VMware vSAN Reviews

I use the solution in my virtual environment for storage purposes.

The most valuable feature of the solution is vROps, along with the monitoring part.

There needs to be an increase in the supported memory and hard disk space, as it is an area where the product currently has certain shortcomings. Only 32 TB RAM is supported in vSAN Ready Node R740 and vSAN Ready Node R750.

I have five years of experience working with VMware vSAN.

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

The scalability offered by the product is very simple. If you face any hardware issue, you can simply remove that part and purchase a new one, which may even include parts like the hard disk.

The scalability features offered by the product are highly used and are very popular nowadays. I rate the product's scalability a ten out of ten.

The solution's technical support was very good. The product has a lot of documentation on its website. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

I have experience with HPE ProLiant Servers, which are installed through manual configurations.

The product's installation phase is easy.

The product's price is not high. The tool is available at a normal price.

VMware vSAN is better than its competitors.

The greatest impact of the tool on my operational efficiency stems from the fact that it serves as a software-based storage solution, specifically for Dell computers, and integrates well with VMware vCenter while offering availability and pre-configured DRS functionalities. VMware vSAN also integrates with vRealize Suite and VMware SRM for monitoring and DR.

I have manually integrated VMware vSphere with VMware vSAN. I have also manually integrated VMware vSAN with Dell and HPE servers. Dell has a pre-configured set of tools with VMware vSan, like vSAN Ready Node R740 and vSAN Ready Node R750.

The integration of VMware vSphere with VMware vSAN has benefited our company's IT infrastructure since it has made it faster than many other storage solutions. The performance offered is also very high.

The reliability offered by the product is very high since everything comes under one system. With the storage solution, you can easily set up a huge number of virtual desktops in your infrastructure.

I recommend the product to those who want a reliable storage system to store their data, specifically in the cloud.

There needs to be an increase in the capacity offered by the product, considering that thousands of products are used in the corporate sector.

It is easy to use the product. You can also use it online through its web interface.

I rate the tool an eight 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.

VMware vSAN is a highly scalable solution. We can start with as few nodes as possible and scale up according to our needs. Another advantage is deploying a stretched solution across two sites, with data synchronization between the two data centers. Setting up a stretch cluster is made easy with vSAN.

VMware vSAN provides seamless integration within the hypervisor core, providing stability and eliminating the need for additional VM gateways per node, as required by solutions like Nutanix. This integration simplifies the ecosystem, making it easier to adopt and manage.

The main improvement in VMware vSAN is its licensing mode. Its acquisition prioritizes doubling the EBITA rather than focusing on technological advancement. This is a common issue in the IT market, where companies may be acquired by financial entities, potentially leading to stagnation in technological innovation. The technology is mature and stable, with no significant improvements currently evident.
The new feature allows for the use of only two nodes in an active-active setup.

I have been using VMware vSAN for eight years.

The performance is up to our expectations. The initial performance is high solution because we use flash storage. The complete solution is good.

The solution’s scalability is good. 200 users are using this solution. We have a private cloud with many intelligent users who can connect to the cloud.

We can manage the solution ourselves. 

There may be an opportunity for vSAN to explore new avenues for open-cycle solutions with the recent reorganization of Broadcom impacting VMware.

We use VMware vSAN with 50 instances, but we must change the licensing. Broadcom buys VMware.

We had been using the Dell VxRail solution. Due to Dell's cessation of collaboration with VMware and Broadcom's decision to overhaul the licensing model, our future with VxRail is uncertain. We can purchase VxRail with vSAN, which is integrated into Dell's portfolio. We lack assurance now that Dell and Broadcom are separate entities.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten 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.

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.

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.

I'm running an application that's running under a virtual machine on vSAN. That vSAN environment is only for this specific application. We didn't only choose vSAN; we chose VMware because of SR-IOV, which is more on the hypervisor level and not on the vSAN storage. It's part of the whole system.

The solution is deployed on-prem.

There are seven users in my organization. They are all in IT roles.

There could be more features with the automatic backup.

I've been using this solution for a year and a half. I'm still using the solution with a bigger environment, not vSAN.

It's stable.

The solution is scalable.

Technical support is bad. They pointed me to professional services, and I had to pay someone when I already had the basic support agreement. I think we took the standard support agreement with VMware.

I'm still using a different solution. I only took two servers with vSAN to support one application that needs one feature that only VMware has. If not for that feature, I wouldn't touch VMware.

Now, I'm looking at products like Nutanix, Silver Peak, Flexione, and FortiGate. For products that I choose, I don't need a specialist of that vendor. In VMware, I need a specialist in VMware.

That's the issue I have with VMware. It's not like I can take any IT person, and they will know what to do. I need to make sure he will do the call, get the certificate and time to practice.

Initial setup was complex. I would rate the complexity a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

For an experienced IT person, it isn't that complex. But if I compare it to the  competition, Nutanix would be a 1, and VMware would be a 5. If you have never touched Nutanix, VMware is not that complex. But if I compare it to Nutanix, it's complex.

Deployment of VMware vSAN took four days.

We used a third party for deployment. We didn't have a good experience with them.

The person didn't have knowledge in VMware, and we had to pay someone to do the installation, and they said things like, "We need this. We need a certificate. We need another VLAN. We need another number."

The cost is expensive. I purchased two servers. The hardware cost was $19,000. The software cost for these two servers, including the vSAN, was $30,000, which is $11,000 more than the hardware. Then I had to pay another $5,000 for installation and implementation for professional services. In total, it was $54,000 for two vSAN Servers.

I would rate this solution 4 out of 10. 

For my needs on virtual machine and HCI, which is hyperconverged infrastructure, I have another solution that costs less and gives me better features. When it comes to one feature that only VMware supports, I had to pay. They have the patents, and they have things that only they can do. But I work in the telecom world, and we give services to a lot of companies. On my infrastructure, there are more than 80 million people using the infrastructure on a daily basis. Most of it is not VMware, and I'm so happy.

For the last two years, Gartner and even Nutanix have been above VMware.

My advice is to be sure you really need it, as there are other vendors in the market that give good solutions. Nutanix and Hyper-V give a solution that is good for most cases in the market. If I take the business world, 80% of the businesses in the world will be okay with other vendors and they cost less. 

My environment is 26 physical servers that aren't VMware and two physical servers that are VMware.

Previously, we had 400 servers, and only five of them were VMware. When you look in the market, you know the better solution for your needs. No one in the world has been fired or lost their job for purchasing Cisco; it's the name. It's the same with VMware; it's just too expensive.

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.

VMware vSAN is used for virtualization and general-purpose computing. Instead of going for the SAN (storage area network) storage, customers go for VSAN (virtual storage area network). The solution is used for general-purpose computing, production computing, and storage.

Instead of going for SAN storage, customers can use the scale-up and scale-out features of VMware vSAN.

Enterprise customers get discounts on the solution's licensing pricing, but it is too expensive for SMB customers. Maintenance-wise, when the capacity is utilized beyond 60% to 70%, then the time of the upgrade is a little higher compared to the standard SAN storage.

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

VMware vSAN is a pretty stable solution. We haven't seen any issues with the solution's stability in five to seven years. The customers would face issues if they ignore some key points.

I rate VMware vSAN a nine out of ten for stability.

In terms of scalability, we have to just add the nodes. If you require more computing or storage, you have to add the nodes to the existing cluster. Our clients for VMware vSAN are medium and enterprise businesses.

I rate the solution nine and a half out of ten for scalability.

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

The solution's deployment time totally depends on the customer or the deployment guide. However, we can deploy VMware vSAN in a day.

The solution's licensing pricing could be improved. The level of discounts available on the solution's licensing price varies from customer to customer. Enterprise customers get discounts on the solution's licensing pricing, but it is too expensive for SMB customers.

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

Our clients are government and private customers working with VMware vSAN in the manufacturing, defense, oil and gas, and ITIS industries. The solution is generally built on top of the virtualization layer with VMware. It's a part of virtualization. The solution's performance and management are pretty easy.

VMware vSAN is tightly integrated with other VMware products because it's a part of vSphere. It is tightly integrated with the virtualization layer. We can integrate and utilize VMware vSAN for other VMware products very easily.

Using VMware vSAN is totally dependent on the customer's use case. A standard three-tier architecture is recommended for customers who want to use a tier-one application for ERP protection. VMware vSAN is recommended to customers with a use case for VDI, general-purpose computing, and test development environments.

Overall, I rate VMware vSAN a nine 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.