VxRail Reviews

In medium-sized installations, many of our customers require a reasonably-priced solution to replace legacy computer storage. Those are the customers who we are suggesting using the  VxRail solution to. If the customer is building a data center using VMware, we are recommending VxRail because of the VMware compatibility.  

Medium set-ups can be used in a large enterprise but only when they need this solution as a smaller part of their environment. It works well for small setups or medium setups, or for new application setups.  

Most of the products of this type have features that are almost the same. We are using VxRail especially because we would like to have products that are compatible with VMware and Dell to support our prospective client base.  

The configuration of HCI (Hyper-Convergence Infrastructure) solutions is very easy compared to the legacy solutions. Legacy systems run the computer and the storage separately and use switches to get the connectivity. That is much more complicated. It is completely the opposite when using generic HCI technology. The implementation is very simple and so is the operation.  

The only thing about the HCI solution is that troubleshooting is a little bit difficult because it is still a new technology. Other than this it is simpler than the traditional technology. HCI is nice and it makes sense. I think there is a need to improve the solution because it is difficult to troubleshoot. But compared to legacy solutions, you are troubleshooting one that is a little bit difficult instead of troubleshooting two different products that might each be a little easier. In the end, the difference as far as troubleshooting is not much but the advantages are still there on the HCI side and technology upgrade.  

The other thing I would like to see improved is not really a feature. It is about scalability. It would be good to increase the limit of the number of nodes within the clusters.  

I had experience before 2018, but I have been using it for this past year.  

Even compared to Cisco, I think VxRail is a very stable solution. It is in the same class as Cisco.  

VxRail is easy to scale, but the number of nodes is limited. This is not the same with other solutions like Nutanix. VxRail has a limit for a certain number of nodes within the cluster and if you need more than that then you have to create another cluster. It is an issue but at the same time, it is not an issue. It is kind of just a configuration difference.  

I do not have any direct contact with technical support because I am not doing the product delivery. If the technicians have some issues, they have to make the contact. I have not heard anything bad or good about the support. That suggests it is good.  

The initial setup was simple. The amount of time it takes depends on the number of nodes you have.  

It does require some maintenance over time. For maintenance, you have to request that through your supplier or even through the implementation team. It will be totally different depending on the kind of activity and the issue, but it should not be disruptive for the most part. The only exception is in critical applications. These may be critical but it is simple to restore the network connectivity or storage availability.  

My advice about cost and setup is that it is just as cheap to have the HCI solution as to stay with legacy solutions. If you convert the value of HCI versus the traditional, legacy solution you gain more than you spend. It comes out to an even trade as far as budget.  

Compared to other HCI products, VxRail has advantages in stability and support from the vendors. If you bought Cisco, for example, you have to open an account with Cisco for the hardware and open an account with VMware for the software separately. With VxRail this is not what happens. You opened the account with them and they will manage all the communication and the services. That ends up being more stable. Getting your support from one company is better than having to get support from different companies when dealing with an issue shared between products and trying to sort that out.  

I recommend VxRail as a solution especially for those using legacy services. We often recommend VxRail over other competitors. The only exception really is if the customer does not want Dell computing resources. For example, the client may have another vendor they tend to use. So if everything they have is HP they may like to have an HP solution. If they are using Cisco, they may want a Cisco solution. Those are the only times that we will not go with suggesting VXRail.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the VXRail solution as an eight-out-of-ten.  

We have our internal servers allocated to the solution.

The tool's price is competitive and it is easy to use.

The tool needs to improve its price.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The tool is scalable and I would rate it a nine out of ten.

We used VMware before. We switched to the solution because we needed a system with more performance and scalability.

I would rate the tool's setup an eight out of ten. The tool's deployment got completed in a few hours.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. The tool fulfills our needs.

Our customers who have the old infrastructure and are looking for high-performance and modern infrastructure, use VxRail. 

VxRail has improved our organization by providing our admin team with an easy-to-use interface. 

The upgrade packages require a lot of bandwidth. This could be reduced for an improved experience.

I have been using this solution for four years. 

This is a stable solution. 

The technical support for this solution is great. I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

Positive

We used a different open-source product but it was not easy to manage which is why we switched.

The initial setup is straightforward. The time it takes to set up depends on the size of the cluster. For a mid-size cluster of 12 nodes, it usually takes one to two days.

We have seen a return on the investment due to how easy this solution is to use and the time it frees up for our staff. 

Its pricing is reasonable compared to other products.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

We typically deploy this VxRail on-premise. However, we do have some cloud customers.

VxRail could improve by having domain data protection.

I have been using VxRail for approximately five years.

The stability of VxRail is good, we have not had any issues.

VxRail's scalability is a bit of a challenge.

The technical support of VxRail is good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

If you are deploying VxRail from the external vCenter, then it is fine. However, if you're using the version of vCenter which has been supplied through the VxRail, then there are some challenges.

My advice to others is to update the VxRail because they release patches and updates frequently.

I rate VxRail a seven out of ten.

We are using VxRail for our internal applications and databases.

I have been using VxRail for approximately three years.

I have found VxRail software can scale very well.

We have approximately 100 users using this solution. We are planning to increase our usage.

The implementation was quick, we used a checklist and it took approximately one hour.

We used an integrator team for the implementation of the solution. The one person who takes care of the maintenance of VxRail, such as upgrading the software. The upgrading takes too long. We have many nodes which takes a long time, they need to improve the speed of the upgrades

We pay for annual support from VxRail.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate VxRail a seven out of ten.

We use this solution to ensure our hardware is supported. 

This is a good solution if you want to deploy an ACI Environment but don't have all the necessary resources.

VxRail is an expensive solution. It could be improved by having more information on the integration portion of ACI. 

This is a stable solution. We have migrated our old systems on the new ACI station and have experienced no issues. 

This is a scalable solution but this comes at a cost. 

The initial setup was quick and involved medium complexity. It requires help from the vendor to scale. 

We received technical support from Dell as part of the deployment implementation plan and contract.

I would recommend adjusting pricing of this solution to suit your infrastructure.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

VxRail is a comfortable solution for VMware users. You have one pane of glass from vCenter. They have a convenient update, it's just one click like Nutanix.

VxRail comes with vSAN making it an easy solution. You don't need to think about the compatibility of components.

The fact that is based on vSAN is the main issue of this solution.

I have been working with VxRail for one year.

VxRail is not perfect, there are bugs in the plugins.

VxRail has no concerns with scalability.

VxRail support is okay, it is not better than Nutanix.

The initial setup of VxRail is more complicated than Nutanix. If you have prepared the network for implementation you will not have any problems. You need to organize and prepare the network well.

For someone that does not want to think too much about the compatibility of components and VMware, VxRail is better than pure vSAN.

Make sure you have a good network specialist, specifically in VMware, on your team.

We are a customer of VxRail with 200 users. We use the solution for production workloads for the company workflow.

We have Dell enterprise licensing and use all the features. VxRail is a complete solution that includes performance, backups, and disaster recover.

VxRail should try to improve the pricing.

We have been using VxRail for 12 months.

Stability is good.

VxRail is vSAN, so we only need to buy a node when we need to scale, which is not a problem.

Technical support is good.

The initial setup is straightforward. Installation took approximately 2 days, but migration from the old UCS to the new infrastructure took time.

We have ten people on our in-house technical team including networking, security, and data center engineers who do storage and servers.

VxRail is doing the job we require, we are not making money from it.

VxRail is an expensive solution as we have the enterprise license that is billed annually. It has everything we need but it would be nice if they could do something about the pricing.

If you have done the research about VxRail and know what you are looking for then I recommend using it.

I rate this solution a 10 out of 10.

VxRail can be used for application modernization.

VxRail could improve compatibility with other products like VMware vSAN.

I've been working with VxRail for five years or more.

VxRail is stable.

The scalability is limited to a single cluster with 64 nodes. 

We're integrators, and we have clients in various industries, including banking and energy. In general, VxRail is used to virtualize our customers' platforms. For example, some use it for Active Directory or their email solution for Microsoft Exchange. In addition to VxRail, we work with a storage array solution from Dell EMC with other servers. We use IBM Power System for our backup solution. 

For me, VxRail's most valuable feature is its life-cycle management.

I would like to see VxRail add duplication features to its hybrid solution. 

VxRail is highly stable.

VxRail is scalable. If you want to add more computer storage, you only need to add a remote.

Dell EMC support is very responsive and helpful.

It's quick and easy to initialize the cluster in VxRail. You can have your cluster up and ready in a few minutes. To deploy and maintain VxRail, we need one person for the solution and another for networking. 

Return on Investment is something you can see on the customer side, but this is a new solution that we deployed this year, so we would need to wait three years to calculate the return.

I rate VxRail nine out of 10. It's a good solution that's easy to manage. It's simple to upgrade and patch, so you don't have to check every component to see if it's compatible.