Dell EMC Unity XT reviews

I really like the true unified storage box.

We use it as block storage. We are hosting Video on Demand Service and it is doing pretty well. Previously, VNX required separate hardware to support file based storage which is not required anymore.

To the best of my knowledge, migration from VNX to Unity without VPLEX/RecoverPoint is not available right now. If Dell/EMC will do this, then I would give them a rating of 10/10.

We have used it for seven months.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 10/10.

We used to deploy VNX5200. We moved to a new box due to technology improvements.

The initial setup was straightforward. We present our all storage to EMC VPLEX and then VPLEX presents the storage to hosts.

Pricing is relatively good compared to other vendors with the same specifications.

We have compared HPE 3PAR, Huawei OceanStor, and Lenovo Storage.

For greater efficiency, use SSD, SAS, and NL-SAS with FAST.

Use at least 10-20% SSD of whole storage, 20-30% of SAS, and the rest with NL-SAS. This will give you good performance as well as provide you with a cost-effective solution.

We saved money by moving off old storage and we gained extra capacity and speed.

• I appreciate the great performance with flash drives, 12Gb SAS connections, and the 16Gb fibre channel.
• I like the easy management with the new Unisphere management and the HTML5 interface.
• All this comes with a smaller footprint, with the main unit taking 2U instead of 8U.

The storage processors have less port expansion than previous high-end VNX arrays. Data compression is only available in all-flash pools.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

Technical support was good. I can create a case online or have a chat with an EMC support engineer.

We used to deploy EMC VNX. But we needed more speed and capacity.

The initial setup was straightforward. Disk Array Enclosure (DAE) cabling is different than VNX. Otherwise, it is easy.

Licensing is easy since all the software is included.

We evaluated Nimble, NetApp, and Compellent.

I recommend that you purchase five years of maintenance up front. EMC tends to increase maintenance significantly in years four and five.

• Fiber channel connectivity
• Fast cache features
• Support of VVOLS
• 10GB NICs
• Support of high performance and rapid provisioning/expansion options
• Deployment time is quick from unboxing to setup
• Scalable
• Supports both small environments and larger deployments
• Supports hosts connected via fiber channel directly to the unit without the need for fabric switches

Unity 300 is now the go-to storage device we use as we virtualize our infrastructure.

The SAN currently exceeds our requirements in terms of performance. We have estimated for 30% growth per year for three years. The configuration purchased had storage capacity and performance to match these requirements.

EMC provided a slightly alternative solution using all-flash negating all disk I/O, latency, and contention issues. We have seen a huge performance increase due to all-flash that is beyond what was anticipated. In three years, when the storage is close to its limits capacity-wise, performance will be greater than necessary.

The SAN provided by EMC exceeded our expectations. The only room for improvement I can see would be a faster leader time and lower cost. However, even with the lead time we had (which was approximately 10 days at the time of order) and cost we are very satisfied with the product.

I have used EMC Unity since June, 2016.

We have not had any stability problems.

We have not had any scalability problems.

Technical support is excellent. They have rapid response teams, ESRs, and the EMC account managers are always available.

We had no previous SAN solution.

The initial setup was very simple and instructions were provided in both documents and video tutorials.

Licensing ranges from $20K plus for a decent configuration. AFA configurations start at about $25K.

We looked at multiple vendors including NetApp, HPE, IBM, and Nimble.

There is currently a long lead time on 3TB SSD disks due to a shortage of materials in the USA.

• Stability
• Simplicity
• Speed

I’m a Dell/EMC partner, not a customer. In my all installations, customers were very satisfied. Unity has shown improvements over VNX.

For example, the graphic management has become HTML5, and the datamover(s) and control station(s) are not physical. They support VVOL.

In the management interface, you can only create one LUN at a time. This is resolved in last(s) unity version, DellEMC resolve this…
I also want to see inline deduplication in future Unity versions.

I have used the product for six months.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

Overall, it is very good.

I´m a Dell/EMC partner, not a customer.

The initial setup was very simple.

Read a little bit about the product and its purpose. The implementation itself is simple.

• Fully automated storage tiering (FAST) cache capabilities. This allows some FLASH drives to be used to improve the overall performance and reduce the cost of the array versus an all flash or old style spinning disk array.
• Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE). This feature MUST be enabled after the purchase of the array. It has very little impact on performance and does not affect any of the functionality of the array. We advise always including D@RE on the arrays. You need to consider this upon ordering the array.

The lack of deduplication reduces some of the competitiveness compared to other products. The unity platform does not use data deduplication. This is a data-reduction technology to save space on the array.

I have used it for three months

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I have not yet encountered any scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 7/10, given recent issues that arose.

During the merger process with Dell, many of the cases were handled out of India with less expertise than in the past.

The initial setup is very straightforward. There is a wizard that guides you through the process.

Licensing would be easier if it would be more automated. The current process slows the installation as you have to go and get the license from EMC in the middle of the deployment.

Pricing seems very competitive. A majority of the required options come with the base licenses.

We were able to consolidate from multiple types of disks into a single group of disks of the same speed. Now, we do not have to worry about preparing pools of disks for each server application. Instead, they are all using the same disks but getting a faster response due to the nature of the solid-state drives.

I like the fact that you can use a solid-state array (all-flash array) for your servers. It has a very intuitive web console that runs in HTML5 and makes navigation and administration fairly easy.

This product lacks deduplication and compression at the current version 4.1.0. LACP is not available for iSCSI either.

The previous version to 4.1.0 caused the array to stop responding during the code upgrade.

We have had no scalability issues so far.

The merger between Dell and EMC caused some issues with support tickets not getting assigned properly. The last few months the support has improved.

Although, we cannot compare them one to one, we were using Celerra NS-480 and now we are using EMC Unity. The main reason, we switched platforms was due to EMC end-of-life support for the Celerra NS-480 as December 31, 2016.

The initial configuration was quick since we took time to prepare the project plan that states what we need to start the installation. We had some challenges when connecting the ESRS gateways to monitor and manage these arrays.

This unit is one of the cheapest storage all-flash arrays in the market and it does well for what it is intended. It can be combined for both file and block storage.

I looked into EMC VNX, NetApp, Isilon, Qumulo, Pure Storage, Nimble Storage, and Tegile.

Learn about the product and its capabilities. If you are unsure whether this will handle your workload, my suggestion is to get a proof-of-concept with your preferred value added reseller. Move some workload to it and test the performance. There is nothing worse than buying a unit that won’t perform as you expect it.

It decreased the amount of time to deploy and we recognized the ROI quicker. The ability to use a single piece of hardware simplifies the overall administration.

Unified block and file storage without the need of control stations and data movers. This simplifies administration and deployment and requires less rack space.

• Increased flexibility in the GUI to provision storage easier
• Include cloud-based replication for blocks

We didn’t encounter any stability issues.

We didn’t encounter any scalability issues.

Technical support was pretty good. However, the Dell/EMC merger has been challenging across the board.

We were using EMC VNX. We switched because this was a newer version of an aging technology.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy. It is simple with a single IP. It recognizes arrays without pre-populating with IP addresses.

The price is good for commercial grade storage arrays. Licensing has changed to be more advantageous for users.

We didn’t have any alternatives in mind.

If you are looking for a unified solution for block and file and to be competitive in the all-flash market, this is the product to choose.

• Inline compression
• Auto-shrink
• Data in-place upgrades

Definitely the biggest requirement is deduplication. The EMC Unity Platform doesn’t have this feature, yet it was a part of the predecessor VNX series. Customers cannot afford to keep duplicates of data on such a tier.

We have used it for about six months with multiple deployments during this period.

The operating environment is very stable. I have no complaints and no bugs were noticed so far.

All the models in the series/family have a specific range of scalability. I believe there never was an issue on this, its predecessors, or with the Unity.

SAN is a scale-up technology. Usually when a system needs to be upgraded to handle more workloads or requires to scale up more than the existing systems’ capability, you do not need to do a traditional "fork-lift" upgrade. You do not need to get a bigger SAN and then do the traditional migration from the old SAN to the new one.

You can simply replace the existing storage processors one at a time with a higher model SP and voila, you’re done! Now you’re upgraded from model A to model B with higher scalability and better configurations.

I would give them a rating of "11/10".

I have worked with NetApp, Dell Compellent, Dell EqualLogic, and HPE EVA systems.

• Dell: Too complicated for configuration and management utilization
• NetApp: A very good product when it comes to a file environment. However, they are quite restrictive with their block protocols.
• HPE EVA: Not as reliable as a NetApp or EMC.

The initial setup was simple and straightforward with a friendly interface, wizard driven, and no extra utilities required.

Unity is a good product since all the software required is already bundled.

We previously evaluated Compellent, EqualLogic, MD series, NetApp FAS, Nimble and HPE EVA.

Go for it!