Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We use PowerEdge for the virtualization of servers, and it gives us the ability to move server images on and off of the platform very quickly.

The PowerEdge Rack Servers are a go-to for handling high-performance workloads. I've had positive experiences with the amount of computing that it can provide per blade. Currently, the blade that I'm familiar with is the MX740c, which has dual processors and a total of 24 core processors. There are eight of these blades in the MX7000.

It also provides the ability for networking on the backside, which connects to the mezzanine. I currently use the MX5108, which provides four 25 gigabits-per-second connections to each blade. Each 5108 can provide you with a 100 gig uplink to your core. I currently have the MX5108 connected in two fabrics, A fabric, and B fabric. Both A fabric and B fabric are peered using a VLTI.

Then, I have the VLTI from the two blades connecting and uplinking to our distribution core. The distribution core is using a leaf spine. With that, it gives me 400 gigabits of uplink and downlink onto the chassis.

You can't have computed performance without using more power. That said, when I consider the power consumption and performance of the MX740c, depending on how much memory I install on each blade, I get the best bang for my buck. I'm not going to say that it's inexpensive or that it's sufficient. It depends on how hard I am processing, what I am running, how much memory I use, and again, what blades I purchase with the chassis. Overall, it's very flexible, and it depends on what I want to make of it.

With respect to its performance when it comes to running the latest high-demand applications, depending on my selection of hardware, it should be able to run nearly anything I would want. If I want to run Oracle servers on the PowerEdge blades, for example, then I can do that. They'll run it.

Recently, I've seen my use case migrate from the M1000 chassis to the MX7000 chassis. The improvement that I saw was increasing the uplink bandwidth from the M1000, which I was able to get a maximum of 160 gigabits a second, and now my maximum is 400 gigabits a second. I could have selected different switches, but the MX5108 is adequate to provide the uplink bandwidth that I need from the chassis.

Overall, I've seen an improvement in the network bandwidth, as well as an improvement in the speed of the blades and the processors.

The PowerEdge has also helped to reduce data processing time in the company, which makes things run better because it's faster to move data onto the blades. It is also faster when it comes to the deployment of computed images. It's hard to pinpoint how much time we have saved because it also depends on the network infrastructure that's in place. In my experience over the last couple of years, migrating from the M1000 to the MX7000 has moved the deployment of images from a few minutes to several seconds.

The MX7000 gives us the most concentrated amount of computing in the smallest area possible. It also has the ability to provide a large amount of bandwidth to the blades. This is important because it gives the user the ability to move as much data on and off of the blade platforms as quickly as possible.

The iDRAC telemetry is very useful for monitoring the system and providing analytics. You can use commands from the CLI, you can use scripting, you can use the REST interface, or you can use the point-and-click GUI. It's very flexible. I prefer using scripts because I monitor many blades and many chassis. I can script a lot of my monitoring requirements. 

The accelerated GPU feature helps to support demanding workloads that we run. For instance, they provide better performance for remote desktop sessions.

The blades are hot-swappable and in a virtual environment, being able to upgrade your hardware platform easily to better and faster hardware is a benefit.

On the MX7000 platform, they should continue to release better and faster blades.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for the past couple of years.

Stability-wise, this product is solid. We have very little downtime.

I need to make sure that the images that are running on the blades are reliable, and it provides that. Beyond that, I'm happy with the performance.

Scalability is up to the engineer. It is easily scalable depending on what native architecture you use to connect it all together.

I have been in contact with technical support a lot. Sometimes I run into little anomalies that I need an explanation or workaround or fix for, and by bringing it to their attention, they usually get their developers on it and come back with a solution rather quickly.

I would rate the technical support a ten out of ten. We have really good Dell support.

I have worked with other solutions from other vendors, and I like Dell Power Solutions. I worked with them years ago and then went to a different vendor, on a different job course, and in this particular job I've come back to Dell.

I've got to say that Dell hardware and support are very good, and I'm happy with it.

The initial setup is straightforward. For somebody with experience with Dell products, to begin with, it's simple. It's no more complicated than deploying the M1000, which was the predecessor chassis to the MX7000.

I can deploy and network an MX7000 chassis and have all the blades loaded with ESXi within a day. I make use of a lot of my own scripts and usually, I employ a script to mount the ISO images that'll be installed on all the blades through a shell script, and then the script also reboots the blades, and the blades mount the ISO image and install VMware. All of that happens quickly.

After that, I simply put in the network parameters for the ESXi hosts, add the host to the V-center, and then they're ready to go. I already have some predetermined configurations that I use for the network blades, the MX5108s. I use those as a template for all four blades on the back of the MX7000, and simply paste them in. I can usually have all four blades configured within 30 minutes to an hour.

The pricing is very competitive.

When you compare against public cloud solutions, having the compute onsite is always going to be faster. However, that really depends on how big of a pipe your institution or your data center has to the cloud. If you have more bandwidth to the cloud and back, perhaps latency will be less but I don't see how it can be faster than having the compute on site.

This product has built-in security features, although that's up to the system engineers and network engineers to properly upgrade their firmware. They need to follow Dell's baseline release for the chassis to ensure that the firmware and software for the baseline of the blades and the network cards meet the baseline requirements. If you can match those requirements then the security will follow. It's easier to manage when you're baseline is all matched.

Overall, this is a good product but there is always room for improvement.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We continuously expand our data center infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge Servers, deploying virtualization platforms across multiple data centers. As our computing needs grow, we consistently require additional compute resources, leading to ongoing expansion efforts. Each month sees the addition of new PowerEdge Servers to accommodate our evolving requirements.

The most significant benefit we've experienced is the simplicity of working with a single vendor. This streamlined approach has greatly improved our service level experience. Whenever there's an issue, we can quickly reach out to them and receive prompt replacements or support. With ProSupport, the reliability and responsiveness of Dell's support services are truly impressive. We have peace of mind knowing that our technical needs will be addressed swiftly, often with next-day solutions.

Efficiency and power consumption have seen improvements in the last generation of servers. However, it's important to note that these aspects are largely comparable across vendors when utilizing the same hardware components.

The cyber-resilient architecture is a crucial feature, particularly for security purposes. Its inclusion provides reassurance for us as hosts, allowing us to confidently communicate to our customers that we employ this advanced technology in our data centers. This enhances our credibility and serves as a point of trust when engaging with our clients.

PowerEdge Servers have significantly reduced unplanned production data shutdowns, particularly compared to our previous experience with Dell, when we encountered frequent shutdowns due to hardware malfunctions, but with PowerEdge, downtime has been consistently minimal for the past five years. This improvement has greatly benefited both us and our customers, as it allows us to provide services with much better SLAs.

The adoption of the OpenManage Console has impacted our productivity positively as we are currently in the process of rolling it out for our servers.

The standout feature is the remote control accessibility, which allows our team to access and manage the servers locally or remotely. We primarily utilize these servers for virtualization, running VMware to consolidate them into a large data center. This setup perfectly aligns with our specific requirements, and our technical team thoroughly enjoys working with it. We've experienced fewer issues compared to previous hardware solutions from other providers. With PowerEdge servers, our stability has significantly improved.

There might be room for improvement in terms of efficiency, particularly with PowerEdge servers. However, it's worth noting that this issue isn't unique to Dell but rather a general concern across the industry.

We have been using it for almost twenty years.

Stability is paramount, and it's the feedback we consistently receive from our technicians. When we seek their advice on hardware selection for various solutions, they consistently recommend Dell without hesitation.

Scalability is a strong suit, particularly for our high-demand usage scenarios. We leverage storage virtualization with VMware installation, initially setting up nodes with lower capacity. As our needs grow, we can easily expand storage by adding more nodes or increasing capacity. This scalability extends to our infrastructure, allowing for flexible expansion and adaptation as required.

In general, it's common to encounter issues, especially during late hours when support might not be readily available. However, we haven't faced significant problems with our PowerEdge servers. Any challenges we've encountered are more often related to client devices, such as laptops from Dell. When it comes to server support, our experience has been excellent, almost rating it a perfect ten out of ten.

Positive

When comparing Dell PowerEdge servers and services to other options on the market, it's challenging for us to provide a comprehensive evaluation because the majority of our servers in the data center are Dell. Therefore, our main frame of reference is Dell versus alternative solutions. According to feedback from our technicians, Dell is typically preferred over other brands like Dell due to its perceived stability. This comparison is primarily focused on hardware solutions rather than support services.

Deploying Dell PowerEdge servers is straightforward and efficient. It saves us a significant amount of time since it's mostly plug-and-play, with minimal setup required. Our technicians have become accustomed to the process, with approximately fifty percent of the time previously spent on setup now being saved. As we continue to set up numerous Dell servers, we find the process consistently easy and reliable, with no major changes in the setup procedure.

Our primary deployment model for PowerEdge servers revolves around virtualization. While we do have some servers deployed on-premises, the majority are situated in the data center, serving as the backbone for our virtualization solution.

We have a strong agreement in place with our parent company, that typically ensures favorable pricing terms for us, although occasionally we may need to negotiate with Dell representatives for further discounts to provide competitive pricing to our customers.

In our business, we prioritize scalability over a plethora of features. Having identical servers across our infrastructure simplifies support and enhances technician familiarity. This uniformity streamlines processes, making it easier for our team to understand and manage the systems efficiently. Additionally, in our design and digital systems development, we lean towards utilizing Dell for its robust support and scalability, ensuring our solutions can easily scale as needed. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use it in the media industry.

Our customers have numerous benefits, including an array of features such as RAM quantity, CPU power, and storage capacity.

Our energy consumption was quite high five years ago when we were a service provider. Today, over the last two generations, our power consumption has decreased significantly. This reduction is highly beneficial for our operations.

The flexibility is commendable. Whenever we need to perform any task on our records or servers, the process is smooth and swift. In the twenty years of using Dell, we haven't encountered any troubles, problems, or issues, which speaks volumes about the reliability of their products.

The enduring stability and longevity offered by Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers stand out as their most invaluable feature. These qualities enable organizations to deploy and utilize the same server model for extended periods, bolstered by Dell's steadfast guarantee.

The pricing structure could be improved.

I have been using it for over ten years.

Stability is excellent overall. We've encountered only one issue, which pertained to a SAN rather than a server. This occurred due to a peak in energy, affecting the controller within the rack. Nonetheless, stability remains consistent for our servers.

Scalability is truly excellent, as we can start with a certain number of memory units, and when a customer requests additional memory or space, we can easily upgrade. This process is fast and straightforward, making it highly beneficial.

We've relied on tech support for at least twenty years, and every time we've reached out, we've received swift and effective solutions. I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

The advantage of Dell over other vendors lies in the fact that over the course of twenty years, we've consistently opted for solutions that include mission-critical assistance. However, we've only needed to utilize this assistance twice in two decades. This demonstrates the exceptional quality of Dell's hardware, which has been thoroughly tested and proven reliable—an essential feature and service for us.

Deploying was simple. We were assigned directly to the data center. As consultants, we began by working directly in the rack. We initiated the installation process, starting with the hypervisor, and everything proceeded smoothly.

Twenty years ago, we used to purchase directly from Dell. However, they later decided to sell only through partners in Italy. Consequently, when we transitioned to buying from partners, we also became partners ourselves. At present, the pricing seems a bit high for us. While we manage to procure products through competitive bidding, the list pricing remains challenging for us. This difficulty primarily arises when selling to customers, especially medium-sized ones requiring only two or three servers.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We've never had any issues with using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for everything we need. Essentially, they're our go-to brand for servers.

From what I've gathered, it seems that they're heading in the right direction by implementing silicon-based hardware updates, enhancing user access security, and optimizing the supply chain. These developments are sensible, especially for environments like data centers and research facilities, as they prioritize both security and efficiency.

I'm highly impressed by the energy efficiency of Dell PowerEdge Servers. Having worked with servers for a long time, I remember their high power consumption. However, the new Dell products have drastically reduced energy usage, which is not only remarkable but also makes them much quieter.

Primarily, what we value most is the stability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We appreciate the confidence of deploying them in production, knowing they'll perform reliably without any issues.

There might be room for improvement, especially in the software aspect, such as firmware updates. While it's relatively straightforward now, it would be beneficial to have a solution that allows updating the server firmware without taking it offline.

I have been working with it for approximately fifteen years.

It provides excellent stability capabilities.

Scalability isn't particularly relevant to our use case.

Before switching to Dell, we used to rely on HPE servers. Unfortunately, we experienced increasing instability with their hardware over time, particularly noticeable in critical components like storage controllers, which are crucial in my line of work. 

We also encountered numerous issues with the mainboards. As a result, we had to explore alternatives from different vendors. Although we also tried Supermicro servers, which showcased some innovative features at the time, we found Dell to offer better stability overall. While Supermicro was aiming for rapid innovation, they struggled with stability issues in their servers.

We managed the deployment in-house, and it was remarkably straightforward. Setting up the racks and mounting the hardware, including the components inside the servers, was hassle-free. Overall, it was a seamless process.

I believe the return on investment with Dell servers is positive. While I may not have a precise answer, a strong indication for me is the ongoing satisfaction in receiving the necessary components and support from Dell.

Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers mainly for virtualization and as hypervisors.

We are currently converting from VMware to Hyper-V and trying to use Dell's Azure Stack HCI solution to converge the storage instead of using separate storage devices. We have one environment for network storage and computing, which gives us more flexibility and standardization in the solutions.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are reliable with no serious issues. Now, standardization makes things easier in exchanging components and knowledge.

We have a lot of branches. The most valuable feature is standardization because we have a small group of IT resources that need to do the operational tasks. As long as we have standardization everywhere, it's easier to maintain the environment.

The way we can manage the environment through the solution's GUI could be improved. You need different management tools at the moment for doing different things, and it would be helpful if there were one global tool you could use to monitor and manage updates.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for a couple of months.

We never faced any stability issues with the solution.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is a scalable solution.

We previously used HPE Compaq and IBM. We were taken over by another company that was already using Dell, and IBM was quitting with those devices because Lenovo took it over. That's why we switched to the new standard Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The solution's deployment is pretty good, and we used ProDeploy from Dell. We gained a lot of information during the deployment, and it's also been a learning curve for us. It's very helpful that knowledgeable people are doing the ProDeploy so you can also learn about the implementation.

We deployed Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in two weeks.

The solution’s pricing is competitive with other products.

The solution's security by itself is pretty good. The hardening of the server itself is good enough at the moment. We have automation for updates and upgrades that ensure things are tested before they are published instead of running into issues while you do the upgrades.

Our old computers use power supplies of 800 Watts. The new ones were offered twice, 24,00 Watts, which was quite the difference. I'm not saying they are using it, but the fact that they were delivered with 24,00 Watts was shocking because then you think you require more capacity in the data centers, and that isn't the case. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers should improve their power consumption.

We don't currently have very high computing power, so it's standard business applications. When I implement it with Azure Stack HCI, we can hopefully improve the IOPS, using the cluster storage instead of a SAN or a NAS solution.

We discussed technology within Dell during the design phase, which was pretty good. They help us a lot with the sizing of the systems.

Overall, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers an eight out of ten.

We use Dell PowerEdge servers for various purposes, including running databases on Windows platforms, blades, and chassis for high-performance computing. Our VMware environment relies on PowerEdge servers, particularly in the HPC setup, which involves complex networking and interconnects. 

While the infrastructure can be intricate, the consistent performance of Dell servers makes maintenance easier. Coming from a Unix environment, I find the reliability of these servers comparable, if not better, and they require less time for repairs.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been stable and reliable over the last decade.

There is room for improvement in certain aspects of the deployment process as it is a bit complex.

I have been working with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for ten years.

Evaluating the stability of Dell PowerEdge servers, we focus on security patching and follow-ups on vulnerabilities. While our team emphasizes security core aspects, our primary concern is a balance between green IT and cost efficiency. Power and heat consumption are challenges across all brands, mainly influenced by Intel chips. 

The server's reliability in storage is dependent on how storage is divided over multiple storage arrays. Although downtime is required for server replacement, the overall architecture provides a good overview and easy management of multiple servers. 

The stability of Dell PowerEdge servers is excellent, with minimal hardware defects in the last three years. The impact of server maintenance is reduced due to virtualization, allowing easy movement of VMs within the cluster. I would rate the stability as a nine out of ten.

Comparing Dell to Lenovo in our hybrid brand solution for HPC, Lenovo is sometimes a bit more expensive but can be easier to install with less driver complexity. 

Dell, on the other hand, can be cheaper. Dell's recent shift has resulted in a larger data center footprint, but the cost-driven nature of IT decisions often favors the most economical solution. While our return on investment with Dell is generally good, IT views these solutions as costs rather than revenue generators. Overall, the reliability is strong, but our focus remains on minimizing costs.

Deploying Dell servers feels like rocket science, but as a seasoned professional, it is generally straightforward and intuitive for me. I rarely use manuals and rely on my experience. Occasionally, finding the right person with multi-disciplinary knowledge can be a challenge, leading to minor delays. Overall, the experience is good, but there is room for improvement in certain aspects.

Overall, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as an eight out of ten.