TrustRadius Insights
Intuitive User Interface: Reviewers have consistently praised the intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface of vCenter, with many …
Starting at $6,044 per year
View PricingOverview
What is VMware vCenter?
VMware vCenter is an advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling vSphere environments for visibility across hybrid clouds. VMware vCenter is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of…
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Pricing
Basic
6,044
On Premise
per year
Production
6,244
On Premise
per year
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
VMWare vCenter Server 6.0 Installation & Configuration Step by Step
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is VMware vCenter?
VMware vCenter is an advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling vSphere environments for visibility across hybrid clouds. It offers centralized visibility and simplified management at scale, and extensibility across the hybrid cloud, from a single console. VMware vCenter is advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling VMware vSphere environments, allowing users to automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure across the hybrid cloud with confidence.
VMware vCenter is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
VMware vCenter is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
VMware vCenter Integrations
VMware vCenter Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
VMware vCenter is an advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling vSphere environments for visibility across hybrid clouds. VMware vCenter is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.
The most common users of VMware vCenter are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(336)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Pros
- Cons
Intuitive User Interface: Reviewers have consistently praised the intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface of vCenter, with many users stating that it made tasks easy and allowed for efficient management of complex infrastructure components. Centralized Management Capabilities: Numerous reviewers appreciated the centralized management capabilities of vCenter, which provided a single portal to handle hundreds of virtual machines efficiently. This feature allowed users to easily manage, allocate resources, and migrate VMs or workloads. Fast Server Provisioning and Cloning: Several users highlighted vCenter's ability to spin up, delete, and clone servers within minutes as a defining feature in modern data centers. This functionality was particularly helpful for provisioning and automation tasks.
High Price: Some organizations have found it difficult to justify the expense of VMware vCenter due to its high price. This sentiment is shared by several users who feel that the cost of vCenter is quite expensive.
Troubleshooting Challenges: Gaining insight into problems without a third-party application or VMware add-on can be challenging, making troubleshooting difficult for some users. This has been a common concern raised by reviewers who mention the need for additional tools to effectively troubleshoot issues in vCenter.
HTML5 Client Preference: Some users do not prefer the push towards using only the HTML5 vSphere client and express their desire for a cleaner and simpler integration with PowerCLI. The preference for the previous client version over HTML5 has been mentioned by multiple users as well.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 10, 2021
vCenter will save your day... Every Day!
[VMware vCenter Server] is used by the entire Organization. It is the most valuable
tool to manage, update and perform administrative tasks on daily basis.
We are using Linux appliance version of vCenter 6.5 and this appliance proved to be exceptional stable and secure.- Snapshots! vCenter does it exceptionally well.
- Single Portal to Manage, Allocate resources or to Migrate VMs or workloads
- Creating New VMs and Templates
- Network and Storage Management
- Update Manager needs improvement
- User Permissions are not clear to define
- Intermittent issues with AD connectivity
- Version 6.5 and 6.7 are lucking Full HTML 5 client experience
- VM Migration
- Snapshots
- Network and Storage Management
- New VM deployment
- Overall, we have a positive ROI based on many extremely useful features of vCenter
- Sys Admin work is nearly impossible without this tool
- Every cent is worth it, vCenter is "The Tool" for any Enterprise Organization
- Hyper-V and Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer)
Citrix Xen Server.... Great Hypervisor but very limited in terms of functionality
MS Hyper-V... [VMware vCenter Server] is better for almost everything and appliance form makes a clear winner for security and ease of deployment
July 24, 2019
Virtualization Management at it's best
VMware vCenter Server is used to manage our enterprise production VMware host clusters. We have approximately 50 hosts each hosting around 40 VM guests running production applications supporting campus wide functions. Since the clusters are in a distributed environment with fail over capabilities enabled, vCenter is essential for managing these migrations and disaster recovery strategies. Without this software, all functions would have to be performed manually on each host with a great deal more downtime than currently experienced between migrations.
- VMware environment client accesss
- VMware host adminstration
- VMware Cluster management
- VMware alerts management
- Transition from Windows Application to Web Client has been difficult
- vCenter fail over needs improvement
- Linked vCenters cause slow down when network links are down
- Snapshot remediation needs more automation for cleanup processing
- Overall environment view provides quick stats for management
- Pricing has increased over the years of usage, but we have become heavily reliant on this tool
- This software has provided critcal functionality needed during data center outages
- Maintenance and patching is much easier with the builtin Upgrade Manager feature
- Hyper-V and Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer)
Citrix XenCenter used an isolated client that directly connects to the hosts instead of using a management agent. This causes a number of issues if the host is not optimally configured. Microsoft Hyper-V has been behind VMware in feature set for many years, but is starting to catch up. The key feature that is missing is a comparable vCenter product. They do have a Virtual Machine Manger module for Systems Center, but licensing is more complicated than VMware and not all features are matched.
75
VMware vCenter Server is used by all IT staff and department staff who need console level access to a virtual server. This includes Systems Administrators, Programmers, Business Administrators, Administrative Assistants, and Application Support staff. Access to the system is based on defined roles; application administrators have access to the group of servers that host their software, department 'owned' servers are granted permissions for specific users when the initial deployment is started or when a supervisor notifies of staff changes.
5
VMWare has an excellent training and certification program that provides all information needed to deploy, administer, and maintain the hosts and related infrastructure needed to run the virtual environment. Occasionally Network engineers or Storage Administrators will need access to the system to interconnect other devices, the VMware Administrators closely monitor this access to ensure that no configurations are changed that could cause harm to the system.
- Monitor VMware
- Manage VMware
- Maintain Cluster Stability
- Manage virtual network switch
- Grant console access to servers as needed
- We have been able to allow virtual console access to 'off network' systems that would otherwise require a KVM module in the physical data-center
- We have been able to provide temporary additional resources when demand is high without purchasing additional hardware
- We have been able to shutdown a data center without loss of services due to automatic fail over capabilities between hosts
- We have been able to create automatic snapshot backups on servers and restore to a separate clone for testing or restores
- Long distance off site fail over
- Enhanced VDI
- Container deployment
- Testing software
No
- Product Features
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
VMware vCenter is essential to the functions we perform for maintaining a healthy virtual environment. It allows management, delegation, maintenance, automation, security, disaster recovery, deployment templates, and many other tasks. We have been using VMware since vSphere version 3 and the product has continued to improve over time. Although the transition from Windows based servers/client was difficult, it has given a great level of autonomy and interoperability.
I would like to get more accurate subscription pricing before we commit to this product. VMware has tiered pricing plans, but it is not always clear what you get at each level. We now have some features that we don't need and are missing some features that we do need. An integrated package would be better than pay per piece.
- Implemented in-house
No
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
As long as we are able to perform upgrades without disruption to other services, our customers are not even aware that an upgrade is taking place. This is what we like to see, the seamless process that causes no disruptions. In the past, we had to build a new environment running the new version, then manually migrate the VMs over to the newer version. Now, it is just as simple as migrating VMs to another host, running the upgrade and then migrating them back.
- Locked snapshots
- Misconfigured network ports
- Locked cd-image mounts
- VMFS needed to be upgraded
We try to stay up to date on all of our products to be sure we are not exploited by any security vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, we got to the 'bleeding edge' on a new version of vSphere that was not completely compatible with our hardware (even though it was not mentioned in the documentation). VMware Support went directly to the developer of this package and created a custom patch to resolve our issue before releasing it to the general public.
- Web Console view
- Migration
- Snapshots
- Power Control
- Host maintenance mode
- Datastore uplaods
- Distributed Virtual Switch configurations
- LDAP
- Web Client browser extensions
- Certificates
No
January 14, 2019
VMware vCenter Server – The Best in Server Virtualization
We have been using VMware vCenter Server since 2010 and now have three of our large sites utilizing this virtualization product. We have 8 physical servers running ESXi at one site attached to a SAN, 5 physical servers running ESXi at another site attached to a SAN, and at our 3rd site we are utilizing this on a Dell VRTX with 4 blades and internal storage. We have HA (High Availability) and DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) set up as well. For a larger environment with many needs and a small IT staff, VMware is a great product. Our three sites with VMware are 90+% virtualized.
- We use vCenter to manage our virtual infrastructure. It gives us centralized management of the virtual environment. It is a very stable, mature product.
- Ability to create new VM’s easily from base templates reduces time significantly and keeps servers consistent.
- Ability to copy VM’s to use as test environments prior to major upgrades or changes.
- Ability to do snapshots prior to doing work/changes/update, which allows a rollback to the previous system state to put a production server back online for use in the event that something goes wrong.
- Ability to migrate a VM from one host to another or from one datastore to another while the VM is active. Users are usually completely unaware of any change during this process.
- Ability to utilize the entire physical server CPU and memory to run independent VM’s where there are no concerns of applications not working well together.
- Ability to add additional resources (CPU's, cores, memory, storage, etc.) to existing VM’s.
- Ability to backup VM’s as a snapshot. This will allow us to restore the VM, explore it to restore specific host files, or move the backup to another site and restore it there for DR (Disaster Recovery).
- Has a converter available to do a P to V (Physical to Virtual ) and V to V (Virtual to Virtual ) migrations.
- Not a big fan of the browser-based client. I started using the vSphere Client (Thick)and prefer this over the browser-based client, although you cannot do all functions from the Thick client and sometimes have to use the browser-based client. As of 6.5, you are forced to use the browser-based client. I wish VMware had continued the thick client instead.
- Upgrading or updating VMware is not an easy task for lesser experienced administrators. There are many best practice considerations to explore before attempting these tasks and there is always a risk.
- The cost to purchase and cost to renew support. The ongoing support costs are high, but required, because you become dependent on the entire infrastructure. Lapse of support cost you reinstatement fees. Upgrades depend on having SnS.
- The licensing model is a bit daunting to understand, and VMware changes the model, which only adds to the difficulty to understand.
- I think that the overall ROI is definitely worth the investment in larger sites/environments.
- The reduction of physical server sprawl, hardware maintenance costs, power and cooling requirements, and all the pros listed previously, makes VMware a worthwhile investment.
August 28, 2018
VMware vCenter Server, The Virtual Machine Epicenter
VMware vCenter Server is being utilized to virtualize our entire server infrastructure. It addressed the need for our company to grow its IT server resources quickly and effectively. Originally, we started out with a 1U rack server running the free version of VMware and 5 VM's and that was scary having all those eggs in one basket. With VMware vCenter Server managing 3 hosts and 17+ virtual servers, we were able to roll out resources and scale our data stores as business requirements dictated.
One significant business problem that VMware vCenter Server solves is the scalability and migration. We are currently planning an upgrade/rollout to HCI coupled with VMware vCenter Server, which will provide our company with a more powerful set of tools in data migration and datastore expansions.
One significant business problem that VMware vCenter Server solves is the scalability and migration. We are currently planning an upgrade/rollout to HCI coupled with VMware vCenter Server, which will provide our company with a more powerful set of tools in data migration and datastore expansions.
- First and foremost, it provides a platform for us to virtualize our servers and it does it very well. Having the ability to spin up a new server from a template in a matter of seconds is amazing and saves precious time and resources.
- VMware vCenter Server also provides the ability to view performance & statistical data that assists my team in balancing our host environment. Leveraging the vMotion functionality, we can quickly move VMs from one host to another for maintenance purposes, etc...
- VMware vCenter Server also make it easy to add / modify hardware configurations within the VMs setup. Adding RAM, hard drive space, processor cores, etc...is as easy as it gets.
- VMware vCenter Server makes it easy to backup and restore a VM from the console. You can quickly create a backup of any VM and store it during upgrades, etc...for easy roll backs.
- Currently, the HTML 5-based vSphere Client lets you manage the essential functions of vSphere from any browser, however, it would be nice if they would port all management functions over to the HTML 5-based Client.
- Performing updates and upgrades to the infrastructure is a bit challenging for someone that may not be as intimate with vSphere. I think the updates/upgrades should be more integrated into the UI and provide the ability to push to the hosts, etc...
- It would also be nice to have a more robust snapshot management tool to prevent snapshot overgrowth. It would be nice to be able to set a lifespan for the snapshot(s)
- Positive: Prior to our growth, we had 5 physical servers in a rack performing various tasks. The implementation of VMware vCenter Server allowed us to consolidate all 5 servers into a virtual environment and build upon VMware vCenter Server. We quickly grew to over 17 servers in less than 6 months and we able to provide resources in less time and money over purchasing 17 physical servers and having to buy additional racks, battery back ups, etc...
- Positive / Negative: (Only if you don't keep up with maintenance & licensing) We are a relatively small business but we have enterprise class needs for both performance and scalability. VMware vCenter Server is an excellent product in my opinion and having the peace of mind in having technical support, and maintenance upgrades from VMware adds to leveraging the most ROI out of the product.
- In the 5 years I have been using VMware vCenter Server, I have not really found any real negatives that are significant enough to report. I like the fact that we can perform maintenance on the system when needed without my users ever knowing that we are working on it. When you work for a company that runs pretty much 24/7, it's like changing a tire on a moving vehicle and VMware makes it possible.
May 24, 2016
vCenter Makes it Easy
We use VMWare vCenter Server to manage our VMWare environment. It gives us one place to go to manage servers and desktops. It allows a small team to handle a larger workload compared to when we were using solely physical servers and pcs.
- Manage virtual servers
- Allow for monitoring of error and alerts
- Snapshots make it easy to revert to a previous state before an update or application was applied.
- User interface could be a little cleaner
- Console sometimes has a lag
- Certificates can be an issue when deployed to a linked clone pool
- We have been able to expand to include 12 locations in 5 different cities.
11
IT helpdesk and engineers
4