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VMware ESXi still the best
Updated April 26, 2022

VMware ESXi still the best

Terry Schultz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi

We virtualized all servers except for our DB servers. Virtualizing 25 servers saves us on hardware, heating, cooling costs. And allows us to have them be redundant without the extra expense of doubling the hardware and the complexity with that. Virtualizing allows us to add more capacity quickly without increasing our footprint.
  • Consolidation
  • Redundancy
  • Stability
  • Improve simplicity.
  • Improve documentation.
  • Improve updates.
  • Fast ROI.
  • Manageability
  • Speed
VMware ESXi stacks up nicely against Hyper-V. VMware ESXi is a smaller footprint, the one thing Hyper-V has is cost it is free with the purchase of a windows license that allows you to run at least two windows VM's within the Hyper-V server. But VMware ESXi is still the leader and uses fewer resources than what I tested.

Do you think VMware ESXi delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with VMware ESXi's feature set?

Yes

Did VMware ESXi live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of VMware ESXi go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy VMware ESXi again?

Yes

Pretty much any scenario except maybe with heavy DB requirements. But VMware ESXi fits almost all scenarios and highly recommend using it everywhere possible for all sizes of environments. It is a small footprint and manages any size of the environment. I have used it for 5 servers up to hundreds of VM's.

VMware ESXi Feature Ratings

Server Virtualization
7.8
Virtual machine automated provisioning
6
Management console
7
Live virtual machine backup
8
Live virtual machine migration
10
Hypervisor-level security
8

Using VMware ESXi

2 - They represent the critical core functions of the companies product offering. We run everything in VM's and that has allowed us to run 20+ servers on 2 physical servers. This is not only large cost savings in hardware but also in power and cooling. We are very impressed with how efficient the servers run and how little overhead the host servers use allowing for more resources for the guest machines.
2 - You have to understand networking to begin with, as for the setup if you are doing a basic setup there are lots of information and videos on the web to help you. If you are doing complex then I suggest training. You will also need a good understanding of the OS your guests are going ot be running. But most importantly is the understanding of networking, once you know that it is way easier to setup and manage.
  • Web Server
  • Email Server
  • High Availability
  • cost reduction
  • reduce physical footprint
  • improve availability
  • reduce environmental impact
  • on premise to cloud
  • virtual the Database Server
It is critical to our business, what started out as a way to do certain functions, it has now become core to ensuring our product is available to our customers and reducing our costs to operate and reduce our recovery time and provisioning servers. Their support is great and the costs to renew is reasonable.

Evaluating VMware ESXi and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
I have used this product in other companies and it just works. It has a very light footprint for install and usage. The costs are reasonable and VMware is the standard for virtualization. MS Hyper-V is a good product but requires Windows to run onb the hosts for Hyper-V to work and so it has a bigger footprint which is not necessarily a bad thing, however you need to patch it monthly.
I would not change the selection as of right now. the evaluation I may be open to look at open source solutions, but it would be hard for us to remove VMware, from our solution.

VMware ESXi Implementation

Jsut read and follow anything your storage provider may require to allow the integration of VMware with storage operations, outside of that VMware jsut works.
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - The biggest lessons learned is you need to use the product and let business get some confidence in its capabilities. Once peopel realize they do not need a physical server for their solution and the benefits of going virtual, people are more likely to embrace the solution.
  • Setting up the iscsi
  • just learning the new interface in Vcenter Server

VMware ESXi Training

  • no training
Yes for basic solutions it is very simple to setup, and there are a lot of resources on the web to help. With largew complex solutions, then perhaps training would help, but only to reduce time as you can pretty well figure anything out.

Configuring VMware ESXi

You can configure as much as you want. Is it too much, for most people they would not need to touch any of the default settings, however if you do require to, the capability is available and documentation is available to help. But overall you do not need to configure or customize the solution to work.
Follow what your server manufacture, sotrage provider, network provider and vmware on best practices. We use Dell and they have great documentation on best practices for their solutions using VMware.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
We folllowed what was required for the switches and storage, along with using the custom imiages for ESXi for our Dell servers. However most Server Manufactures have custom images for their offering.

VMware ESXi Support

For the few times I had to contact support, they were quick to respond and immensely helpful. They are consistent in ensuring you have the support you require, and the solution is working even after the problem is resolved. They are willing to support over email, phone and will do video chats to ensure you are supported.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No we did not, as we are a small company and felt we did not need anything above the normal support.
Just recently they supported me with an issue, where the ticket was given to one person who spent quite sometime to resolve and then brought in another person who took over and I did not have to repeat the handoff was quick and seamless.

Using VMware ESXi

The beauty of ESXi is that you can do the basic configuration that allows a quick setup but still has a great deal of functionality that is very simple to setup. You can do big complex solutions that require much more experience and detail to get configured, and it all runs off the same code base.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • install
  • basic setup
  • vcentre setup
  • DRS
  • VSAN

VMware ESXi Reliability

We started out with a two-server cluster and adding a third or fourth is very straightforward and simple with no issues. You just need to be aware of the size of your Vcenter Server to handle the workload, but still the resources needed is very minimal.
Without the need to patch the servers with bug fixes and enhancements we whave not experienced any downtime with VMware issues. Even the bug fixes and updates do not cause of downtime as we just migrate the servers to the opposite node and update the one and then move servers back. Very simple and painless.
We do not notice any difference between a physical and virtual server running the same workload. In fact we can scale quicker with the virtual server than we can with the physical.

Integrating VMware ESXi

With the storage it was straight forward and seemless. Is it necessary, it depends on your environment.
  • Dell Compellent Storage
It was fairly straightforward to integrate, was it necessary for simple environments no it is not, for large, complex environments it would make certain operations like growing the datastore much easier and quicker.
  • none
As with anything, ensure you understand why you are doing the integration and weigh the benefits of doing so. I am of the mindset simpler is better so integrations can make solutions complex with little benefit.

Relationship with VMware

It was simple and easy to understand what we needed and the costs were reasonable.
We really did not need to work with the sales people after the sale.
We used the standard terms they offered.
it has been fair and easy to understand. I know VMware is looking at wanting to change from CPU to core pricing so we will see what that looks like when it happens.
Just be upfront with what you need and understand the different levels, we do not have the solution that allows movement of storage while the guest is on, but we have not really had a need for that.

Upgrading VMware ESXi

Yes - It was pretty straightforward and is easy to do. Downtime for the one ESXi server was minimal, but transparent to the users as we moved the guest systems over to the other host.
  • security fixes
  • bug fixes
  • staying current with technology
  • fixes
  • performance improvements