Overall Satisfaction with VMware vCenter Server
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.
Using VMware vCenter Server
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
Evaluating VMware vCenter Server and Competitors
- 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.
VMware vCenter Server Implementation
- Implemented in-house
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
VMware vCenter Server Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Quick Resolution Kept well informed Immediate help available Quick Initial Response | Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times |
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.
Using VMware vCenter Server
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Web Console view
- Migration
- Snapshots
- Power Control
- Host maintenance mode
- Datastore uplaods
- Distributed Virtual Switch configurations
- LDAP
- Web Client browser extensions
- Certificates