shrink your datacenter, grow your efficiency with vCenter
September 12, 2017
shrink your datacenter, grow your efficiency with vCenter
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with VMware vCenter Server
We currently use VMware vCenter to manage our 250 virtualized servers. We have eliminated all but a couple physical servers. vCenter has allowed us to reduce costs across the board, from power consumption to datacenter space. We have also benefited from having one tool to manage all of our servers, instead of having to use multiple web portals and rdp connections.
- It integrates with our storage products and easily helps us both deploy and adjust our disk usage on the fly. You can easily see now only the space available, but also which servers are using what storage at any given time through one relatively simple interface.
- vCenter vmotion works well to migrate servers between hypervisors. This comes in handy both when balancing resource usage, but also when a hypervisor needs some maintenance or repairs. We can easily and quickly vacate a hypervisor and get work done with no downtime on the servers.
- vCenter's server console runs smoothly with minimal resources. This allows us to have access to, sometimes, many servers simultaneously without tasking the client resources.
- VMware vCenter allows us to quickly and easily add memory and other virtual hardware to servers very quickly to fix performance issues.
- Not all applications fully support virtualization. vCenter isn't aware of those applications at all, so you need to be careful to configure your settings so that servers that don't like being moved aren't moved during production times. You don't want a SQL server getting migrated during your work day.
- vCenter has moved away from the desktop client in the newer versions in favor of the web version. The desktop, in my opinion, is superior. They have begun making some features web only, so they have been very passive aggressive in trying to slowly move people over to the web client.
- We have had issues where granular permissions created problems. The error logs as a general error and doesn't recognized that a task failed because of permissions, you need to review and figure that out. It would be nicer if a permissions problem referenced that in the event log to simplify troubleshooting.
- Costs in our datacenter for electric and hvac have been reduced greatly by replacing dozens of individual servers with virtualized servers.
- We are now able to quickly adjust resources as software requires. If a server is running out of memory or disk in the middle of the day, we are able to quickly add resources and stabilize the systems before performance of the software is negatively impacted.
- vCenter has helped our resiliency and flexibility in our primary datacenter. We are currently working towards adding redundancy across 2 datacenters with vCenter.
I have used Microsoft Hyper-V at a previous employment. It was good in those situations of a small batch of servers. Hyper-V is relatively easy to manage and can use Powershell scripting for management and control.
In larger deployments, like we have currently, Hyper-V requires a larger amount of manual work. vCenter's ongoing development and technologies like vMotion make deployment in a larger environment, with limited IT staffing, much more efficient. In my experience, vCenter also seems to be more efficient in using the physical resources.
So, if you have a small lab or just need a few servers, Hyper-V shows its value. If you are doing a larger virtualization deployment, vCenter will pay for itself in the time saved and resources reduced.
In larger deployments, like we have currently, Hyper-V requires a larger amount of manual work. vCenter's ongoing development and technologies like vMotion make deployment in a larger environment, with limited IT staffing, much more efficient. In my experience, vCenter also seems to be more efficient in using the physical resources.
So, if you have a small lab or just need a few servers, Hyper-V shows its value. If you are doing a larger virtualization deployment, vCenter will pay for itself in the time saved and resources reduced.