VxRail Reviews

We use VxRail for the promotion of all our infrastructure VM services.

VxRail has helped us by increasing the performance and capacity of our workload. 

I have found the vSAN is highly flexible. The documentation is good and the interface of the solution is responsive and fast. The interface has everything you need to manage the solution, such as the VxRail and VMware integration. You can manage the hardware from within the VMware plasma pan.

I have been using VxRail for approximately four years.

VxRail is stable because it has redundancies. VxRail is our standard system for the deployment of HR environments.

We have one person for the maintenance of the solution and one person for the backups.

We use the solution on a daily basis.

I have found VxRail highly scalable. You are able to add more nodes and increase the hardware to scale. It is flexible.

We have thousands of people using the solution. However, it is difficult to know for sure since many different business units use it.

VxRail comes from Dell and they have a one-stop service. You can work with Dell to get everything solved. Any issues in hardware or in software, whether it be VMware related or Dell related, everything is done by one team from Dell. The support aspects of the solution are good but it carries a price. We're happy to pay the price if we get that level of service.

One of the most valuable aspects of the support is the knowledge of the people and the speed at which they respond. If you have a problem and you phone them up, they immediately have the experts at the end of the phone to assist. If there is a problem they come in and fix the problem quite fast. If it is more difficult they will spend the time that is needed to solve it. They have helped us out of some heavy situations we caused ourselves. The support is very good.

The support that they offer us is why we purchased the solution.

We have previously used Hyper-V-based systems, StarWind, and Nutanix. We have mostly done testing of the other solutions and have not fully introduced them. Out of all the solutions we tested, we settled on the VMware-based VxRail. 

We switched from the others solutions because the support from Dell VxRail was excellent.

The configurations of VxRail can be difficult. However, it has improved in the newer version. From version 6 to 7, there has been a lot of changes.

The initial setup of VxRail was straightforward because they get handled by Dell themselves. There is a one-stop-shop for all your needs. They gather the information on what you require in your environment and how you want to set it up, such as what local IT information networks are required. They do a good job and the whole process took them a couple of hours to half a day.

Dell did the implementation of the solution for us.

VxRail is expensive because it's based on VMware and V-SAN. The price is not the cheapest. The technical support is expensive, but it is a good service.

My advice to others would be not to attempt to fix issues yourself and let Dell look after them.

I rate VxRail a nine out of ten.

The main reason a customer would acquire VxRail is if they're looking for a platform for more easy management of hardware and software.

I'm a presale engineer and we are a business partner with VxRail, so we sell the solution. We make consulting sales for other customers. Version 7.0 is the last version of VxRail that we've worked with.

Management of the hardware and software in one console is the most valuable feature. It's also compatible with vSAN.

Technically speaking, the vCenter and the administration of the integration of the vCenter could be improved. I know that VxRail has two options to manage the cluster with an external and internal vCenter. There are some concerns about managing the cluster with an external vCenter, which is not included in the appliance. This is the only thing that I've found to be quite complicated because if the customer has an existing platform with a vCenter and we wanted to integrate it with the new cluster of VxRail, there are some concerns about losing the external vCenter.

The second processor upgrade could be an additional feature included in the next release.

It would also be great if the second processor operated without factory reset because I have had many customers ask me about that.

I think there are some things to improve with the stability because I talk with the implementation engineers a lot. I don't implement the solution, but the engineers that implement and update and maintain the platform of VxRail told me that the solution sometimes gets problems with updating the versions of the firmware and the software. The software that comes on VxRail doesn't work smoothly because they have problems with updates.

It's scalable. You can increase a cluster without downtime for the customer. You can add more discs and more drives for the clients. The only thing that could be improved is that when I designed the appliance with one processor, the engineers of the EMC told me that if a client has one processor and you want to upgrade the appliance with a second processor, you can do it without a factory reset of the appliance. So, if the client has an appliance cluster or nodes cluster with one processor for each appliance, and the customer wants to upgrade with a second processor for each appliance, there is another viable option because you have to reset all the clusters and delete all the data. It would be better if there was a way to make a second processor upgrade without a factory reset.

I haven't had any experience with tech support because I'm in presales.

When I asked for a quote for a partner that was doing the implementation, they told me that it took two people to complete the implementation. 

I would give VxRail an 8 out of 10.

The main advantage is that VxRail is integrated with vSAN. I think that most people who use VMware also use vSphere. It's like a less disruptive way to migrate a platform to a hyper-converged architecture. My main advice is that if a customer has vSAN, this is a less disruptive way to migrate to a more scalable architecture. 

Most users have experience with VMware, so they will find VxRail familiar and straightforward. Shared storage is a common use case, and compact rack units save space. VxRail offers ample capacity to run systems, which also helps reduce the network's footprint. Additionally, it's easy to upgrade existing deployments or set up new systems in testing environments.

The installation process is very quick. When you purchase it, it's up and running without much delay. Adding any additional components is simple, allowing for easy and fast scaling without adding complexity. The centralized management portal makes it easy to manage the entire system.

Support could be enhanced.

We have been using VxRail as a service provider.

VxRail is known for its stability, supported by a responsive support team that addresses any issues. Regular updates ensure that the hardware and software components remain optimized, minimizing disruptions to business operations.

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

When a company scales its operations, such as expanding its business reach or adding more users, it often needs to integrate additional applications and computing resources. VxRail provides the necessary computing infrastructure to support such growth scenarios. It also ensures that the company's IT environment can efficiently handle increased demands while maintaining security. As the company grows, it becomes imperative to secure its infrastructure, making VxRail a crucial component for ensuring both scalability and security.

The solution is suitable for individuals, government companies, and the financial sector as they can purchase it.

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

We encounter challenges, which we escalate to our internal support team and engage for resolution. The process seems seamless as most issues are resolved within 24 hours, and even quicker for feature requests.

The support for VxRail is excellent. Anytime there's an issue, they create a support case and contact them. They can remotely manage system support and quickly resolve the issue. They need to address some bugs, such as occasional system glitches where certain details, like platform controller services, may crash, requiring a reboot. These issues can arise during power outages or unplanned shutdowns, causing system recovery and operation difficulties.

Positive

The initial setup is easy and takes a few weeks to complete. 

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

The solution is expensive. 

I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

If there's a power outage, it's a big problem. Accidental reboots pose a challenge as well. The screen management and the flow machine get stuck during restarts.

I recommend the VxRail solution because it updates itself, minimizing the need for manual intervention. This makes deployment smoother and requires less support. Additionally, its user-friendly management interface simplifies operations, enabling businesses to focus on their core activities without disrupting their IT infrastructure.

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

For remote work, we use VMware Horizon, running on VxRail, and have centralized all applications and storage.

We can do updates at a much higher cycle with much less resources. We can monitor all the VDI desktops, and I don't have to physically maintain desktops.

What I like the most in terms of features is the fact that the VxRail update can be done in one week. It takes much less time to do a whole server upgrade and an infrastructure update as well.

The update for the graphics integration and the media drivers isn't included in the VxRail update.

We've been using it for the past three years.

It's very stable. We haven't had any downtime so far.

The technical support is good, and I would give it a nine out of ten.

Positive

We used a terminal server from Microsoft and switched because we had to renew the whole data center and wanted to use the latest technology.

We liked the integrated update, and the people behind Dell technologies made the difference.

The initial setup was straightforward. The process took around one day.

Our environment is in one location, and it's not a stretch cluster; it's a single cluster. We run about 190 virtual desktops and 200 virtual servers on it.

The solution does not require a lot of maintenance, and the system engineer takes care of that.

We wanted to roll out the VDI department by department. We used an integrator for the initial deployment, who was very competent. We also used one system engineer.

The pricing is very accurate, and we haven't had any problems with the licensing costs.

We evaluated HPE and Lenovo. 

I recommend testing the data applications first, which could really speed up the process of installing the golden images or setting up the initial golden image.

I rate this solution ten on a scale from one to ten.

VxRail is allowing us to solve a problem that we've had for quite a while, as far as having distributed computing, networking, and storage. VxRail has a combined HCI environment. As a result, all of our resources are together, and life cycle management helps us with sustainability in deploying and managing the environment.

It helps us to consolidate a lot of our legacy, storage, and other computing environments.

What I find very valuable is VxRail's life cycle management. The life cycle management takes care of everything from firmware to the actual upgrading of the hypervisor and keeps everything up to level.

They need to keep upgrading the environment and improving automation so that the solution keeps getting better and better.

I've been using VxRail for about eight months now.

VxRail's support is excellent. I would give them a nine out of ten.

Positive

Our previous environment consisted of HP, Dell, and VxBlock. We switched because HCI is our new environment/ecosystem. There are a lot of supportability improvements, and it is much easier to manage with VxRail.

The more difficult part of it was the planning. The actual deployment was not as difficult.

The deployment didn't take more than a month from doing the actual planning to having it shipped, brought inside, and then brought online.

VxRail is deployed to data centers and globally as well.

The maintenance is sustained within supportability, so it has to be updated whenever leases come out.

We used Dell ProDeploy and had a combination of engineering and facilities staff for the deployment process.

As far as our consolidation ratios are concerned, we have seen a return on investment.

Pricing is competitive.

Definitely look into VxRail. Plan for your needs and utilize the services from ProDeploy.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate VxRail at nine.

We were using VMWare and Dell products from long time. We wanted reliable technology partner who can provide technology, solution and support during migration. We use Microsoft technology.

We are not just purchased the server, we transformed our infrastructure into Powerful and Efficient, agile, flexible and scalable, polished and proven technology solution build with VMWare. New HCI - VxRail replaced with our existing 42U rack devices consists of BladeCenter, storage and other rack mountable servers into simple, more powerful 4 node VxRail device

which saves power and maintenance cost very drastically.

We are in the process of exploring more options which is bundle with this solution.

We have been using VxRail for two years.

It is a stable product, deploy appliance with ease, update all software in single click, monitor using dashboards for health, events and physical views. And maintain with direct access to support, articles and community.

The solution is scalable.

Whenever there are any technical or hardware issues, we contact Dell. They will attend to us immediately. On a scale of one to five, I would give them a five.

Positive

We switched to VxRail because our previous solution was at the end of service life. We had used it for more than six years. We wanted new technology with new scalability. power, technology and easy maintenance.

We migrated from our older hardware consists of multiple servers, storage and switches to simple and more powerful HCI - 4 node VxRail device.

Studying current and future Business requirement, validating multiple solution which suits our requirement, which is agile, easily scalable and more power to suite our future plans.  It took almost six plus months to freeze the VxRail solution.  Post finalization, releasing the order and receiving to hardware it took almost 6 months to complete the migration to new setup.  Delay was due to lockdown, travel restrictions otherwise it would have been completed within three months.  Complete migration was very smooth and very minimal downtime without any Business impact.

In-house team with OEM Support.

Identifying and freezing the solution by multiple tech discussions and negations. Finalizing solution with hardware is bundled with license. Closing the order with Five-year Support and migration support from OEM.

We evaluated couple of other solutions, also gone through Nutanix demo. Nutanix is a very good solution, but they don't have their own hardware, we have to depend on third party people like Dell, HP or IBM. We were long time Dell product user and preferred the Dell.

I would rate this solution 10 out of 10.

Just buying the product is not important, along with solution on-time support is very crucial for Business-critical applications.  We are using Dell products, solutions and services from more than 10years.  From my experience with Dell, their technology, support and services which plays a critical role to select Dell as our products and solution vendor.

Our whole company uses it. We have VxRail in our solution center, which designs software and hardware solutions for our customers' new opportunities. For example, recently, we were asked to develop a Kubernetes environment that the customer wanted to use and researched several different organizations, such as Red Hat's OpenShift.

We wanted to test capabilities on Tanzu, and VxRail was a great home for that, so we brought all the software into the VxRail and showed the inner workings of the data flows for this new capability to the customer. In the end, they didn't necessarily need a VxRail, but that's the beauty of it. It's a vanilla platform to reside modernized software on.

The VxRail is built on two specific platforms that have been in the industry for the last 15 to 20 years: the 1-U socket and the 2-U socket platforms from Dell. They're in their sixteenth generation of those platforms, I believe, so they're very stable. 

VxRail is in its third generation, I think, and I know there are consistent updates to that material on nearly a monthly basis. Most of my customers are federally focused, which means some of this material comes into an environment where few people will have access to that environment.

I would like to see Dell take a crack at simplifying the process of moving from a node to a cluster and assembling everything into the appliance. It would be great if Dell could provide a pathway where a customer could actually install it without the certifications. Of course, I can't say how you would dumb down something so complex. That's a challenge, but it would be valuable.

It would also be helpful if they added some warnings to prevent users from making mistakes when upgrading stuff with VMware, like a notification that says, "Hey, this upgrade should be done through the VxRail manager." Those could steer customers off the path of decoupling that cluster or pulling a node offline when it doesn't need to be.

These things have room to grow in the industry. As more organizations look to develop what they currently have, Dell could provide a pathway to taking integrating the older hardware with the new hardware. I think that would be valuable, too. There are a couple of things that I'd also like to see them improve upon. One could be to actually deliver a cluster to the customer from their manufacturing facility that is already put together. That might be a good opportunity for them.

The VxRail platform is stable. Anytime you're dealing with technologies, you'll find a bug somewhere. There's always a challenge that must be overcome, but once the initial cluster has been stood up, we find it's one of the most stable platforms today.

If you want to scale VxRail, you buy another node and add it to the cluster. That process is straightforward. It will re-image the new node, give it the same firmware, and provide the same orchestration as the rest of the node. Scalability is probably one of the biggest reasons people choose VxRail.

I've contacted Dell tech support on many occasions for VxRail. I always put in a case with Dell on all the service tags of the nodes before taking on any support mechanism. I recommend starting that process early. One of the main reasons we put in a case is to do some maintenance or make some changes.

We always consult with Dell on best practices initially. It helps to provide them with as much information as possible about the health and wellness of that initial cluster. It generally depends on the service agreement you get from Dell, but we'll get a response in five or 10 minutes after putting in that initial case.

I've never had problems with Dell support, but I always recommend pro support from my customers and organization. Depending on the size of your organization and how much Dell hardware you have, they'll assign a technical account manager to your team or to the Dell team, so you always have a consistent point of contact if things don't go as planned. That's helpful if you have a technical account manager assigned to your organization.

VxRail is a hyper-converged system that's automated and consists of nodes. Those nodes are one or two U-servers depending on the requirement. Bringing the VMware automation and lifecycle management platform together is difficult, so we recommend having a certification to do that assemblage. 

It assembles these servers into nodes in an appliance. Once the appliance is set up, it's simple to manage the solution and the box. However, assembly and automation are complex. You want to make sure that the firmware is all the same between the nodes.

We've seen situations where we had a five-node cluster, and one firmware was not mapped to the others. We recommend working with Dell on those challenges, but our architects are also really well versed in those nuances. And if you want to deep dive into a technical requirement, I have several that have done that for a living.

I rate VxRail eight out of 10. I would say it is the go-to solution for hyper-converged infrastructure. 

The scripts that bring all of those servers into a node and cluster situation are proprietary to Dell. Anytime you're using that proprietary stuff, you need to be trained on it. Let's say, for example, you are in one of those systems, and you're working with some software that may not be acting like it should. Or it may have a feature that you want in a new generation. In some cases, there may be some dependencies on vCenter, vSAN, or Vsphere, which are all part of that integration.

One might be tempted to start to upgrade it outside of the lifecycle management that's inherent to the VMware platform. I've seen architects go ahead and update it right from the VMware console when they should be using the VxRail manager. Knowing how to do those upgrades is very important to getting the clusters to see the proper nodes together.

We use it for implementing VDI solutions.

Hyperscale is the most valuable feature I found on this solution. It's the ability to utilize the resources for the VMware cluster setup on which Citrix VDA runs.

The only issue we've faced is with their Call Home Support Center. Any alert that has to be triggered, we're just currently working on to fix. Otherwise, it has been a pretty good system.

One problem we had was when we ordered the first node of cluster setup, and then we wanted to add two more nodes, we could not get the same configuration. We had to use a different configuration for the cluster setup.

Scalability becomes a problem when two or three years have passed because you don't get the same model. You get a better model and to make that model work, you need to have a different cluster setup. You tend to lose on the continuity or expansion. I would recommend having a capability where even your older versions of hardware can be seamlessly utilized and additional expansion becomes so much easier.

I've been using this solution since 2020.

The stability of VxRail is good. We are content with its stability.

This solution is scalable. We purchased two additional units the following year.

Technical support for this solution was very good, professional, and they had the skills to get it implemented.

We used Nutanix. VxRail is more economical than Nutanix. It's more cost-effective so we prefer it over Nutanix.

We used so far three different solutions. The first was not a recommended solution. It was pushed down our throats to use that particular hardware. As I was involved in that setup, I knew the first time that implementation was on the wrong hardware, against the recommendation of the partner and the implementer. We definitely did not succeed. The second was a failure again, because of not following the recommendation of the implementer or the partner. The third one, lesson learned and we had no objections to that. We got a better recommendation from someone we trusted, so we were successful with our choice.

The initial setup was straightforward. The engineers asked for what is required and they came with the same initial set.

We used a partner for the deployment. My experience with them was good. They fully supported us during the pandemic situation to get this up and running.

We evaluated Nutanix.

We're quite content with this solution for the purposes it was purchased.

Deployment was completed within two weeks.

Almost all of the people in the company used this solution since the pandemic. Now it's mostly used by the task workers.

For deployment and maintenance of this solution, we require four staff where some are admins who handle multiple storages in other systems as well. They don't do this full-time. They only spend one-third or less of their time managing deployment and maintenance.

I have no plans to increase VxRail usage in the future. The only problem with it is the usage of the cloud is being promoted to its peak, so the next expansion would be on the cloud.

The cloud has always been talked about and people have been asked to venture into it. On the cloud, you don't have to wait and implement or pay upfront for the whole hardware. For some of the cloud versions, you can pay as much as you use. You can start with 50 users and then grow. If it has to be on-prem though, I'll have to at least factor a box that can cater to 200 or 300 users. You need to pre-plan and the hardware delivery might take some time, so making it market-ready is a little time-consuming.

I'm rating this solution a ten out of ten. This is because of my previous experience with other solutions where I had three failed implementations on different hardware. They failed because of one particular reason: They're not low-maintenance. This solution, on the other hand, does not need heavy system maintenance. People prefer to use the system rather than the desktop, which makes it convenient for them to work from anywhere. There are a lot of benefits. You have your data saved on a data center. The availability is there which makes it flexible for users.

After the pandemic, when people returned to the office, we utilized this solution as an agile workspace, so people can sit and work on any desk. When they come to the office, they don't have to go to a particular desk. They can choose where they want to work, so this solution provides a lot of benefits for us.