Share your experience using Lenovo ThinkSystem DB Series

We use Dell PowerVault for the storage consolidation of SMBs. 

Dell PowerVault offers valuable full flash storage. 

The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level during these upgrade processes, as we sometimes need to shut down both controllers. This could be an area for improvement.

I have been working with the product for 15 years. 

The product is sufficient for the SMB market. In terms of size, it caters well to SMB needs, providing full flash for production and backup storage with nearline SAS disk.

I haven't contacted technical support yet. However, my customers are less satisfied than before with support. 

I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten. 

The product is mostly for small and medium businesses. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

The solution is suited for small companies. It has a simple setup. If you want to virtualize something, then you buy two hosts.

The solution is stable. It is a simple and better vault solution than Synology.

Many features are coming up for Dell PowerVault. Most of these features are available on the Dell cloud IO platform. They include reporting and monitoring capabilities. While some customers may not need all these features, the platform performs very well for a particular region. It is a good solution with many possibilities for every type of customer. Customers who need more features than PowerVault offers can scale up to the next model, such as PowerStore, PowerScale, vPlex, or Extreme IO. The possibilities are endless.

There could be a starting model where you have a central storage solution for a pretty good price.

I have been using Dell PowerVault for one year.

The solution is a fairly good solution with built-in high availability.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is limited.

If you are limited in sizing, you can add four nodes to one PowerVault cluster. You will get around 82 to 100 terabytes of storage. If you are a company with five users, it would be fairly enough to work with. Still, if you are a company with 5000 users, you are making the wrong decision upfront by buying PowerVault, so don't buy it because it's not scalable for the solution.

The technical support could be better. The problem with Dell support is that you have to explain your case to multiple people, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.

The initial setup is simple. You have to plug into the power, connect to the control, and get started. The deployment of Dell PowerVault depends on the communication method. Different deployment approaches are employed for private channel communication, ISKG integration, or direct-attach storage scenarios.

We have to buy the box along with the support.

Dell PowerVault has an integration tool with Veeam Backup & Application. However, you can purchase Avamar from Dell if you want a more robust integration.

There are some good things about the Dell PowerVault. It is quick and easy to use. However, if you made the wrong decision in choosing your platform and have big expansions in your company, it may not be worth the money. It is reusable for other purposes, but you can combine it.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.