NetApp E-Series Reviews

We sell NetApp E-Series as engineered machines like FlexPod, which is used where high throughput and native storage performance are needed without data management software, such as in backup and archiving, especially in sectors like oil and gas. NetApp E-Series is recommended for customers who want a cost-effective solution for their storage portfolio or data environment where they need native storage performance, ease of deployment, ease of management, and a very cost-effective solution.

We propose NetApp E-Series where customers have their own backup software to manage all data performance, ensuring no lag or data management software in that particular storage, making it best used in oil and gas, backup and archiving, and video and surveillance sectors.

NetApp E-Series is essential for applications requiring native performance without lag, such as live recordings and timestamp-based applications in video surveillance, where you cannot afford to lose even a second, especially in security applications and law enforcement where quick time-based responses are necessary. Archiving old videos and streams could require inexpensive storage, and NetApp E-Series is the best fit for that use case due to its storage capacity.

If we select the best use case for NetApp E-Series based on its intended purpose, I would rate it a ten. In scenarios where it is applied correctly, such as with video and surveillance applications, its performance is remarkable and validated through a multitude of successful deployments. I have experience with various OEMs including Dell and Oracle, and I can confidently vouch for its efficacy when used in the right contexts.

NetApp E-Series is a very simple, extremely simple storage that is also very cost-effective, with a per-terabyte cost that is really cheap while being an enterprise solution. This is a feature that makes it simple to deploy, extremely simple to deploy, acting as a plug-and-play system.

SANtricity software is the base storage software for NetApp E-Series, acting on top of the hardware and providing mature storage software features like replication and an easy management layer. This software meets storage admin expectations for easy management, easy deployment, and straightforward RAID configurations so you can focus on the application rather than deploying storage. After initial configuration, RAID configuration, and volume creation per requirements, you should only need to worry about application tasks. SANtricity also supports low-latency performance needs while saving large terabytes or gigabytes of videos and images with time-sensitive conditions. Slow storage will not meet those needs, and you require quick responses, especially in applications requiring timely reactions.

Regarding scalability, I think there is no problem. While there is always room for improvement in any product, to my knowledge, NetApp is a visionary company that enhances product features consistently. They actively respond to new requirements and technology changes requested by customers, improving scalability, management ease, features, and introducing progressive software releases, patches, and upgrades. Scalability does depend on model selection, with entry-level systems being cheaper but able to scale to a certain level, while greater scalability requires higher-end models. For example, NetApp E-Series includes the E600 and EF600 for enterprise-class storage. The FAS series includes models such as 1K, C190, C30, and C70, demonstrating how NetApp evolves based on customer demands and responds proactively to future requirements in storage technology.

From my perspective, I believe any improvement could involve adding another model between the existing entry-level and high-end options in NetApp E-Series since there are presently only two models. This simplicity in offering may help customers, but an in-between model would provide options for those needing mid-range solutions, making NetApp competitive in that space. The FAS and AFF series certainly have more model options based on customer needs and costs, whereas NetApp E-Series needs to expand beyond two choices.

Regarding error handling in NetApp E-Series, because it is a cost-effective but not an intelligent storage solution, the error handling is not sufficient. The system is reliable, but its management is basic as it runs on firmware. In contrast, the FAS series includes numerous tools and software for error handling, providing better troubleshooting support. Therefore, while NetApp E-Series offers reliability due to its cost-effectiveness, there is a trade-off in terms of error management capabilities.

I work with VMware products, including VMware server, ESXi, and my experience is on vCenter Server, ESXi, virtualization, and server-based virtualization environments, which is a part of the whole VMware suite acquired by Broadcom.

VCenter is a product from VMware and serves as a management platform for ESXi where many ESXi servers exist and you want to manage them from a single management platform, providing high-availability features and enterprise features to manage all the ESXi servers.

VSAN is basically another product, a combination of software and hardware that is an engineered product from EMC. It comes from both Dell EMC and VMware, and it is a kind of engineered HCI solution. I am not working with vSAN specifically. In fact, they are our competitors.

We are working with the vCenter server or VMware products, but not with the Dell products. We are providing other solutions with VMware, certified solutions from VMware such as Cisco UCS and NetApp FlexPod, which is also an engineered solution from NetApp, VMware, and Cisco, along with other products in the HCI or CI platform such as Oracle PCA and Oracle Private Cloud Appliance.

In the UCS, we are specifically working with NetApp FlexPod solutions. When it comes to FlexPod solutions, it depends on customer requirements whether a blade chassis is acceptable or server rack-mount machines suffice, as we propose accordingly based on the customer's requirements. If they prefer a condensed environment or lower rack space, we suggest blade chassis solutions, and for heavy compute needs with bigger CPUs and more cores, we propose rack-mount servers. We do not propose a single system; rather, we offer a complete solution from FlexPod that is pre-configured based on customer needs, getting one OEM solution from NetApp for appropriate hardware from Cisco, including networking, the hypervisor, VMware licenses, and storage within that solution, providing a complete engineered solution from one window.

A hybrid cloud environment is a significant concept where you have a storage system integrated with data management software. NetApp E-Series does not come with that built-in data management software, so I would not recommend it for hybrid cloud needs. Instead, I suggest the NetApp FAS series, which includes the FAS and AFF all-flash series that feature internal data management software enabling seamless interactions with cloud service providers through protocols such as S3, all through another operating system from NetApp known as ONTAP, unlike SANtricity which is part of NetApp E-Series.

NetApp E-Series uses traditional RAID technologies, and on top of that, there is Dynamic Disk Pool, which is a commendable feature because it alleviates concerns about disk replacements and offers a self-healing setup alongside traditional RAID configurations such as RAID 1+0, RAID 5, or RAID 6. While these are traditional RAID options also offered in NetApp E-Series, Dynamic Disk Pool is ideal for users wanting to avoid worrying about underlying RAID issues such as disk replacements, and for customers placing critical emphasis on data protection, I would recommend leveraging this feature despite the trade-off that comes with using it where usable capacity is less than with other RAID technologies.

I can see what is going on with this introduction, as it helps gather information regarding those machines I work on.

It involves the entire portfolio from NetApp E-Series.

I am a technician who repairs these machines, and I have been doing it for the last five years.

They use them as block storages.

The Snapshot feature is actually widely used; it is a feature that only NetApp E-Series has and it is quite good.

It functions similarly to a screenshot; it does that with the data and creates an ISO for that. People use it for backup and all other related tasks. You can make a backup for that storage, and after that, you can play it normally. It is a good feature.

As an AZ3 technician with experience in that direction, when I call them, I do not call the first-level support as it is something I do not need. I call them because I am not able to resolve that mistake or when the behavior of the machine is not normal.

If you need an auto support message from the customer machine, you can get them from the first level, but most of the time, they do not know what an auto support message is, and everything stops there. You have a few of them when you call, and when we are replacing something in NetApp E-Series. StorageGRID is different, but with NetApp E-Series, you need to grab information from the node that is actually down; in most cases, the node is not in loader. It is entirely gone. You can try to reseat it, maybe boot it up, but in most cases, when it is down, it stays down. You call support for that, and that is when you lose two or three hours.

I have been working with this solution for the last five years.

Issues happen all the time.

It all depends on infrastructure; how many shelves and how the customer infrastructure is involved, but to build it and install it takes maybe a day. It depends on what you need, such as planning, and whether you are involved, or if it is just hardware. It is about a day job because planning and implementation in a customer environment takes more time than installing only the hardware or rack and stack.

With NetApp E-Series, you have two controllers and two power supplies. It is normally a shelf-storage; you have a disk in front and nodes behind. One person can do it alone, but a second pair of hands is helpful.

It depends on the time when you are calling them. When you get Indian support, you might have to wait. When they answer, I cannot say they are all inadequate, but actually 80% of them seem poorly trained.

As an AZ3 technician with experience, when I call them, I do not call first-level support as I do not need it. I call because I cannot resolve an issue or when machine behavior is abnormal. When replacing something in NetApp E-Series, you need to grab information from the down node, but most times the node is completely gone. You can try to reseat it or boot it up, but usually when it is down, it stays down. Calling support in these situations results in losing two to three hours.

Positive

Other

From my point of view as an installation engineer for similar systems from Fujitsu, I find it easy because of the centricity and everything. This machine is great when the administrators know what they are doing.

It is all user-friendly to use, but the administrators need to know what they are doing. Everything is self-answering. When you open the GUI, the first step is to put the machine into maintenance mode, and after that, you can do what you need to do.

They can use it as I repair it and also work at Fujitsu. We have storage in our portfolio because they can make one port only for a technician to use. It is a maintainer port, so we are not actually waiting on an administrator all the time. We can go on site, do our work, put a machine into maintenance mode, take it out, do our replacement, put it back in, and boot it up. They can use information from Fujitsu regarding that because their team is knowledgeable without switching, though it is not the same machine.

There are alternatives from HP AB, Fujitsu, and different manufacturers. Pure Storage has something in that direction, almost the same, but that is in a different league that you would not want to work with.

The support team is there when you call them. There is a waiting line, and when you talk with them, you get many disturbances and disturbing noise in the background. When working in a rack or data center with server noise, it is quite difficult to understand them.

Regarding support quality, 20% of them you can rely on, but the rest are only for transferring calls. A direct number for second-level support would be better. When tech personnel are on-site, we do not need first-level support. We need only second-level support because we have action plans for first-level issues. When stuck with a problem and the machine is not behaving properly, you need somebody who actually knows. Getting through first level to second level takes two hours minimum.

US support deserves a rating of 10, but Indian support would get a 2. When I get Indian support, I know things will go sideways.

Considering the pricing of NetApp E-Series products and maintenance, they should be capable of providing better support because that is something expected from a company of this caliber.

I would rate NetApp E-Series an eight. It is good, but cannot get a 10 because some initial steps are complicated.

Overall review rating: 7 out of 10.

Until today, we have mostly used NetApp E-Series, EMC, and IBM Fusion.

We use it in the finance industry for enterprise deployment.

It depends upon the application we are looking at, such as OpenShift and NAS4 solutions. It has to satisfy the NAS4 seamlessly. Active-active and active-standby failover mechanisms and copies to Hall one, Hall two, and the DR locations are essential. It should handle the backend asynchronous copies and synchronous copies seamlessly without impacting the applications.

Particularly when volume growth occurs, we dynamically allocate volumes into OpenShift so that elastic stretch of replica and horizontal scalers are supported on the pod level and at the volume levels.

We use it extensively in other storage arrays, but recently there have been many changes. Whenever we are doing a POC with any new product, we examine these aspects.

With NetApp E-Series, when we are running active-active NAS4, sometimes due to either an issue or a bug, we experience failures. At least twice yearly, we have seen this issue. When it occurs, we lose critical systems such as MQ.

The toolkits were much easier compared to EMC.

We have been using the solution for almost 15 or 10 years. We work with middleware storage solutions for high volume messaging systems and Kafka type products.

With NetApp E-Series, when running active-active NAS4, sometimes due to either an issue or a bug, we experience failures. At least once or twice yearly, we have seen this issue. When it occurs, we lose critical systems such as MQ. This could be related to patching practices or the upgrading model we implement.

There should be a support case open from the corporate already on the NetApp E-Series site.

Positive

We used to use EMC, which had a couple of issues. We switched to NetApp E-Series primarily for NAS4 capabilities.

A storage team set it up for us, and the NetApp E-Series support engineers were present during the setup.

A storage team set it up for us, and the NetApp E-Series support engineers were present during the setup.

I deal with data storages, and we were evaluating some products. I recently received one for POC evaluation scheduled for this month or next month.

We work with multiple platforms, which makes it difficult to focus on just one platform.

The overall experience has been positive.

I rate NetApp E-Series an 8 out of 10.

The NetApp E-Series has two models in Hybrid Flash (E2800, E5700), and two in All Flash (EF300, EF600).

Importantly, All-Flash models also support one 24-drive shelf for NVMe disks!

These models (EF300, EF600) also support adding SSD, SAS, and SATA disk shelf(s) later on. However, all models are highly scalable reliable, and cost-effective. For example, E2800 entry-level can be scaled up to 1.8PB!

The primary use case(FC-SAN and IP-SAN only) would be where the customer is looking for native storage performance(low latency) cost-effective solutions. Media and entertainment,  Video Surveillance, Oil and gas, and Big Data Analytics would be the best fit for E-Series Storage Solutions. The NetApp E-Series is also the best choice to use as backup and recovery storage.

NetApp E-Series can improve an organization's productivity by optimizing performance and capacity requirements with minimum cost. They will get an enterprise-grade storage system with the cost of almost buying a disk drive!

If the solution is designed correctly then customers will also get a very low initial cost with a highly scalable, available, and flexible solution. The capacity upgrade is also found significantly cost-effective and at the same time flexible. The storage deployment and management are very simple.

The E-2800 and E5700 have built-in storage to storage replication for full capacity!

By that it meant; customers do not need to worry about DRS.

All of the E-Series models offer all RIAD types, 1, 10, 5, 6, etc; so you will get more flexibility to create RAID groups based on your application requirements.

The other thing is that it is almost plug-and-play; it is a good friend for storage support engineers. Secondly, at the same time, it is very simple to create RGs, Volumes, and host mappings; so for customers, it is also simple and easy to perform storage admin-related tasks.

Generally, improvement might be required in all human-made products. So, based on my personal experience with reference to NetApp E-Series storage solutions, NetApp should add more models to offer more choices for customers. In particular, there is no midrange model in their E-series portfolio.

Moreover, when designing a cost-effective storage solution, we need to have more choices to accommodate different customers' needs.NetApp also needs to improve hardware failure error handling in the E-Series portfolio . However, FAS/AFF comes with significantly better error handling and reporting.

We have been selling NetApp Products as partners for the last 10+ years.

The product is very stable.

High availability and reliability are core features of the NetApp E-series storage solution keeping the solution cost-effective too.

The product's scalability depends upon the model you pick(E2800, E5700, EF300, or EF600).  The solution is scalable, for example, entry-level E2800 can be scaled up to 1.8PB. The scalability depends on the model selected. However, there is no horizontal scalability option in NetApp E-series.

It's very good.

Positive

No, not exactly, but in most of the cases, it was server-based storage being used previously.

The E series is easier to set up than even the FAS series. One could say that it's already set up storage. There is no complication to the initial configuration or the setup. The product is very simple to deploy.

We are partners, we deploy solutions for our customers.

You should design a solution based on the requirements; doing so will surely end up with a very cost-effective solution at the beginning.

The E-Series solution is basically made with less initial cost in mind; in other words, low-cost pet TB of storage space. So, customers already saving money when they buy it.

As per my understanding, the question of ROI stands where the customer is investing a significant amount of money from the beginning.

The E series is cheaper than the FAS series by about 20-30%.

The E series is competitively priced, even compared to Huawei storage, which might be cheaper than any storage.

NetApp FAS series was evaluated, but the E-Series was found the best fit as the customer(s) was asking for a cost-effective solution with native storage performance.

E-Series is made for SAN environments only, either IP-SAN or FC SAN.

My customers are satisfied with the performance.

Though the performance is there, if NetApp wants to be competitive with the others, it must improve their business continuity ability. Right now, we see that, for NetApp AFF, we can do a network installation with SaaS, but we don't have that kind of functionality with the E-Series verification. E-Series also needs to have a little bit more automation.

I've worked with this solution for more than 20 years.

The price is reasonable for NetApp E-Series.

Instead of NetApp E-Series, I would probably look on the side of some products from Dell or HPE, but I prefer the E-Series. What I like about NetApp is that there are mostly two kinds of products: E-Series and SANtricity on one side just for SAN and block, and capacity and performance. And then, if we need more functionality, we have ONTAP with SaaS and AFF. But the game is simple with NetApp. It's a bit more confusing with Dell or HPE because there are too many storage products in their portfolio. Plus, they even have two kinds of solutions for ITO conversion. That kind of solution is another way to address storage needs. Likewise, sometimes it's a bit difficult because when you have a customer, you have to propose one solution and not four of a kind.

I rate NetApp E-Series an eight out of ten. They need to improve automation and business continuity.

They have a gateway with other products coming from ONTAP to use cloud storage in Azure and AWS, and so on. That's good for hybrid clouds. I would focus on automation and business continuity because, for products like NetApp Insight, there are a lot of tools to administer and follow the storage during its lifecycle. It's quite easy to use and has some information about the array of storage uses. This functionality is useful, especially on primary storage rather than backups, since customers always ask for business continuity.

The solution is mainly used as a database. We use it for mission-critical systems.

I installed the system three years ago. Till today, we have faced no problems.

The performance is very good. It is enough for us. We use the snapshot feature. The user interface is very good. The product is easy to use. Any IT personnel can make standalone setups. It is easy to integrate. If we want to use a VMware setup, the tool has a VMware profile. It also has different profiles for SQL and Windows clusters.

The solution must provide more training courses. I have a team of nine people. Three or four of them are administrators. They need to learn the solution. It would be helpful if NetApp provided a free certificate course for administrators.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The tool is very reliable and stable. I rate the reliability a ten out of ten.

The tool is scalable. We can expand the size if we want. It is easy to integrate and expand the data. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

I am very satisfied with the support team. We call the support team whenever we have a problem or want to upgrade the system.

We connect the HBA connectors to directly attach the tool to our Windows cluster or Linux systems. We manage the NetApp systems separately because we do not have a management system to manage all our solutions. We only have monitoring systems to monitor all the topology. It is very easy to install the system. The system can be set up in one hour.

We have used HPE MSA. We tested different storage like Hitachi and Dell EMC and chose NetApp.

We manage the tool only when we connect to the system’s interface. It is dedicated to SAN storage. It is enough for us if it is stable. NetApp’s market is growing in Turkey. They have a lot of space to grow in Turkey. The vendor must work more on their marketing in Turkey. Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.