VMware ESXi Reviews

An insurance company uses the solution to optimize its hardware. It can virtualize and run multiple applications on three servers that use VMware ESXi virtualization. More than 50 virtual servers are run on the three Cisco hosts. They use VMware Horizon for desktop visualization.

VMware ESXi provides high availability and a good web interface. The VMware vCenter, included in VMware ESXi, helps us manage our infrastructure. With VMware vCenter, you can manage and administer every other virtual machine and Cisco host.

VMware should make recovering the password easier if customers forget it. Since everything is being containerized and moved to the cloud, VMware ESXi should keep on improving to meet up with the current technology trend.

I have been using VMware ESXi for more than ten years.

VMware ESXi is a very stable solution.

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

VMware ESXi is a scalable solution. Our clients for VMware ESXi are mostly medium-sized businesses.

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

The solution’s technical support is very good and helps resolve any issues.

Positive

Once you have gone through the training, the solution's initial setup is very easy. The deployment takes approximately three to four days.

The solution's deployment time depends on the number of virtual machines created and the physical infrastructure. It's a straightforward process. Before you deploy the solution, you need to analyze the risks involved and how to mitigate them if you encounter any during the course of deployment. You need to do a proper assessment of the environment and customer requirements to ensure that whatever you are deploying will address such requirements.

You should also create room for upgrades. Suppose a customer needs additional capacity because they have acquired a new application that needs more resources. If you don't increase room, you will have to acquire new hardware to add on or do an upgrade immediately. Everything should be planned for the next three years' utilization. If you do it properly, everything will work out perfectly.

The solution saved our customers money and time. Initially, they had to purchase new hardware to launch a new application. With VMware ESXi, they have been able to launch applications without buying new infrastructure. The solution helps them to launch a new application without going through the procurement process of six months to one year.

VMware ESXi is a costly solution in Africa and other developing countries. The initial acquisition cost may be between $ 20,000 to $ 30,000, depending on the number of servers clustered together.

Providing security is a continuous process because no client or vendor is 100% secure. VMware ESXi hasn't created any security loopholes so far. Once we follow the best practice and do the normal patching from time to time, you can upgrade the patches and eliminate any lapses. VMware always comes with regular patchups on the infrastructure.

I would recommend VMware ESXi to other users because it is a good solution, and its support is fantastic and far better than most other OEMs.

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

We used it to run production and development workloads. It is quite a stable product in comparison to alternatives like Hyper-V.

The best advantage is that it reduces the footprint in your data center. By utilizing virtualization and a highly optimized hypervisor, you can run more workloads and reduce the physical space needed in your data center.

We haven't encountered any limitations because we already have a vSphere license. When running VMs, people don't request excessive configurations. We haven't reached any limits regarding storage or memory, as customers don't demand such high-end services.

In ESXi, they use different technologies like memory compression, TPS, and ballooning for resource optimization. These features allow you to run more workloads on the servers.

So, these features have been effective in optimizing server resource management.

The 6.5 and 6.7 versions already have features like graphics card passthrough and virtual compatibility.

I'm happy with the product. But what I feel is that FT (Fault Tolerance) is not used much. So maybe more focus on that feature is needed.

Sometimes, it takes some time for the level-one support to troubleshoot and respond. So, that could be improved. 

I started working with VMware ESXi in 2009, so it has been around 15 years.

It's my favorite product due to its stability. I haven't seen many problems with it.

In terms of ESXi, scalability is good. Nowadays, we utilize the full capacity of physical servers, and ESXi allows for good scalability. You can create a cluster and run numerous VMs across multiple hosts.

I'm satisfied with the support. Sometimes, when you open a case, and it lands on the first level, it takes much time to get it sorted out. But whenever level two or level three guys are involved, it’s good.

With VMware, I have worked for around 15 years, and sometimes the initial support takes longer to resolve issues. It seems like they have level-one support that takes more time. However, once the case gets escalated to level two, they provide solutions. So, VMware has a very good resource in their support team, but there are occasional delays.

Positive

I worked on Hyper-V when I was part of an SOC around 2015 or 2016. I deployed it with a four-node cluster. We used antivirus software on top of it, and I feel that caused many problems, like cluster downtime. The resource optimization was also not that great. Later, I migrated that workload to VMware.

ESXi and vCenter. My current organization only uses those two products, but my previous organizations used mostly VMware products, like vSAN, vROps and vRealize. They were a cloud provider and mainly used VMware products.

The installation and deployment are very easy for both vCenter and ESXi.

The ESXi installation and upgrade process is very easy. Even backup is easy now. The recent appliances come with configuration backup, which is a good option.

It is easy to maintain, especially when compared to Hyper-V or AWS.

In my previous organization, we used all VMware products, which were all integrated without any complexity. It was integrated with the Zerto replication tool, vROps, vCloud Director, and NSX. All of these VMware products were integrated together seamlessly. 

We also integrated some monitoring tools, and that was easy as well.

Time-saving is there. Suppose your workload is running on physical data, it’s more time-consuming and costly. But in VMware, it's cost-saving. 

In the case of Hyper-V, you would require more effort because most of the time you need to manage the VM manually due to issues. So, that was time-consuming in Hyper-V. But here, it’s easy to manage in less time.  

One of my colleagues from my previous organization mentioned that Broadcom had increased the pricing on all the products after the acquisition. 

In my current company, we have vCenter and ESXi. The company was doing a POC for the lab environment with vSAN.

Overall, it is good. I would rate it a nine out of ten because there have been issues with the support. 

I have a whole lab setup to train for VMware for virtualization to fellow students. As a reseller, I work for Dell, so I position my servers and storage portfolio. We position VMware ESXi along with the server when we require virtualization.

Earlier, the perpetual license was really helpful. The solution was straightforward and very stable at that time.

Licensing now needs improvement. VMware has gone to the core-based licensing, which is not well received by most people. The pricing and licensing model has changed the dynamics of the virtualization market.

The stability of the solution has decreased over time. It used to be a six or a seven. Now it is around a four out of ten.

Scalability is fine. That said, with scalability, you will need to have more licenses. Customers have faced challenges with the licensing model.

The initial setup is not complex at all. It is actually very good and straightforward.

The pricing right now is one. It is not good at all.

VMware users are getting more options in RHL, Red Hat, OpenShift, and Nutanix after the Broadcom acquisition of VMware.

I'd rate the solution five out of ten.

We use the product as a virtual infrastructure to hold applications. 

The main features of VMware that are most effective for managing virtual environments include creating and managing both Windows and Linux virtual machines. 

Using VMware ESXi for server management significantly simplifies the process. Traditionally, procuring physical servers was necessary, but now, we can create virtual machines on VMware ESXi based on our requirements. As long as resources are available, we can create as many virtual machines as needed.

This is particularly useful for deploying applications that require additional resources, as we no longer need physical servers. Instead, we create virtual machines using VMware and host the applications on those servers. This approach allows for quick deployment.

The solution's pricing could be improved. It has become expensive after the Broadcom acquisition. 

I have been using the solution for more than three years. 

I rate VMware ESXi's stability an eight out of ten. 

Our organization has around 250 virtual machines running on VMware ESXi. The system can accommodate more, depending on our number of clusters. From the IT administration side, we have about ten system administrators who manage and interact with the tool's interface to resolve any issues.

We have contacted tech support. They provide good support, but due to our policy, we usually rely on vendor support. After deploying the solution for more than three years, it has worked properly, and we haven't needed to request much support from the vendor side.

You need a professional to assist with the deployment. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. You should use it to start exploring the virtualized environment. 

ESXi is used to install multiple operating systems (OS) on a single server. It allows us to monitor these machines, view resource usage for each virtual machine, and adjust allocated resources like RAM, CPU, and hard disk. 

We can also easily back up these virtual machines. We use VMware vSphere to manage these virtual machines and Cisco UCS Manager to manage Cisco UCS servers.

The main function of ESXi is the ability to consolidate multiple machines onto a single server, saving space and energy. It also provides a single-user interface to monitor these machines and easily adjust resources or create backups as needed.

Integration Capabilities:

Integration within the VMware environment is not a problem. We can easily move a virtual machine from one ESXi host to another and back up a virtual machine to a different ESXi host.

If the price could be reduced, that would be good.

I think there should be a direct link for managing the OS side so we can open the web interface directly in the browser.

I have been using it for seven years now. 

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability of ESXi an eight out of ten.  

Suitable for Enterprise:

ESXi is definitely suitable for enterprise and medium-sized companies. VMware Workstation is suitable for small and medium businesses.

I would rate VMware's technical support as six out of ten. The response time could be better.

Neutral

We use different firewalls, switch servers, and proxy servers. The proxy server is Squid, installed on CentOS, a Linux operating system. We use PRTG Network Monitor to monitor network traffic.

We have our own data center with servers, and one of our servers uses VMware. We use VMware ESXi for server virtualization.

We use both VMware Workstation and ESXi, each with its own benefits. Workstation is installed on the operating system, while ESXi is installed directly on the hardware. I have been working with ESXi for seven years.

The initial setup for ESXi is a bit complex and takes a couple of hours.

We use a hybrid model for deployment.

The price of ESXi is high.

VMware ESXi is better than Microsoft Hyper-V.

Nowadays, Docker is considered to be better than virtual machines (VMs). I am not very familiar with Docker, but I have learned that it is superior in many ways.

I would rate ESXi an eight out of ten overall. I do recommend it to other users.

In our company, we use the solution for visualization for the servers to consolidate all the physical servers into virtualized machines.

Most of our organization's in-house developed applications reside within VMware ESXi. 

The solution brings monetary savings for our company because we use a single server, which is usually converted from ten physical servers. 

For instance, I can connect any Linux server to any host and then implement migration without affecting the server's user experience. When I migrate the virtual machine to another host, it takes only a few minutes while the VM is still running; shutting down is unnecessary. 

Presently, our company is using an old version of VMware ESXi; we are planning to upgrade to the latest version within the next year. The latest version of the solution runs on a cloud, and our company is looking forward to reaping the benefits from it. Some features should be added to the solution to enhance server management. 

I have been using VMware ESXi for six years. 

The solution is stable enough. 

It's a scalable solution. In our organization, we have three VMware ESXi users who work on visualization, including two network engineers and one system administrator. VMware ESXi was used to run 20 to 30 virtualized machines in our company, but presently, the count has been reduced to around 10 to 15 because most of the servers have already been migrated to the cloud. 

Whenever we sought support, an active response was received in a minimal amount of time. I would rate the tech support a ten out of ten. 

Positive

In our organization, we also tried using open-source virtualization tools like Proxmox and KVM. The aforementioned solutions lack certain features that can be found in VMware ESXi. But the licensing and support cost of VMware ESXi is huge in comparison to open source solutions, as they are free to use. 

The initial setup process for VMware ESXi is simple. A substantial amount of support and help is available from the vendor during the setup process. A lot of documentation is available for setting up VMware ESXi. 

For the solution's deployment in our company, we started from the vendor's initial design and then clustered the product. After the aforementioned step, the cluster was migrated to another server, a new cluster was created, and the deployment process was soon completed. About three to four professionals and a network engineer are required for the initial setup of VMware ESXi.

Our company's security team is also involved in the VMware ESXi deployment process to set up all the ports and the network needed. The solution's initial setup process takes about one week to complete. The one-week setup process in our company includes a testing period, with burnout testing and environment tests, such as physical and virtual machine transfer. 

In our company, we deploy VMware ESXi only after completing several tests. The solution's maintenance is quite easy, the hard drive just needs to be replaced when the storage is full.

The solution consolidates all of our organization's physical servers into a virtualized environment, which further improves server management. 

VMware ESXi allows the management of virtual networks within the servers; switches are not needed to patch any server to a network and allow any type of network transfer. 

After deploying the solution in our company, we have witnessed an improvement in server efficiency; there are minimal problems noticed in the servers. Most of the production services can be moved anywhere and virtualized machines can be transferred to clouds when VMware ESXi is being used. 

When one of the server's failed in our organization, VMware ESXi helped in disaster recovery by utilizing a new host. I am satisfied with the high availability and disaster recovery capabilities of the solution. 

I would advise others to check other virtualization hypervisor solutions before directly adopting VMware ESXi, as it is costly compared to other solutions. Our company is approached by two vendors, one of which is Nutanix. VMware ESXi is more cost-effective than Nutanix. Overall, I would rate VMware ESXi a nine out of ten. 

The tool mainly serves the virtual machines for the development team and the production requirements.

The migration and combination of vCenter, where I can manage everything at once, has helped me do my job.

It would be really helpful if there were options to do things in one or two clicks rather than doing everything through more manual interaction.

I have been using VMware ESXi for six to seven years.

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

Scalability is one of VMware ESXi's major factors. Compared to real hardware in virtualization, there are multiple options for scalability and other options on the OS level as well. More than 1,000 users are using the solution daily in our organization.

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

The technical support team is good and responsive.

Positive

I also use the Hyper-V tool.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight out of ten.

I and the storage engineer at the data center deployed the solution in-house, which took only a few hours.

The solution has made a lot of major improvements, such as high availability and scalability. There are a lot of functions that make your life easier. The solution's integration with other tools in the infrastructure is very easy.

I would recommend the solution to other users. VMware ESXi is a very user-friendly solution, and it is now being adopted on the cloud platform. Instead of changing their infrastructure, people already on VMware can directly go to the cloud and use exactly what they use in the data center.

Overall, I rate VMware ESXi a nine out of ten.

I work with a company that distributes software from GE HealthCare, and we need the virtualization platform in our deployment.

The software from GE Healthcare only needs the basic virtualization functions, such as creating VMs, adjusting the resources allocated to the VMs, making backups, restoring, etc.

The solution’s licensing model could be improved.

I have been using VMware ESXi for three years.

Around 50 people are using the solution in our organization. We plan to refresh the hardware of the product we're selling on top of the virtualization platform every three to five years. After that, we will return to the customer and offer them bigger hardware. We're assuming that their requirement will already have increased by that time.

When we needed technical support, it was bundled with Dell servers. The distributors of Dell provided technical support for us. The support was good and responsive. We got our problems solved within a few days.

We are considering hyper-converged solutions like Sangfor and Proxmox for primarily high availability as an alternative to VMware ESXi.

Our team had years of experience in other virtualization platforms, such as Proxmox, Virtuozzo, and OpenVZ. I've got a lot of experience with those products. The initial setup was very straightforward since the concepts of VMware ESXi are the same as those products.

The software we're distributing on top of VMware ESXi is a bit complex. It's for a healthcare institution, and it takes around one month to install, configure, test, and work with the end users.

Since Broadcom's acquisition, the solution's price has been adjusted, and perpetual licenses are no longer offered.

We only have a few administrators in our company. We usually train the customer's administrators in our deployment. So far, we usually get support from our reseller or distributor whenever we need patches. I would recommend the solution to other users if their requirements match the features offered by the tool and if their budget allows it.

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