Overview
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…
vCenter Makes It Easy to Manage vSphere.
Improved VM Management
VMware vCenter Server makes management a breeze
vCenter will save your day... Every Day!
VMware vCenter Server makes VM management easy
vCenter is a one stop shop for all your virtual needs
VMware powering OT
VMware vCenter reviewed 4 U
Virtual Environment Management At A Glance
Worth the extra cost
A Flexible Virtualization Platform That Fits the Needs of Small to Enterprise Businesses
vCenter Server makes managing enterprise vSphere environments easy!
VMware vCenter Server - A must for any VMware shop
VMware vCenter is an infrastructure administrator's dream come true!
VMware vCenter Server Review
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
Production
6,244
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
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is VMware vCenter?
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
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(339)Community Insights
- 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
(1-2 of 2)Virtualization Management at it's best
- 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)
- 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
- Product Features
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Implemented in-house
- Locked snapshots
- Misconfigured network ports
- Locked cd-image mounts
- VMFS needed to be upgraded
- Web Console view
- Migration
- Snapshots
- Power Control
- Host maintenance mode
- Datastore uplaods
- Distributed Virtual Switch configurations
- LDAP
- Web Client browser extensions
- Certificates
VMware vCenter Server is the way to go!
VMware vCenter Server is being used heavily by my organization. We rely on it daily for supporting the numerous applications that run our core business. From deploying web servers to database servers to application servers, VMware vCenter Server handles nearly all cases where a new server is needed.
VMware vCenter server is mainly managed by the group I am a part of (infrastructure), but what VMware supports and what runs on the servers deployed therein is used across the entire organization. Some of the main business problems it addresses are:- Data center size. With vCenter server, we were able to drastically reduce our data center footprint.
- Data center power consumption. With vCenter server, we were able to drastically reduce our power consumption footprint.
- Ease of server management. VMware vCenter server makes managing large numbers of servers easy.
- Speed and efficiency. Our team is able to quickly deploy servers through vCenter.
- Ease of server/application support. Features like snapshots, memory hot-add, and HA (high availability) make supporting servers, applications, and databases a breeze.
- Ease of server backups. Server backups are easier with virtual servers.
- The list goes on and on!!
- Speed and efficiency. Our team is able to quickly deploy servers through vCenter. Things like cloning servers, deploying servers from templates, and even creating a VM from scratch is just a few clicks. You have a new VM up and running in a matter of minutes!
- Ease of server/application support. Features like snapshots, memory hot-add, and HA (high availability) make supporting servers, applications, and databases a breeze. Taking a snapshot before a patch or upgrade can save hours if not days worth of time in the event of an issue or problem caused by said patch/upgrade. The ability to add "hardware" like RAM or hard drive space on the fly while the VM is running is like a server admin's dream. HA is a life saver! You can lose an entire physical host and your VM will be "magically" brought back online on another available host in the cluster. Though you have a short outage, your VM is back up and running before you can say "downtime".
- Ease of server backups. Server backups are easier with virtual servers. There are many options as far as choices go for backing up VMs and with VMware vCenter server, it makes backing them up a breeze no matter your choice of backup flavor!
- Ease of server management. VMware vCenter server makes managing large numbers of servers easy. Features like DRS (distributed resource scheduler) can allow you to balance your workloads for optimized performance. It can also allow you to give your resource intensive servers higher priority to those resources. Also, the ability to adjust many many many features on the fly with minimal to no service disruption is huge!
- Pricing. However, you do get what you pay for, enterprise world class software. Alternatives (if you can call them that) like Hyper-V and Virtual Box are a sad comparison.
- Learning curve. Disclaimer: any typical I.T. professional will be able to pick up VMware vCenter Server fairly quickly. However, there is just a wealth of features and configuration options that can be overwhelming to a newcomer.
- Not many other cons. There is a reason VMware is the market leader in virtualization.
- Server deployment goes from weeks to mere minutes. (Weeks would have included process from the order, shipment, delivery, unboxing, racking, setup, THEN install, and final post-config steps). Getting a VM to that same point can be done in literal minutes.
- As mentioned before, data center space, server power/cooling, and your overall data center footprint is drastically reduced with VMware vCenter.
- Server troubleshooting, patching, upgrades, and support are all more manageable and can actually reduce the need for headcount.