VMTurbo with NFS
September 23, 2015
VMTurbo with NFS
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Cloud Edition,Enterprise Edition
Modules Used
- 5.1 update 3
Overall Satisfaction with VMTurbo Operations Manager
We use VMTurbo Operations Manager to assist with the management of a VMware 5.5 environment with 11 hosts (HP Proliant DL380) and two storage arrays (EMC- Fiber Channel and Nimble - ISCSI) We have a small IT dept. (3 IT - 250 users) and found the product to be very valuable for juggling the VMs between the arrays to increase performance.
Pros
- Excellent VM reporting tool.
- VMTurbo Operations Manager proactively manages workload placement for virtual machines as well as storage.
- Helped us right-size serveral VMs that were over/under provisioned.
Cons
- Planning tool generated crazy results (provisioned 37 new hosts ), even after support ticket.
- Policy editor UI is not intuitive. It's difficult to set new policies.
- We moved from old legacy FiberChannel array to a Netapp using NFS for the data stores. With NFS we have similar machines grouped together, for better deduplication rates. VMTurbo has lost a lot of usefulness with this new array, as we no longer need to shuffle VMs between data stores.
- Improved effiency on existing host, so that the business could put off buying new hardware.
- Best thing about VMTurbo Operations Manager is that you can get basic monitoring for free.
- Support staff and customer experience managers are very helpful.
My organization looked at VCOPS, but it’s not really a monitoring tool. VMTurbo Operations Manager was the best product around a few years ago. However, since we changed over storage from block to NFS storage, I don’t really see how the product can be as great a benefit as before.
Our company is unsure that we will renew due to this issue, combined with how much it will cost to add a new host into mix and the cost of the Netapp integration.
Our company is unsure that we will renew due to this issue, combined with how much it will cost to add a new host into mix and the cost of the Netapp integration.
Using VMTurbo Operations Manager
3 - IT operations dept.
Helpdesk - Mac/PC, iPhone, iPad hardware, printers, application support, etc.
Networking - mostly Cisco routers / switches with Palo Alto/ASA Firewalls, pair of 9k nexus switches, 4 sites, 2 international.
Sys admin - On premise SharePoint, just moved on premise exchange to Office 365, patch management, Cisco VOIP PBX, few Linux (CentOS) webservers, etc
Virtualization / Storage - 18 VMware host 5.1, 5.5, and now 6.0 (HP Proliant servers), almost 500 VMs, Netapp/ Nimble Storage, few hyper-v host.
Helpdesk - Mac/PC, iPhone, iPad hardware, printers, application support, etc.
Networking - mostly Cisco routers / switches with Palo Alto/ASA Firewalls, pair of 9k nexus switches, 4 sites, 2 international.
Sys admin - On premise SharePoint, just moved on premise exchange to Office 365, patch management, Cisco VOIP PBX, few Linux (CentOS) webservers, etc
Virtualization / Storage - 18 VMware host 5.1, 5.5, and now 6.0 (HP Proliant servers), almost 500 VMs, Netapp/ Nimble Storage, few hyper-v host.
3 - Able to have strong understanding of Networking / Storage / and Virtualization techonolgies
- Monitoring VMs performance.
- Balance workloads across host / datastores
- Automation of suggested changes is a real time saver
- Allowed us to utilize our existing hardware to the fullest extent possible
- Analysis tool for elimination of obvious issues and isolation of problems
- Ability to better dictate how infrastructure resources are allocated
- Unsure of future [use].
VMTurbo Operations Manager Implementation
- Implemented in-house
No - VMTurbo Operations Manager was painless to set up. I provisioned the system in less than half a day.
Change management was minimal - No real change management with current organization. Can be problematic if a Jr. Admin just lets VMTurbo make a change without thinking through what possible outcome might occur. Usually no issues though.
- None, fairly painless process
- Support completed last upgrade for my organization with great enthusiasm.
VMTurbo Operations Manager Training
- Online training
VMTurbo Operations Manager Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Immediate help available Support cares about my success | None |
I informed a customer experience manager about a strange issue I was having. He took time to personally set up my support ticket and then followed up to verify the support ticket was handled in a acceptable manner. Excellent customer service.
Using VMTurbo Operations Manager
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Technical support not required Well integrated Convenient Feel confident using | Lots to learn |
- Workload is a nice 30,000 foot overview of entire virtual environment.
- Dashboard has most important recommendations pointed out, and ready to make changes.
- Inventory page is nice view, can manage virtual environment from this single pane of glass.
- I found the policy editor to be difficult to set-up.
- Planning for additional host returns crazy results after trying to be as accurate as possible with variables.
Relationship with VMTurbo
None really, the product does sell itself after people get hooked on free trial. No wiggle room on price per core, unless you go month to month.
Others have said they won't take "no" for an answer during the sales process, I wouldn't know because my organization bought it. I can attest that the support and customer experience reps will also follow up on your issues in an almost annoying fashion after becoming a customer. They cared more about fixing an issue with product than I did.
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