VMware Aria Operations Reviews

The performance graphing, and being able to dig in if there are any issues with a particular VM alerting.

It helps with troubleshooting times, or at least proves to somebody it's not a virtualization issue. Shows what's going on inside the VMs and the environment as a whole.

I don't know if this really helps us with anything stability-wise. It can uncover some things that we may not have known, and it will bubble them up to the surface.

I definitely would like to see the development of dashboards not requiringe a PhD. There's so much data in there. There's so many knobs and things you can turn, that's all great and all, but just to get the basic data that I think is usable, and to build an easy to use dashboard, could be simplified. More of a drag and drop type model, without having to dig into things for correlations.

The solution itself has been very stable. Upgrades are easy, and it's been real stable.

We haven't scaled it since we deployed it from the initial sizing other than adding disc space to it, but to add extra collector nodes, or whatever. Simple.

Not for vROps.

I was not involved.

It's not always the easiest product to work around in, and build (meaningful) dashboards. I think the UI has improved greatly over the years, but I think there's definitely room for improvements to make it overall easier to manage the product without having to be a specialist in the product.

Do your due diligence. Evaluate all of the products, and make sure what you're buying is going to meet your needs and criteria. Whatever that may be.

Things to look out for:

• Definitely functionality
• Ease of use
• Scalability
• Cost value

It's all about the push-pull configurations. Before, we were using home-brewed apps. We were also using a lot of open source products, and those are great. But if the guy that's managing the open source product leaves, then you're kind of up the creek without a paddle, so vROps fills this void. It's a packaged offer from VMware, therefore it plays well with the entire suite. We're running the entire suite with vRealize, vROps, and we've got our entire VMware infrastructure running our NSX platform in Amazon's private cloud, because of this vROps is able to monitor and examine stuff. We're able to push-pull configs from that, and the biggest thing I like is to be able to push-pull configurations.

The biggest benefit is because it's an app developed by VMware and we are a VMware shop, they play well together. There aren't any plugins that I have to download. There's no modification of code. You install it and away you go.

I'd like the GUI to be flashier. It's the one thing that's missing. It's very clunky, which is fine. It's functional. You don't need it to be flashy. The backend problems have been resolved for the most part. At least, I feel that they have.

There needs to be more training. Once I build this and hand it off to somebody else, there is a lack of training available.

I don't know if it's the environment. I have been having issues in the field. One of them was with vROps. We're trying to use containers with Docker, but we're having issues when we try to run these in containers. Outside of the containers, they run great. In a clustered form, we have three availability zones and vROps is running processes fine. We start a container, then it becomes an issue. I don't know if it's just the way we configured it. I don't know what it is, but that's my issue. When I try to make it run in containers, it doesn't work.

It scales really nice. Just like most VMware products, they all scale really nice.

I haven't used it.

We were using all open source products, yet I was having issues monitoring my environment. I was using stuff like ELK (we're still using ELK), but I was trying to do everything with ELK, Cisco Tetration, and other products. It just wasn't doing it, so the sales guy said, "I'll give you a 30-day PoC of vROps. If you don't like it, cancel it. If you like it, then pay for it."

It wasn't complex, but I've spoken to other people who thought it. So for me, personally no, it was pretty straightforward, but I've been working in the VMware world for a while. I would say, it was very straightforward.

A lot of open-source stuff. What vROps does today, I've done it with open source products. In fact, I logged stashed stuff like that. I've done all those functions there and I've written scripts in a box that push and pull from places where I need it. I know there are other competitors out there, but I've just never been able to see those guys.

It's a good product, but it's gotta be a partnership.

We made them switch our sales guys.

Because I really didn't like our last sales guy, he was really about pushing the product, not about relationship. He didn't care what business we're in. He didn't really care about me as a customer. Our current salesperson is fantastic. She's great. She cares about us. She's invested in what we do. She's local and familiar with that area. I love that. It creates a personal touch. It means a lot.

Dashboards, then the troubleshooting parts of it. For example, the dashboards that troubleshoot issues with VMs.

It can create a list of operational tasks that need to be addressed. This way we can give a list to operational people of what they need to do on a day-to-day basis.

Needs simpler dashboards; executive level dashboards.

Get all of your access roles enabled so that you can use them in both places.

It's a large product, but it's very stable after you get all the pieces and enough low balance involved.

Great. We have six main nodes and a bunch of external nodes (remote connectors).

Good. They know the product very well.

We were previously using eg operational intelligence. We got a new system because we needed more integration and wanted more insight into what's going on in our environment.

It's complex, but as long as you follow all the steps and don't miss anything, it's fine.

When selecting a better alternative, look at scalability and support.

Test it out. Make sure you get the dashboards you want.

We use the product for quite a few purposes.

Two of the main reasons why:

1. We wanted a tool where we could actually see what's happening within the vSphere environment, as well a give us the ability to plan for future growth. So, a planning tool that we use for planning, but also for notifications of events which are actually happening in the environment.
2. To minimize downtime, as well as be in a position to plan for future growth.

It is very important to us to be able to see exactly what's going on in the environment on one screen. Go to the dashboard, you actually see hotspots, you highlight your hotspots, and drill right down.

We are in a better position from an IT point of view. We can actually show management our plan based on growth, whatever growth they're looking for within the environment, as well as be proactive. In other words, when systems are down, this tool actually gives us that ability.

I would say it's slow. The version we have right now is pretty robust in the sense that after you've installed it, and it's been running for awhile - it has to run for at least thirty days or longer. Then, it really gives you back meaningful data.

What would I like to see enhanced? The only thing I don't like is I've actually had to set it up twice from the ground up. That can be annoying. But, other than that the data it's providing is very useful to us.

We set it up twice because we had major releases and we upgraded the vSphere environment. Quite a few releases and we didn't follow through with that part of the product, so it was behind. Therefore, to catch up, it was more advisable for us to start over.

You can change versions of vSphere, but you'll also need to upgrade your product. There were a few times where we actually had to start all over collecting more data. It's one of those tools where it needs to be running for a while. It collects a lot of the analytics before you can actually start using the information it's providing you. There were a few times where we had to start over. We just couldn't do an upgrade and take the data forward.

It is very stable. We've been through quite a few generations of it, and it's been very stable.

Scalability in the sense that we're a small shop. So, scalability in the sense that it serves our purpose.

They are knowledgable and very supportive. You are always reaching the right person.

No, we weren't using anything before. We were looking for something.

It was very straightforward. Right out of the box you install it and you let it run for 30 days, and it starts giving you back data.

We did the setup.

Not at the time of the purchase. Other vendors came once our product became GA.

We did not look at any of them, since we had already purchased.

We spoke to quite a few other vendors that actually had other products with similar functions of dashboard very similar, or dashboards that were suppose to be better, and they gave you much more analytics of the data. But again we stuck with this product, and the reason why we stuck with it, it gave us what we were looking for. There are some other products that are more proactive, but we decided not to take that approach.

Take a good look at it. It integrates well with the vSphere environment. There are other products that do integrate well, and supposedly give you much more granular detail than this product does. I don't know. It's just a matter of preference, I'd say. It depends on how grand you want to go and how aggressive you want to go in your approach to fixing issues within your environment.

I would look at all the products and see exactly how grand you wanna get and how much information you're looking for, then make the decision. Right out the box, you install it, once it's set up, it's already collecting data, and that was as much setup as we needed.

Integration is very important, support, and also there wasn't any product on the market at the time that worked directly with vSphere. We were one of the early adopters of vSphere. Once our product came out, I wanted, from the start, what it's doing now. In other words, it was a good choice.

We spoke to quite a few other vendors that actually had other products with similar functions of dashboard very similar, or dashboards that were suppose to be better, and they gave you much more analytics of the data. But again we stuck with this product, and the reason why we stuck with it, it gave us what we were looking for. There are some other products that are more proactive, but we decided not to take that approach.

Capacity planning: Being able to see trends, so we can help plan for next year's capacity needs.

In infrastructure, from host down to storage (being levels), it can track problems easier and is able to diagnose problems quicker.

We're more proactive than reactive, so that's important to our customers.

The interface can be slow sometimes. I don't know if it's because all the data's being transcribed. When there's an issue, drill down, wait, and that could be a problem.

There's lots of whitepapers out there and installation guides. They also offer installation services for you. I highly recommend having them by your side to do it or else you'll be missing out on a couple things.

We haven't had any issues at all with it.

It's perfect.

Have not used it.

It's a lot easier to click and drill down, which are two things. It is as important as the capacity planning and business chargeback as well.

It was pretty straightforward. Obviously, we had VMware help us through it, but most of it was pretty straightforward.

The vendor has to have great support: 24/7 support.

ManageEngine, and we used Veeam and Veeam ONE. Those were basically the only ones.

I would definitely recommend having VMware come in and do a demo about all of the features it has, because a lot of places don't use all the features that are baked in. Thus, they're missing a lot of data that could be useful.

Definitely look how it helps their company and what the product does, because it's not a one size fits all. So definitely understand what the business requirements are and how vROps helps.

Getting firsthand information in the environment straight to the people that would respond to those actual alerts and events, in real time, versus a phone call or having to play catch up after the events happened. We're being very proactive with the tool up front.

The ability to create custom dashboards for specific application groups and let them do some of the in-house monitoring themselves. Also, the ability to deep dive into their applications where these groups didn't have that visibility before. We've actually reduced our ROI because people are actually more hands-on with the tool whereas before it was just a small select group of people that you would call, "Hey, how's my VM doing or what's going on?"

Now, the user is actually engaged, so it's actually helped us out tenfold.

In terms of using vROps, it's actually educated small groups of VM professionals to everyone who has access to the VM world regarding their responsibilities. From an application perspective, it develops stuff, therefore they can actually see how their application's behaving in the environment versus having to call somebody else and actually see what's going on. Thus, they get a firsthand experience from development rolling right into production.

One of the big challenge with vROps is there so much to learn as a user as you're doing it. It is also getting these dashboards in front of the executive committee, so they can actually see the environment. It's much easier to give a manager a dashboard of his environment, but he drives the events down to his team, "Why are we getting these alerts, what's going on in our environment?"

It's easier for him to do it because he's the boss of that area. Versus the support team, the VMware team, or the vROps team, in this case, driving these issues. I think we need to come up with more intuitive, outta the box dashboards, something I've even talked to about Blue Medora with.

Help us out-of-the-box. Help us get that initial footprint up and running. We'll build from there.

vROps 6.5 is rock solid. We have 6.6 in our development environment. We're gonna look to roll it out next month and all the reviews have been very positive so far.

We did an internal customer survey: The first 100 people that we gave dashboards and access to, plus the customer survey internally came back over 90% positive.The customers that we're giving it to really like it, but they want more. As those requirements come in, we're gonna build on it, and hopefully deploy as we roll along.

We have multiple locations around the world as well as in the United States. Our main data center is in New Jersey, but we have another main data center in Georgia and flight operations in Louisville.

It's really helped us out in terms of managing our environment.

They been good. We have used tech support for vROps because it's relatively new in our environment, and they've been wonderful, very responsive. They have helped get us in and "Fisher-Price" some of this stuff from a technology perspective, so we know exactly where we're going.

We had no tool to give us visibility into the virtual environment. We had the traditional tools from the enterprise management suite of tools, the BMC and IBM tools, but really nothing that catered to the virtual environment. This was our opportunity to actually get something to do a deeper dive and get more visibility into the organization.

The initial setup was out-of-the-box.

It comes up petty clean, but the layers of complexity that we introduced into the environment obviously changed some of those parameters. It's a learning experience, as with any other VM port tool.

There's a couple big players in this address space obviously. One of the major considerations for us was our aggressive timeline which we were looking to deploy, and that our deployment head already reached, not just a New Jersey-Atlanta implementation, but throughout the world as well. So the flexibility to expand across the globe is really an important piece of it.

Flowchart your dashboards first before you do anything technical within the tool itself. It's much easier to take what you have on paper and transpose that off to an actual flowchart or a diagram. It's always easier to clone a dashboard than create one yourself.

It'd be easier if you had a repository of dashboards from a VMware perspective. Whereas, as a user, I can go to that repository and clone one, then customize it for my environment. Clone is your friend.

Customers and non-technical managers and capacity managers love the reports and recommendations vROps generate. In one console, you can see both your Physical and Virtual Infrastructures merging together.

Using vRO, you can potentially get any user custom enhancements implemented in vRA and beyond.

The vRO (using Functional Programming of Javascript) is a hand-down of the favorite component of this suite. You can create your custom plugins to speak with any third-party application, not forgetting how many enterprise infrastructure product plugins are already available.

In addition, vROps is a brilliant tool for capacity optimization, assessment, and leveraging many benefits of SDDC.

vRLI still needs a lot of improvement to even start comparing with the market leader, Splunk, in terms of data analysis and customized charts/reports generation.

In addition, VMware is still essentially selling the vCAC, which was created by Credit Suisse's DynamicOps.

The CAFE part was created by VMware and it is pretty robust. However, I don't feel the same about the IaaS Windows part. They need to stop using these two loosely coupled components and probably migrate the whole thing to a SUSE-based appliance.

Version 6 of vRO did have its own issues, but the current version is pretty robust. Earlier, the Java client on reload lost flows, and the appliance needed to be started. This is no longer the case.

There are no scalability issues at all.

Customer Service:

Lately, it has been an issue with getting hold of the support team, but they generally are good.

Technical Support:

The juniors are strictly OK, but the escalation leads are brilliant with sound knowledge in troubleshooting.

The most valuable features are:

• the metrics.
• the amount of data that it collects.
• the fact that it doesn't summarize our data over a long period of time.

It helps us to see the root-cause analysis faster when figuring out an issue. We can see some overall performance issues and rectify them at the server level as opposed to the VM level because of the visibility we get.

It gives us baselines and visibility at any given time, i.e., visibility that we just don't find with any other product. Being able to get five minutes worth of data for up to six months is a great feature.

The GUI is very confusing, but the product itself is great.

It's a very stable solution.

It seems like a very scalable solution.

I haven't used the technical support at all.

The setup was very straightforward. The wizard-based install is self-explanatory. It's probably one of the best examples of VMware product installations.

This seemed like the right product. It was integrated with VMware and had the most visibility into the VMware software and stuff that was running on it. We weren't looking at any other solutions.

It is important knowing that the vendor is committed to the product and committed to keeping it updated on the stuff that it's monitoring. It's pretty important that when VMware releases a new version of the infrastructure, vROps will be there and monitor any of those changes.

Definitely give vROps a fair shot. The other products out there aren't as deep. When you're looking for something beyond the high-level 4-5 metrics that would indicate an issue, well, you're not going to get the depth from other products like VM server or whatever. You can get past the GUI and just live in the metrics section and the charts. It's going to give you a lot of value.