VxRail Reviews

At our company, we work as consultants and offer the VxRail environment to our customers. Sometimes, we work on small remote sites where we propose and escalate a few hosts, like two or three-node blasters. Otherwise, our company uses the solution for handling native HCI capability without VCF. 

One of the solution's most valuable features is its zero-day deployment. The deployment is extremely fast, which our company's customers find very interesting. The lifecycle management feature makes the VxRail environment function quicker than other traditional, discreet environments.

For daily operations, VxRail has a great direct monitoring feature. The solution also offers seamless support to track issues through ESRS premises. 

At our company, when we manage the lifecycle for upgrading from one version to another, sometimes the upgrade gets stuck or the solution doesn't support online upgrades and compatibility.  

The solution's lifecycle management (LCM) should be enhanced. Multiple issues arise when dealing with the LCM feature on hand. The VMware feature can be included in the solution's software layer. Like Nutanix, VxRail should bring some competitive features like inbuilt DR capabilities and cloud hosting. 

VxRail provides an easy-to-scale environment. However, there are some limitations when the product is considered from the VMware perspective. The feature of HCI mesh functioning with Dell EMC VxRail further helps manage the compute-only nodes when needed. At our company, we never faced any challenges while scaling the VxRail environment. 

At our company, whenever we face a challenge or issue with VxRail, we easily resolve it by contacting customer support. Immediate support is available from Dell for any hardware issues. But in some instances, for virtualization issues, there is some dependency on VMware, which leads to a delay in support. 

At our company, we believe VxRail support is proactive and their response metrics are smoother than Nutanix's. I would rate VxRail's customer support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The product offers easy and fast deployment. 

The hardware cost associated with the tool usage is a bit high. But when a user has been using VxRail for three to five years, the overall hardware cost reduces due to a reduction in orchestration cost. When we compare the CapEx and OpEx costs of VxRail together, they are always lower than those of another type of rack server adoption. 

At our company, we also work with Nutanix. Some of our customers prefer to adopt Nutanix for a few special use cases. Nutanix's performance and underlying operations are sometimes better than VxRail's. But personally, as a tech architect, I would say VxRail is better than Nutanix in terms of daily operations. 

For some technical issues, reaching out to Nutanix support is difficult, whereas similar issues can be easily resolved by reaching out to VxRail support. Troubleshooting articles are not easily available with Nutanix. From the disaster recovery perspective, when a user adopts the Dell EMC VxRail, some dependency on third-party tools like SRM and Hyper-V is required. For Nutanix, a user does not need to bear the cost of external tools as Nutanix holds internal DR capabilities.

Nutanix also offers its own public cloud, where the tool can be used with AWS or Azure to develop a hybrid cloud environment. But VxRail has only an on-prem offering that can be used for discrete HTC and VCF environment operations. 

Users are usually very comfortable executing the workload of data center operations on VxRail. But when a user has to manage heavy workloads for storage, such as HeavyDB and database servers, they prefer to use external storage facilities to gain the maximum benefits of the computed nodes. 

At our company, one of the customers is leveraging around 8,000 servers of VxRail, out of which 50% is native VxRail without VCF, and the rest of ESXi is utilized with VCF. The solution has also helped our company's customers grow their businesses. 

The monitoring tool of VxRail helps improve efficiency. The tool easily integrates with VMware, vSphere and other logging tools. VxRail also allows hardware monitoring and tools within the Dell EMC VxRail are presented as a plugin within the vCenter. Any monitoring executed for hardware failure environment can be easily managed through the operations tool. VxRail also effortlessly integrates with ITSM tools. 

Due to the automation features, cluster scalability, and number of operational days of the tool, VxRail is able to reduce 30-40% of our company's operational costs. Our company's customers' preferences vary depending on factors like quality, cost, and features, choosing VxRail or another competitive solution. Overall, I would rate VxRail an eight out of ten. 

We use VxRail for private cloud and running core applications.

VxRail is aligned with the VMware environment, and VMware is a stable product. Running a virtual machine on it is much easier and more accessible because it is a configured appliance. VxRail allows us to contain the sprawling of servers and provides visibility. With VxRail, we can manage the life cycle of a virtual machine.

The support charges for VxRail should be optimized and made cheaper.

I have been using VxRail for approximately six years.

VxRail is a stable solution.

Scalability-wise, VMware or Dell says the solution can go up to 64 nodes in a single cluster. We have gone to almost 48 to 50 server nodes, and it is stable. Around 30 customers are using the solution.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward. The solution's implementation is straightforward and presents no challenges. However, upgrading the versions of the solution requires some time.

The solution's deployment took 30 to 45 minutes per box.

We have seen a good return on investment with VxRail.

VxRail has a subscription model usually tagged with the appliance box only.

VxRail is a scalable and easy-to-use solution. Creating a private cloud helps us help our customers create a streamlined environment with fewer engineers. VxRail supports our virtual desktop infrastructure.

The initial setup of boxes is much cheaper than when we go for upgrades or add more nodes into the cluster. It is easy to manage VxRail.

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

VxRail is a suitable solution where more transactions are required and the TPMs exceed the standard requirements. For example, we have sold VxRail to a government weather company. This company runs extensive simulations to predict upcoming weather, analyzes images, and employs AI for analytics. These tasks demand significant computing power. Considering the budget, they need solutions that offer this level of performance. Typically, banking, education, and manufacturing customers opt for VxRail servers. 

VxRail integration with multiple products is among the best key points for selling to any end customer.

The main feature of VxRail is its integration. VxRail integrates with almost all major products. Another key feature is its monitoring capabilities. VxRail provides detailed monitoring from the application level, making it easy to troubleshoot issues. Additionally, their CloudIQ software suggests best practices automatically. For instance, if you are taking snapshot backups on VxRail, CloudIQ will inform you in advance if there are any issues. For example, if you planned to take ten snapshots in one day but only eight were successful due to a receiver issue, CloudIQ will help you identify the problem and suggest best practices to resolve it. It provides comprehensive data and information without consulting different websites or people.

The solution is expensive.

I have been using VxRail for ten years.

The stability is excellent.

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

You can have over 64 nodes in one cluster. It's plug-and-play. You just need to add the load to the cluster.

It is suitable for telcos and enterprises. If you have a university with two hundred campuses, then it is not recommended for them.It is the best solution for one of the departments, such as the electronics or business departments, that are running simulations. 

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

Support is wonderful. You email them, and they come to Webex and take the session.

The price of VxRail is a bit higher. However, they focus on general specifications when selecting products in the environment sector.

When we compare VxRail with Cisco HyperFlex, Lenovo, Nutanix, and HP, we find it to be more cost-effective. Additionally, VxRail offers integrated backup and application support. In contrast, HP often lacks application support and relies on third-party solutions like Veeam or NetBackup. This can sometimes cause issues with smaller or in-house applications that may not be compatible with these backup solutions, leading to problems. On the other hand, if we decide to go with VxRail, they provide Avamar and NetWorker. Additionally, we can integrate it with a dedicated domain if we want to use separate storage.

When providing VxRail solutions to customers, they bring their own system engineers or system administrators with one or two years of experience in servers and VMware. We do not just hand over the hardware as a simple plug-and-play solution. Instead, we provide a comprehensive solution that requires some level of expertise. Ideally, the person should have two to three years of experience in VMware and server administration.

For instance, a six-node installation can be completed in two hours, given the proper preparation. The system doesn't work automatically for the engineer; they need to be proactive. It is crucial to prepare around four or five key points before deployment. This proactive preparation ensures a smoother installation and deployment process. This is one of the strong points of VxRail solutions.

VxRail competes with Cisco HyperFlex, HPE SimpliVity, and other major players in the HCI market. Locally, there is limited market penetration, which keeps them relatively safe. Apart from Dell EMC's VxRail, other significant providers include HPE with SimpliVity, Lenovo with Nutanix, and Cisco with HyperFlex.

We have repeatedly asked the R&D team about external storage and how we can improve it for CI. Previously, there was an issue with FCI traffic, which was not supported. However, it is now supported on FCI with external storage.

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

We have a good mix of everything. There are terminal servers, routers, firewalls, and customer servers, and all are on VMs. We are replacing our old hardware servers. We have virtualized those as well.

By implementing VxRail, we wanted scalability. We wanted to be able to easily add a server and configure it. We wanted the simplicity of configurations for the team so that I do not need to extensively train the team. They know immediately what to do.

VxRail has improved our availability. This means we no longer stress when a server fails. It immediately switches VMs to another machine. I can update without having to set a maintenance window. I have become more independent.

Because everything happens in one window, it is absolutely easy to handle.

VxRail has the ability to consolidate infrastructure from multiple locations, but we are only at one location.

VxRail has had quite a positive effect in terms of energy consumption. I can compare what individual hardware is needed. I can also see which hardware and what capacities are being used. When the VMs move themselves to work evenly on all computers or servers, it is an advantage.

VxRail has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime because we now have a cluster, and the VMs move themselves. We have had two outages in a year. One was a hardware failure, and the other was an update problem. Only two or three VMs were turned off because a component was defective. Otherwise, there was no major outage. They moved everything to other machines as planned, and we could work with it.

With VxRail, the flexibility is very high because we can scale it without any problems for new projects. For example, we have a larger project coming up where many associations will be involved. I can simply plug in additional devices, set up the initial configuration, and let the service configure itself immediately. I am very flexible.

For sustainability, we can recycle them. We have not done it, but we had the option to do it as a lease purchase. That is also advantageous for the future.

The assurance that my systems would not suffer a performance drop no matter where they are is valuable. I do not need any extra hardware.

They should have better compatibility with other processors, such as AMD processors.

I have been using VxRail since the beginning of 2023.

It has broken twice now, but everything still ran, so I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability. It is great that things can fail without a major impact. 

It is scalable. Scalability is given by the fact that we can simply add more servers.

Their support is superb. Because of CloudIQ and the proactive approach of Dell, the support for customers is top-notch. We had new hardware or replacement parts on-site within three hours. 

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. I do not have a problem with English, but if you want to get support in German, it is a bit more difficult. It used to be easier. It is not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice to have. We are doing great with what we have, but it would be an advantage if from 9 to 10, there was a German-speaking support person. For example, when we were upgrading from version 7 to 8, it would have been nicer to be able to converse more fluently with someone, but that is more of a problem on my end and not with the support.

Positive

We have not used any other similar solution.

If I had done it without the help of the person from Dell for the first time, it would have been more complex. Because he showed me once, it was very easy. If I want to change something now, it is just easy. There is all the automation behind it. When I have a new server, I slide it into the rack, connect all the wiring, give it an IP address, and click a button to bring up the server.

We had someone from Dell who helped us with the installation and configuration.

There is an advantage for those who have a good deal with Dell. Its price is good. From a company's perspective, it is always too expensive, but it is about value for money.

We did not evaluate other options. We had other Dell servers, but we did not have VxRail. We did not need any alternatives. We like working with Dell. The colleagues offered it to us and sold it to us.

We did not consider a public cloud infrastructure before choosing VxRail.

Overall, I would rate VxRail a ten out of ten. I am satisfied with it. Once you get the hang of it, you can just work on it. If you need support, they can help you configure something.

Foreign Language:(German)

Gute Leistung, viel Flexibilität und erstklassiger Support

Was ist unser Hauptanwendungsfall?

Wir haben eine gute Mischung aus allem. Es gibt Terminalserver, Router, Firewalls und Kundenserver, die alle auf VMs laufen. Wir sind dabei, unsere alten Hardwareserver zu ersetzen. Auch diese haben wir virtualisiert.

Wie hat es meiner Organisation geholfen?

Mit der Implementierung von VxRail wollten wir Skalierbarkeit erreichen. Wir wollten in der Lage sein, einfach einen Server hinzuzufügen und ihn zu konfigurieren. Wir wollten, dass die Konfigurationen für das Team so einfach sind, dass ich das Team nicht ausgiebig schulen muss. Sie wissen sofort, was zu tun ist.

VxRail hat unsere Verfügbarkeit verbessert. Das bedeutet, dass wir keinen Stress mehr haben, wenn ein Server ausfällt. Es schaltet die VMs sofort auf einen anderen Rechner um. Ich kann Updates durchführen, ohne ein Wartungsfenster festlegen zu müssen. Ich bin unabhängiger geworden.

Da alles in der gleichen Ansicht geschieht, ist es absolut einfach zu handhaben.

VxRail hat die Möglichkeit, die Infrastruktur von mehreren Standorten aus zu konsolidieren, aber wir sind nur an einem Standort.

VxRail hat sich in Bezug auf den Energieverbrauch sehr positiv ausgewirkt. Ich kann vergleichen, welche Hardware im Einzelnen benötigt wird. Ich kann auch sehen, welche Hardware und welche Kapazitäten genutzt werden. Es ist von Vorteil, wenn sich die VMs so verschieben, dass sie gleichmäßig auf allen Rechnern oder Servern arbeiten.

VxRail hat dazu geführt, dass wir weniger ungeplante Produktionsausfälle haben, weil wir jetzt einen Cluster haben und die VMs sich selbst verschieben. Wir hatten in einem Jahr zwei Ausfälle. Bei einem handelte es sich um einen Hardwareausfall, bei dem anderen um ein Update-Problem. Nur zwei oder drei VMs wurden abgeschaltet, weil eine Komponente defekt war. Ansonsten gab es keine größeren Ausfälle. Sie haben alles wie geplant auf andere Maschinen verschoben, und wir konnten damit arbeiten.

Mit VxRail ist die Flexibilität sehr hoch, weil wir es ohne Probleme für neue Projekte skalieren können. Wir haben zum Beispiel ein größeres Projekt vor uns, an dem viele Verbände beteiligt sein werden. Ich kann einfach zusätzliche Geräte anschließen, die Erstkonfiguration einrichten und den Dienst sofort selbst konfigurieren lassen. Ich bin sehr flexibel.

Im Sinne der Nachhaltigkeit können wir die Geräte recyceln. Das haben wir nicht getan, aber wir hatten die Möglichkeit, sie als Mietkauf zu erwerben. Das ist auch für die Zukunft von Vorteil.

Was ist am wertvollsten?

Die Gewissheit, dass meine Systeme keine Leistungseinbußen erleiden, egal wo sie sich befinden, ist wertvoll. Ich benötige keine zusätzliche Hardware.

Was muss verbessert werden?

Sie sollten eine bessere Kompatibilität mit anderen Prozessoren, z. B. AMD-Prozessoren, aufweisen.

Wie lange nutze ich die Lösung schon?

Ich verwende VxRail seit Anfang 2023.

Was halte ich von der Stabilität der Lösung?

Es ist jetzt zweimal kaputt gegangen, aber alles lief noch, also würde ich es mit neun von zehn Punkten für die Stabilität bewerten. Es ist toll, dass Dinge ohne größere Auswirkungen ausfallen können.

Was denke ich über die Skalierbarkeit der Lösung?

Es ist skalierbar. Die Skalierbarkeit ist dadurch gegeben, dass wir einfach weitere Server hinzufügen können.

Wie sind Kundenservice und Support?

Der Support ist hervorragend. Aufgrund von CloudIQ und dem proaktiven Ansatz von Dell ist der Support für Kunden erstklassig. Wir hatten innerhalb von drei Stunden neue Hardware oder Ersatzteile vor Ort.

Ich würde den Support mit neun von zehn Punkten bewerten. Mit Englisch habe ich kein Problem, aber wenn man Support auf Deutsch haben möchte, ist es etwas schwieriger. Früher war das einfacher. Das ist kein Hindernis, aber es wäre schön, wenn man es hätte. Wir kommen mit dem, was wir haben, gut zurecht, aber es wäre von Vorteil, wenn es von 9 bis 10 einen deutschsprachigen Supportmitarbeiter gäbe. Als wir zum Beispiel von Version 7 auf 8 umgestiegen sind, wäre es schöner gewesen, sich mit jemandem fließend unterhalten zu können, aber das ist eher ein Problem meinerseits und nicht des Supports.

Wie bewerten Sie den Kundenservice und -support?

Positiv

Welche Lösung habe ich vorher verwendet und warum habe ich gewechselt?

Wir haben keine andere ähnliche Lösung verwendet.

Wie war die Ersteinrichtung?

Wenn ich es ohne die Hilfe des Dell-Mitarbeiters zum ersten Mal gemacht hätte, wäre es komplizierter gewesen. Weil er es mir einmal gezeigt hat, war es sehr einfach. Wenn ich jetzt etwas ändern will, ist das ganz einfach. Dahinter verbirgt sich die ganze Automatisierung. Wenn ich einen neuen Server habe, schiebe ich ihn in das Rack, schließe alle Kabel an, gebe ihm eine IP-Adresse und klicke auf eine Schaltfläche, um den Server hochzufahren.

Was ist mit dem Implementierungsteam?

Wir hatten jemanden von Dell, der uns bei der Installation und Konfiguration geholfen hat.

Welche Erfahrungen habe ich mit den Preisen, den Implementierungskosten und der Lizenzierung gemacht?

Es gibt einen Vorteil für diejenigen, die ein gutes Geschäft mit Dell haben. Sein Preis ist gut. Aus der Sicht eines Unternehmens ist es immer zu teuer, aber es geht um ein gutes Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis.

Welche anderen Lösungen habe ich bewertet?

Wir haben keine anderen Optionen evaluiert. Wir hatten andere Dell-Server, aber wir hatten kein VxRail. Wir brauchten keine Alternativen. Wir arbeiten gerne mit Dell. Die Kollegen haben es uns angeboten und verkauft.

Bevor wir uns für VxRail entschieden haben, haben wir keine öffentliche Cloud-Infrastruktur in Betracht gezogen.

Welche anderen Ratschläge kann ich geben?

Insgesamt würde ich VxRail mit zehn von zehn Punkten bewerten. Ich bin sehr zufrieden damit. Wenn man einmal den Umgang damit gefunden hat, kann man einfach damit arbeiten. Falls man Unterstützung braucht, kann man sich bei der Konfiguration helfen lassen.

We primarily use VxRail for small-scale deployments in our organization. Our virtual machines and AD servers run on it, utilizing no more than four nodes due to its high recovery capabilities. We rely on it exclusively for storage and computing needs.

VxRail uses a plug-and-play concept, so you can easily add nodes. While the initial implementation might be complex, you won't need a dedicated team to manage it once it's fully set up. VxRail supports straightforward scaling, allowing you to add as many nodes as needed for upgrades and simplifying the upgrade process.

There's a specific procedure to follow when shutting down a VxRail system. The process can be complex due to the system's configurations and load balancing. Because VxRail uses node-based configurations, handling shutdowns, restarts, or reboots might seem challenging. Simplifying this process could improve the overall user experience.

I have been using VxRail for six to seven years.

The device is stable.

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

It is a strong player in the cloud market. While it may sometimes be more expensive, it is well-suited for on-premises needs. 

400 users use this solution, but not everyone is deployed on the VxRail virtual machine because we migrate them to the cloud.

I rate it as ten out of ten.

The initial setup of VxRail can be challenging for someone without a strong background in virtual machines. If a team lacking experience with these systems is tasked with the setup, seeking support from DirectTel for the implementation process may be beneficial. The deployment takes more than six to seven hours.

I rate the initial setup a five out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

It's too expensive.

I recommend that Dell focus on extending the product lifecycle of VxRail to around eight years instead of frequently releasing new products. This approach could lead to a better return on investment.

When comparing large-scale and medium-scale companies to small-scale ones, VxRail is generally more suitable for medium to large enterprises. Small-scale businesses may not require the advanced features of VxRail and might find it less cost-effective for their needs. VxRail can be a good fit for medium and large companies, offering scalability and efficiency that align with their demands. It can be cost-effective in the long run, especially considering total lifecycle benefits.

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

I use the solution pretty much for everything. We use it for VMs. Our customers are on VMs, and that's the main use case for us. 

We use the solution to get rid of the physical machines so we can work from anywhere in a virtual environment. 

It's a powerful solution. It's very capable. That's useful for us in our environment. 

It helps simplify the management of VMware. They make it very easy.

It's useful that we can consolidate infrastructure from multiple locations. This is important to us. We've already consolidated a lot of physical machines. It makes management easier and centralizes everything. We don't have everything split across separate locations or thousands of physical machines.

VxRail helped with production downtime. 

We have four clusters at the moment and can easily shift around our virtual appliances. It's really flexible. We can shift around as needed. 

They are always coming out with new updates and fixes. There are no immediate fixes needed. 

There's always room to improve on both the front and back end. It might offer better integration with other products. 

I've been using the solution for about four years. 

The solution is very stable. 

The product is very scalable. 

In the beginning, support wasn't that great. However, it got a lot better after a few calls and meetings. 

Positive

We did not use a different solution previously.

We deployed the solution with Dell. The process was very easy.

Dell assisted us with the first two clusters, and we mostly did the second two clusters ourselves. 

We do not consider ROI in terms of the goal of the company in relation to this solution. We're a non-profit.

I'm not involved in the pricing or licensing. 

We did not evaluate other vendors previously. While we checked other solutions, this one proved the easiest.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We find it to be a very good product. Of course, there's always room for improvement. 

We use VxRail for ERC for SAP.

The most valuable feature of the solution is the performance.

The solution's setup is a bit complex, and the complexity needs to be reduced.

I have been using VxRail for three to four years.

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

The solution’s scalability is very good. Our clients for VxRail are usually small and medium businesses.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for scalability.

Dell's technical support is not that good. The support team takes a long time to respond, and there are challenges regarding the people's expertise. We have been facing a lot of problems with the technical support for any of the Dell products, including storage, backup recovery, RecoverPoint, or VxRail.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is bad and ten is good, I rate the solution’s technical support a four to five out of ten.

Neutral

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

The solution’s deployment takes a few days.

If we normally quote for storage, we have to quote for something like PowerStore. In that area, the solution has brought down some costs. VxRail is still more expensive than its competitor solutions.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

We had some initial challenges because of the networking component. To overcome them, we had to go through a lot of documentation and information from the website. I would recommend VxRail to customers who have a VMware environment and want to consolidate everything into servers without using the storage.

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

We use VxRail as a hyper-converged infrastructure service within our virtualization environment. We utilize it to run various applications, including virtual infrastructure, Microsoft SharePoint, Citrix solutions, and internally developed applications. These applications serve diverse purposes and are essential components of our environment.

The product has significantly improved our organization. It is highly stable and supported by an excellent support team, ensuring reliability and assistance whenever needed, regardless of time or location. The self-deployment feature is easy to use.

One of the most valuable features we have found is the ease of managing our virtualization environment. The management interface makes overseeing various resources and tasks within our infrastructure simple. Additionally, managing different kinds of hardware and platforms through the same interface is highly valuable.

The product has high pricing. This particular area needs improvement.

The platform is stable. Once you deploy any workflow or virtual machine within the environment, it operates without encountering issues. There are no significant downtimes or interruptions in monitoring. Stability remains consistent unless constraints are due to specific errors.

The product has good scalability. We can connect the required nodes automatically. Deploying VxRail is relatively cost-effective in increasing the number of users. We currently have a low demand for increased user capacity. However, if such demand arises, the process would be straightforward. Adding additional nodes is intuitive and seamless. Connect the new nodes, and the system will automatically update within the centralized management model.

We have only needed to utilize support services once or twice. We have not encountered any major issues. Additionally, when we did require support, the response was immediate, and our requests were promptly addressed.

The initial setup was straightforward as it was deployed with the help of product management partners. As for requirements for deployment and maintenance, no additional software is needed. Basic skills and general knowledge are sufficient for deploying and managing this solution.

The licensing costs can vary depending on the number of processors and specific requirements, which may result in considerable expenses.

The platform has enabled us to reduce the physical machines required to run large-scale services. It supports VDI deployment, enabling easy use for running different platforms in similar environments.

Integrating VxRail with our IT infrastructure has been relatively straightforward, particularly from the network perspective. However, we encountered some challenges regarding firewall integration. Overall, the process has been facilitated by the platform's compatibility with various vendors.

I rate the platform a nine out of ten.