Dell NetWorker Reviews

We use this solution for disk storage, and to administer Save and Restore functionality in our client's data center.                                                             

When it was required that data had to be restored for our customer, it was accomplished successfully and this has kept our end users satisfied.                                                    

Stability of NetWorker is very good.

We would like support for tape space reclaim, using either the same or another pool.

NetWorker uses only a stage directed to a clone pool, which is not enough to recover space on the tape.

Our primary use case is for our critical servers. We have servers across Unix and Linux environments. We back up our critical servers daily, some are scheduled and some are done manually. 

It has deduplication capabilities, where you have two similar data sets. This helps to speed up backup processes because it takes a shorter amount of time to do a backup because it has the deduplication feature already. Though, you have to buy this deduplication software separately from the license.

The security features need backup and encryption. It would be nice if they added this feature. I would also like to be able to decrypt when restoring the security features. Hackers can sense these vulnerabilities today, and we need to have our enterprise prepared. 

Overall, it isn't intuitive enough. It is a bit complex and not evolving with the technology. 

The stability is 80 percent out of 100. It hardly goes down. When there are issues, we can check the logs and see how to resolve it. We have never had the whole system fail. 

It is pretty scalable. This is not an issue. 

The response time of the tech support is swift. The support is fantastic.

The initial setup was straightforward. The configuration was not difficult. We used user guides which helped us with best practices. 

When choosing a solution, I always consider:

• Support
• Availability of parts
• The technology of the solution.

Primary use is a mixed and match backups, which include my file server, the Linux server as well as a the SQLs. As of now, we won't have that much of a challenge. But, sometimes it was required to make some manual intervention for any additional things. With Networker, we are having DD 25 MB as a back up solution. In addition, we are keeping the backup. So, currently it is working.

Earlier, we used the Veritas backup solution. Before, we had a lot of manual steps. Now, with Networker, we do not have those steps.

Currently, the best feature is the DR replication for us. So, whatever data we are taking in the backup, it will get replicated end of day to our DR site.

In Rubrik, we were getting less time for backup the things because snapshot feature is there. So we asked that our EMC account manager help us. He suggested some block based backup, but we have seen that it won't stand as compared to the rubric snapshot back up. Rubrik and Veeam has the directly cloud interface. So, you have to just  configure the credentials for the cloud access and you can start taking the backup from Rubrik, which means the local backup is after schedule. So currently we don't think there is anything  like this with the Networker. We would like Networker to have a cloud side approach, which it does not currently have.

In addition, we have been facing some problems what with the initial configuration. I heard that Networker has released some beta versions. 

The stability is not so good, in the middle range.  Within the last 3 months, we were having some issues while just storing the backup. But it has been resolved within a one to two weeks. In regards to another case, it took a bit longer.

This solution is bundled with this DD 2500. But, there is some limitation for scalability of the DD 2500 shells. I can add only one more single shell, and that is a limitation.

We have used them, but we need to renew the service.

I have used Rubrik and Veeam in the past.

The implementation was difficult and, due to some reason, it was not done properly and we had to suffer a lot. The problems were only rectified only a month ago, after multiple follow- up with EMC teams.

When considering a vendor, I think it is key to find a solution that has:

• Minimal manual intervention
• Low cost

Any person who is going to be installing this product should have full knowledge, and they should deploy whatever most valuable features are there. They have to explain it to the end-user and get it utilized for them.

The low cost is important.

Dell EMC Networker is really the best in the market! After evaluating the solutions, we automatically decided to use this solution.

• Management GUI
• Pools to direct backups to storage

It allows us to not worry about our backups.

Some functionality is restricted to Data Domain.

21 years.

No.

No.

Excellent.

The initial setup was complex in 1996, but now our environment is simpler, thus requiring two servers.

If you need to backup multiple OS platforms, this is the product to purchase

It is application aware for Meditech, Exchange and SQL. We do not want to check for successful backup in multiple locations. We want the backup application to handle all of that.

It has not improved functionality for us. At least the unsupported version we are on is difficult to administer. Most of the functions it can perform are not being used by us because of the complexity.

Reduce the product's complexity.

Eight years.

Stability is an issue.

No.

A seven out of 10. We must engage a reseller who supports it. They also are having difficulty troubleshooting it.

Complex in this version. It is not intuitive and logs are not easily accessible or decipherable.

Be sure to do a PoC.

DD Boost integration for capacity reduction and backup window.

This product has provide our backup and recovery capabilities for Service Restoration and Disaster Recovery for more than a decade. We have evolved with the product over the years and it continues to meet our requirements.

Automate/role-based Virtual Machine protection and automated DR recovery capabilities.

Initial install was in 2001 with Legato 6.4. We just completed the latest upgrade to EMC Networker 9.1.

All x.0 versions that we have deployed have had issues which get worked out in the subsequent releases. We generally never deploy the x.0 version and wait instead for the x.1 SP 1 release.

Early on, we had limitations in the number of servers as a single DataZone could manage when pushed up to deploy multiple DataZones. Those numbers have significantly increased but for large environments, this could still be a limit. The number of connections that the solution uses with the VMware Hypervisor can cause issues with vCenter's performance, but that is more a limitation with VMware than EMC NetWorker.

Over the years, it’s been up and down. For this latest version, I would suggest that it’s average, with not a large number of EMC specialists understanding how all the latest features in the product are supposed to work.

In a larger environment with multiple servers types and network security zones, it’s a complex installation to ensure stability with performance.

Don’t install the newest x.0 version of the product. Make sure you understand you own requirements and expectations of data protection in terms of Service Restoration and Disaster Recovery to ensure you are implementing the solution appropriately to meet those requirements.

• Very nice tools (nsrwatch, nsradmin) in CLI for administration, monitoring, and management. And GUI is available with enterprise level as well.
• NetWorker’s commands are executed directly from shell/command line (you don’t need to log in to the DB or to any other kind of tool).
• Very good backward and forward compatibility between NetWorker’s versions. You are not limited by higher version on backup client side.
• Availability of cumulative hot fixes.
• NetWorker server is supported on Windows and Linux OSs (unlike Commvault).
• List of supported OSs and their versions is really long and it is the same for DBs and applications.
• Provided documentation from EMC is quite good and well organized.
• Block based backup and parallel save stream features are really helpful for classic backup of big file systems and lot of small files.
• DDboost protocol speeds up backups and saves bandwidth of your LAN.
• Possibility to create and use your own scripts in backup process or in administration.

Backup admins don’t need to dedicate so much time to installation and configuration of backups.

NetWorker’s code needs improvement. There are so many bugs in each version, so I have to wait until the last cumulative hotfix of each service pack is released, to be sure that I will not affect production and create more work for myself.

Since 2006.

I had some issues in the past, but I fixed them by updating the product. I would recommend installation of new, major or minor releases of EMC NetWorker if the second service pack of each version, and sixth or higher cumulative hotfix of that version, are both available.

This is difficult question. Honestly, EMC NetWorker technical support is not very helpful for me, because I have much more experience with it than the engineers who are initially assigned to an issue. I have to wait till my service request is moved to a higher level of support and, often, by the time that happens, I have fixed many service requests by myself.

On the other hand, EMC engineers are friendly and try to help as much as possible, so if you are not an experienced customer they can search in knowledge database for your issue and fix it via a WebEx session. This can be done over a live chat session or via a regular service request.

You can enable notifications (at the EMC support page) for security and technical alerts as well, so you will be informed about any big issues quickly.

I used Hiback from NovaStor a long time ago, but it was not as good as NetWorker. I switched because I was no longer responsible for the Hiback backup environment; I focused on EMC NetWorker.

Initial setup of EMC NetWorker is really easy work if you have basic knowledge of OSs, LAN and SAN, if needed. (A basic IT background is really needed). Just a few clicks in Windows or the installation of a few RPMs in Linux. I really like that EMC provides specific RPM packages and not only binaries in its archive, which are installed by installation script.

Ask your EMC representative for discount. They can provide really good discounts.

I did not do so.

Use EMC Data Domain (DD) system and EMC NetWorker. It really is number one on the market in backup and recovery solutions.

Provides backup automation and monitoring centralization. Having easy scalability of the covered data zone is also a big advantage.

All environment backups are monitored by a central management console. This allows us to have a global view and the statistics of data protection in the overall data center.

Native reports are not really user-friendly. This is the case because EMC wants to sell DPA, which can give more reports/details. I think this policy is unfair.

We have been using this solution for seven years.

There were stability issues, especially with version 9.0. The backup integration failed many times and the resolution was related to bugs fixed in later releases.

There were no scalability issues.

We did not use a different solution before this one.

The initial setup was complex. In fact, the NetWorker Management Console is divided into many tables. To configure a simple backup, you have to switch between many tables. You must have a good understanding of the configuration logic before you can manage this tool.

Use capacity licensing instead of the traditional one. With capacity licenses, you have all the capabilities enabled. With traditional licenses, you have to activate functionalities one by one.

• TSM : This solution does not offer the media server option, which means that all data that has to be backed up has to be sent to the TSM backup server before being backed up to media devices. In the NetWorker solution, we can define media nodes which write data directly to the backup devices. There is no need to move data to backup server beforehand. Also in NetWorker, we can define different retention policies for backups and copies. In TSM, the same retention applies to both the first copy and the second copy.

• DPM: This Microsoft solution is well defined for Microsoft environments, but for VMware and others (SAP, Oracle) EMC NetWorker suits better and does offer more functionalities/options.  
• Veeam: Suitable for VMware environments only. EMC NetWorker capabilities are greater regarding other platforms (Microsoft, SAP).

• NetBackup: This is the real EMC NetWorker competitor. For price reasons, EMC NetWorker was chosen in our case.

Take a training course before implementing this solution, especially if you are used to managing another backup solution. The backup integration generally takes a while to stabilize. However, once you have done it, you can forget about it. The backup will run automatically and backed up data will expire automatically based on configured policies.