VxRail Reviews

Our use case for VxRail is for deploying general services, general servers, having a VMware cluster, and having all the workload there as a hyper-converged infrastructure.

The best features of VxRail are its compatibility with VMware, its hyper-converged solution capabilities, and its single line of support. These are the most beneficial aspects of VxRail.

I switched from the previous HP solution to Dell solution because it was a good decision. With HP servers, we dealt with a vendor for the compute servers, another vendor for the storage servers, and another vendor for the networking, which required us to manage multiple vendors. Now, we have a single team who can handle VxRail and a single line of support. We don't need anything other than that, and these are the differences we noticed after we switched.

Areas of VxRail that have room for improvement include support for an external vCenter because they only have support for internal vCenters that they deploy. I have external vCenters on VxRail, but they don't support that functionality.

I have experience working with the solution for around one to three years.

The initial setup of VxRail is actually easy, but they have many requirements, and sometimes if you don't meet any of these requirements, you cannot deploy VxRail. For some servers, if you want to get them out of a cluster and join them in another VxRail cluster, you need to do a deep format for the server, and it has to be done through Dell.

VxRail is a stable solution. Since it's hyper-converged and has advanced RAID features, the data is always safe. You can lose up to two to three nodes in the cluster without having any impact on your workload or business.

VxRail is a scalable solution, but you reach a point where scaling the servers reaches a limit that the hyper-converged infrastructure cannot handle the load. You either need to have a traditional infrastructure where the storage is separated from the compute so you can scale much larger, such as enterprise companies, Amazon, or cloud companies. You cannot rely completely on a hyper-converged solution, as it's good for medium-sized companies.

I would rate technical support a strong four.

Neutral

Before VxRail, I was using HP servers with HP 3PAR storage solution, which was a traditional infrastructure rather than a hyper-converged infrastructure.

The initial setup of VxRail is actually easy, but they have many requirements, and sometimes if you don't meet any of these requirements, you cannot deploy VxRail. For some servers, if you want to get them out of a cluster and join them in another VxRail cluster, you need to do a deep format for the server, and it has to be done through Dell.

Our relationship with Dell is as a customer. We did all the implementation through an outsource company.

Initially, you pay more than traditional infrastructure, but over time, the operational cost is less. You don't need to hire more employees, and it's stable for the business.

The price of VxRail is expensive, but it has a much higher return on investment.

Regarding its automation capabilities, it's considered good in the back end. It has everything automated, especially with VMware vCenter, so it has good automation.

I rated it a four because of external issues and also the SLA as they don't meet the SLA requirements for their tickets.

Based on my experience, I would recommend VxRail to other people for medium-sized companies, but not for large-sized companies. Or more specifically, for medium-sized workloads, because if you are a big company, you will have different kinds of workloads.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I am using NetApp and working with NetApp products including FlexPod, BlueXP, and Cloud Sync. At the moment, I am not dealing with FlexPod that much.

I am now using VxRail and find the automation features most valuable. VxRail's advanced automations have helped streamline my IT operations. The lifecycle management capabilities of VxRail have benefited my organization's maintenance and update processes.

For the first three years, I have a combo pricing policy. For the fourth year and fifth year, I have to buy separately for the licensing from VMware and from VxRail, so I think the combo cost for the fourth and fifth year is huge and does not make sense. Due to the pricing policy, I would not like to see additional functionalities at this time as it is not in my strategy. I would rate VxRail an eight out of ten because of the pricing.

{"rating":4}

I primarily use VxRail for managing centralized resources. All the resources are handled through VxRail Manager, which facilitates unified access to storage with vSAN.

The most valuable feature of VxRail is the VxRail Manager, which centralizes resources like storage built with vSAN. It provides a unified way to access these resources, making management straightforward. 

Another benefit is the fully automated upgrade process, which is completed with just one click through the VxRail Manager. This centralization and automation enhance efficiency significantly.

The major issue with VxRail is the razoring process, which can only be performed by Dell. Although as a premium Dell customer, I am sometimes allowed to do it myself during big extensions, customers with enough experience should be allowed to handle the razoring process independently.

I have been working with VxRail for more than five years. I am experienced with four generations of VxRails, which has allowed me to navigate the solution easily.

I would rate the stability of VxRail 9.5 out of ten. It is a very stable and mature product, with centralized management and upgrades being perfect for us.

Scalability is easy with VxRail, and I would rate it almost a ten out of ten. While no product is perfect, the scalability is excellent.

If we are talking about Dell, their technical support is a nine out of ten. However, if we are referring to VMware, it is a seven out of ten. A key area for improvement for VMware would be response time. 

Previously, an intermediary helped improve our communication and relationship with VMware.

Positive

We previously used Quest NetVault Plus, however, we switched to Commvault.

As someone with over eight years of experience in VMware, I find the initial setup of VxRail straightforward. It is similar to deploying a vCenter, and comes with an internal vCenter deployment.

The cost varies for us as a large company because we receive special offers from Dell.

I recommend VxRail for medium or large companies as it might not make sense for small businesses due to its price. I would rate VxRail nine out of ten overall.

Initially, I worked as an implementer with VxRail, handling support and implementation. Later, I transitioned to managing a team responsible for professional services and support for Dell storage and backup solutions. I work with PowerMax, PowerStore, VxRail, and Data Domain.

The primary reasons customers choose VxRail include ease of management, ease of upgrades, and integration with VMware. The hyper-converged infrastructure simplifies software and hardware upgrades. 

Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.

During code upgrades, VxRail can be sensitive. It requires a very clean environment to proceed without issues. Upgrading often necessitates a support ticket if the environment is not pristine.

I have been working with VxRail for around five to six years.

The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten.

In our current environment and requirements, VxRail is rated ten for scalability. However, there are limitations, such as the inability to upgrade from a single to dual CPU in certain configurations. Therefore, I rate its scalability as seven out of ten.

Technical support for VxRail is rated as eight out of ten.

Positive

The setup process can be straightforward if the technical requirements are properly understood and prepared. Inadequate preparation or customer misunderstanding can lead to problems.

Pricing for VxRail has shifted. Previously, the cost was higher, however, recent changes in VMware pricing have reduced it.

Nutanix is viewed as the main competitor. They have secured a good market share, challenging VxRail.

Overall, I rate VxRail an eight out of ten. 

Despite some competition, I recommend it highly for its features and performance. I believe it is particularly suitable for medium to enterprise-sized companies, though it might be costly for small businesses.

Positive

For mid-size to enterprise customers, I would generally recommend VxRail, as we're working with VxRail in general.

VxRail offers scalable small nodes and ROBO office nodes, which I find very tempting for customers. These features address the value proposition of VxRail. The lifecycle management capabilities also represent significant value.

I think the new integration with NVMe is great, and they are moving forward on that front, so more integration with NVMe would be beneficial.

From my perspective, the main area for improvement is the license cost, particularly for the standard vSAN offering. VxRail could be enhanced through additional integration with NVMe technology.

I have approximately one year of experience with VxRail in general. My involvement has been limited to pre-sales activities, and I did not participate in implementation.

Scalability is good with VxRail. Performance is adequate, and scalability is extensive.

Dell has good technical support in Saudi Arabia. I would rate their technical support at eight out of ten. Most customers find their support satisfactory.

Positive

We mostly work with a third party for implementation, as my company does not handle implementation at client companies. We offer the hardware, licensing, and solution in general.

I recently joined a system integrator in Saudi Arabia and am exploring new solutions or evaluating existing ones in the HCI space. I previously worked in the backup domain and then transitioned to a system integrator in the HCI field. I have experience with HCIs including VxRail, Red Hat, and Fujitsu. I am VMware certified and almost Nutanix certified, making me familiar with the HCI field in general.

We work primarily with Nutanix and VxRail from Dell. VxRail is very mature because of VMware's operational technology in general. This maturity enables VxRail to handle diverse workloads effectively.

VxRail is purchased directly from the partner rather than through the AWS Marketplace. Dell has the highest market share in Saudi Arabia, making VxRail the dominant product in my region.

More integration would be beneficial, or alternatively, a lower price point would make VxRail even more competitive. I gave this review an overall rating of eight out of ten.

We use the solution as a VDI for the desktop environment. 

One of VxRail's most valuable features is its small footprint in the data center. Additionally, the solution's simplicity is a significant advantage. You don’t have to configure or learn about storage software and administer many things separately. You can do all the administration jobs in one pane, bringing agility and simplicity.

There is an area for improvement with VxRail, specifically the upgrade process. Upgrading the is quite complex and almost exclusively requires Dell support. You can't do it alone, so you need to have support contracts running, which could be streamlined to improve the solution.

I have been working with the product for four years. 

We haven't had any issues. The solution always runs well, even during some hardware failures.

The solution is very scalable overall. However, the time to deploy isn't very quick, so if you need a large expansion, you must plan and project it with some time in advance. My company has 2000 users. 

Dell support is quick and assertive in addressing our needs. The Dell EMC team, particularly those supporting storage and standard systems, is very professional and productive. We have some assets with Dell ProSupport Plus, and they proactively help us predict failures, apply updates, and provide excellent support overall.

Positive

The solution's deployment is very easy. The major cause of delayed deployments usually comes from our internal processes rather than from Dell's side. Dell is always ready to deploy the equipment promptly.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate it a six in terms of ease of maintenance. It's not very simple to maintain because of the many integrated components, which add some complexity. However, overall, it is manageable and affordable.

VxRail has brought value to our environment. It has been running for about four years and performed very well. All of our users need to connect to the infrastructure to do their jobs, and throughout the product's lifecycle, we haven't experienced any problems. The solution has always operated well. 

VxRail does raise the price, but overall, it's well-priced. It's not more expensive than other similar solutions. If you were to create an in-house, tailor-made solution, you could potentially do it at a lower cost. However, I think a fully integrated solution like VxRail should be priced appropriately.

We plan to change our line of business infrastructure, which is currently based on traditional servers and central storage. However, we are also considering other options in the market.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten. 

When it comes to our infrastructure, VxRail has been performing well for the last three years. I also worked with a client who uses the solution in their setup.

Based on our requirements in the VxRail environment, we can increase or decrease the resources as needed, without needing to reconfigure every server at a specific time. This solution ensures uptime, providing 100% availability so servers can operate without downtime.

The solution works with VMware on the software side. It's an integrated EMS product with hardware provided as a bundle by Broadcom. Unlike Nutanix, which focuses solely on HCI, VxRail includes VMware software, offering a complete solution without the need to choose operating systems like Windows or Linux separately. The solution also has AI capabilities.

It has a good interface. However, during upgrades, some aspects get broken, requiring us to follow up with the VMware team to fix them. It's not a major issue though.

I have been using the solution for more than four years. Currently, I’m using version 7.0.

The solution is stable; its performance depends on the load you put on the cluster. It should work perfectly if you allocate resources—such as memory and storage.

The solution is scalable.

It is more than satisfactory, it is really good because they always respond to emails and issues immediately. They don't take their own sweet time, especially during critical times.

It is easy to deploy. It can be done within a couple of hours. However, the deployment time depends on the number of nodes. In a low-node-count scenario, we can deploy it in three to four hours. One person is sufficient for deployment. There are two aspects to deployment: hardware and software. Stacking alone takes time as it involves installing equipment in the rack, which takes a couple of hours to complete properly. After stacking, another couple of hours are needed to configure all nodes into a cluster.

We have a single deployment package we can upload and proceed with. It automatically applies the package to each node by putting them in maintenance mode, which makes it very easy. I have not faced any issues with this process, including with my clients.

The solution is on the higher end of the price range compared to Cisco and Nutanix.

Based on my direct usage of the solution, I find Dell more mature in product maturity than Nutanix and Cisco. However, I rate Nutanix as a close second, considering Cisco's relatively late entry into the visualization market. I must mention that I cannot accurately rate these products since I have not used them. This assessment is based on my research and understanding; my opinion might change if I gain direct experience with the products.

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

VxRail is a suitable solution where more transactions are required and the TPMs exceed the standard requirements. For example, we have sold VxRail to a government weather company. This company runs extensive simulations to predict upcoming weather, analyzes images, and employs AI for analytics. These tasks demand significant computing power. Considering the budget, they need solutions that offer this level of performance. Typically, banking, education, and manufacturing customers opt for VxRail servers. 

VxRail integration with multiple products is among the best key points for selling to any end customer.

The main feature of VxRail is its integration. VxRail integrates with almost all major products. Another key feature is its monitoring capabilities. VxRail provides detailed monitoring from the application level, making it easy to troubleshoot issues. Additionally, their CloudIQ software suggests best practices automatically. For instance, if you are taking snapshot backups on VxRail, CloudIQ will inform you in advance if there are any issues. For example, if you planned to take ten snapshots in one day but only eight were successful due to a receiver issue, CloudIQ will help you identify the problem and suggest best practices to resolve it. It provides comprehensive data and information without consulting different websites or people.

The solution is expensive.

I have been using VxRail for ten years.

The stability is excellent.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

You can have over 64 nodes in one cluster. It's plug-and-play. You just need to add the load to the cluster.

It is suitable for telcos and enterprises. If you have a university with two hundred campuses, then it is not recommended for them.It is the best solution for one of the departments, such as the electronics or business departments, that are running simulations. 

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

Support is wonderful. You email them, and they come to Webex and take the session.

The price of VxRail is a bit higher. However, they focus on general specifications when selecting products in the environment sector.

When we compare VxRail with Cisco HyperFlex, Lenovo, Nutanix, and HP, we find it to be more cost-effective. Additionally, VxRail offers integrated backup and application support. In contrast, HP often lacks application support and relies on third-party solutions like Veeam or NetBackup. This can sometimes cause issues with smaller or in-house applications that may not be compatible with these backup solutions, leading to problems. On the other hand, if we decide to go with VxRail, they provide Avamar and NetWorker. Additionally, we can integrate it with a dedicated domain if we want to use separate storage.

When providing VxRail solutions to customers, they bring their own system engineers or system administrators with one or two years of experience in servers and VMware. We do not just hand over the hardware as a simple plug-and-play solution. Instead, we provide a comprehensive solution that requires some level of expertise. Ideally, the person should have two to three years of experience in VMware and server administration.

For instance, a six-node installation can be completed in two hours, given the proper preparation. The system doesn't work automatically for the engineer; they need to be proactive. It is crucial to prepare around four or five key points before deployment. This proactive preparation ensures a smoother installation and deployment process. This is one of the strong points of VxRail solutions.

VxRail competes with Cisco HyperFlex, HPE SimpliVity, and other major players in the HCI market. Locally, there is limited market penetration, which keeps them relatively safe. Apart from Dell EMC's VxRail, other significant providers include HPE with SimpliVity, Lenovo with Nutanix, and Cisco with HyperFlex.

We have repeatedly asked the R&D team about external storage and how we can improve it for CI. Previously, there was an issue with FCI traffic, which was not supported. However, it is now supported on FCI with external storage.

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