VMware vSAN Reviews

We use the solution for VDI and SBC Citrix.

With this solution, less time is needed to install three-tiered infrastructure.

The main advantage is that it's all in the box, with VMware vCenter Server product.

Compatibility with the previous version, stability, performance, and upgradeability of the solution with the previous version all need to be improved. 

In future releases of the solution, I would like to see more HCL compatibility lists, less hardware requirements, better performance, and the ability to upgrade from the previous version.

I have known vSAN for five years. We deal with the latest version. 

I would rate the stability a six out of ten. It is less stable than Nutanix. 

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten. It is less scalable than Nutanix. 

The customer service and support are poor and not very responsive. We face delays with responses. 

Neutral

We prefer to use Nutanix but if the customer wants to use VMware vSAN, we have no choice.  

The initial setup is very simple. It takes around a few hours to deploy, around two to three hours. It takes more hours than Nutanix takes. 

We do the maintenance for the solution. We have a team of seven engineers for the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

The hardware price is expensive cause of new vSan 8 Hardware compatibility list. I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap. 

I would rather prefer Nutanix over this solution. Overall, I would rate vSAN solution a six out of ten. 

I use the solution in my company for the security patches. I just use it to upgrade the security patches and be secure.

The product's complex setup phase is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I want the solution to be made available at a lower price since it is currently expensive.

I have been using VMware vSAN for two years. I use the solution's latest version.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

You can say that everything about VMware vSAN is that it is very scalable, making it more than a perfect solution.

Around 500 people in my company use the product. My company manages 90,00,000 endpoints of our clients who use the product.

The product is extensively and regularly used in our company.

The product's initial setup phase was very complex.

During the deployment process, my company ensures that the product is deployed on an on-premises model, which takes about a day to complete and has 13 to 14 steps to be followed.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in a day because it was implemented with Dell VxRail. All the solutions from Dell VxRail, including the virtual machine and VMware, were implemented in one day. My company implemented the solution with the help of a third party for the implementation of all the solutions, including Dell VxRail, VMware, and VMware vSAN.

One person is required to take care of the implementation process.

My company had implemented the solution with the help of a third party.

The licenses are very expensive. The renewal of licenses has extra costs attached to it.

The tool does not make much of a difference in improving data center storage efficiency as it only shows some changes in appearance and offers a few additional features.

When it comes to the projects managed by my company, I think VMware vSAN is very good for our organization's infrastructure, as it can add big value for us because in the past, we had used some traditional solutions, like Hyper-V from Microsoft. At the present time, I can't even compare Hyper-V and VMware since VMware vSAN is the black horse of virtualization.

The specific feature of the product that has had the largest impact on our company's operations stems from the use of its virtualization capabilities. I don't need the tool for anything more than the virtualization part it offers.

The product's scalability has been good and supportive of my organization's growth.

I don't have any issues with the setup phase since I don't deploy it on the systems but I know that it is a complex process.

The management of the product is very straightforward. I haven't had to handle any issues related to product management.

VMware vSAN is a very good solution which is also very handy. I think the implementation isn't easy enough for someone to figure it out. You have to seek help from professionals to take care of the implementation because one mistake can cost you a lot.

My company had no budget plans, so the implementation did not affect our company's overall IT budget and cost efficiency.

The product has had a very good impact on our business since it has improved our overall speed and response time.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

We primarily rely on VMware vSAN for our virtualization infrastructure, with all servers virtualized using this platform. We've implemented a hyper-converged infrastructure with vSAN handling all storage needs across our primary and disaster recovery sites.

While we haven't made major changes to our disaster recovery and business continuity processes yet, moving towards stretch vSAN across sites will simplify and expedite our DR processes in the future.                 

Currently, one of the available features is shareable VMBKs. You can create the VMBK disc and you can make them shareable between the ends. But as soon as you start using this feature, you lose the ability to create snapshots.

There is a significant limitation with this feature as it prevents VMs using shared VMDKs from creating snapshots, which is a crucial functionality. This limitation greatly reduces the practicality of using shared VMDKs despite their benefits in cluster environments. Integrating shared VMDKs with snapshot functionality, even if it means excluding them from snapshots, would greatly enhance the usability of this feature and make it more valuable for many users.

I have been using Vmare vSAN for the past 15 years.

We faced a specific issue with vSan, related to a known bug in VMware, which led to activating our DR vSan on our primary production site. This required us to switch to our DR site for a period. While vSan is generally stable and performs well, this event does impact my overall review. I would rate it a 8 out of 10.

The support we received for vSAN was excellent.

Positive

We switched to vSAN for HCI after reaching end-of-life with our external vSAN storage and physical hosts. We compared different options, including renewing with updated vSAN infrastructure, but found vSAN on Dell infrastructure to be the best in terms of management simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

Due to recent changes in VMware's licensing approach by Broadcom, the cost has increased significantly, making it less attractive from a cost perspective.

I use the solution in my company for virtual servers.

The solution's most valuable feature stems from its ability to add a lot of servers and the fact that it allows users to use different operating systems. Sometimes, I can use the product on Windows XP. There are certain products for which I might need to use Windows XP. I load different operating systems on VMware vSAN, and sometimes, I even use iOS on it.

The product is not user-friendly. From an improvement perspective, the product needs to be made more user-friendly. Lately, I have noticed that there is a possibility of data leakage by hackers in the product. Hackers are able to manage to leak information or data from the product using some corrupt files, making it an area of major concern where improvements are required. From a security perspective, leakage happens when some of the company's internal information is exposed to outsiders. VMware vSAN should release a version that is faster than the current ones offered.

I have been using VMware vSAN since 2015. I have around nine years of experience with the product. My company is a customer of VMware.

It is a stable solution. I have never encountered any stability issues with the product unless there is an update. I update the product whenever needed so that I don't have to face any issues.

Considering the IT support team and engineers in my company, I would say that around 25 people use the product.

If I face any issues with a product that I don't understand, I normally use Google and forums to get answers to deal with the problems since it is an easy process for me.

I have experience with Oracle.

The product's initial setup phase is simple.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

Users can use the free version of the product. Users may also start off with the demo version of the tool. After you learn to use the solution, you can buy it if it is beneficial.

My company chose VMware vSAN over other products, considering the stability it offers.

Considering my IT background, I would say that it is easy to learn to use the product.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.

I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

The solution is relevant for organizations with legacy setups. They’re running a single application in their infrastructure and utilizing physical servers. Customers can leverage their existing resources efficiently. They maximize their utilization through virtualization. Both platforms offer similar functionality, with the main difference being vSAN's integration with VMware's ecosystem. Recent technology trends emphasize the consolidation of components, extending to both network and storage resources. You no longer require third-party storage solutions; instead, software-defined technology enables efficient resource utilization. This approach focuses on consolidation rather than introducing additional standalone components. It offers the same level of personalization while advantageously consolidating network, storage, and other resources.

VMware vSAN is using its perpetual capability. All orchestration and monitoring are routed to the cloud. There are some features like vSAN Plus available for monitoring. You can utilize this web-based solution, which operates on a subscription basis. This allows for easier budgeting compared to always making capital expenditures. New managers must budget to manage infrastructure efficiently. Everything comes at a cost.

VMware vSAN is for simple consolidation. The hard drive itself is defined through VMware's software-defined technology. You need to buy hardware compatible with nodes from different brands. You can use vSAN with HPE or other brands. Compared to third-party solutions, vSAN reduces the baseline. It's already enabled in the system, making it faster in terms of performance. Using protocols like Fibre Channel and iSCSI is a more efficient way. You can configure many VMs with vSAN, depending on the supported capacity. Then, you just enable vSAN through VMware, purchase the software, and it will work right away.

There's already a concern with VMware with ransomware and security issues. VMware could focus on improving security.

I have been using VMware vSAN for 10 years.

The product is stable.

There is no problem with the stability since it has been in the market for 20 years.

The solution is scalable.

VMware vSAN offers a robust architecture with various scaling capabilities, enabling organizations to scale up their storage infrastructure efficiently. It provides both capability and performance for different workloads, automatically increasing IOPS based on workload requirements. Scalability is crucial when it comes to allocating resources, and vSAN supports future-proofing up to 64 clusters.

Deploying VMware vSAN is seamless. You simply need to add nodes or increase the capacity of existing ones. Migration processes may vary, but configuring full capacity per node simplifies the addition of nodes, ensuring a seamless experience.

VMware doesn’t have Windows 10 support. Dell has the number-one support in the industry. I've worked with other brands, and their support sucks. VMware’s support is very great for technical support.

Positive

The initial setup for VMware vSAN involves two key components. Firstly, we offer our flagship product which utilizes VMware's leading vSAN technology. The major components are included in the package upon purchase, making it a straightforward setup compared to building it from scratch, such as with vSphere 7. We provide pre-configured vSAN ReadyNodes for convenience, although they may lack specific branding. This option allows for a more DIY approach based on ReadyNode servers.

Deploying vSAN ReadyNodes is automated, requiring minimal manual intervention. Setting up a custom solution can be more complex. The process remains relatively straightforward with some necessary intervention. It's also possible to integrate vSAN ReadyNodes with Azure setups on a large scale.

Customers opting for the automated setup merely need to ensure they meet the prerequisites, including switches, and various other requirements such as NTP configuration. Once these prerequisites are met, deploying vSAN becomes relatively easy, as VMware handles most of the configuration automatically.

Deployment is very easy and takes less than an hour.

If you're willing to have good infrastructure, you need to invest first. Ensuring a stable network and meeting computing requirements ensures proper workload distribution to end users. VMware vSAN offers peace of mind by utilizing applications despite its higher price compared to free or cheaper alternatives. It is expensive but its reliability and technological advancements justify the investment.

There are pros and cons. As long as there's VMware vSAN active in the business, the support team along with the hardware and the software services, are good. We've recently implemented vSAN in our Hypervisor. It's already proven on the infrastructure.

The con is that VMware vSAN is no longer perpetual. You need to manage your budget on how everything is going to the cloud, and everything is paid for. If you're using proxmox or Hyper-V or other free redundancies when using VMware. VMware vSAN is the most wonderful hypervisor platform. It is the industry standard and is very prominent in the market.

For advanced users, I recommend using Big Data with VMware. I suggest using vSAN because for automation for startup users. We can provide support for customers with lower budgets who are willing to get support from the system developer. VMware vSAN requires some human intervention.

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

Our clients primarily use vSAN for general-purpose workloads, such as web servers and application servers, though not as much for databases.

We have a customer who is successfully running VDI on vSAN.

Our customers also use vSAN for storage consolidation. 

We have customers who previously relied on separate servers and storage solutions but wanted to transition to Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI). 

We proposed vSAN for this purpose and utilized its standard features to migrate their existing infrastructure to vSAN.

vSAN Health is a good feature. It is a vCentre portal. 

vSAN Health is a feature designed to monitor the health and performance of the vSAN environment. It's crucial for us and our customers to frequently check on this to ensure everything is operating smoothly.

A more user-friendly GUI for troubleshooting and resolving issues would be beneficial. 

Now, addressing problems often requires opening support tickets and command-line interventions, which can be cumbersome for customers and partners alike.

For example, a server might disconnect from vSAN because we didn't realize we needed the command line to check certain things. Ideally, they should develop a web portal that allows users to diagnose and fix errors on their own.

So, I would like to see a tool in the web portal to address vSAN issues. A tool to fix recent issues.

There are some additional features I would like to see but it's not directly related to vSAN, but I'd like to touch on the vCLS feature. In the past, there was no such feature, but they're planning to develop this feature and integrate it. 

This creates challenges for our sales team and sometimes even difficulties in maintaining service on other servers. Ideally, they could develop something that allows authorized users to check out a server, essentially take it offline for maintenance, before doing so and notifying others.

The VCLS feature is confusing for your customers. It would be better to develop a feature that helps authorized users check out and disable this feature before taking a server offline for maintenance.

I have been using it for five years now.

I would rate the stability a six out of ten because sometimes everything looks all green, and healthy. 

But the next day, vSAN shows something red, and the host just disconnects from the cluster with a recent issue. We have to open a ticket to resolve it.

So the stability can be inconsistent.

Scaling vSAN is manageable; however, upgrading the entire cluster to a new version can take a lot of time and challenging for our customers.

It is easy, but it takes time to upgrade the cluster.

I would rate the scalability capabilities a seven out of ten. It should be improved.

We have small and medium-sized businesses as our customers. 

The quality of the customer service and support depends on the vSAN case. For example, if I open ten cases, maybe two or three get resolved quickly. But the other cases have a slow response. 

Maybe they end their shift and don't transfer it to the next, and no one picks it up. I have to wait until the original owner comes back to work.

Neutral

For successful business continuity, we have to use Site Recovery Manager. However, customers are pushing for more options. They'd like to see other solutions that might be a better fit for their specific needs. So, they use different third-party tools for disaster recovery.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being very easy.

Deployment can be done within three hours if we prepare all the information beforehand. We can set it up in two to three hours.

With the new pricing model, it's expensive for the customer. The old cost model was X, and the new model might be 50% more.

Comparing vSAN to traditional infrastructure solutions like those from VMware or SolarWinds, I don't see a distinct advantage.

For now, I wouldn't recommend it because of the price. There are other products on the market that work well like Nutanix. 

In your opinion, these are better options. 

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

We use the platform for virtualization and data capacity management.

VMware vSAN's most valuable features are the capability to consolidate standalone physical infrastructure into virtualization and the ease of management.

The platform's cost affects the business. This particular area needs improvement.

We have been using VMware vSAN for six years.

It is a stable platform. I rate the stability as ten out of ten.

We have seven to eight VMware vSAN users in our organization. It is a highly scalable product. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

The technical support services are far better than other vendors.

Positive

It has a user-friendly configuration process. The deployment typically takes approximately one to two hours. For instance, if we consider deploying a three-node vSphere operating system, it usually takes about two to three minutes to deploy. However, when factoring in the configuration of logical networking aspects, the overall deployment time extends to one to two hours. Once completed, the product is ready for usage.

We have a team of 12 engineers in our technical team working on the implementation.

We've encountered challenges, particularly with the recent policy changes after Broadcom acquired VMware. The current pricing needs to meet the customers' expectations, posing significant issues. It is difficult to explain the cost implications of upgrades to the customers.

I rate the pricing a three out of ten.

We are exploring other vendors. One consideration is Microsoft Hyper-V clusters, and we are also looking into Microsoft Azure Stack HCI. Additionally, we are evaluating Red Hat solutions as potential alternatives. The decision-making process involves assessing the pricing factor.

We've been utilizing VMware vSAN internally within our organization for the past three years and offering it as a solution to our customers. It helps eliminate the need for external storage and leverage the latest technology provided by VMware.

It significantly improved our storage efficiency by supporting disk groups. However, there were limitations as it only allowed for five disks. To enhance efficiency further, we needed the capacity to increase to at least seven disks per group. Additionally, for better tiering capabilities, it would be advantageous if it could support 12 disks per tier.

The recent integration with VMware's ecosystem has improved our operations by simplifying deployment and management tasks. With internal integration, deploying and managing the repository from a single dashboard has become easier.

The scalability has supported our business growth effectively. As an organization, we utilize it in various customer roles, which proves advantageous for our organization and clients.

I recommend the product to customers looking for better and more efficient storage capacity. It is a good solution. I rate it a ten out of ten.

The product’s most valuable features are performance and expandability.

The platform’s pricing needs improvement. Additionally, there should be an appliance module included in it.

We have been using VMware vSAN for seven out of years.

The product is stable.

It is a scalable product. It is suitable for enterprises.

Since we are an advanced partner, we receive on-time and adequate support services. However, their response time needs improvement for critical cases.

Neutral

It is an easy-to-install and maintain product. It requires one or two executives, depending on the environment, to conduct implementation.

VMware vSAN is an expensive platform. We purchase its yearly license.

I recommend VMware vSAN and rate it an eight out of ten. The product’s support team’s response time and pricing could be better.