VMware ESXi Reviews

ESXi with Hyper Converged Infrastructure and Horizon for hosting virtual machines. There is also AHT for VDI environments.

It's a bare-metal hypervisor, mainly used for hosting virtual machines. The applications vary based on customer requirements. It can be used for running applications, database connectivity, infrastructure applications like software-based networks or firewalls, and managing on-premises applications.

The most beneficial features for me are DRS and HA (High Availability). In case of an interruption at the OS level, they ensure the virtual machine automatically comes back up. 

Another benefit is load balancing with the DRS feature.

Apart from that, it's the main source for us as consultants or architects to manage the infrastructure.

We follow the best practices as per Broadcom and VMware, and we do timely patching on ESXi to ensure security.

The license model has recently changed, which is a bit worrying for customers.

The only other issue is that since changing the portal, downloading patches or images for maintenance or deployment has become slightly more difficult because engineers are facing issues. 

I have been using it for more than ten years now. 

It's very stable because we do regular maintenance. It is not difficult to maintain at all. 

It is a scalable product. That's the reason it's number one, even after a decade.

I get a good response, but in a few cases, I have experienced delayed responses. I'm not sure, but maybe it's because of the transfer to Broadcom.

So, there is a slight delay in getting the support. 

Neutral

VMware is a leader with the new features they introduce on every major release. But regarding licensing, when I talk to Nutanix, they give it for free. With the Hyper Converged solution, we have to pay additional charges based on the core count. But feature-wise, I don't see any additional features that other hypervisors have.

The complexity of the initial setup is fine. We've been doing it for a long time. Compared to other hypervisors, it's very good. On average, it should be around 30 minutes to an hour.

Currently, we use version 7.0. We may upgrade to 8.0, but that will take a few months.

Deployment process: It's all internal discussions based on the load. We select the hardware vendor and do the installation via the ISO image. We do the configuration part ourselves. I take care of the ESXi infrastructure once the parts are delivered to the site.

I would recommend using it b, but it depends on their interest and budget.

Overall, I would rate it a nine 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.

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.

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. 

We use VMware ESXi for virtualization. ESXi is a hypervisor that runs virtual machines, providing the foundation for a virtualized infrastructure. It plays a crucial role in virtualization in data center operations, including server and network virtualization with NSX. Additionally, it supports software-defined data centers with vSAN.

VMware includes several security features that can be enabled, such as disabling the default administrator account and implementing strict access control policies. We have a set of restrictions and features that we can enable to enhance protection.

VMware is lightweight software. It consumes a few hundred MB for installation and has an easy-to-manage interface. Socialization is the most valuable feature. It is the configuration parameters available in the ESXi user interface. There are different parameters available. You can customize each of them and deploy a VM according to whatever specifications you want.

Pricing could be improved.

I have been using VMware ESXi for five years.

The solution is scalable. You can add a significant number of servers to your infrastructure. 

The technical support does provide the support.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward and takes 30 minutes to complete. There are no issues with the new installations. There were issues with older or outdated versions, which are less relevant today. Our digital version encountered problems with a few servers randomly rebooting and failing to load properly. Upon investigation, those issues were due to corrupt files. These file corruption issues occur in obsolete versions of ESXi.

One responsible person can handle the deployment process.

Maintenance is very easy. You need to have regular backups, and the remaining is the hardware, which we need to monitor. We also check for hardware errors and events in the environment. In the customer environment, a single person will maintain the solution.

We are not using any remote deployment tools or provisioning servers. We follow three common practices. Our use case involves a limited number of servers, typically three or four. Our provisioning strategy involves installing ESXi on the servers using a DVD or a USB drive. Once the installation is complete, the server will obtain a DHCP IP address, and we can access the user interface using this IP address. We can configure the storage datastore. Once the datastore is configured, we are ready to create virtual machines.

I recommend the solution. Nothing needs to be considered because this does not have a dependency or needs hardware. They need to purchase supported hardware, and VMware is very supportive of most of the servers on the market.

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

We use the solution for virtualization in production environments.

The most valuable features are disaster recovery and vMotion. Those are the most important ones. Moreover, integrating ESI with ID Workflow is quite easy.

Since the product is being acquired by Broadcom, the pricing strategy could be improved.

I have been using the solution for the past 15 years.

The product is highly stable. I rate it a nine out of ten.

The solution is highly scalable. I rate it a nine out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The solution is priced on the higher side.

We have also worked with OpenShift. It is a competitor to VMware ESXi.

I recommend the product. It’s good and is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. Overall, I rate this product an eight out of ten.

We use VMware ESXi as a server virtualization tool. The tool is more compatible with the VDA environment.

VMware ESXi is a user-friendly solution that is easy to install and supports third-party applications and software.

I have been using VMware ESXi for more than five years.

We haven’t faced any issues with the solution’s stability.

VMware ESXi is a scalable solution. We support multiple vendor clients, and each site has multiple users depending on the environment. An average server starts with a minimum of three nodes and can grow to a maximum of 50 to 100 servers.

The solution's initial setup is very easy and can be done in five to ten steps. It's a very easy setup, and everyone can learn to install the solution.

It takes 10 to 15 minutes to deploy the solution.

The solution meets our organization's compliance and data protection requirements by releasing vulnerability patches every two to three months, which provides more security in our environment. Maintaining the tool is not very difficult.

VMware ESXi is easier to handle than other products and not very complex. I would recommend the solution to other users.

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

My customers are satisfied with the solution’s performance.

The solution’s pricing could be reduced.

I have been using VMware ESXi for one year.

My customers are using VMware ESXi. The solution's price has increased since Broadcom bought VMware ESXi, and that's why customers are moving to another solution. I have researched Proxmox, but we are also researching the use of the monitoring tool Datadog.

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