Dell NetWorker Reviews

We use Dell NetWorker to back up data from several databases and virtual machines.

The software’s best feature is data backup for any system. Using it, we can back up virtual machines, servers, different applications, and modules.

While upgrading to a new version, we encounter challenges related to specific algorithms or code regulations. It causes problems if the new version is incompatible with the old authentication method or existing modules. Thus, we have to conduct non-integration tests.

It requires a specific server or a specific NRA and GNLP download to configure the application. This setup is time-consuming, especially when compared to modern web-based tools. It could be better.

Additionally, its support services need improvement. When we log a case, it takes a long time to resolve it. There could be more experienced engineers in their team.

We have been using Dell NetWorker for ten years.

The product could be more stable. Sometimes, we need to restart the server every week. That is the reason we are looking for other tools.

We have less than ten users for Dell NetWorker.

Dell NetWorkers’ technical support services need improvement.

The initial setup process is easy. The time taken for deployment depends on the kind of tool we want to integrate. Some configurations, including integration with data domain, on-premise, and on-cloud, are complicated. It took us a few weeks to complete the process. The software is simple to set up and has an OVA system allowing employees to configure IP addresses. Although, it is challenging to backup the device or library.

It is a relatively inexpensive product compared to NetBackup.

It is a good product. It has interconnection with different vendors. I recommend it to others. It offers a lot of documentation for a better understanding of configurations and modules.

I rate it a seven out of ten. There are many areas of improvement, including functionality and support.

On-premises

Dell NetWorker is primarily used on customers' off-site premises to take backups from core servers. Although we are a solution provider and not the direct user, Dell NetWorker is effective in taking backups and is used in customer environments. It helps our clients by providing reliable backup solutions.

NetWorker is easy to install on clients and servers, and making backups from server to storage and backup devices is straightforward.

The challenge with Dell NetWorker lies in its deployment over virtualized environments. Ports are not visible to the network, which requires a dedicated physical server. Improving this feature could greatly enhance usability.

We have been using Dell NetWorker since 2022 or 2021, for the last three years.

NetWorker is stable and provides a means for seamless backups from various devices.

Initial setup can be completed in approximately three working days, depending on the server and backup devices involved.

We have a dedicated team for the implementation which is well-versed in virtualization, servers, and storage connectivity. The team includes more than sixty engineers in various specialized domains.

They should improve the visibility of network ports when Dell NetWorker is deployed over virtualized environments.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

On-premises

Our primary use cases for the product include taking regular backups of critical systems and utilizing its archiving solution. We back up our enterprise systems to a disk-based backup system and subsequently transfer these backups to an archiving system. When necessary, we recover these backups for our users, such as application and database users.

The product's most valuable features are robust integration options with databases and email systems. It allows seamless integration with native tools like Oracle's, significantly accelerating the backup process by eliminating the need for manual configuration.

We encountered challenges during the solution's deployment, particularly integrating our database system and Microsoft Exchange. This area needs improvement. 

They could improve their licensing policy, particularly in terms of measuring customer systems for backups. For example, they could refine distinguishing between capacity-based backups and the number of system-based backups. 

I have been working with Dell NetWorker for about five years.

I rate the product stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the product scalability a nine out of ten. 

Dell could improve its technical support by enhancing the response time, especially for the initial ticket raised. The first ticket could be addressed promptly and within the agreed-upon service level agreement (SLA).

Positive

The setup is straightforward for smaller deployments, but it becomes more complicated for larger deployments.

Excluding the integration with other systems, it typically takes one to two days. However, the process can take about one week if system integrations are included.

The solution's automation capabilities are efficient. Once the scheduler is configured, backups proceed without any interruption. This includes automatic transfers from disk-based to archiving systems, making the process highly effective.

I rate it an eight out of ten. 

On-premises

Dell NetWorker is a secure and backup service tool.

The solution offers time management, reduces operational cost and do multiple backups at a time.

The tool should integrate with other solutions, like, the tape library.

I have been using Dell NetWorker for one and a half years.

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

300 users are using the solution in our company.

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

Dell support is better. Basically, in our region, no physical resources required to prevent such things. We need to go online supports, and time differences are too high.

Neutral

The initial setup can be difficult at times, especially when dealing with Data Domain port-based authentication. Managing where the Data Domain is located on the port side can be a particular difficulty. Deployment takes around two to three hours to complete whereas port installation take around two to three weeks. We have two users to do the implement and maintain.

We achieved 60% ROI in terms of money and time savings.

The solution’s pricing differ in some conditions. It offers perpetual licence.

I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

The Dell Networker's maintenance complexity varies. It can be easy in some situations and challenging in others. Overall, its functionality is generally good. However, when monitoring the system from another location, we encounter difficulties in handling certain conditions. These difficulties arise especially during installation and client configuration. Maintaining client-level configurations also have difficulty, particularly when communication between clients and the server occurs through different ports while only one or two ports are allowed by default settings. This further complicate the process.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The software is quite complicated and useful for large corporations using different information systems, like different databases and applications. NetWorker is good for many agents from different software applications. Dell has decided to launch a new software called PowerProtect, so they might close NetWorker in the future.

NetWorker, you can realize any architecture with NetWorker because it's a comprehensive solution. They have many agents for other applications.

NetWorker's major problem is its legacy software. Legato was the company that invented NetWorker in the early '90s, and in keeping the product line all these years, Dell has many legacy features that they cannot drop because their customers still use them.

These legacy features are a problem when it comes to integration. In supporting these features, it's difficult for Dell to implement new features because Many of them use kernels that are not optimal. This could be why they decided to launch a new product line.

I've used Dell NetWorker for about eight years.

Dell NetWorker is quite stable.

Dell NetWorker's scalability is good. My company has several thousands of users.

Dell's tech support was great.

We previously used Veeam, which was good for virtual infrastructure.

The ease of initial setup depends on your experience. The concept of NetWorker is slightly different from NetBackup, for example. If you have enough education about the product and understand the administration and installation procedures, it's quite easy. The time taken to set up the product depends on how complex the infrastructure is.

We use a license without a time term. We just need to buy additional support when needed.

In Russia, we have some problems with the presence of Western vendors here, so we have no support from US companies. I doubt anybody will increase the number of licenses or expand the installation because that involves support from the vendor.

I rate Dell NetWorker an eight out of ten. I recommend the solution.

On-premises

Dell NetWorker is used as a backup and recovery solution.

Feature-wise, the most valuable ones stem from the fact that it is the most flexible and easiest backup for your virtual machines, along with being the backup of a wide range of databases using modules.

The API side of the solution has certain shortcomings. However, I don't think much improvement because we already have APIs in place, but I think there is a scope to improve the API side.

I have been using Dell NetWorker for seven to eight years. Also, I am using the solution's latest version.

In my experience, I haven't seen many issues with the network, though there are some incidents that come up here and there. I don't see any regular issues until you have good resources. I mean, resources like CPU, RAM, and all.

It is scalable software. All you need to increase is its RAM and CPU. It's pretty easy. Apart from that, if it's the backend, where the data is stored on the data domain, it is again a scalable product.

Most large enterprises use the solution. With the storage and with the databases, Dell NetWorker has a wide range of modules to cover these databases and backups.

I contacted technical support. It's always there in any product. Usually, for backup failures, we contact support. The support you get depends on the support level that the customer takes. You have dedicated support and normal line support. Customers can always ask to escalate.

The initial setup is easy. As you go on to configure the databases, multiple teams are involved, like the database team, the Unix team, and the backup team. Even then, it's pretty easy and straightforward unless you run into some infrastructure issues.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

The time for deployment depends on the size of the environment. If it's a small environment, and everything is in place and works, it takes just two or three hours. If the customer has a larger enterprise, then, obviously, it will increase because you need to install extra storage nodes.

The issues are not straightforward. For example, with the issues in the documentation, there are other products where if you get an error, it's completely code-based, or error codes, so it's pretty easy. Going through the document of Dell NetWorker, I see it's a bit different. You need to dig into the issues.

I rate the overall solution a nine point seven or nine point eight out of ten.

This is a very good product. The administration is very good when it comes to backup scenarios. However, maintenance and support are very difficult. The creation of jobs and backups could be easier.

It helps improve the jobs of administrators. It can make things more compatible from an end-user perspective. 

The most valuable feature is the Dell EMC-based product backups. We were using Dell storage, and it offered good compatibility with it. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale.

Technical support has been helpful. 

The end-user experience is not good. They need to improve the product to make it easier to use. We're missing that right now. 

The integration with Hyper-V needs to be better.

They need better compatibility with Exchange backups. 

It is difficult to set up.

While the stability is good, the troubleshooting is hard.

I've been using the solution for seven or eight years. 

It is stable. I'd rate it eight out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

It is a scalable product. I'd rate it eight out of ten. It extends well. 

Technical support is very good. 

Neutral

I've also used Veeam and Microsft DPM. Veeam and Microsoft are very easier to use. They are also less expensive.

The initial setup was not straightforward. It is complex.

We had two people managing the process. 

We have not noted any ROI.

The pricing is relatively high compared to Microwsft DPM and Veeam.

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. 

New users can try it. It is good when it is in the right landscape. In certain cases, it could be a very useful tool.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

On-premises

I've been using this solution for backups and restoration.

Backup reliability for this solution is fine. It's good.

Dell EMC NetWorker is still not mature, compared to its competitors. For example: the TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) of IBM is very accurate in error logs, and it is very rare to get failure alerts when using the TSM. It's fast and reliable which I didn't see from Dell EMC NetWorker. Another example is the Veritas which I also have experience with. Though Veritas is lower in level compared to the TSM, Veritas is more user-friendly than the TSM.

All features for Dell EMC NetWorker are good, but they are not something to be happy about.

Sometimes this solution shows some errors, e.g. related to open files. It is based on Java, which is very bad. There's so many issues not reflecting what's really happening in the background.

Reporting is very bad in Dell EMC NetWorker. It's also very difficult to get whatever you need based on the backup time duration.

Dell EMC NetWorker has so many versions in a short span of time, which contain a lot of bugs that need to be fixed because each upgrade has its own issues. For every new update of this solution, bugs get fixed, but something new, e.g. a new bug comes up in each version which needs to be fixed. 

I've been using Dell EMC NetWorker for four years.

This solution is 95% stable.

This solution is scalable. It's easy to scale. The only thing that matters in terms of scalability is the storage for the data domain, e.g. adding the disk and another unit, and that's it.

Support, especially from the Middle East region, is very bad. Sometimes support is good, but it's usually bad.

Setting up Dell EMC NetWorker is not complex. The setup was straightforward.

We implemented this solution internally, with guidance from the Dell team.

The price for this solution is cheaper than other products. The price is the only reason we are renewing, otherwise we'll be moving to Veeam.

I evaluated IBM TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) and Veritas.

We deployed Dell EMC NetWorker to 300 machines. It took us six to seven months to stabilize all issues during the upgrade and complete the deployment.

We only did maintenance for the upgrade and for versions such as the kernel, or the code slash code upgrade, or the version of the software. No major maintenance was needed for this solution.

There are two users in our company working with Dell EMC NetWorker. The backup is a daily process, while administration is not done on a daily basis. For checking and reviewing errors and failures, this solution is used daily.

Usage will depend on the company: how much activity they have and the types of activity they have, e.g. registration or development through IT.

The main reasons we're thinking of switching from Dell EMC NetWorker to another product include the reporting, support, and the bugs. There are so many issues we find annoying which require additional resources.

My advice to people looking into implementing this solution is that for big environments, it's so complicated. For example, for a clustered environment, you have a clustered environment for Oracle RAC, where you have so many firewalls in between, but Dell EMC NetWorker is not mature enough to handle that kind of environment and setup. Oracle RAC works well in big environments, but not this solution. Dell EMC NetWorker would be good for smaller environments where it won't be heavily used. We are an airline company with 300 machines, but we're not comparable to a big company like Google.

My rating for Dell EMC NetWorker is a seven out of ten.

On-premises