Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

Currently, we have some database loads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I can name the database as Sequel. We are just getting into running AI workloads on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The feature I appreciate the most about Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is their reliability; they are very reliable servers. In terms of customization, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very highly customizable and we appreciate that feature.My impression of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers' impact on our organization's sustainability goals is good; they are helping out. Using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers has helped me to reduce unplanned production downtime by 100%. We used to use Lenovo and IBM servers, and with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would say we have at least 20% better reliability and more uptime.In terms of stability, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable, with no lagging or crashing.

I don't have any dislikes about the solution. The pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers would be absolutely better. Regarding energy consumption, we haven't really focused on that; it's not our primary goal, so I can't provide any information on that.

We use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for our server infrastructure, and I have been using them over the last 20 years.

Regarding scalability, it's excellent with 100% effectiveness.

The quality of support from IBM and Lenovo is good; they are helpful, easy to reach, and providing value, so it's worth getting extra support.

Positive

We used to use Lenovo and IBM servers.

The initial deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers was easy from my point of view; I've been doing this for 20 years. The first time I deployed it, it took me a few hours to put it in working condition.

I handled this deployment myself; it was just me.

To be honest, we're more concerned about providing the right solution for the organization rather than controlling costs associated with technology lifecycle management, so cost isn't as important.

I have tried using alternatives to Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in my career overall. I can name IBM and Lenovo as the solutions I have used.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are usually reasonably priced; they're not the cheapest, but I think it's worth a shot and worth checking out. To my colleagues considering purchasing a Dell PowerEdge Rack Server instead of a hyperscaler, I'd say that even though the hyperscaler is trendier and a lot of people go there, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers still offer a lot of work and can provide significant value to the organization. I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of ten.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for more than a year, and I also have one for personal use. I use it with Hyper-V as a server to make virtual machines. Beyond that, I use it with Active Directory, print server, and backup server functionality. It is mainly used for everything related to virtualization.

The iDRAC is a feature I find very useful because every time I needed to do certain things, by using iDRAC everything was gathered together. I am on my own site, so I have not really had the opportunity to test it remotely, but on-site, I have everything at my fingertips. In terms of usefulness, that is where I struggled the least when I needed more information. I always found everything I needed when I went through iDRAC. As long as it works, I stick with it.

It mainly improves organization when there is a failure because I need it in terms of speed. On the server side, most of the time I have to start the application and search. On iDRAC, I find things much more easily. As I use it more and more, I go faster over time. It is not necessarily me who configures everything at the various clients. The difference is that each server, each client, will set up their own favorites and taskbar icons. Whereas with iDRAC, I do not modify it, everything is in its original state, so we know where to find things, and it is not arranged according to each client's preferences.

I do not know what could be improved in general for Dell PowerEdge R-Series right now. I may not have enough hindsight to know the features I am missing or that I would like to have in future versions. That is also why I do not have any ideas at the moment. Later on, I might get back with suggestions next year when I need it.

Otherwise, I have not had any negative points so far. I was trying to find an option in iDRAC and re-downloaded it from the Dell site. The option still was not there. I felt as though I had not changed the version. Maybe it is on the website itself where it shows that there is this or that option, or maybe it was a plugin I was missing, but I do not remember the name.

For example, I have an old R230, and I have a problem with a fan. I cannot determine that the fan needs attention without putting the alarm on this fan. This puts the whole server in an error state, even though the problem does not come from the fan because it has been replaced. It is really on the motherboard side, and investing in a motherboard on a server that is a bit old is a bit wasteful. If I could have directly in iDRAC, in the options where the alarms are, really disabled everything that was alarms, that would have prevented the fans from running at full speed. From an admin point of view, I could have disabled it and said that the others were working, or even at a pinch, if three are needed at minimum, it is not a big deal to move it to four. You would still have the same cooling system. That is the only flaw I have to this day.

There was a leased PC product, unfortunately. However, when I called support, I know that for the warranty, the technician came very quickly. I think that if that had been for a server, it would be the same because I do not think they have different services with different field technicians. When I needed to go through support, it was quite fast and the appointment was kept.

Positive

I wanted to start up my local language model locally and I am waiting to solve my server problem so I can deploy it. I wanted to try running my local language model with retrieval-augmented generation, and unfortunately, I have to wait. I will try it on it, even if it is on old hardware that will respond much more slowly. I am still going to test this solution, even if it is on old hardware.

Because it is modular, depending on what is needed, I can scale up more or less depending on the various companies. There is quite a wide range. For all Dell products, having worked with all three brands—HPE, Lenovo, and Dell—at the business level, the leasing solutions they offer allow companies to adapt according to what they can do and invest in a fleet where about 25% of PCs are replaced each year. That is still a budget to put out. On the server side, each time they are replaced, we always manage to find solutions that are modular according to their needs.

In my case, where companies do not necessarily have an IT team present every day, having tools Dell Support installed keeps everything up-to-date. Once all the tools, for example Dell Support, are installed, the support for everything related to updates, once it is installed, when Windows Update runs automatically, you are going to get the updates when Dell releases them. This keeps everything up each time, and if I am not there, it will run. There are some things that are critical where Microsoft automatically triggers their reboot, and that sometimes causes some yelling, but it still allows updates to be done. That is a tool that is pretty good for a company that does not necessarily have an on-site IT department.

Based on what I see in the field, it is where I have the fewest problems, so that already was major. My preference goes that way. For other hardware, when I need to reimage workstations, with Dell I go directly with the Dell-made PXE via the download. I really start again from scratch. It is still easier to reimage back to factory state than to go through the other two. With Dell, it just goes by itself.

For me, it is more for my clients because the less time I spend fixing problems that should not exist, the more I can sit down and really focus on real, concrete problems. When it is really user problems that normally we should not have, that matters.

Depending on how you order your server, you do not keep the server for ten years, although some will keep it for ten years. Mainly I try to keep it for about five years, and that is a good average. I try to see over five years whether the company will need to replace it. Mine must be ten or fifteen years old. That is why, for small and medium enterprises, if I aim for five years when ordering it, I will try to get one that is a bit more powerful so that if they grow, they still have something in reserve. I did not change it because something was lacking. Each time it has changed, it is really based on the number of years.

I gave it a nine because I have not had any issues as such. That is because, with the download, they said there was the option in the package that was not there anymore. Maybe it was because they had not updated the website. My overall rating for this product is 9.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers are used for different use cases, including now in a Dell APEX model for virtualization. The VMware environment runs on these servers. The servers are used for backup, and the Veeam backup infrastructure has been organized based on Dell servers.

Since there has not been much contact with AI yet apart from Copilot from Microsoft, the considerations regarding its use with Dell PowerEdge R-Series are only just beginning. If the organization continues to rely on Dell servers, the PowerEdge servers, or if there are other series that are supposed to be better for AI, those will come into play again.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series demonstrates tremendous robustness, which is one of the main reasons for continued use. Over many years, there have been maybe one or two minor defects. Support is great when needed. The sales consulting is top-notch, and the delivery speed from Dell with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is incredibly good.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series has very good management functions and remote management functions that, with many others, first have to be purchased additionally at high cost, and this is really practical.

Basically, without Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, it is difficult to do anything for small and medium-sized companies. If the price-performance aspect is right, then they contribute something to the success of the company.

The price-performance ratio with Dell PowerEdge R-Series has always been very good. Everything needed is in the servers.

What has become really bad with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is the support in India. The people there have a very hard-to-understand accent and the technology they work with is very cheap headsets with very poor connections, and they appear to be sitting in a train station from the way it sounds. Doing support with them is not enjoyable, so if you have to rely on Indian support, it is not a success factor.

Quite often recently, support has been routed to India, but those were mostly software issues, recently with VMware topics. Over the course of the day, either the service is the best there is or the service is bad, but nothing in between. The uncertainty of which region will handle support, whether the UK, the USA, or elsewhere, is concerning. On the last call, the last update was carried out via India and went completely wrong. The start was 8 a.m. and it was supposed to last six to eight hours. The call finished the next day at approximately 9 a.m. During that time, I was transferred by phone all around the world, and only when I got out of India did solutions start to come.

One time with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, there was a defective RAM module and one or two power supplies that broke, which were probably caused more by external influences than by production faults, so nothing negative can be said about the servers.

On a scale of one to ten for support, since it is mixed and there is an American system, a seven sounds fair. In Germany, since Dell has American standards, a seven for them is already a concern that needs to be followed up on regarding what is not okay. Cheap is not always better.

Positive

Before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the previous solutions were probably Fujitsu Siemens or self-built servers, but the organization has been with Dell for a long time because it just runs well.

The reason for switching to Dell PowerEdge R-Series was because the systems were flawless in terms of price-performance, and the support was affordable. For the organization, it always comes down to price-performance, and Dell has always scored tremendously in that respect and is still keeping that up.

Installing or commissioning Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers is especially straightforward thanks to the pre-configured images from Dell. The installation images are basically idiot-proof. If you can follow instructions, you can do it. It is a similar level to following complex assembly instructions. Halfway through, you may dismantle again and reflect once more.

Servers are basically only licensed against software, which means you have to license the software. The servers themselves rarely have their own licenses, so licensing questions specific to Dell PowerEdge R-Series compared to other servers do not quite make sense in that context. The review rating given for this product is ten out of ten.

Everything from bare metal to ESXi host, any kind of hypervisor is what I've used Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for. 

Currently, we are using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for AI initiatives; one of our projects I cannot discuss, however, it has been really good. Everything about it, including the Redfish hooks and the automation, is very easy and streamlined for the AIs regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

The iDRAC is the most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers; the out-of-band management is absolutely fantastic, especially when you institute roles that prevent access to the data center, and being able to do it remotely is fantastic. 

Initial setup, troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance have benefited the organizations I work with since everything has been more streamlined, especially when you add OME into it. Whether it's connected to the internet or not, the on-prem versions still function fantastically.

For the internal SD card of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I would add driver packs so that when you're trying to image bare metal, you don't have to worry about trying to find all the drivers you need to install whatever OS it could be, specifically in our environments in the fed space, since trying to use USB devices is difficult, so adding things on the USB stick and plugging them in for drivers is most of the time not possible.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for probably eight years now.

The resiliency and stability of the products are fantastic. We have devices that have been around until end-of-life, but we're still using them for things, so stability has been great with very minimal issues. When issues occur, it's usually a hard drive failure, which is expected, so I think it's excellent.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very flexible, whether you're doing a vSAN ready node or whatever may be your hyperscale of choice, because they scale easily, and adding them into whatever environment you have is straightforward.

Customer support is usually really good for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. My only complaint would be if you're calling the specific fed line, sometimes they don't transfer you, and they want to get information that you can't give them before they do, even if you call the dedicated fed line, which is not always consistent, depending on the time of day.

The support is actually a big part of it when evaluating other solutions. The warranty support and keeping your hard drive for the fed space is key. Typically, the contacts we have on-site are very knowledgeable, they come in within a day and usually have it fixed and taken care of if there are issues. Even when they don't need something replaced, they usually suggest helpful troubleshooting steps, and it's usually really good support.

Positive

It's really easy to deploy. It's pretty straightforward. Whether you're having it automated through OME and it's pushing your configs or you're doing it just directly connecting into your iDRAC. Out of all the devices I've used in the industry, it's probably the easiest I've used. 

I actually work for a value-added reseller, and I support many federal customers, which means my organization is a giant. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a nine out of ten.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers involves storage, virtualization, and server support.

The features of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers that I find most valuable include the ability to have different servers and different services hosted on one server, and the ability to connect them between other storage servers or appliances. These features definitely provide additional value to the end user, customers, company, and are reliable within the time frames that customers and clients demand.

Looking at the new models, they have greatly improved the cooling system, which is a significant advantage. In my experience, there were times when components overheated, but they have improved that aspect.

One area where Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers could improve is integration. The BYO feature, which allows users to bring their own license, is a particularly good aspect of the system.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 10 years at my current company. Our company has been using PowerEdge for at least 20 years.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very stable overall. The support, components, and OS are all reliable. We have experienced occasional downtimes, crashes, or performance issues, but nothing serious. When we need hardware replacement, such as RAM or a hard drive, the support is very fast.

To expand the usage of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we simply have added more servers and equipment.

I would evaluate the support from Dell as exceptional. They have highly capable and trained personnel who are knowledgeable. We have a very good relationship with them, and they maintain transparency regarding reported issues and solutions.

Positive

We have Pure Storage, which we implemented less than two years ago, alongside Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We chose Pure Storage based on the benefits of flash storage and rapid support. As a global company, everything our corporate office decides is replicated to all locations around the globe, which is one of the key differences.

The deployment is typically very smooth. We haven't had many issues. Usually, when we deploy a server with PowerEdge, it's a very smooth transition.

We started leasing with Dell, which has provided good CapEx and budgeting return financially. We are on a 16-month lease. One of the advantages is that we don't pay the CapEx immediately, and it allows us to have the latest Dell technology after three or five years, depending on our leasing contract.

When trying to quote devices and servers for our Mexico City offices directly with Dell instead of through a partner, we encountered some challenges. It took several months to negotiate appropriate pricing, requiring escalation to the director of Dell Mexico and communication with Dell US. Eventually, we reached an agreement with satisfactory pricing.

We are currently at the early stage of AI usage. However, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers will definitely play a part in our AI-driven initiatives in the future. Currently, we haven't applied AI on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as it's still in development. It will be part of our future development of AI. We are planning to focus on automation.

For companies considering Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, I recommend relying on Dell technology and their expertise. The innovation that Dell offers is crucial.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as nine out of ten.

My use case for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is running virtual machines mostly. We have one that I just deployed that is running Hyper-V and this is the first time we have had to deal with Hyper-V. 

It is going to be more or less the same thing, running virtual machines.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is pretty much the same thing that I mentioned with PowerStore: the simplicity, the resiliency, and the fact that it just works. 

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers benefit me because if I'm not having to use my time to troubleshoot something, I can use that time to implement new technologies for the company and similar tasks. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been one of those things where I can set it and forget it. It just does its job and rarely ever has issues. Time saved equals new technologies for the company to use.

If I could improve Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in any way, it would be something with OpenManage itself. I need more transparency on how OpenManage can help me with our company being an SMB. I want more documentation for SMBs regarding Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for twelve years.

I haven't had any downtime, crashes or performance issues with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. We've had downtime but it's usually when we're upgrading something. It's never been downtime because the servers themselves need to be troubleshooted or anything similar.

For a small-medium business, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have supported our growth probably because of how easy it is to scale with them, as we have grown exponentially. We went from a company of just 200 users to a company of over 600 in just five years. Just increasing the amount of servers that we got has been easy.

I may have used the customer service or support for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers maybe nine years ago. I honestly can't even remember what it was about, but I think I've only really had to use it once. We still pay for support all the time, but it's nice to not have to use it.

Positive

I believe we've always used Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. Even when I came on board, my previous experience with my previous company was with Dell PowerEdge and when I came on board it was all Dell PowerEdge also.

I was part of the deployment of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers.

I have seen some return on investment, but since I'm not a finance person, that's not something I'm able to answer beyond peace of mind.

For servers, I have not evaluated any other vendors and have no interest in doing so.

I feel Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers specifically caters to the needs of SMBs. There's a reason why I don't have any experience with any other vendors in terms of servers, just because I don't want to not use Dell PowerEdge. 

On a scale of one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten.

My main use case for everything that is Nutanix is VDI, and we also have the database server afterwards and RDS servers, with multiple use cases.

The standout feature for me is Dell's iDRAC management interface. It is significantly better than what some competitors offer. Since our data centers are located off-site, iDRAC provides us with full remote access to the entire system configuration, which is an essential advantage for our operations.

We have access to everything remotely at the iDRAC level, which is really good.

What I think could be improved about Dell PowerEdge R-Series is lower prices; otherwise, in terms of functionality, with the configuration we order, we have what we want, so I don't really have any improvement that quickly comes to mind.

I have been working in my current field since 2013, so it's been 12 years.

What distinguishes Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers compared to others is their reliability, as we have very few failures; apart from a disk from time to time or a memory stick from time to time, we never have failures on the servers.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does help with the growth of my organization, as it's easy to order again and integrate into the existing cluster.

I have used technical support at some point.

My experience with technical support was very good, rated 9 out of 10.

They helped me with some hardware problems, specifically on hardware support.

Positive

The deployment of the servers involves several data centers, and with the XC series range, we deploy them according to our needs for Nutanix clusters, which are specific to the workload we're going to put on them, and we do the deployments with Nutanix tools to deploy the solutions on Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

In terms of the return on investment since we've had the system, it has not been particularly significant.

Before Dell PowerEdge R-Series, we considered adopting HPE, we conducted a side-by-side comparison before ultimately choosing Dell.

In the company, I work with the CNAF, which is the Family Allowance Funds, providing benefits to residents.

I didn't mention AI, but it is important for us to consider our AI initiatives.

At the moment, we are in testing for AI, similar to how we do tests on the cloud part, as we start defining the use cases a bit, and then, of course, there will be a study to switch to the on-premises part.

The company has about 1000 people.

Dell was chosen because it's historical, and on price and features too; they were the first on the XC series side, it was Dell, and we've stayed with them for 10 years.

We have performance metrics or indicators with Grafana and Prometheus behind our monitoring, which help us know if the system is working well.

In terms of time and ease, the servers are racked by the people who manage the data center, and then we access the iDRAC and do all the system configuration.

In the long term, I see that it can work for us; it's a good solution.

I would give this product an overall rating of 9 out of 10.

My role in using and managing Dell PowerEdge R-Series is focused on Veeam backup for local storage. The Veeam application is installed on this server, which is the primary use case where I utilize it as a backup server. 

Currently, I am using a Dell PowerEdge R-Series server solely as a backup server to manage growing data, including a large amount of metadata that we also back up and transfer to the cloud for another repository.

I appreciate the iDRAC management for Dell PowerEdge R-Series, as it is a nice management tool that I'm using frequently. 

Everyone in my organization believes Dell PowerEdge R-Series will play some role in AI initiatives in the future. Currently, we are discussing the potential of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for AI initiatives step by step. 

In my company, we have a developer department that develops programs for our products. The management and CRM systems we are developing will be supported by AI.

For storage, I find that Dell PowerEdge R-Series is not useful. Regarding improvements, due to the cloud area and cloud platform, the on-premises server, Dell PowerEdge R-Series, might become less prominent. However, it won't disappear, as the cloud platform will remain the primary concern.

I have utilized Dell PowerEdge R-Series for about five to six years now.

The services of Dell are good, and the performance of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is also good. I didn't face any problems, and the issues I did encounter were resolved by their excellent support services, even though they're based overseas.

I may plan to scale the usage of Dell PowerEdge R-Series in the future.

If I were to rate Dell support on a scale of one to ten, I would give it an eight. 

I would not rate it a ten as I sometimes struggle with communication while speaking with support representatives in English. I believe it would be beneficial if Dell opened a support branch in Israel to support Hebrew language.

Positive

I didn't face any challenges with deployment. 

I've seen a return on my investment into Dell PowerEdge R-Series as it's still working.

This server was priced more cheaply than other options such as IBM and HP, making it quite cost-effective. 

I have looked at IBM and HP and understand the pricing differences. Although price was not the primary reason I chose Dell PowerEdge R-Series over competitors, a recommendation from a colleague influenced my decision.

For anyone looking at Dell PowerEdge R-Series, I recommend ensuring to have lots of memory and high-speed SSD disks when purchasing their server. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series an eight out of ten. I didn't face any main problems with my server, and the few issues I encountered were resolved through support.