VMware ESXi Reviews

Shared hardware resources. VM Pools. Well suited within organizations with remote workers [as] it can eliminate needs for Advanced firewalls, keep security intact within organization applications.

VMware ESXi is well suited for any on-premises virtualization environment. It's particularly useful for small sites that can utilize the essentials package. The price goes up substantially per host when you go over three machines. Even with the difference in cost, it's still the best platform for virtualization at this size.

VMware ESXi is one of the two or three best products I've used in my career. It revolutionized IT infrastructure when it was released, and it continues to be an essential underpinning to our entire environment now. It is the segment leader for on-premises server virtualization. It does carry some significant licensing costs, but we have found that those easily pay for themselves over time for an institution of our size.

VMWare support has always been quite excellent over the years. They are generally prompt to respond, and when they do, their support engineers are knowledgeable and are usually able to resolve our problems quite quickly. On several occasions, they have gone above and beyond to make themselves available in off-hours to assist us.

I'm a bit biased here. Having little experience with HyperV or others, I'd say ESXi is my go-to with virtualization.

VMware has always been great with support for their products. The few minor problems we've had with ESXi, they were able to help quickly and without issue. Every person we've talked to is very knowledgeable in the products they offer.

For an HP blade server infrastructure in a Windows VM environment this is an excellent choice. Integrated as a cluster, this an extremely reliable system which at least in our case has had zero downtime, very little maintenance with performance that meets and exceeds our needs now and well into the future.

We have very little issues or problems. On the few rare occasions issue have occurred they were minor and solved immediately by VMware. This is probably one of the most reliable items we have that requires the least amount of support.

ESXi is very well suited for companies that don't have the money or can't afford to run a big data center. We were able to reduce our server hardware footprint from 15 to 1. All of our data center ESXi hosts will now fit into one rack, reducing the number of physical servers also reduced our power consumption.
If you only need to run one OS for all applications, ESXi may not be for you.

Just about every time I have used VMWare support they have been very knowledgeable and were able to fix my issue right away. I've only had a couple of times where I had to get my problem escalated to another higher level engineer. At the end of the day, they were always able to fix any problem I had.

VMware ESXi works well in large environments where lots of computing and storage resources need to be shared and constantly reallocated for virtual machines. There are full-featured versions that come at a high cost, but there are also versions that lack some features that may not be needed at a lower cost, and even a free version for small lab environments. If you just need one virtual machine to run periodically, you can use one of the more consumer-grade hypervisors like Workstation, Fusion, or just Virtual Box for free.

On several urgent issues, VMware support has been fast and effective at resolving problems impacting key production services. Their developers are always introducing new features and functionality and making ESXi more and more valuable to their customers. Upgrades have been fairly easy and straightforward, and compatibility with various hardware versions and ESXi versions has been effective.

If you have the proper hardware, and desire stability and support, then ESXi is about at the top of the list. It has a proven reputation, and you can't really be blamed for buying the best.

If your budget is low, and/or you might not have the latest hardware, some of the open source virtualization products might be a better fit.

We never really have a problem getting support - they have always responded in the time constraints for the level of service we are paying for. We occasionally get a representative who has an accent thick enough to cause some slight communication difficulties, but we are always able to get the help we need, one way or another.

All in all, vSphere ESXi is almost always the best solution for virtualization. Hobbyists and homelabbers will appreciate the ability to learn core features at no cost. Small businesses will benefit from consolidating hardware into one server where their domain controller, SQL server, file server, etc. can all still run independently. Medium to large businesses will find a lot of security in scalability and clustering.

There's little negative to say about VMware support. Generally speaking, no working knowledge of ESXi is required when working with a support tech, they can handle resolving almost any request from start to finish as long as you have the ability to log into the web client.

I think VMware ESXi would be well suited for any company that has more than a few servers. If you have two servers, you might as well virtualize them and make your hardware hosts in a VMware environment. It will keep your servers up and running if you have any hardware failures. If you backup your servers, you can quickly and easily restore them after any software crashes. You can test all updates and changes before actually deploying them. I have had to do major reconfiguration of servers, and was unsure of how the server software would respond. You can easily make a copy of a server, launch it and do all the testing you need. If something doesn't work, start over again until you find the solution. It does cost to have the licenses, but you can calculate the cost of downtime if you didn't have it to see if it is worth it for you. If you have a very small environment, it may not be cost-effective, but it will surely improve the time you spend in IT. It would be good to have an idea about how the environment works, but once you learn, support can help with any other issues you have.

VMware has great support. Most of the time when I call, it is an emergency. At the time, when I open a ticket and a technician has to call me back, I think it is just too long of a wait. In reality, it's not that bad. They have always been able to help me resolve my issues, even when it involves a third-party product like backups or the server OS. For me, support is a major factor when choosing a product. VMware support has been great for me, especially in the beginning when I didn't understand everything about the product.

It's suited to Data Centers that are short on space. You are able to consolidate systems anywhere from 5 to 100 to one host. It's also good for Data Centers purchasing new hardware that want to use the space most efficiently. The multi-core systems of today cannot be used effectively without a virtualization product, why waste your peoples time messing with a lower-tier "free" product that requires more management time and is harder on compatibility
It is less appropriate if a company has little money and wants to waste their employees' time -- you are trading VMware $$ to save employee time.

We had a case this week with our hosts and storage vendor -- with no prompting, the two began working behind the scenes on troubleshooting the root cause of the issue -- without our asking them to work together. That is rare; most of the time vendors point at the other vendor and say "good luck."

I think every organization that has the need for on-premise servers should consider investing in ESXi. The initial cost for getting a proper ESXi environment set up with the servers, storage, and networking can be steep, so organizations that are on shoestring budgets may want to skip virtualization until they're ready for the necessary investments.

On the rare instance that I've had to call into VMware's support, they have gotten down to the bottom of the issue I was having. If you pick any random outsourced IT support department, chances are you will find an expert in VMware ESXi. There are tons of blogs and support sites on the internet that will help you out in case you run into an issue.

VMware ESXi is an excellent product to get the most out of your bare metal hardware. Lots of server manufacturers provide pre-built install images that are optimized for their servers, so that one can take full advantage of the hardware features and interface with the built-in sensors. However, VMware ESXi is a costly product and for small organizations going the Microsoft Hyper-V route will be a big cost savings even tho it is not as robust and efficient.

VMware ESXi support is very responsive in my experience and very knowledgeable. They are willing to remotely access a management system and troubleshoot live, which saves a lot of time. They have great flow-through for cases and a great SLA for response times. Always received outstanding support, and the engineers are very familiar with the product. Finally, escalation to a higher level engineer is very easy and frustration free.

VMware ESXi is best suited for mid to large enterprises that require maximum uptime. The ability to migrate virtual workloads on-demand, and across different hardware types allows for this. With the high cost of entry, it wouldn't likely be a good fit for most small businesses or those that don't require a high level of uptime.

Over the past few years, this is one area where VMware has started to fall short. VMware used to have top-notch (fast response times, very knowledgeable engineers). Recently, response times have suffered greatly, and first-level support engineers seem to be simply searching and reading the same knowledge-base articles that are publicly available.

In any scenario, I've yet to find many reasons where ESXi is not best suited for what is being thrown at it. From small organizations with 2-5 virtual machines to the larger organizations of 1000+ virtual machines it scales extremely well and the features, options, etc. remain the same given correct licensing. The options for HA, again given proper licensing, work extremely well once implemented and have saved myself and others I work with many hours of additional work automatically migrating VMs once a host has failed.

Given the options with the licensing, there are times where something else may have to be reviewed to see if it makes more sense unfortunately to say. The licensing is the only place where ESXi does not scale very well

For any situation that has risen wherein I had the need to contact VMWare support, it has always been a great experience. The timeliness in replies, the level of the technicians knowledge, and the communication is without question some of the best in the business. This is by far one of the determining factors in continuing with ESXi, as well as a talking point when recommending to others.

I believe VMware ESXi is an excellent solution for all medium to enterprise-level companies. VMware ESXi does provide options for small business, but depending on features needed, this can be costly. VMware ESXi is the industry standard for virtualized data centers and continues to improve and innovate in the virtualized server space.

VMware ESXi is a reliable product and does not typically require a lot of support, but if you do VMware ESXi support team is very knowledgeable and quick to respond once a case is open. They will work with you from start to finish and provide detailed explanations of the issue and resolutions.

VMware ESXi is well suited where you don't have the physical space needed for the number servers you require. If you have applications that require little to no downtime, VMware ESXi can help provide that when clustered with other hosts. VMware ESXi will allow you to snapshot servers prior to major upgrades and changes. This provides a relatively safe fallback option if the upgrade doesn't go well. You can also leverage this to quickly go back to a clean state when testing new software or code.

VMware ESXi is a large organization. You can expect to go through the typical support channels starting from the bottom and working your way up the chain. This can be frustrating at times if you have an annoying issue you'd like solved. However, if your environment is complete down, they can be relatively quick to respond and resolve the issue.

Vmware ESXi is useful when you have limited space in your server room but need multiple servers for different purposes. You can virtualize the various servers on one piece of server hardware and keep your hardware use low while getting the number of servers you need. It's also great when you want to keep your hardware costs low but requires multiple servers in your environment.

The user base for VMware ESXi is the biggest of all the virtualization platforms out there. So if you ever have an issue, you can always find someone else with your same problem in the forums on VMware's website and lots of solutions posted by other VMware ESXi users who have dealt with the same problems that you are dealing with. I have always been able to find an appropriate answer to my question on the VMware ESXi forums.

I believe that ESXi is well suited for any and all scenarios. Except those where cost is a major factor. ESXi is not cheap, and with most companies that have a Microsoft EA for Windows Server that also grants them Hyper-V, sometimes the cost isn't justifiable. With that said, ESXi has functions and features that most enterprises need to stay resilient and function at a high level. Where critical services are needed, ESXi is tried and true and can handle everything you throw at it. Even for smaller IT shops, ESXi will provide flexibility and performance that will allow the organization to focus on more important areas, like their customers.

We have had nothing but great experiences with VMware support when it comes to ESXi. They have been quick to respond, knowledgeable about the issues we have been presented with, and also have been able to find solutions to other vendors' issues before the actual vendor. We have used support to help with projects to make sure we are doing the process correctly, and also that it is the right thing to do.

ESXi is well suited for small shops requiring three or fewer hosts, that have a capable and knowledgeable IT department with tight budgets, and minimal technology requirements. It is also suited for very large enterprise entities with large budgets and capable IT staff. Medium-sized businesses that require more than an Essentials Plus license (supports up to three hosts) should consider other available options before deciding to go with ESXi as the licensing costs beyond Essentials Plus are quite extensive.

With the exception of language barrier challenges, ESXi support is fantastic. The techs are extremely knowledgeable and courteous, to the point and can address most issues very quickly once you get them on the line. It is a bit of a challenge to get support initially. Waiting to get help when your environment is crippled or non-operational can be fairly stressful.

Having used or worked with the major hypervisors, my preference is still VMware ESXi over the other products. One of the key features it has that make the management of virtual machine so easy is the ability to right-click on a system to perform numerous tasks on it. Also, the ability to structure the environment all in one view, not only simplifies moving around between environments, but providing role-based access control as needed is very beneficial from a security standpoint.

While customer support is good, there can be a longer wait time to get a response from support than I like. This does seem to be improving over the past year or so. I have not had to contact support in the last 6 months, so it may be even better now. However, in the past, it may be a day or more before I would get contacted. Even then, they may email or call after I had left the office. O one ticket I made a note that if I did not answer my desk, call my mobile number. However, they just left a message on my desk VM and never tried my mobile number.

I think ESXi is an invaluable tool no matter the industry that a company is in. It is a great tool to allow for the easy creation of servers for development purposes. It also has the ability to use snapshots when changes are being made to a server in the event of failure or misstep. The one drawback to ESXi is that it is expensive and may not be suited to smaller sized companies. While it offers a free version, that version cannot be centrally managed.

I have always had a great experience when using VMware Tech support. Sometimes it does take escalating the issue, but they typically always provide a resolution.

VMware is suited for just about any kind of server virtualization nowadays. The only scenario where I am not fully comfortable virtualizing at this point is for HPC environments that have strict NUMA or CPU allocation requirements. And even that scenario is being addressed by VMware and is technically supported today. The product is mature and able to run just about any kind of workload assuming the OS you are running supports being virtualized.

For complex, production and high availability environments ESXi is great, especially with large and heterogeneous loads the behavior is outstanding.

VMware’s ESXi support is the best of all of its products, they have a lot of experience and well documented, they have support staff at any language at your time frame, when the use the follow the sun they lose all of his power, they only speak English and the experiences is less.

ESXi has been on the market for a long time, and thus has an advantage over its competitors. Even though as of late others have greatly improved their virtualization technologies, VMware is still ahead of others. ESXi is well suited for any size organization, as it can scale very easily and there are lots of compatibility options to make everything work regardless of platform.

The support is generally great. However, their engineers are very specialized, so if the issue requires involvement from multiple teams, the case might end up being passed along from team to team without faster resolution. An example of this would be if support is engaged with the ESXi team, but the issue is determined to be network related, they will engage the networking team who will start troubleshooting from scratch. But if the issue resides in a single department, then their knowledgeable engineers usually resolve it rather quickly. Overall, ESXi has one of the better support programs than other IT vendors.