VMware Aria Operations Reviews

Expanded insight into the actual workload in the environment, so we can plan and coordinate resources accordingly.

It gave us a broader insight into what was really going on, in a more manageable fashion.

The next release is already looking pretty good. We're one behind, 6.5; 6.6 is already out. They're already addressing it: continued enhancements regarding usability, user interface.

Stability is good.

Scalability is good.

Very good. I've only used them once, though, just to expand the database. But I reached the right person, and they were knowledgeable.

Fairly straightforward, straightforward as any anything.

In-house.

We were always looking to be better at what we do, so it was this or outside third-party products. We had a decent rapport with VMware already, and didn't feel like we needed to look outside to other solutions.

It's an extension of our vSphere environment.

Look for support, accessibility, vendor's direction, and vision supporting the kind of things you need to do on an enterprise basis.

I'd use this product. I would definitely direct people this way.

The most valuable features are the custom dashboard, the management pack, reports, and policy.

vROps propose some scheduled reports on the resource consumption for each VM.

The policy and some few metrics are not very clear. More explanations would be great.

I have been using this product for 2 years.

I haven’t had any issues with stability.

I haven’t had any issues with scalability.

Technical support was excellent.

We used vCOPS, but vROps is the new version of vCOPS. vROPS has more scalability and more features.

The initial setup was very simple. Tuning it is harder.

It’s better to buy vROps as part of the vRealize Suite package or vCloud Suite.

We evaluated VMTurbo and Foglight.

The design is very important for flows and rules. It is better if you have good vSphere skills.

The reporting feature is most valuable to me for capacity management. For example, I can produce a report that tells me how much data store I have or how much compute I have. This is critical system information that tells me what’s going on.

Also, vROps can estimate how long the current environment will be sufficient before expansion is necessary. For example, vROps can indicate that the current setup will suffice for six more months or two more months. If it’s two more months, I know I need to start provisioning new resources now.

I can monitor performance with vROps as well. One thing I like is that I can group resources together, like tier-one apps and put them in a group. Then, I can easily monitor their performance. I couldn't do that in vCenter unless I created a folder.

Storage is very hard to keep track of, so the reporting has really benefitted us.

The troubleshooting features have also been very beneficial. When I see a problem, I can drill down to the network level to see what is happening on that machine.

I would like to see the automation perform a bit smoother. For example, if the data store usage is high, you must move the VMs on that data store to another data store. But, I have to program that common action myself. I would like to see common actions come pre-configured.

Also, I would like to see the login site reintegrated with vROps. It used to be a free portal, but now we have to pay for it.

We have not had any problems with stability. Although we did have one crash, it was easy to rebuild.

I did not use technical support, because the one error we had was an unusual appliance error.

We didn’t use any previous solutions because we have been using VMware and wanted the benefit of using a single vendor.

We didn't evaluate any other products.

I suggest using VMware with vROps.

vROps is integrated with vRealize and VMware solutions, which helps us to get the best operation-level understanding across the environment; we get all the utilization reports.

By using vROps, you can actually automate your tasks, integrate it with vRO workflows, and amazing results can come up.

We have also used the integrations with DRS using the Site Recovery Manager, which are quite good. If anything happens at one site, another site immediately takes over; you can do that using vROps.

We have improved our understanding in terms of writing PoCs, and providing concrete examples of how vROps and vRA can get into the environment.

It should have some connectors in terms of showcasing third-party vendor's functionalities. For example, if some third-party storage that has been connected to the environment, this solution should actually be used instead of some third-party monitoring solution. This solution should work across the environment on its own, instead of relying on some trigger-pointed third party location and then acting it on it.

It should have some more functionality in terms of getting some more third-party vendor application-level integration.

The majority of VMware products are very stable, and I'm very happy with vROps.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

For PoCs, we have set it up for a cluster of five servers to showcase the scalability of VMware products.

I have used technical support, because the VMware solutions guidelines are quite complete and amazing.

I previously used a lot of freeware monitoring tools like Cacti, Nagios, and Ganglia.
We felt that we needed to invest in paying for a solution because it's amazing. The integration with the VMware family is amazing.

Initial setup is 9/10; it was nearly flawless. Some minor configuration services were complex; how you connect it out across, or how you actually connect two different services.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

Capacity management.

We were able to downsize workloads and our hardware.

It really helps with stability. Overall, it is a stable product.

It's been great, but we have a small department.

Very good.

It was very easy. They installed it using the vROps Wizard.

I think it's a good product.

Most important criteria when selecting a new vendor:

• Overall support for the product
• Response to support tickets
• Product features
• New feature roll-outs

Doing the rightsizing of the VMs themselves, telling me whether to add more memory or take away some.

Rightsizing reduces expenses.

In terms of rightsizing the VMs, I'd like to actually see vROps do that for me but currently it doesn't. I'd like to be able to schedule it for a certain time and date.

Seems to be pretty stable.

We haven't had any issues with it.

I've used technical support, and it's great.

We weren't previously using anything else. We went with vROps after our TAM and our SE suggested it would be good for our environment.

I was not involved in it.

No.

When considering vendors, the most important issue is support.

Also, be patient. It collects a lot of information

Being able to monitor teams underneath the enterprise.

• Being able to monitor things like CPU usage, memory, and storage.
• Being able to set up alerts which will be forwarded to your whole team. This can tell you what's going on, and which VM it's happening on.
• It allows you to forward the issue out to whichever team owns the VM.

I'd like to see more integration with other applications.

It's good on VMware products. It's tough to incorporate it into other things, like our logging. We use things like Splunk and other applications. It's pointless to log into vROps to get a portion of what you're looking for, then have to go into other solutions.

It just doesn't work well with other solutions.

It's very stable. We have not had issues.

No, we have not any issues.

We have not used it, though we do have a direct contact at VM's technical support if we ever need to contact them. We feel contacting if we needed to and that are knowledgeable.

I was not involved in the initial setup. It was seven or eight years ago.

Upgrading the solution has been simple, though.

We have guys who work for VMware in our building (in-house). We only reach out to them for upgrades. If we ever have any issues, we'll go to them, but we usually don't run into vROps issues.

I would recommend the product. I would tell anyone looking to purchase the product to utilize it as much as possible.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:

• Technical support would be our number one reason. If anything does go wrong, it's nice to have a someone who's helping you out.
• Onsite staff is definitely the best.
• It has to be able to work with other applications. It definitely has to be a standalone because most of our machines aren't connected to the internet.