VMware vSAN Reviews

Name: VMware vSAN
Brand: VMware
Rating: 4.2 (230 reviews)

Vendor: VMware

4.2 out of 5

230 reviews
87% willing to recommend

7,504 followers

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What is VMware vSAN?

VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage product that is used in collaboration with VMware ESXi hypervisor and that provisions and manages storage based on policies, regardless of the underlying hardware. The solution enables you to prime your business for growth through its seamless evolution (it is integrated with vSphere and requires no new tools), its flexibility, and its multi-cloud capabilities. As an industry-leading software, VMware vSAN provides high levels of performance with minimal impact on CPU and memory.

Get the VMware vSAN Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about VMware vSAN, VxRail, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and more!

VMware vSAN is the #2 ranked solution in HCI Software. PeerSpot users give VMware vSAN an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. VMware vSAN is most commonly compared to VxRail: VMware vSAN vs VxRail. VMware vSAN is popular among the midsize enterprise segment, accounting for 57% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 51% of all views.

Helped 848,476 peers since 2012

Featured VMware vSAN reviews

Yves Sandfort

CEO & Majority Shareholder at Comdivision Consulting GmbH

Stability can be improved. Adding all these new features is nice, but we are now at the level where most of the features you need in production are there. The stability is not from a day-to-day operations perspective, but more from a supportability perspective, because currently some of the support scenarios require you to completely evacuate hosts or the complete cluster. That sometimes can be a stretch. This would clearly be an improvement if the support teams were given additional tools to make that easier. Upgradability could be a bit easier sometimes. We are now where vSAN can be updated without ESXi, but there is still enough dependency. So that would be good if that actually would be uncoupled even more. Dashboards are there, and we use vROps as well. So, we have all the beauty of capacity planning and everything over there. That's not really something where we need a lot of other things.

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Lipaz Hessel

Integration Manager at Gilat Satellite Networks

I'm still using a different solution. I only took two servers with vSAN to support one application that needs one feature that only VMware has. If not for that feature, I wouldn't touch VMware. Now, I'm looking at products like Nutanix, Silver Peak, Flexione, and FortiGate. For products that I choose, I don't need a specialist of that vendor. In VMware, I need a specialist in VMware. That's the issue I have with VMware. It's not like I can take any IT person, and they will know what to do. I need to make sure he will do the call, get the certificate and time to practice.

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Shaijith KB

Senior System Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

vSAN has a significantly higher license cost post-merger. Its scalability is lower compared to solutions like Nutanix. The regeneration time after a hard disk failure is much longer than that of competitors. The pricing is not clearly published. It requires more clarity in terms of the cost associated with expanding the solution, adding nodes, and overall predictability of data storage capacity.

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VMware vSAN mindshare

As of April 2025, the mindshare of VMware vSAN in the HCI category stands at 15.6%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

PeerAnalyst reports based on VMware vSAN reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	HCI	Apr 22, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Apr 22, 2025	Download
Comparison	VMware vSAN vs VxRail	Apr 22, 2025	Download
Comparison	VMware vSAN vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)	Apr 22, 2025	Download
Comparison	VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN	Apr 22, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
VxRail	4.3	19.0%	94%	131 interviews Add to research
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)	4.3	8.4%	94%	197 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

VMware vSAN is praised for its scalability, ease of use, and integration with VMware solutions like vSphere. It offers cost efficiency and high performance, leveraging local storage to replace costly SANs. Its simplicity in deployment and management appeals to users, along with features like high availability, customizable storage policies, and deduplication. Organizations appreciate its support for hyperconvergence, flexibility, redundancy, and fast implementation, which enhances data center operations without extensive hardware investments.

"The setup is straightforward."
"A one-stack solution from one vendor is the main benefit here."
"It's easy to use."

Room for Improvement

VMware vSAN requires advancements in management interfaces, performance stability, and hardware compatibility. Enhancements in monitoring, deduplication, compression, and encryption are needed, particularly for hybrid environments. There should be improvements in backup and recovery features, as well as expanding protocol support like iSCSI. Cost-effectiveness, better integration for cloud environments, and easier scalability are essential. Users seek more flexible customization, improved documentation, and streamlined troubleshooting tools. Usability could be elevated with a more intuitive interface.

"I am not satisfied with VMware support, particularly with the reaction times, SLAs, and those kinds of issues."
"Maybe incorporation of automation to build clusters in a more automated way would be beneficial."
"vSAN has a significantly higher license cost post-merger."

ROI

Many users experienced reduced hardware footprints and time-saving benefits with VMware vSAN. Some reported significant performance improvements and increased uptime, while others found cost-effective storage management. Although certain users noted high operational expenses, others achieved notable cost savings by avoiding traditional SAN costs. Stability and administration efficiencies contributed positively to their assessments.

Pricing

VMware vSAN offers a range of licensing options with costs that are competitive but often perceived as high compared to traditional storage systems. Pricing varies based on CPU and usage, with options including Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise editions. While setup and initial costs can be expensive, users highlight cost savings over time through reduced maintenance and simplicity. License costs are tied to processor count, often leading enterprises to optimize their configurations for better cost efficiency.

"The solution is relatively expensive compared to similar products."
"The licenses are very expensive. The renewal of licenses has extra costs attached to it."
"Due to recent changes in VMware's licensing approach by Broadcom, the cost has increased significantly, making it less attractive from a cost perspective."

Popular Use Cases

VMware vSAN is primarily used for server virtualization, storage, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. Companies frequently deploy it for its hyper-converged infrastructure capabilities, data center virtualization, and performance storage. Many utilize it for cloud automation, redundancy, and storage consolidation, leveraging integration with other VMware services. It supports various workloads, including mission-critical applications, providing cost-effective storage scaling and enhancing management for diverse IT environments.

Service and Support

Users express mixed opinions on VMware vSAN support. Many highlight responsiveness and efficient problem-solving, often pointing to knowledgeable engineers. Some note occasional delays, particularly in initial contact or escalation, while others appreciate quick response times. Technical support's compatibility guidance and ability to resolve complex issues are praised but experiences with first-line support vary. Customers with enhanced support contracts report more positive interactions, while others face challenges with response times and knowledge depth.

Deployment

Most users found VMware vSAN's initial setup straightforward and user-friendly. Few encountered challenges due to hardware or network issues that were resolved fairly quickly. Experience in VMware environments facilitated the process, making it easier for those familiar with the technology. Some highlighted the ease of deployment and configuration through automated features. Even for those who faced initial complexities, understanding and utilizing guides and documentation contributed to swift setup and deployment.

Scalability

VMware vSAN consistently demonstrates excellent scalability, supporting large environments with ease and minimal issues. Users appreciate its straightforward scaling capabilities, allowing seamless expansion by simply adding nodes or storage. While some find scalability limited compared to alternatives, the majority find it more than adequate for their expanding needs. Its growth potential is frequently highlighted, with users excited about future scalability prospects. Despite occasional limitations, the overall sentiment remains highly positive.

Stability

VMware vSAN demonstrates strong stability, with users noting its performance improves when adhering to hardware compatibility guidelines. Many report it as stable, reliable, and able to withstand comprehensive testing. Some mention initial challenges with hardware and configuration, but these issues were often resolved with support. Users emphasize the importance of following recommended hardware lists for optimal stability, noting successful usage without major incidents once configured correctly.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our VMware vSAN Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

51%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

University

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Comms Service Provider

Energy/Utilities Company

Construction Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Media Company

Non Profit

Wholesaler/Distributor

Insurance Company

Hospitality Company

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Transportation Company

Outsourcing Company

Pharma/Biotech Company

Performing Arts

Compare VMware vSAN with alternative products

Learn more about VMware vSAN

VMware vSAN Features

VMware vSAN has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Storage policy-based management (SPBM): VMware vSAN supports storage policy-based management for automated management of storage profiles.

Software-defined data-at-rest encryption: With this VMware vSAN feature, you can prevent unauthorized access of data at rest.

Multiple nodes: VMware vSAN provides clusters that can include as few as 2 nodes or as many as 64 nodes.

High security and availability: VMware vSAN offers stretched clusters, allowing more than one virtualization host server to be used in the same setup, promoting higher security as well as availability.

Deduplication: VMware vSAN’s deduplication compresses data to ensure efficient storage management and security.

HCI mesh updates: VMware vSAN clusters can share storage capacity with non-HCI Sphere clusters and can adopt HCI without having to scale computing resources and storage or replace existing servers.

Simplified file services: With VMware vSAN’s file services, backup of file shares is simplified. You can use APIs that allow backup and recovery software vendors to integrate with your VMware vSAN file services, which enables backup software to track new data and add scalability enhancements to files.

VMware vSAN Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing VMware vSAN. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO): VMware vSAN helps you reduce upfront costs for businesses because it can be easily deployed on inexpensive x86 servers. In addition, its highly scalable infrastructure and quick deployment also save organizations time and money, making it an efficient storage solution.

Good manageability: VMWare vSAN is easy to set up, manage, and provision, without sacrificing performance.

Scalability: VMware vSAN is agile and allows administrators to scale storage on demand, quickly, and efficiently via policies and rules.

Simplicity: VMWare vSAN is simple to configure since it is embedded in the vSphere hypervisor. Installing it using the vSphere Web Client can be done quickly.

Reduced risk: VMWare vSAN reduces the risk associated with digital transformations by utilizing existing tools, skill sets, and solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the VMware vSAN solution.

PeerSpot user Yves S., CEO, Cloud Evangelist at Comdivision Consulting GmbH, says, “vSAN gives us a lot of advantages when we need to expand resources. We have an overall larger host infrastructure, and we split that up for specific customer test and use cases. In that specific scenario, we can easily add more hosts or reduce the number of hosts in the environment.”

A reviewer who works in Infrastructure Security explains, “The ease of use is great. The initial setup and upgrade process was pretty straightforward. And, technical support is great.”

Laurent N., Director at Softlogic, comments, "The feature that I have found most valuable is that it is easy to deploy. It is easy to create and delete virtual servers. It is easy to create the load balancing and the clustering."

VMware vSAN was previously known as vSAN.