interface could be more intuitive for less experienced users. Improved monitoring and reporting on storage usage would benefit better resource management.

I have been using Oracle VM for two years. 

The product has been stable with minimal downtime. I rate the stability a nine. 

Besides administrators, we have developers and testers using Oracle VM for application testing and development. It scales well to meet our increasing demands. We don't plan significant increases as our current usage meets our business needs.

I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

Around five administrators handle various aspects like database, network, and system administration in terms of product maintenance. 

The pricing for the platform is aligned with other enterprise virtualization solutions.

The platform's networking and database support are crucial for us. We also utilize Oracle Cloud for both production and testing environments. It provides reliable virtualization that supports our operational needs without significant performance issues. We can manage virtual machines remotely, which is essential for our data center operations.

It's a good choice if you're already invested in Oracle software, but other virtualization solutions might be preferable if you're not.

I rate it a nine out of ten. 

I was using it for my project work. Our product, where I was working, needed support in Oracle VM, so I was trying to explore how our product could be used on top of Oracle VM. It was primarily to support our product on Oracle VM. That is mostly the use case I was trying for.

Our product had several issues with post-migration. The keys in our disk storage were not operating properly for writing the I/O, which was a problem. It was not functioning correctly, which is why we could not use it. I was not attempting to use any specific features.

I have been using it for two to three years. Currently, I am not using it.

Based on all the testing I have done, I found there were no issues with its performance.

I did not go through any support channel for issues, so I am not familiar with customer service.

Neutral

I found it easy to set up. If you follow the document, you are able to install Oracle directly. One person can install it without additional help. Although I was not working extensively on it, the first installation and a few minor instances were sufficient to use it.

I could not find any other alternatives. I was mainly dealing with one particular feature, and I did not explore other features I wanted to use.

The project I was working on has closed. I am no longer exploring anything new. Mostly, our customers are enterprise customers with no test issues. I rate the overall solution eight out of ten. I didn't deal with anything related to it since I was using trial versions and did not encounter any pricing-related issues.

We use the solution to deliver the correct license validation for the Oracle database. They advised us to use the Oracle VM for some environments.

VMware is user-friendly, with clear integration and detailed migration.

Oracle VM is not very stable. When you encounter any issue, it's unclear what is happening. Many websites offer various products with the same name, which can be confusing.

I have been using Oracle VM for six or eight years.

The product is not very stable when you upgrade the system. The system runs well. You will not have any problems with day-by-day work. For example, I have 12 machines running currently.

They have been running for many years. The new OEM has some issues. The new VM has been running for around one year now. If I upgrade the system, I will need a similar system with significant capacity or a high-quality environment before upgrading the production environment to prevent any system downtime.

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

I rate the solution’s scalability a six out of ten.

The product is not expensive. This support was 2000/year. If you have a very big infrastructure, it can increase because they require you to pay by the server. It becomes expensive if you have a lot of systems running on it.

The initial setup is not easy. Sometimes you have to spend one week to put some machines running on it. You need to clean the operation system, prepare everything, and do a lot of tests before you put the machine to get consistency and guarantee.

The Oracle VM was not user-friendly initially, but recent changes have significantly improved the entire product stack. They've transitioned from using DNS or the internal Oracle Linux product to a new Oracle VM, a completely different offering. While there were stability issues in the past, the latest version has addressed many of these concerns. However, there may still be occasional instances where you need to lock out installations to prevent issues. Despite past challenges, I recommend considering this product due to the improvements and ongoing support.

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

I use Oracle VM in my company mainly for simple things, not heavy stuff. In general, Oracle VM mainly helps with the monitoring of different servers.

The automatic start of the product to work as a background process has shortcomings and needs improvement. If you restart the machine to implement a feature through auto-start, you should get a tray icon or a service without the need for any additional tuning or scripts.

I have been using Oracle VM for more than three years. I use the solution's latest version. I use the solution on my desktop through Windows. I don't know if Oracle VM has a server version or not.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten. I am not sure if the problem is in the product itself or the virtual machine.

Around three people use the solution, and our company doesn't plan to increase the solution's usage.

If I have issues with the solution, I read online documents or public forums.

I have experience with VMware ESXi and a bunch of free products, like Linux-based VMs and KVM. I did not switch from any other solutions to Oracle VM. I use Oracle VM for some special use cases.

The product's initial setup phase was simple.

One can deploy the solution by just downloading and installing it.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in less than a minute.

One admin is enough to take care of the deployment and maintenance of the product.

I currently work as a consultant for different IT products, so I take care of the deployment phase by myself.

I have not seen any direct impacts in my company from the use of the solution to be able to see the value that the product offers, maybe because I used it for monitoring purposes only, but it does help me resolve issues quickly.

There is no need to make any payments to use the solution. You can just download the product and use it for free.

I recommend the solution to others as it is a stable solution that works properly.

Considering my use cases, I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

Oracle VM is the only certified technology that can be used for the virtualization of Oracle products to comply with Oracle license requirements. The solution is used to host Oracle products.

The most valuable features of Oracle VM are live migration and snapshots.

Oracle VM should be promoted more as an open-source and stable software.

I have been using Oracle VM for more than five years.

Oracle VM is a stable solution.

Oracle VM is a scalable solution.

I am very satisfied with the solution’s technical support.

Positive

I have also used VMware for virtualization, in addition to Oracle VM. Although both products have similar functionalities, VMware is much more expensive than Oracle VM.

The solution’s initial setup is quite easy.

The solution’s deployment was done by one person in a few days.

Oracle VM is an open-source solution. It is available without support or cost, but you must pay for additional support.

The scope of functionalities provided by Oracle VM is comparable and the same as any other product. It is quite easy to maintain the solution. It is easy to integrate Oracle VM with other solutions.

I have noticed that Oracle has been implementing AI capabilities into its products. I haven't had a chance to observe any AI capabilities for virtualization, but I'm sure that if they are not already implemented, they will be in a while.

Overall, I rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use it for the integration part, as a jump host, or to create an ABS VM for lift and shift. That's what we use it for.

I'm just involved in providing VMs; application testing and development are handled by a different department.

The security is robust; it's encrypted. If you have a VM running on a private subnet, then it's highly secure, which is what everyone prefers with Oracle. 

If you want to access the VM from anywhere over the Internet, you put it in a public subnet. So, VMs are linked to that. The subnets are linked to it. So, it's perfectly secured if it's a private network. The security is set.

Integration capabilities are a little complicated. It could be made easier. Whether integrating with Azure or other platforms or integration with OIC itself, the integration part is a little complicated. The integration console could also be made a bit more user-friendly.

Sometimes, the API calls and procedures are a bit complicated. Not everyone is familiar with the systems and how to work with them, but a little easier steps would do better.

The console is clear, but the integration side of it, sometimes, the Oracle Cloud doesn't have an IDCS user. Normally, in the integration of Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS), it is useless. But now there's no Oracle Identity and Access Management (IAM) IDCS because it's been compressed to domain-based. So, it's domain-based right now. There's no ID here. Everyone has access, depending on the policy and access. 

However, in specific environments, like GovCloud, there need to be more upgrades. Maybe it's because it's GovCloud; it's like that. However, the integration part becomes a little complicated in terms of the GovCloud log, where we have to make adjustments. There are no IDCS users, so we need to put in an IAM user and implement the policies. The integration of the VM agent and connectivity agent becomes a little complicated.

I have been using it for two years. 

It is stable. But in some cases, the connectivity to the service gateways is a little complicated to the SaaS cloud. We have that difficulty. Oracle is working on that.

It's highly scalable. You can scale up and scale down, both vertically and horizontally. So, those are good features. 

The customer service and support are good. 

Positive

I've been working with Azure recently, so I started learning it. It's just like creating a VM, creating users, and setting passwords for them.

Oracle is entirely on a Linux platform. Very rarely Windows is used unless it's a Jump host or for IDP sessions. But Azure is completely Windows-based. So, we need to switch over and switch on to using Linux commands. That's the major difference. 

The initial setup is complex. We need to configure the integration on the console. We need to install that connectivity agent to a VM. And the whole process is a little complicated. Where it could be made a little easier, the API could be a bit easier where  OAuth tokens and everything generated is a bit more straightforward.

The whole process from the beginning will take around two days. For deployment and maintenance, two people are enough.

The user will be charged accordingly as well—pay as you go. So, that's also a feature that comes with Oracle.

Basically, you get charged only for storage. If I stop a VM, then I'm not charged for the CPU usage. So, that's fine.

The pricing is cheap. The charge is around $20 to $ 30 per day for that.

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

The only recommendation is, in case you lose the keys for the VMs, that becomes a little complicated process to get through. There is a process, but unless the person is very technically sound, the keys cannot be exchanged or checked. They cannot be retrieved, but they can be changed.

That's the only point you need to remember.

It is designed for enterprise-level virtualization, offering features such as live migration, high availability, and centralized management.

It is highly esteemed for its ability to efficiently optimize and enhance the operational speed and responsiveness of virtualized environments. It offers exceptional performance benefits.

The integration aspect may benefit from some enhancement. Incorporating analytics related to performance, particularly within the dashboard interface, would be beneficial.

I have been using it for two years.

I would rate its stability capabilities eight out of ten.

Scalability abilities are impressive, I would rate it nine out of ten.

They provide excellent support services, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward.

The installation takes just a few minutes, it is very prompt.

I have heard from my colleague that it comes with a high price tag. I would rate it five out of ten.

Overall, I would rate nine out of ten.

The solution is a suite of products so it depends on the needs of the client. 

Depending on which product specifically is being used for this solution there are different features. If we're running Oracle VM for SPARC, it has line migration capabilities, and performance, and can use hardware virtualization on network cards.

The solution is an outdated Xen-based application. They only perform maintenance support for it. The new version is Oracle Linux Virtualization, which is a re-skinned version of the over stack, basically the same as the one that Red Hat sells. They could harmonize management between their products better.

I have been working with Oracle's Virtualization for ten to fifteen years.

The stability is rock solid. We have a fairly large technical company running the solution on their production database which is used by the production machines to collect information. If the database is down, the production stops. There has not been a stop in the production for over three years.

The cloud appliance is easy to scale because it's built to scale. You just add a new machine into them and then it will automatically boot and install. The other solutions are easy to scale as long as they are set up correctly from the beginning. They require a shared file system, either NFS, the cluster file system, glossary, or something similar to that. That will allow you to scale your storage, and then scale the compute nodes. Basically, install Oracle Linux and a node then point the management to it and say, "This is your new compute node for you."

I have used the solutions customer service plenty of times. In most cases, the support is pretty good. They have knowledgeable people working for them.

Positive

It depends on if you are setting up a simple environment or a more complex one where you have to look at the Fiber Channel storage, high availability, and things like that. If you are looking at setting up a complex multi-site cluster of Oracle VM for SPARC, it is not easy. You have all of the clustering parts, multi-site parts, storage, and networking that come with the setup. It is still easier to set up these systems now compared to back when you had bare-bone systems and had to do everything yourself.

The implementation was done in-house.

The solution as a standalone product can not be purchased. When you purchase the hardware such as Oracle X36, and the support cost for the hardware, you get the support for the operating system and the virtualization stack included. It is part of either operating systemized on the Linux side or over on the slower side. I give the cost a seven out of ten.

I have evaluated several options such as Proxmox, Red Hat, and Overt. They all do the same things but in different ways. They all have similar feature sets. The interfaces have their own quirks. All of the options are fairly equal with some differences.

My personal favorite VM solution is Proxmox. It is a lower-cost solution, easy to install, and I also run it on my home system.