VMware vCenter Reviews

My main use case for VMware vCenter is mainly for virtualization and what we call DCDR replication. I can say we are not using all the features. Our main aim is only that we are using it for virtualization of data center and for replication of servers from DR to DC, and DC to DR.

Centralized management in VMware vCenter is definitely useful for us, and we do use that feature.

We are working with role-based access controls in VMware vCenter to manage security effectively.

We use VMware vCenter for managing our resources, such as the cluster resources, the storage which is assigned to that particular cluster, and the VMs we create and assign to particular departments. We completely use it for the basic need. Although it has vSAN, we do not use vSAN separately since we have our own storage and our own hardware with our own clusters. To control all this, we use VMware vCenter. We have certain designations of employees, and based on that, we give different permissions and different access to them so that they have access to their own limited resources.

The pricing of VMware vCenter is high. What was earlier, before it was acquired by Broadcom, was different. Now, Broadcom has acquired it, and the earlier arrangement was that we used to bundle the license and purchase it according to our choice. Now, they bundle it with vSAN, which many organizations may not use. Although we purchase it along with the bundled license, we pay for something which is of no use to us because we have our own storage. If they had separate pricing for each module, organizations could purchase only the modules they need, and the price would lower. For smaller organizations, this can become a huge cost issue. For larger organizations, there is no issue, but for medium-sized organizations, they have to shell out a lot.

I have been working with VMware vCenter for almost eight to nine years.

In terms of stability of VMware vCenter, only one or two issues have come up in many years where we require support from VMware or our system integrator. In that way, I would give it a nine on stability.

Nothing has been reported to me about VMware vCenter till now because I have around eighteen members who are operating it, and none of them have reported any issues about VMware vCenter.

The scalability of VMware vCenter is fine. There are no issues, and I would rate it around eight or nine.

Earlier, we used open-source, and that was a long time ago. However, the comfort that VMware provides, I do not think any other product has. Other products have stability issues, and we faced a situation where we were unable to trace where a VM had gone from one cluster to another, leading to the loss of one VM. There was a group of machines, and one VM was running on a particular machine. When one of the hosts went down, the machine had to move to another host automatically, but during the transition, the VM disappeared. In that way, VMware vCenter is the best. I cannot compare VMware vCenter to any other solution.

The initial setup for VMware vCenter is very simple because we migrated from open-source to VMware long back. The setup is not a difficult task; it was seamless. The same open-source files can be migrated to VMware vCenter without issue.

For adding one more cluster in my data center with new hardware, my team is capable of doing the initial setup themselves. It is that easy; it is not a difficult task.

When the price goes up, organizations spend a lot on licensing. An alternate way would be to look for any open-source solutions. In Linux, we have open-source hypervisors that we can enable to manage and deploy the machines manually if licensing costs become too expensive. If VMware vCenter offered module-wise pricing, organizations could choose only the modules they want. For example, if I use it only for virtualization and for a DC DR replication, I do not need the rest of the modules. If the price was reduced, many organizations would likely come back to VMware vCenter. However, since Broadcom acquired it, prices have become more expensive.

We are still using VMware products and are still working with VMware.

We are mainly using VMware vCenter for virtualization.

We are using VMware vSphere, not something like VMware software-defined data center, maybe SASE or Horizon.

We use VMware vCenter.

We are not automating anything in VMware vCenter.

We are not using those services in VMware vCenter because we have on-premises our own cloud using VMware. Since we are a government organization, we do not integrate it with any other cloud.

I can say we are not using all the features. Our main aim is only that we are using it for virtualization of data center and for replication of servers from DR to DC, and DC to DR.

We manually perform the backup, meaning that the replication is automated, but if we want something to be turned on at the DR side, we manually do it and manually configure it at the time of any issue in the data center.

We did not actually think that much about what can be improved in VMware vCenter. It is a regular task we are doing, so I cannot give any input for them. I would give this product an overall rating of nine.

We are a customer.

VMware vCenter manages high availability very effectively. The automation of migration is excellent, and the patch management works well. The support from VMware vCenter is good. The only current issue concerns the license change after the sale to Broadcom. The license cost increased significantly, which is a negative aspect of VMware vCenter.

We are using vCenter and ESXi to manage the host.

The high availability feature is particularly valuable when a host goes down or experiences high usage, as it automatically migrates VMs to other hosts to balance performance. The automation in VMware vCenter is excellent.

The role-based access control (RBAC) implementation is effective. Technical staff can manage specific pools with limited permissions, making the role-based access in VMware vCenter highly functional.

The main concern is the license change following the sale to Broadcom. The license cost has increased significantly, which is the primary negative aspect of VMware vCenter.

While technical support is not problematic, the license cost has approximately doubled since the Broadcom acquisition, creating a significant challenge.

The technical support experiences some delays, similar to Microsoft's Hyper-V.

We have been using the solution for more than 10 years.

Regarding stability, we sometimes encounter issues with Hyper-V after upgrades. However, we have not faced any issues after upgrading VMware vCenter, whether on the vCenter or any host.

The solution is completely scalable as we can increase any host with great simplicity.

VMware vCenter manages high availability effectively.

The support from VMware vCenter is good.

The RBAC implementation allows technical staff to manage specific pools with limited permissions, making the role-based access highly effective.

Positive

We used Hyper-V in the past. While we are unsure about recent changes to Hyper-V, our experience with it was not positive.

The solution is easy to implement.

We are in the process of implementing Zerto, which is currently in the purchase order phase. While we haven't fully implemented it yet, we have completed the POC.

We use VMware vCenter and ESXi. The solution manages high availability effectively, with excellent automation for migration and patch management. The support is good, though the recent license change after the Broadcom acquisition has significantly increased costs.

Patch management is controllable and can be managed individually, with automatic downloads available.

We use it primarily for managing hosts and updates, without any integration. The performance is excellent, running very smoothly.

I rate VMware vCenter a 9 out of 10.

I am using this solution for centralized management utility. Additionally, I am utilizing it for managing multiple virtual machines with the ESXi host.

I am using vMotion for live migration and storage migrations. I can use vCenter for both now. In vCenter, I can easily manage storage and move it from one server to another, which is beneficial for the environment. If any server is down, I can utilize the storage for different servers. I can easily manage from anywhere. 

Deployments are simple, and optimization can improve security management. Troubleshooting is easy, and it is possible to detect noncompliance configurations, minimizing costs. The deployment does not require high-cost human resources. I use a single dual machine for multiple VMs. This offers many benefits compared to physical servers or machines.

Improvement is possible with the help of different replica machines. Better redundancy options can be achieved by using multiple vCenter machines. Efficiency and redundancy can be increased, minimizing or mitigating downtime.

I have used the solution for more than eight to ten years. I have a total of over eighteen years of experience.

The stability could be better.

The scalability is good in vCenter, so I would rate it as eight out of ten.

The technical support is good. I would rate it as eight out of ten.

Positive

Currently, I am using a Canadian-based product, the WETCH Firewall.

The process involves a simple setup, and I can easily initialize this.

I am not using the AI features in VMware currently, however, I have a plan to experience AI features, and I will implement them.

I would rate the overall product as eight. 

The primary use case is for virtual machine (VM) deployment, configuration of Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), prioritizing products on VMs, and using add-on devices such as hardware, network, and graphics cards. It's mainly used for high-priority tasks and performance management within VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter environments.

VMware vCenter provides centralized management that reduces costs by eliminating the need to purchase products from different vendors. With centralized monitoring and add-on tools like OneLab Remediation and Skyline Advisor, it streamlines operations and improves productivity.

The most valuable features are DRS, cluster management, vCenter management, and logs management. They provide ease of configuration and handling, centralized management, and the integration of technologies like NSX T and vSAN for storage virtualization.

The licensing model needs improvement, especially with the transition to Broadcom. The change from core-based to appliance-based licensing is causing confusion for partners and users. There should be an expansion in multi-hardware environments.

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

VMware vCenter is rated highly in terms of stability, providing a reliable environment with minimal unnecessary downtimes. It ensures continued operation of VMs, even during host failures, thus satisfying customer needs.

I would rate the scalability of VMware vCenter as nine out of ten. It offers robust scalability features, continuously adding multiple solutions to handle different types of environments.

The technical support from VMware is proactive and helpful. They offer proper documentation and step into troubleshooting when necessary. The support is rated nine out of ten.

Positive

Previously, I worked with Microsoft Teams. Apart from that, I have experience with VMware infrastructure, 2019 OSO infrastructure, and HP hardware with Gen10.

The initial setup involves downloading the ISO, loading it on a Windows Server, and going through a UI-based executable process. It is completed in two stages, and the process is generally straightforward with a few steps for configuring authentication, certificates, and adding data stores.

The pricing and setup cost are rated seven out of ten. It is mentioned that the price might be a little lower to increase customer adoption. The specific details of the financial cost were not provided.

Plan for proper hardware and select the appropriate licensing model before deploying VMware environments.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

At the starting phase of my career, I dealt with VMware vCenter for multiple solution propositions for clients. My present company has multiple vCenters deployed across several countries, including UK, Australia, Ashburn in the US and also in Pakistan.

I personally manage multiple vCenters and hosts, I deal with more than 200 hosts that need to be managed. Our company is a huge client of VMware vCenter. 

The DRS, high availability and manageable switches are the most valuable features of VMware vCenter. In our company all the features of VMware vCenter are utilized. The main function of the DRS feature is resource management. For instance, suppose one VM has operations in Node 1, in case of a disaster the DRS feature transfers the VM to another host or cluster. The DRS feature of the solution ensures high availability without any downtime across VMs. 

The vSAN feature can be used for storage management and the solution can be used for desktop and application virtualization. You can use multiple products in integration with VMware vCenter to improve the deployed environment and enhance security features. 

The solution's capability can be improved in different infrastructures depending upon segregated ports, multiple clusters and network segregation. For example, multiple network segregations can be implemented for network security and network bandwidth consumption. 

The licensing model of VMware vCenter can be improved. It's an expensive product, and the market demands a cost-effective solution. For almost every feature in VMware vCenter, a separate license needs to be purchased, including the DNS feature and node expansion. Customers will feel uncomfortable with the solution due to the cost structure. 

I have been using VMware vCenter for ten years. 

It's a highly stable product. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

If a strong extended cluster is required in the solution, VMware vCenter offers extendable features for a huge number of nodes in the existing environment, the sub-office, and other additional offices.

For example, if your country has an office and cluster in a specific country and you want to extend the solution to another country with high availability, you can achieve it. If VMware vCenter needs to be scaled across applications and other departments of your organization, it can achieved by adding more hosts, which can be called host scalability. 

There are more than 2000 VMware vCenter users in our company. I think my company might migrate to a different product for the hardware virtualization in a couple of years. 

Excellent technical support has been offered to me over the ten years of usage. There are commendable resources available with the tech support department of the solution. I would rate the tech support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

VMware vCenter offers an effortless setup process. I don't think the vendor has anything to improve in the product's setup process. 

Some resources need to be gathered for VMware vCenter deployment, including suggested RAM. The solution can be deployed in around 15 minutes, if you have hardware of high specifications. 

VMware vCenter allows the management of multiple hosts in one single node. For instance, suppose one of our company's customers uses 20 hosts to manage numerous applications, when I proposed VMware vCenter, the 20 hosts got concluded to 5 nodes which can be managed by the solution.

Thus, in the aforementioned scenario, VMware vCenter can save the cost of 15 nodes, this is how ROI can be achieved through cost savings in the first month of VMware vCenter's deployment.  

VMware vCenter is a user-friendly product. About 70% customers of virtualization in our country are using VMware products and the market is booming. I believe multiple sectors such as banking and FMCG in our country will gradually move towards more cost-effective solutions such as KVM. 

I would recommend VMware vCenter to others due to its high stability and excellent application availability. I would rate the solution as eight out of ten. 

We use the solution for security and authorization services. It also works as an antivirus backup for the data center.

The point of management is the best advantage.

We must create a VLAN on each node. You want to make the VLAN ten times if you have a thin host. We mostly create VMs, and the vCenter publishes the template on all hosts.

The process of creating VLANs or any similar tasks requires following a specific procedure, which must be executed accurately to ensure successful deployment. That's the main concern.

I have been using VMware vCenter for seven years.

The tool is stable.

Support is satisfactory.

Positive

The initial setup is easy. The field must have a clear meaning. One person can install the solution.

The focus is on the data center in business development. You must do so if you want to renew your license or purchase a new one for continuous business continuity. 

The product is expensive. Earlier it costs around 50K dollars. They changed the license policy from perpetual to subscription.

We have opted for Hypervisor from Microsoft AHV and Nutanix.

It is integrated with the Nutanix platform, Dell, and HP. I recommend the solution because it is easy to manage virtualization.

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

Our primary use case for VMware vCenter Server is to centrally manage our virtualized datacenter infrastructure. We run a mixed environment of Windows and Linux VMs across a TIA Tier-3 certified datacenter on VMware vSphere clusters, with Cisco networking, Palo Alto firewalls, and F5 load balancers integrated.

vCenter allows us to manage hundreds of VMs and ESXi hosts, streamline provisioning, enforce resource allocation policies, and monitor performance from a single pane of glass. We also rely heavily on vCenter for high availability, vMotion, DRS, and lifecycle management of hosts and VMs.

VMware vCenter has significantly improved our organization by providing a centralized management platform for our entire virtualized datacenter. Earlier, managing multiple ESXi hosts and VMs individually was complex and time-consuming. With vCenter, we can now:

• Perform seamless vMotion and DRS to balance workloads automatically.

• Ensure high availability and resilience, reducing downtime for mission-critical applications.

• Simplify patching and lifecycle management of ESXi hosts.

• Gain end-to-end visibility into performance, storage, and networking through a single interface.

This has improved our operational efficiency, reduced escalations from support teams, and increased uptime for services we provide to customers through our public cloud platform.

The features we find most valuable in VMware vCenter are:

• vMotion & Storage vMotion – Seamless live migration of workloads without downtime has been critical for maintenance and load balancing across our clusters.

• Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) – Ensures optimal resource utilization by automatically balancing workloads, which is especially useful in our multi-tenant cloud environment.

• High Availability (HA) – Provides resiliency for critical business applications, reducing downtime and meeting SLA commitments.

• Lifecycle Manager – Simplifies patching and upgrades of ESXi hosts, improving compliance and security.

• Centralized Monitoring & Alarms – Single-pane visibility of performance, storage, and networking health enables faster troubleshooting and proactive management.

These features together have improved uptime, operational efficiency, and customer experience in our datacenter and public cloud platform.

While VMware vCenter Server is a robust and mature platform, there are several areas where it could improve:

• User Interface Performance – The HTML5 web client has improved over older versions, but performance can still lag when managing large-scale environments with hundreds of hosts and thousands of VMs. A more responsive and intuitive UI would help.

• Native Backup & Restore – vCenter still relies heavily on third-party solutions for full-featured backup and restore. An integrated, enterprise-grade native backup tool would add value.

• Reporting & Analytics – The built-in reporting is limited. More advanced dashboards, historical trends, and predictive analytics powered by AI/ML would be beneficial.

• Simplified Upgrades – Upgrades and patching, while improved with Lifecycle Manager, can still be complex. A more automated, zero-downtime upgrade path would be ideal.

• Cost Optimization Features – As organizations move toward hybrid/multi-cloud, native cost visibility and optimization tools within vCenter would help IT teams manage budgets better.

Suggested Features for Next Release:

• AI-driven capacity planning and predictive analytics to proactively avoid performance issues.

• Integrated backup and DR orchestration without needing third-party tools.

• Role-based dashboards tailored for operations, management, and security teams.

• Enhanced API integrations with public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) for hybrid cloud management.

  
  

I have been using VMware vCenter Server for more than 13 years, starting from version 3.x, and have continuously upgraded through versions up to the latest 9.0 release

From my experience, vCenter server has rarely been a point of major concern regarding availability. It mainly provides centralized administration, so its unavailability doesn't directly affect the functionality of our cloud infrastructure. 

I've encountered a few instances where vCenter was unavailable or crashed, but the impact was minimal since ESXi servers and the virtual machines on them continued to run smoothly, although features provided by vCenter were temporarily unavailable.

Initially, when vCenter was introduced, scaling it to support a certain number of ESXi hosts and virtual machines was quite challenging. This was around 2012 and 2013. 

However, it has become increasingly scalable over time. Nowadays, we can deploy multiple vCenters in a cluster formation to scale extensively. I haven't reached the maximum capacity of vCenter because it's huge.

I've been working with VMware for about 10 years now.

Earlier, VMware support was very good. The technical guy on the call used to understand the issue from their side. And then, if that issue was beyond their expertise, they generally called other guys or used to forward our call to the next escalation team or something like that. We just used to call them once, and then we got our solution during that one call.

But in the last four to five years, there's been a kind of 360-degree change in terms of customer support from VMware. And most of it's going in the negative direction, which we are not happy with. 

The technician now says, "Okay, this is beyond my expertise. I'm going to escalate it to the next team, and they will be in touch with you in a couple of hours or maybe the next day." And trust me, nobody contacts us until we open another ticket, reference the ticket we opened previously, and ask them to give us priority one support. And again, they start troubleshooting it from scratch. Again, "This is beyond our expertise, and we will forward this call to our next escalation team, and they will get in touch with you." We get stuck in this kind of loop most of the time.

If I'm using ten tickets with VMware, three to nine times it happens when we, you know, keep chasing them for the technical things. Even though they fixed the issue, we ask them to provide a complete justification, the root cause of why this issue occurred, what exactly we did to fix it, and how we can make sure that this issue will not come again in the future. They don't have a clear answer for us. But since things start working for us, most of the time, we don't bother about that. 

But for our reference purpose, we want to keep RCA (Root Cause Analysis) and other documents updated so that we can fix those issues from our side or take any preventive action even before we hit the same situation again. But in the last four or five years, we've been lacking there. Because we're not getting that much good support from VMware, which we used to get back in 2012, 2013, 2014, or so.

Neutral

We have one of the Microsoft Hyper-V solutions.

I've installed it on servers and provided regular support, so I do have experience with the initial setup process. 

Earlier, it was a bit difficult because it required a separate database server installation before installing the central server, and then the database had to be integrated during the vCenter server installation. 

However, this process has been significantly simplified now. vCenter now includes its own database, eliminating the need for separate database installation. We just follow a single setup to deploy vCenter along with its required database, which we are quite pleased with.

The deployment takes approximately 30 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the infrastructure where it's being deployed, so generally less than an hour.

When I was part of the deployment team, I was the only one responsible for it. Now, we have a dedicated team for installation and deployment, but only one resource is required to deploy the vCenter server.

Assistance from VMware is not really required because the process is very straightforward and simple. 

We just need to follow the instructions provided in the setup wizard, enter the required values, and the installation completes smoothly and straightforwardly.

I have mostly deployed it on-premises and haven't had the opportunity to deploy it in a hybrid environment.

The licensing model was a bit complex, but thanks to the vCenter product usage program, which VMware introduced, it's kind of easy for us to use a pay-as-you-go model. So, it's streamlined now, and we are okay with that.

I would advise that at least you should be very well aware of all the functionalities you are going to offer to your customers. Then, you should see whether those functionalities are there in the vCenter server and working as per the documentation provided by VMware. You should be very well aware of it. 

One example is the fault tolerance problem. Although VMware said it was fine, practically, we haven't seen it working as expected. So features need to be identified in advance before choosing vCenter server.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten because I'm very much happy with all the features provided by vCenter.

vCenter is primarily used to manage hosts centrally. It handles multiple scenarios, such as creating a distribution switch instead of an individual standard switch. Centralized management of policies and applying user-based restrictions are some of the potential use cases.

With vCenter, it becomes easier to manage a hundred hosts manually and to create scenarios such as authentication. It makes the process quite cost-effective.

The most valuable feature is the ease of migrating services from one host to another during maintenance. Adding network paths is also simple, and it has a direct integration with Active Directory for role-based access.

There needs to be improvement in the pricing model, as the host license is already very high, and customers should have more open options for creating automation scenarios out of the box.

I have been using vCenter since 2014, which indicates a duration of nine years.

The solution is quite stable and doesn't have many issues from the beginning. However, it is stable to an extent of eighty percent because it may encounter blue screen errors and other common issues.

The normal environment is sufficient to handle multiple hosts, so it doesn't require frequent scaling.

vCenter is under support, and it doesn't have many issues, which makes it easy to maintain.

Neutral

The initial setup of vCenter is straightforward.

One technician is usually enough for the setup.

vCenter helps save time and costs by making it easier to manage multiple hosts and scenarios, thus being cost-effective.

The setup cost is high as the host license is expensive, and there is a concern about charging too much for a management tool.

My advice is not to use any recent products but to opt for open-source solutions.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I installed VMware vCenter and ESXi. I use vCenter to manage the several ESXi under it. I have used the DRS, high availability, and fault tolerance in my vCenter.

I usually use the DRS, distributed resource scheduling, to balance resources between many ESXi. I also use SDRS to balance storage. High availability so if an ESXi server is down, the VM is started on another ESXi. This feature helps eliminate downtime. Additionally, I integrated with VMware products, which makes integration easy.

The performance is well, however, i didnot use different products to say my opinion.

I have used it for about two years.

If I use a critical system requiring zero downtime, I utilize vCenter and its features.

After replacing the license with the new one on Broadcom for VMware, I faced some problems, however, I tried to solve them.

Neutral

Setting the solution up is easy.

I searched for the differences between automation tools like Morpheus and other features. I don't know if I may migrate to hyper-v or Nutanix, which are famous, or AWS, or Azure.

I used the product extensively and didn't work much with different products, so I can't comment on that. 

Overall, I rate this product seven out of ten.