VMware ESXi Reviews

ESXi is used to install multiple operating systems (OS) on a single server. It allows us to monitor these machines, view resource usage for each virtual machine, and adjust allocated resources like RAM, CPU, and hard disk. 

We can also easily back up these virtual machines. We use VMware vSphere to manage these virtual machines and Cisco UCS Manager to manage Cisco UCS servers.

The main function of ESXi is the ability to consolidate multiple machines onto a single server, saving space and energy. It also provides a single-user interface to monitor these machines and easily adjust resources or create backups as needed.

Integration Capabilities:

Integration within the VMware environment is not a problem. We can easily move a virtual machine from one ESXi host to another and back up a virtual machine to a different ESXi host.

If the price could be reduced, that would be good.

I think there should be a direct link for managing the OS side so we can open the web interface directly in the browser.

I have been using it for seven years now. 

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability of ESXi an eight out of ten.  

Suitable for Enterprise:

ESXi is definitely suitable for enterprise and medium-sized companies. VMware Workstation is suitable for small and medium businesses.

I would rate VMware's technical support as six out of ten. The response time could be better.

We use different firewalls, switch servers, and proxy servers. The proxy server is Squid, installed on CentOS, a Linux operating system. We use PRTG Network Monitor to monitor network traffic.

We have our own data center with servers, and one of our servers uses VMware. We use VMware ESXi for server virtualization.

We use both VMware Workstation and ESXi, each with its own benefits. Workstation is installed on the operating system, while ESXi is installed directly on the hardware. I have been working with ESXi for seven years.

The initial setup for ESXi is a bit complex and takes a couple of hours.

We use a hybrid model for deployment.

The price of ESXi is high.

VMware ESXi is better than Microsoft Hyper-V.

Nowadays, Docker is considered to be better than virtual machines (VMs). I am not very familiar with Docker, but I have learned that it is superior in many ways.

I would rate ESXi an eight out of ten overall. I do recommend it to other users.

In our company, we use the solution for visualization for the servers to consolidate all the physical servers into virtualized machines.

Most of our organization's in-house developed applications reside within VMware ESXi. 

The solution brings monetary savings for our company because we use a single server, which is usually converted from ten physical servers. 

For instance, I can connect any Linux server to any host and then implement migration without affecting the server's user experience. When I migrate the virtual machine to another host, it takes only a few minutes while the VM is still running; shutting down is unnecessary. 

Presently, our company is using an old version of VMware ESXi; we are planning to upgrade to the latest version within the next year. The latest version of the solution runs on a cloud, and our company is looking forward to reaping the benefits from it. Some features should be added to the solution to enhance server management. 

I have been using VMware ESXi for six years. 

The solution is stable enough. 

It's a scalable solution. In our organization, we have three VMware ESXi users who work on visualization, including two network engineers and one system administrator. VMware ESXi was used to run 20 to 30 virtualized machines in our company, but presently, the count has been reduced to around 10 to 15 because most of the servers have already been migrated to the cloud. 

Whenever we sought support, an active response was received in a minimal amount of time. I would rate the tech support a ten out of ten. 

Positive

In our organization, we also tried using open-source virtualization tools like Proxmox and KVM. The aforementioned solutions lack certain features that can be found in VMware ESXi. But the licensing and support cost of VMware ESXi is huge in comparison to open source solutions, as they are free to use. 

The initial setup process for VMware ESXi is simple. A substantial amount of support and help is available from the vendor during the setup process. A lot of documentation is available for setting up VMware ESXi. 

For the solution's deployment in our company, we started from the vendor's initial design and then clustered the product. After the aforementioned step, the cluster was migrated to another server, a new cluster was created, and the deployment process was soon completed. About three to four professionals and a network engineer are required for the initial setup of VMware ESXi.

Our company's security team is also involved in the VMware ESXi deployment process to set up all the ports and the network needed. The solution's initial setup process takes about one week to complete. The one-week setup process in our company includes a testing period, with burnout testing and environment tests, such as physical and virtual machine transfer. 

In our company, we deploy VMware ESXi only after completing several tests. The solution's maintenance is quite easy, the hard drive just needs to be replaced when the storage is full.

The solution consolidates all of our organization's physical servers into a virtualized environment, which further improves server management. 

VMware ESXi allows the management of virtual networks within the servers; switches are not needed to patch any server to a network and allow any type of network transfer. 

After deploying the solution in our company, we have witnessed an improvement in server efficiency; there are minimal problems noticed in the servers. Most of the production services can be moved anywhere and virtualized machines can be transferred to clouds when VMware ESXi is being used. 

When one of the server's failed in our organization, VMware ESXi helped in disaster recovery by utilizing a new host. I am satisfied with the high availability and disaster recovery capabilities of the solution. 

I would advise others to check other virtualization hypervisor solutions before directly adopting VMware ESXi, as it is costly compared to other solutions. Our company is approached by two vendors, one of which is Nutanix. VMware ESXi is more cost-effective than Nutanix. Overall, I would rate VMware ESXi a nine out of ten. 

In our data center operations, we use the product for high availability, snapshots, cloning, and various features integral to our operations.

ESXi is a more mature product than other industry virtualization solutions. It is more user-friendly and mature, even compared with Nutanix.

It allows us to reduce costs while improving performance, especially using VMware Ops Manager.

The solution's cost is a concern. Due to management's focus on costs, we have had to consider moving to a cheaper, more competitive product like Nutanix.

We have been using ESXi since VMware version 4.1.

We did encounter a performance issue with IBM DB2, but the solution has been working stable since a recent patch.

The platform has good scalability. 

The setup was relatively easy for me.

We configure new servers as needed, setting IPs, passwords, and internal details according to requirements. The process is straightforward since we've done it many times.

Maintenance can be challenging when updating firmware, which sometimes requires downtime due to server load.

We are satisfied with the platform's security features. 

We use its AI features to monitor performance and improve system efficiency.

VMware is the industry leader, and I recommend it if the company is prepared for a virtual environment. Overall, I rate it a ten out of ten. 

From a technical perspective, VMware ESXi's best advantages are its reliability and high availability features. It's a very mature and good environment.

The main disadvantage is that the tool requires a significant, expensive initial investment. VMware ESXi requires a large upfront investment that depreciates over three to four years compared to cloud solutions with pay-as-you-go models. You should only choose it if you plan to use it for at least three years. Its deployment process is complex and requires an experienced team. 

I have been using the product for 20 years. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

VMware ESXi is very capable regarding scalability. You can easily add more servers to double or triple the environment's capacity, so scaling the solution is not a problem.

The installation requires a skilled team with at least five to ten years of experience. It's complex to set up initially, but it's not too complicated once it's running. One person can install it, but having a couple of professionals is better, especially if managing installations across multiple countries.

I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. 

We use it for virtualization. We have about 500 virtual machines that run on eight hosts running ESXi. It's pretty good and robust. It does what we want it to do. That's why we never change. We just stay with VMware and ESXi because it always works. I normally never have a problem with it. It's very stable.

I like VMotion. We can update hosts without affecting the VMs. VMotion would be number one.

It's a good product. For what we use it for, probably just the pricing. To make it cheaper. Pricing is always the first thing to look at for improvement.

Probably just integration of firmware updates could make life easier. But I think that comes with VxRail, not if you buy separate servers. It would be good to do the VMware and ESXi updates at the same time.

I have been working with this product for 15 years. A long time. Since the first version, maybe even more than 20 years.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

It's quite high. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We use it at an enterprise level.

The customer service and support are pretty good. If you've got a major problem, they come and fix it pretty quickly.

Positive

I also use VMware vSphere 7. It runs on the servers, and we have Fibre switches and Unity for storage.

We do ESXi, Cisco firmware, and Dell firmware.  

The initial setup is very easy. 

It's maybe 30 minutes to set up, and then it's working. It's really quick.

It is a hybrid model. 

It is suitable for medium to enterprise levels. 

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. The recommendation is very high. It's probably the best hypervisor we've used.

I use the solution in my company for virtualization.

The most valuable features of the solution are its high availability and resource scheduling areas.

Recently, the tool's licensing model has become complicated, making it an area where improvements are required.

The tool's downtime is an area of concern where improvements are required.

The solution's technical support team's response time has to be a bit faster.

I have been using VMware ESXi for five years.

There is some downtime with the tool. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Though I don't have any experience with the scalability part of the product, I can rate it as an eight out of ten.

The product is suitable for small, medium, and large companies.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The product's initial setup phase is somewhere in between being an easy and difficult process. The product's initial setup phase is difficult, but one can manage to set it up.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in a couple of days.

For the deployment phase, my company received support from Dell, who used to own the solution.

The product helps our company save time.

I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price and ten is low price.

The product has improved the overall performance of my company.

I can recommend the product to others who plan to use it.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

I recommend VMware ESXi to mid-level and mid-enterprise customers. I also recommend it to those who are looking for more Windows and Linux workloads.

VMware ESXi's most proven and beneficial area for our virtualization needs revolves around clustering.

I don't see any technical weaknesses in the product, especially after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom. There have been issues with the tool's technical support and pricing of licenses, making them areas where improvements are required.

I have fifteen years of experience with VMware ESXi.

For most of the customers, the SLAs have been down lately, and it may be because of the transition from VMware to Broadcom. I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

Neutral

I use VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Foundation.

I have used IBM PowerVM. I rate the technical support for IBM as nine out of ten.

I have worked with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Nutanix for HCI. In terms of cost, Nutanix will be advantageous. In terms of use cases, one of the direct alternatives to VMware will be a Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

My company has operated as a partner and reseller for Nutanix and Redshift for a bit less than ten years.

The tool has become expensive.

Over VMware ESXi, I can recommend Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Nutanix for HCI to my customers.

Considering how VMware ESXi has affected our customers' overall IT cost, most are now looking to move out of VMware.

There are no issues with the product's performance.

Right now, Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has impacted the cost plus support. Maybe the recommendation will be for a different virtualization technology, such as Nutanix and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

I rate the tool a five to six out of ten.

We use the product as a virtual infrastructure to hold applications. 

The main features of VMware that are most effective for managing virtual environments include creating and managing both Windows and Linux virtual machines. 

Using VMware ESXi for server management significantly simplifies the process. Traditionally, procuring physical servers was necessary, but now, we can create virtual machines on VMware ESXi based on our requirements. As long as resources are available, we can create as many virtual machines as needed.

This is particularly useful for deploying applications that require additional resources, as we no longer need physical servers. Instead, we create virtual machines using VMware and host the applications on those servers. This approach allows for quick deployment.

The solution's pricing could be improved. It has become expensive after the Broadcom acquisition. 

I have been using the solution for more than three years. 

I rate VMware ESXi's stability an eight out of ten. 

Our organization has around 250 virtual machines running on VMware ESXi. The system can accommodate more, depending on our number of clusters. From the IT administration side, we have about ten system administrators who manage and interact with the tool's interface to resolve any issues.

We have contacted tech support. They provide good support, but due to our policy, we usually rely on vendor support. After deploying the solution for more than three years, it has worked properly, and we haven't needed to request much support from the vendor side.

You need a professional to assist with the deployment. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. You should use it to start exploring the virtualized environment. 

I work with a company that distributes software from GE HealthCare, and we need the virtualization platform in our deployment.

The software from GE Healthcare only needs the basic virtualization functions, such as creating VMs, adjusting the resources allocated to the VMs, making backups, restoring, etc.

The solution’s licensing model could be improved.

I have been using VMware ESXi for three years.

Around 50 people are using the solution in our organization. We plan to refresh the hardware of the product we're selling on top of the virtualization platform every three to five years. After that, we will return to the customer and offer them bigger hardware. We're assuming that their requirement will already have increased by that time.

When we needed technical support, it was bundled with Dell servers. The distributors of Dell provided technical support for us. The support was good and responsive. We got our problems solved within a few days.

We are considering hyper-converged solutions like Sangfor and Proxmox for primarily high availability as an alternative to VMware ESXi.

Our team had years of experience in other virtualization platforms, such as Proxmox, Virtuozzo, and OpenVZ. I've got a lot of experience with those products. The initial setup was very straightforward since the concepts of VMware ESXi are the same as those products.

The software we're distributing on top of VMware ESXi is a bit complex. It's for a healthcare institution, and it takes around one month to install, configure, test, and work with the end users.

Since Broadcom's acquisition, the solution's price has been adjusted, and perpetual licenses are no longer offered.

We only have a few administrators in our company. We usually train the customer's administrators in our deployment. So far, we usually get support from our reseller or distributor whenever we need patches. I would recommend the solution to other users if their requirements match the features offered by the tool and if their budget allows it.

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

People typically use VMware ESXi to consolidate their IT environment. They're moving away from having single virtual machines on physical servers and want to consolidate their IT infrastructure.

In my opinion, the most helpful features in VMware ESXi are vMotion and storage vMotion. Customers really like these features, which allow us to perform IT downtime activities without shutting down the physical server.

The solution needs to improve its patching process. 

I have been working with the product for ten years. 

I rate the tool's stability a six out of ten. 

I don't think the solution is scalable unless it's running from the storage layer. However, it is scalable and can run many virtual machines on one physical host. That's one way to look at it. I'd rate its scalability as a seven on a scale of one to ten, with one being low and ten being high.

Deployment takes 15-30 minutes to complete. 

The solution is expensive. 

I rate the product's ease of integration a seven out of ten. I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.