Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We currently use Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers to run Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat VCI. 

In addition to that, AX nodes that are adjacent to the regular PowerEdge servers are highly customized. The test cases we are running mainly involve internal processing on data that we have, and also for company-wide cases. 

We host a portal for everyone to interact with for internal lookups and trying to steer everyone away from going public with OpenAI ChatGPT. We have our own internal search now, and it's also able to ingest our internal documentation sites, in addition to our other data sets that we have.

My current organization really wouldn't be anywhere without the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. All we've been buying have been PowerEdge servers. It's pretty mission-critical for us. The vast majority of our regular PowerEdges we've got from that, and we also have FCs and some older tech as well, however, those are being replaced by our Red Hat VCI ones, which are the AX nodes.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is their integrated iDRAC and the way that the servers are built; it's pretty space optimized, so users can get a lot of functionality in there for whatever they're working on. 

The monitoring for the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is great; we get all the alerts, we get everything about it, and we avoid outages thanks to the features of the iDRAC.

We got all the alerts we needed in time, so we knew we could get parts dispatched and everything else, and it's gotten better. They've got AI monitoring for the stuff, so now they're telling us about drives that are failing before we notice them ourselves.

There's not really much to be done that hasn't already happened; they've shifted over now, and users can plug in on the latest models as they have USBC ports if they need to console in. 

There isn't really much in need of improvement; it's really up to whatever you decide to buy. You can buy all the right options and get what you need, however, you have to be careful and make sure you buy what makes sense.

I'd appreciate seeing more options in terms of expandability for certain Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers models. The expandability issues I've experienced are mainly with the 700 series of the R series chassis, primarily around what can fit in for PCI expansion cards. It's fair, however, there might be some room for more flexibility around it.

I have personal experience with Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for the last three and a half years at my current organization, and at a prior work, I had experience with PowerEdge servers for another five years.

The reliability and skills of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are pretty reliable; I haven't had to worry about it too much. Even if something does go wrong, the monitoring is pretty good, and we get good alerts on whatever needs to be replaced. 

We haven't really had an outage due to hardware failure, definitely not on the PowerEdge servers themselves. Sometimes we might have something fail, a fan or power supply - things happen, however, it hasn't really caused an outage.

I evaluate the customer service support for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as pretty rock solid and top-notch, especially if you get the right people in the right areas. Particularly around PowerEdges, you can almost depend on getting the right person you want.

Positive

We've looked at other solutions. Folks I used to work with, some of them moved on now. We've had experience working with many IBMs and HPs in the past. We're still getting the best value right now sticking with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers platform.

I've helped deploy Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. I've done everything with them; I've racked them myself personally and been through that experience, so it's not bad.

The pricing and licensing of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very competitive. 

We've gotten some pretty good deals along the way; you can find anything to fit any budget. We've even gone the other route of actually buying some things for non-production; they've got some pretty good pricing on their Dell used product marketplace as well, though the name is slipping my mind right now. You can get what you need for a good price.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers platform has improved over the years; I've seen the evolution with it. I wasn't too fond originally of some of the older PowerEdges, to be honest, however, as time moved on, the current generations are providing what I am looking for. 

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten out of ten.

The use case for having Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers in our university is that they are sources and resources for our infrastructure. We use it for our VMware infrastructure and VDI.

The feature I appreciate the most about the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is the iDRAC, as we were able to remove our KVMs from the data center and use iDRAC as a management platform. 

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers help my organization overall since they are very reliable and very scalable.

I actually love the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers the way they are right now.

I would improve the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers by enhancing the GUI and providing a better hands-on experience for quick fixes on the servers, as most of the work is done by a vendor coming in to fix the systems. Having some videos online on the disassembly of the servers would be helpful.

My name is Pedro Lopez, and I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for 10 years while working at my university for over 15 years.

Regarding downtime with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, they're very reliable, so we hardly have any downtime, and we have quick turnaround on repairs.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers support the growing needs of my university, as the scalability allows us to add more resources fast. We have good turnaround with our vendor partners and getting the new equipment in as soon as possible.

I would rate the customer service and technical support a ten out of ten. I love support from Dell; they have always been able to help us throughout any issues we have.

Positive

Before putting in the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, we evaluated solutions from other vendors, including HP and Cisco.

My experience deploying the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers includes purchasing the Dell equipment, where we get professional services.

Dell's professional services as great, as they're very helpful and also do cross-training with us. We're able to learn from the experience of the setup.

I see a return on investment with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. They're very cost-effective and reliable, and we were able to downsize.

The pricing for the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is reasonable since we are part of higher ed, making the prices very competitive with other vendors we have approached.

We chose the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers based on our history with Dell and the cost.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers do not play a role in my organization's AI initiatives at the moment, as we're barely hitting that, striving towards AI.

I'm currently a server administrator, system administrator, and we remotely manage most of the servers using iDRAC.

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are very reliable, very cost-effective, and the services that Dell provides are very useful and helpful in deploying infrastructures. I really love the solutions that iDRAC gives you for quick updates and firmware, ensuring that they're reliable for our systems.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as a ten; I definitely really love them and would not change that for anything at the moment.

My main use case is virtualization servers running VMware. I use it to host all the business applications and the servers needed to run the group's ERPs.

My favorite feature is the iDRAC features, particularly iDRAC administration for everything related to updating the server's internal firmware. I prefer iDRAC because after that, I mainly install VMware ESXi, so I have access to all the useful information about the server in there. For now, I'm not using a centralized PowerEdge console server, but I know it exists. I don't need it at my level.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers could be improved in certain aspects. Lately, I really appreciated the tools that explain how to replace parts inside the servers, the detailed server documentation, the upgrade aids, and the auto-upgrade of the server. 

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for thirteen years.

I confirm significant stability, reliability, and durability.

We had just one problem a few years ago, due to a type of Dell PowerEdge R-Series we bought with integrated SD cards that were no longer compatible with how VMware works. I don't think it was a Dell PowerEdge R-Series issue, but a VMware-on-SD-card issue.

The only growth complexity with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that the cost of adding memory after the first purchase is always high. It's better to size properly from the start than to add memory afterwards.

I have had to use technical support. On a scale of one to ten I would rate it an eight, it went well. They stepped in when needed and provided great service.

Positive

I considered another solution fifteen years ago.

I can describe the system deployment experience as very simple since we always deploy the same types of servers with the same types of virtualization environments. Once we've configured iDRAC, we just have to install the VMware operating system and then we can quickly use the server in the existing cluster.

I can say that I have seen a return on investment from having Dell PowerEdge R-Series since the administration is always the same and therefore simple. It saves us the time employees would spend learning new machines.

My impressions of the price and the cost of licenses are that the price is good, but I don't challenge them much with other solutions because I'm happy with the solution and therefore they're not being challenged at the moment.
The only growth complexity with Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that the cost of adding memory after the first purchase is always high. It's better to size properly from the start than to add memory afterwards.

I chose Dell PowerEdge R-Series because of the ease of administration, the simplicity, and the continuity of administration over the years. My teams master the subject and there's no need to relearn something new.

I have been working in my field for twenty years. I have integrated them and might need them if something breaks. I don't have performance metrics that tell me and allow me to measure the success of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me because I'm fully on Dell PowerEdge R-Series, so I don't have a comparison with other hardware. It hasn't been necessary to put metrics in place. The measure of success with Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me is the uptime of the servers, the fact that they don't go down. My overall rating for this product is eight.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerEdge R-Series includes installing, marketing, selling, and maintenance. My company uses Dell PowerEdge R-Series for specific use cases such as storage servers, application priority, SAP, and all others including Active Directory.

The features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series that I appreciate the most include the remote maintenance, specifically iDRAC. Having this product benefits my company because there are many manufacturers, such as HP, and after experiencing Dell PowerEdge R-Series, the simplicity makes it very straightforward to manage and configure. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has supported growth and operational success because it is very reliable and a good manufacturer. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of small or medium companies.

I don't think I need to change anything about Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series from the beginning, for 25 years.

The stability and reliability of the platform are very stable and reliable; that is why I am working with them.

I basically use the SMB client, so I don't need to add features or servers to increase the ability to extend; if I need to change a server, I just replace it.

When I have a problem or question, I call customer service, and they keep checking with me until the problem is solved. I would rate the customer service and technical support as a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I was using HP as another product in the past. I changed because I had a problem with the support for HP, and everything in HP requires adding features and isn't simple; the simplicity is not comparable.

The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that everything is working smoothly; I don't need to return to the customer to change parts.

My experience with the pricing, the setup cost, and the licensing is that, when compared to other manufacturers, the pricing is good.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does not play a role in my company's AI initiatives. The R series is suitable for me, for approximately 100 clients, so it's basically the main product that I use. My advice to other companies considering Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that Dell is a very reliable and long-lasting company that leads the market and technology, so I recommend Dell PowerEdge R-Series.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series a 10.

Our company uses Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers primarily for VMware, but we also have several PowerEdge for NAS storage.

I am a system administrator. I deploy new servers. More recently, I've been decommissioning old servers and getting those ready to refurbish because we have to resell or surplus them. I also help look up specs to recommend to my director what we should get for the next refresh.

From using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, our company has realized sustainability and reliability, as we don't have to worry about whether they will go down or not. They have been very reliable, except for one server issue, which had nothing to do with Dell or the server itself, just an act of nature.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is the iDRAC, because it allows me to remotely access it from my computer without having to plug in a monitor and keyboard. I can see what's wrong and manually push updates if needed. For example, we recently had a motherboard that was bad, and iDRAC informed me of the faulty component, which is helpful because it saves me from guessing what's wrong.

A nice-to-have feature for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers would be shorter lengths because we recently got a new data center with horizontal PDUs, and we had to replace some PowerEdges due to their longer sizes, which wouldn't fit without taking out the PDUs and switching to vertical ones.

I've been using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers for three years now, and from what I can tell, my company has been using them for a very long time. They're great.

They are very reliable.

We are a small to medium-sized organization. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers cater to the needs of our small to medium-sized company, as we can contact our Dell rep and explain our needs, and they can recommend the perfect PowerEdge for us.

I would describe my experience with Dell's support for PowerEdge solutions as great, as we had to get a motherboard replaced, and the replacement part arrived the next business day, which was impressive. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

Positive

They tried HPE servers for a bit, but they didn't really like them.

The only challenge we faced was when they were longer servers. We couldn't fit them in our rack without taking out the PDUs.

I know the pricing for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers went up last year, and we weren't too happy about that, but it is what it is.

I would rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a 10 out of 10.

The main use cases for us are office applications, office servers, and messaging. On Dell PowerEdge R-Series for the office services, it is mainly storage.

What distinguishes Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers for me compared to others is the robustness and the longevity. The features I find most useful and that I like the most are the fast server restarts. Few failures save time; we gain time. Dell PowerEdge R-Series improves my organization mainly as a time saver and in terms of reliability, so we know we have equipment that is reliable. We are not afraid to refresh the ranges by going with the same thing again, but we know we are on hardware that is reliable, so we go for it with our eyes closed.

I think the power consumption part could be improved if we want to develop the Green IT aspect.

I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers for eight years.

We look at the server downtime rate to measure the success of Dell PowerEdge R-Series. The server downtime rate is almost zero; we have almost no failures. We also analyze CPU consumption depending on what is running, to see if we are using a lot of RAM. I have had no problems.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series adapts well to our organization's growth. We can add servers; it is scalable.

I have not used technical support at any point, but some colleagues have.

I did not consider another solution before choosing Dell.

I would describe the server deployment experience as very easy. Once it is racked and the network connections are plugged in, it starts up by itself; almost nothing needs to be done.

We can see a return on investment in general because we keep the servers for at least five years. Between five and eight years, we have a return on investment practically every time.

Dell is a long-standing partner with whom we have good relations, and we know the hardware is reliable. For the moment, for certain workloads, they are not put in competition. For others, they are. The price and the licenses work for us.

We are just starting AI initiatives in our organization now. For the moment, Dell PowerEdge R-Series does not play a role in that because we are not at the infrastructure stage. We are more in the thinking stage about what use cases we can develop, and for now, the hardware part is not taken into account. There is the possibility of going with that on Dell PowerEdge R-Series. I would rate this product a 9.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series is used for edge services in our company. We are testing whether Dell PowerEdge is on par with HPE, because we have been using HPE for more than 20 years, and it has been serving us very well. However, we still have doubts about some Dell aspects, particularly support. We are using a few Dell PowerEdges in the field to test if it is working and if it is mature. If it is not mature, then we will need to switch back to HPE. We are running two servers in a Citrix platform together with eight HPE servers to see if the performance is on par, if it is working as expected, and what the administrative overhead for the system engineers is. It is another platform that works in another way, so there is a learning curve, but I wonder if the end user notices anything. From my standpoint, I also consider the financial aspect of it.

Not really have I appreciated any feature about Dell PowerEdge R-Series so far because we are running a hypervisor on it, making it just a server in a rack. However, iDRAC is nice, although HPE iLO is better.

In terms of the interface, HPE is cleaner. Dell is more like a website, requiring us to search everywhere to find a feature to turn on or off, and sometimes it is hard to know where it is set. Of course, that is based on experience, as we are experienced with HPE, but HPE's management interface and their website are cleaner than Dell's. Dell has too much bloatware, too many settings, and it varies with updates, but overall, it is okay, just another way of working.

I have realized benefits so far from running Dell PowerEdges just from a financial standpoint.

The Intel processor handles my workloads well. It is just Intel, and it just works.

Dell PowerEdge could be better by having a cleaner interface, especially for iDRAC, as well as improving the support website of Dell in general, making it easier to find firmware and drivers. This is feedback I am getting from my engineers, as they find it difficult to locate settings or download items. It needs to be easier and cleaner.

We have been using Dell PowerEdges for almost two or three years now.

So far, the stability and reliability of Dell PowerEdges is good, but we are only running it for almost three years now, so I cannot tell over the long term.

The scalability question depends on the outcomes of our experiment, making it not applicable at this time.

We have utilized Dell support to help us, but of course, it takes time for them to start analyzing and determining the cause of the issue. Support is fine. We used to believe it was better, but that is what we are experimenting with. We are not only looking at cost but also support.

I cannot tell you the exact rating for their support; I would have to ask my engineers, but it would be around a six or seven.

What is lacking for me to make it a ten in terms of support is having a clear support system. Reachability should be better, with native-speaking Dutch engineers available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week instead of being transferred to India, for example.

Neutral

Of course, I considered HP ProLiant before deciding on Dell PowerEdge.

We are only running HPE, specifically HPE Incorporated and HPE Enterprise, not Lenovo.

It is difficult because it is new and looks different from what we are used to. That is the problem. When something is not working as expected, finding documentation becomes an issue. Where it would take an hour to set up an HPE server, for example, it took almost two working days for the first Dell PowerEdge to get it running.

I have not deployed Dell PowerEdges myself, but for my engineers, it is difficult.

The ROI from purchasing Dell PowerEdges versus HP or any other vendors is close, although it really depends on what the account manager is doing and whether they want an extra customer or not.

The pricing was nice, otherwise it would not be Dell, so I am only looking at pricing.

It is a little bit cheaper than HP, although that depends on the sales process. Sometimes HPE wants to do more than Dell, which makes it interesting from a financial perspective. From an operational perspective, it is just equipment.

Not specifically do I think Dell PowerEdge has features that cater to the needs of my company. It is just another hardware vendor. I see it with more transparency because you can have IBM, Lenovo, or HPE, but they all include an Intel chip, and they all include chips from NVIDIA. For me, it is just equipment, and whether it is Lenovo, Dell, or HPE does not matter much. The support behind the equipment is more important, and financially it is just comparing HPE versus Dell versus Lenovo.

I do not know at this time what model or functionality of servers or rack servers are being used.

I think it is the R model, specifically R660 or something similar, and I think they were invested last year.

I do not have any other differentiators to mention about the benefits of HP versus Dell solutions, as we are only running Dell PowerEdge and ProLiant.

My overall review rating for Dell PowerEdge R-Series is eight out of ten.

My primary use cases for Dell PowerEdge R-Series in my company mostly focus on production use, for all the servers and systems inside the company environment. I prefer not to go into details, but we have Active Directory concepts, databases, SQL, and similar systems running on them.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series does not yet play a role in my company's AI initiatives.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series supports the growth and operational success of my company in an amazing way. We had several meetings with Dell PowerEdge R-Series representatives who came to our office, understood our forecast, and managed to help us build infrastructure that would support our goal.

Since then, we have definitely scaled up as we purchased several more servers.

I need to think about in what areas Dell PowerEdge R-Series could be better and what additional features I would want to see included in the next releases.

I have no suggestions about room for improvement regarding Dell PowerEdge R-Series. Everything is fine with Dell PowerEdge R-Series; we enjoy it. It's a server, and I don't have any current pain points or features that I would want to see. We simply enjoy it.

I have almost 20 years of experience working in my current field. I have been using Dell PowerEdge R-Series for almost all my professional years.

I can say that Dell PowerEdge R-Series is a reliable and stable solution for me, and if any issues arise, they know how to solve them.

We have definitely scaled up as we purchased several more servers since our initial deployment.

On a scale of one to 10, I would give their support a rating of 10. I don't remember a situation where I was furious as I've been with other vendors, so they are better than others.

Positive

I have evaluated other vendors before choosing Dell PowerEdge R-Series, but I started as a junior with Dell PowerEdge R-Series, and as a senior, I continue doing good. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has proven itself as a reliable solution, and the service is great; you don't want to take a risk with something else.

The setup cost for Dell PowerEdge R-Series was fair enough.

I have definitely realized a return on my investment in Dell PowerEdge R-Series, as even old machines are still working as robust systems. We can use them in the DR or at least in the laboratory environment as a second generation.

I am the IT Manager managing Dell PowerEdge R-Series. With VMware and Veeam, they worked perfectly and smoothly for backups. When we had accidents and situations that required restoration, it worked perfectly and the service was fine.

As I'm in a security company and most of the systems are on-prem, we're trying to migrate most of the systems to something that will collaborate between systems, and the next step we will start to implement AI. I want AI to help with basic tasks, including helping developers, procurement, inventory, and regular day-to-day operations.

The performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerEdge R-Series include the service as one of the first things, the salesperson, and all the surrounding aspects. The server itself is similar to HP and other vendors, but when you have a problem and the service is better than fine, this is a win-win situation.

My advice to someone evaluating Dell PowerEdge R-Series is that cost is not always the most important factor; sometimes you need to consider other benefits when buying a product. We can speak with potential customers if Dell PowerEdge R-Series wants our recommendation. Dell can be in touch with me if they have any questions.

On a scale of one to 10, I would rate Dell PowerEdge R-Series solutions between 9 and 10.