VMware vCenter Reviews

One feature I really like about VMware vCenter is its ability to change hosts easily. It is highly available and very useful for our operations.

The product should improve its storage. It's not necessarily about needing more storage but improving how it handles technology. We believe there could be more effective ways to manage it in our user environment. It should also look into network management. 

I have been working with the product for two years. 

I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has only three users who use it daily. 

I rate the product's ease of deployment a nine out of ten. The initial setup of VMware vCenter was straightforward. You need to follow the instructions provided, which are easy to understand. It takes half a day to deploy. You can install it either on a drive or server. You can go through the general manual. 

If you have the necessary access, you can handle the center's deployment on your own. However, it typically requires around three people. This includes individuals responsible for access management and related tasks such as network configuration.

If you're considering using VMware vCenter, my advice is to take advantage of its incredible environment for setting up labs. It would be good to do a POC. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten. 

VMware vCenter helps in managing virtual infrastructure's performance and capacity.

VMware vCenter manages cluster nodes and carries configuration for VM setups. It allows for the allocation of resources such as memory, virtual CPUs, and virtual disks when creating VMs.

We typically manage VMs after the OS is installed. vCenter simplifies VM management by allowing for the configuration and operation of VMs once an OS, like Windows, is installed.

The vMotion feature of vCenter supports disaster recovery and VM migration strategies by moving the VMs on the nodes. If there's a problem on the nodes, we usually use vMotion. 

For data protection, we still take snapshots to create copies of data on the nodes. It's not a true backup, but it's a file copied for data redundancy.

vCenter is central to VMware. Without it, configuring other tools or clustering nodes would be impossible. vCenter is the best tool for VMware.

Cluster configuration, data protection, and snapshots are essential for operational efficiency and are facilitated by vCenter.

Sometimes, vCenter management can be difficult if you forget the password. You can't change or recover the password easily. We then have to reinstall vCenter, which means reconfiguring everything. That's a challenge we've encountered. Also, if the vCenter license expires, it will lock the VMs for security purposes.

So, the improvements could focus on management, password recovery, and integration challenges.

VMware has been with our company for more than 20 years. I personally joined in 2012. So, the solution was already a part of the company. 

It's stable.

It is a scalable solution. 

The customer service and support are good. 

Positive

The initial setup is easy. 

It's easy for us to perform the basic installation. However, when it comes to advanced installations or technologies within VMware, which has many updating tools, we sometimes face difficulties due to a lack of knowledge in those areas.

My role is technical; I take care of implementation. The time required for deployment depends on the client's desired configuration and the tools being installed. Installing just VMware vSphere can take about 30 minutes. However, installing and configuring additional devices typically takes half a day or even a full day for a whole vCenter setup.

We sometimes face challenges in regard to integration, especially in networking. Issues like incorrect IP addresses configured on each node can lead to errors. Addressing these issues involves searching for or changing IPs for the servers. Sometimes, the network cards or ports may also have defects.

One person can manage and maintain the solution. However, if there are multiple servers or rapid access needs, it becomes impractical for a single person to maintain everything efficiently. For larger setups, such as nine faster nodes or more, additional technical personnel are necessary.

It's important to have knowledge in VMware installation or implementation before purchasing.

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

We use VMware vCenter for centralization and to manage all the VMs.

It is not easy to upgrade VMware vCenter from an old version to a new version. We have to work with the support to upgrade the solution.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for stability.

The initial setup of the solution is not easy, but it is not that complex either. It will be pretty hard for you if you don't have experience working with VMware.

You have limited features if you don't have VMware vCenter for virtualizations. From the infrastructure side, it is easy for my team to manage the server with VMware vCenter. My team has three resources working on support for virtualization.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

VMware vCenter's most valuable feature is high availability.

The product's technical support services need improvement. 

The platform's provisioning feature enables flexible scaling. The filtering capabilities also enhance scalability by optimizing resource allocation.

Our experience with VMware's technical support has been challenging. Support is primarily command-line based, which makes it difficult to address issues efficiently. However, they do offer solid support for GUI and file-related matters. Unfortunately, their assistance may be limited during critical situations, such as ransomware attacks.

Neutral

We utilize a call API to assess system resources and inquire about available memory. Depending on the response received, we either proceed with the deployment or send error notifications. Additionally, we connect with external systems via APIs to verify compliance with internal policies and methodologies. This streamlined approach has enhanced our VM deployment and management efficiency.

Initially, we encountered challenges with local backups, particularly regarding efficiency and capacity limitations, notably with McAfee. We recently leveraged the function for recovery purposes, which uses an online snapshot copy. While this approach is effective for short-term recovery needs, it needs to catch up regarding long-term data retention due to the large backup capacity requirements. Additionally, while useful for capturing point-in-time data, the snapshot functionality may need to be more suitable for comprehensive backup strategies. Despite these limitations, we've found that application integrations, such as with SQL, have been beneficial in enhancing our backup and recovery processes.

I rate VMware vCenter an eight out of ten.