Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) Reviews

The use case for Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is good for us, as there is good provisioning and we use it for the resource manager for thin provisioning and managing the storage. I'm using all the features of Dell storage.

Real-time analytics is useful for the use case in business continuity and remote monitoring, which is also helpful.

Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is most useful because it is easy to use and easy for provisioning on all hostings. It's viewable proactively to manage, and the storage controller information is given to the functional, all in a single dashboard.

I am using real-time analytics in Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM).

The alert manager in Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is used for giving any kind of alert, segregating the criticality, and the normal functions and normal event logs. I am monitoring everything with the alert manager.

The ability to work with multi-vendor through Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is useful for me.

Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is useful for customers for segregating all the things in their assigning LUNs, new storage, and new comprehensive and scalability will be enabled in Dell storage management.

Considering nowadays, all the concentration is focusing on data protection, data security, and data resilience with Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM). I suggest to the Dell team to concentrate on data security and cybersecurity, as it is the most significant concern. I work in a bank, and for financial organizations, much focus is spotlighted on how to protect data, secure data, and prevent any kind of fraud. Many financial organizations' data is corrupted and hacked by third parties, so it's crucial to find ways to protect data security and save data by creating an air-gap solution. Having ideas on an air-gap solution to prevent data leakage without a network layer would be beneficial. Maintaining a security layer is important, so this is my expectation for Dell.

I'm working with Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) for almost 18 to 20 years.

For the stability of Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM), I rate it an 8.5.

For scalability, regarding the ability to scale and expand, I rate it an 8.

Technical support from Dell for Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is very good. In my country, Dell has not ensured the replacement parts for critical components, which is very dangerous. Dell enterprise storage PowerMax is high-end, and sometimes we face storage HDD faults. A remote engineer is engaged within a few minutes and suggests that I replace the parts, but unfortunately, the parts are not available locally. Local representatives should ensure that replacement parts are available. Despite this, the support itself is very good, and I give it a 10.

Positive

The initial setup process for Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) is very easy to deploy, with basic deployment and implementation when compared to other vendors.

The main competitors for Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) in the market are HP Alletra and IBM. Commvault and NetApp are mostly focused on the storage section. ExaGrid is a new product that is also vying in this area. When I consider Dell PowerMax, it stands out significantly; I do not encounter any direct competition for that product in the market.

I was using Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) fully on-prem, but currently, it is almost a hybrid solution. The banking applications are diverting from on-prem to the cloud and Kubernetes microservices, so some features and services have transformed to the cloud, making it a hybrid model.

For private cloud, we have two HCI platforms, one is VMware and the other is Nutanix, so currently, we are using the cloud on VMware.

In terms of pricing for Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM), if I compare it with others, I would rate it an 8.

We are using Dell node for VMware ESX and also VMware cloud. With VMware, we are also using Dell server with Dell storage integrated with all VMware nodes. They were integrated with Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) through the remote storage, through vSAN. It is also the remote node, which allows for provisioning for the storage. It provides storage to the allocated LUN and is a comprehensive monitoring and reporting solution that visualizes and analyzes the optimistics of Dell storage infrastructure monitoring and provides frameworks and support for everything. We are also using PowerFlex and PowerMax, which are segregated for core banking and VMware segregated storage.

I rate Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM) a nine out of ten.

There is block-based storage, and we have different pools in the storage. The flash SSD hard access used for the databases is the correctional-related data. We use a dedicated pool for the Oracle database, which is mounted with unique servers. We have another pool called sales drive, and we take data and retention policies. There are 15 hosts and an additional remote host too. All the servers are mounted with this storage.

It is easy to control the storage. The most valuable features are the supervision of storage, managing the users, hosting and revisioning, controlling, display manager, driver-related update and patch-related updates.

It needs to be segregated if you compare the EMC storage with HP and IBM. We have to identify the reliability of the fiber channel ports. If this can be improved, it will be better for the end-user. There are issues if you manage through the sensory in the fiber channel.

We want to be able to manage things like storage, hosting, details about the mount point, and how much IOP is collapsed to which host in any single console. In addition, it will help us to identify and segregate the issues blocks.

We have been using this solution for four years and are using version two. It is deployed on-premises.

It is a stable solution. Multiple storages can integrate into a single retail resource manager. But previously, when it was deployed, it was challenging to manage, but it can now handle multiple devices in a single console.

With this solution, we provide IT-related services and have about 3,000 plus end users.

I'm the lead point of the Dell server and storage for implementation and deployment, and after we completed implementation and deployment, their support team provided monitoring and performance-related issues. I rate their technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

Initially, when we fully designed the solution, we chose the capacity and the storage requirements. It also had a competitive price and was easy to manage, so we proposed it to our management. The management then decided that because Dell is easy to deploy and resources are available, it was a good choice. It is also easy to buy Dell storage, and we have had experience with Dell for the last 20 years. So, we chose Dell Storage Resource Manager because Dell is a familiar and trusted product.

The initial setup was easy compared to other vendors like HP, IBM or COBOL. It is also easier to deploy and manage. I rate the deployment a one out of 10, with one being easy and 10 being hard. The deployment depends on whether the necessary equipment is available. If the equipment is ready, it could take two to three hours, so it is fast.

Because of the license costs, we selected the software bundle price with the storage boxes, so most of the software costs are bundled. So, there are no defined manager prices.

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. If you compare this solution to HPC services, there are similarities. If you provide host information, it is also integrated with the Dell resource manager. We review the versions every three months. For example, we just implemented it on September 30, and we have another maintenance plan on January 25. So, if a new version is available, we will deploy it. Our company policies allow up-to-date versions and pages to be deployed.

Our company has eight administrators who use the solution's WEMS partitions to store backups. Sometimes, we use the partitions for query language servers. 

The partitions function well for backup storage. 

The graphic interface could be improved to be comparable with StorageWorks. 

Technical support is inadequate. 

I have been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is stable with no issues. 

The solution is scalable. 

Technical support is not sufficient. It needs improvement to be comparable to HP's call center which is knowledgeable and provides good solutions. 

I rate technical support a four out of ten. 

Neutral

The setup is complex. 

The solution is mid-priced so I rate it a six out of ten. 

The solution and StorageWorks are considered equal to us in terms of features and functionality. 

We are only using StorageWorks for new projects because HP offers better support and that is an important component. 

I rate the solution a six out of ten. 

We use this solution for multiple storage platforms all over the world that need to be able to move data and manage it across them. You have a singular view across all of your storage platforms of what is being used, what is available, and then being able to manage and manipulate those resources as long as it has the capability to manage them.

It's a valuable teacher. It's all about ease of use and reliability.

When you get to this class of platforms, it all boils down to a couple of similar things. One of those things is about how easy it is to use, then how reliable it is, and then the overall supportability of it.

Technical support needs improvement, as well as the engineering resources, who do the upgrades.

It's a stable solution. We don't have any issues with the stability of the Dell EMC Storage Resource Manager.

It's one thing to call technical support when there is a problem, but when you have to do an upgrade there is a team from Dell and EMC that does that work. 

The work is done with your team, but they are the ones who are doing the work. At the end of the day, if those people are not completely up to speed and knowledgeable on the product or what the latest changes are, you are going to have some issues. They are not very strong in that area these days. They are struggling.

Ask them questions about the support model and support structure. Make sure that you understand that this is typically something that you will have there and that we used to be a strong point of EMC, and now because Dell is involved, it is not.

I would rate Dell EMC Storage Resource Manager a seven out of ten.

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we deploy, integrate, and give support to our clients on. It is used for disk management, provisioning, data progression, and snapshot management.

This product is easy to deploy and easy to use.

It has many features and capabilities such as local protection and global protection.

It is very suitable for users in a troubleshooting aspect.

The support needs to be improved because I have found that even simple issues take a long time to be solved. It takes a very long time to close a case.

This product has sandbox capabilities and it works in some cases, but we would like to be able to apply it from the production environment.

Sometimes, issues may arise from hardware or software. On the other hand, if the system is up for more than a year then it might need to be powered off and restarted.

The response time needs to be improved. Recently when an issue arises, if you are level two or level three, it will take two, three days even, for support to respond.

After this, they want to gather logs and even the troubleshooting takes time. Often, the client is frustrated because they expect a quick response, and for the troubleshooting to be smooth and fast. They can't afford any kind of downtime or system outage, so they expect it to be fast.

Nothing is perfect so issues arise, but the response for support needs to be improved. 

The installation and initial setup are smooth. It took time to complete, even when you install it on Windows.

I have done this installation myself. We have two or three people for deployment. It's not very difficult if you are familiar with it.

There are no licensing costs for this product.

This is a product with a high demand right now because of its ability to not only manage but to handle more tasks. It is simple to use, even for end-users. Overall, I think that it is a very effective product and we will continue to recommend and implement it. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

The most valuable features of either of the SRM tools, were the reporting and real-time ability to show management that additional storage was required or in regards to who was using what storage and bandwidth.

All the attributes of the tool had real importance, when you needed time to create some reports for the management and to email those reports on a regular basis.

By the time they rolled out its predecessor SMC and Unisphere, the old ECC was trying to do too much within a large enterprise environment.

We were unhappy as no one from EMC heard our plea for assistance and it became expensive in terms of the license and the amount of resources it took.

Simply put, in the past the vendor support model was not broad enough to ensure every aspect of the ECC product worked efficiently.

After a few years of waiting for EMC to apply the fixes we wanted they were finally all addressed.

The stability of the products was very similar as well.

The scalability of both the products was pretty even.

The technical support was very good for both the NetApp OCI and the EMC ViPR.

It is at this time that we switched to NetApp's OCI. It was somewhat reasonably priced and easy to install with VMs, instead of all the physical hosts that EMC wanted at that time.

We were somewhat happy with OCI and it was less costly.

The ease of installation looked to be the same.

The price was also about the same.

Then I changed companies and we started looking at EMC's ViPR SRM. Upon examination, it looked very much under the covers like the NetApp OCI solution.

I am now with yet another company and they have purchased EMC ViPR SRM. I think I will be happy with it, provided that EMC listens to its customers and fixes issues, as it has grown-up.

Early on in history, the EMC Control Center was a very powerful tool and had many robust parts/pieces to it.

Managing multiple storage arrays under one console was a valuable feature of this product.

It made life easy by allowing us to manage multiple storage arrays under one console.

It needed improvement with its stability. Also, since it was agent-based communication, we always had to ensure that the agents were running on the servers all the time.

I used this product for around three years.

We had limited the usage to only managing the storage arrays, although we had switches discovered under it and were using the StorageScope application for capacity reporting.

The technical support was good.

We only used ECC until I left that particular organization.

I wasn't involved in the setup.

To be frank, I believe there are many other applications that allow us to manage the array, along with in-depth analysis. Even EMC has developed better products than ECC.

• Centralized administration
• Management of SAN environment in the organization

• Ease of administration
• Fits in well with all the EMC SAN storage

I would like to see third-party storage management.

We have been using this solution for five years.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

The installation was pretty straightforward.

It boils down to how you negotiate with the vendor.

Go for it if your organization is EMC-centric storage.

The alerting feature is valuable because it completes the gap of storage monitoring. Often the storage comes with a tele-diagnostic service. For security purposes, it’s very important for us to be aware of every single failure in order to be more proactive and not only reactive.

We use the SNMP gateway to aggregate hardware and performance events.

The use of agents is not easy. The architectural design of using every single agent for every type of storage can be reviewed with the use of general proxies.

The general proxies also discover other vendors’ storage. This can be done with custom made scripts.

We have been using this solution for five years.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

There were some scalability issues because we needed several agent servers.

The installation was complex because we had to setup multiple servers.

We evaluated these solutions: 

• NetApp OnCommand Insight


• HPE


• IBM Productivity Suite

It’s very important to plan the correct setup of agent servers.