Dell NetWorker Other Advice
People who want to implement the tool must use ProServ, follow the best practices, and consider immutable backups. So, if somebody attacks your environment, they cannot change that data. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
View full review »RJ
reviewer1984581
Senior Systems Administrator at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
Firstly, I would suggest finding out the future prospects of NetWorker within Dell. I don't know how many more years Dell will support NetWorker. Dell seems to be pushing its new product, PowerProtect, which is a discouraging fact for me.
If Dell intends to maintain both products, it should make it clear that the future of backup solutions lies in both PowerProtect and NetWorker. However, this is not clear at the moment.
Overall, I would say it's an easy nine.
View full review »My advice to new users is that if most of your setup is virtualized, around 80-90% in VMware, Dell NetWorker is a good choice. It excels in virtual environments. But if you are mostly dealing with physical servers, you might want to consider other options like Backup Exec or Veeam, which could be a better fit. Overall, I would rate the product as a seven out of ten.
Buyer's Guide
Dell NetWorker
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell NetWorker. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
We have to keep Dell NetWorker updated as many security fixes need to be done. With everything shifting to the cloud, the organization beginning with the transition should consider hybrid solutions. This approach will help them back up both the cloud and on-premise versions in a hybrid environment.
I rate it a seven out of ten.
View full review »RK
Ramkumar Kolli
Sr. Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The issues are not straightforward. For example, with the issues in the documentation, there are other products where if you get an error, it's completely code-based, or error codes, so it's pretty easy. Going through the document of Dell NetWorker, I see it's a bit different. You need to dig into the issues.
I rate the overall solution a nine point seven or nine point eight out of ten.
We are users and integrators as well.
My advice would be to have, once you have started to use it, something more on the Windows-based tools. If you see the commands, all those commands are as if you're running a query. The underlying structure of NetWorker is a skill database, so it's actually running on a skill database. Mostly you'll be running some queries, or querying commands to get the reports using the command prompt. For someone who is familiar with Windows, they'll find it very easy to use.
I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten.
View full review »It is a good product. It has interconnection with different vendors. I recommend it to others. It offers a lot of documentation for a better understanding of configurations and modules.
I rate it a seven out of ten. There are many areas of improvement, including functionality and support.
View full review »Dell NetWorker has supported our client's daily backup operations in a good manner. It's quite easy to use Dell NetWorker for disaster recovery processes. It is straightforward and requires a couple of steps, unlike other solutions where you'd have to go through too many options. Dell NetWorker allows me to examine the endpoints for data protection needs.
Dell NetWorker's deduplication functionality is way better than what we get on Veeam. The implementation of Dell NetWorker has positively affected our overall IT infrastructure performance. I would recommend the solution to other users.
Overall, I rate Dell NetWorker ten out of ten.
During my experience with the product, it did not have the deduplication feature in it unless you bought Dell EMC Data Domain and hardware appliance.
It is a really stable product and is one of the best solutions in the market. Based on my experience, the product has no limitations.
Dell NetWorker released a new version many years ago to cover a new operating system's latest version, but it didn't work. My company had to face a lot of problems with our customers until Dell acknowledged the problem and the fact that there was a need to do a little bit more work. The aforementioned area consists of the details of when I faced some issues with the product.
The benefit of having Dell NetWorker in infrastructure was to ensure that there was a backup and restore environment that was stable, worked well, and could deliver when needed.
I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
The Dell Networker's maintenance complexity varies. It can be easy in some situations and challenging in others. Overall, its functionality is generally good. However, when monitoring the system from another location, we encounter difficulties in handling certain conditions. These difficulties arise especially during installation and client configuration. Maintaining client-level configurations also have difficulty, particularly when communication between clients and the server occurs through different ports while only one or two ports are allowed by default settings. This further complicate the process.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
HS
Haseeb Sheikh
Manager Private Cloud Solutions at ufone
I'd advise anybody thinking of implementing NetWorker to look at their environment, virtualization solutions, and infrastructure requirements and then decide how their environment should be designed. They should also consult with the EMC architect who will be designing the data zones and will be responsible for migrating their environments. I would give NetWorker a rating of seven out of ten.
View full review »SS
Saiyed Shahab Ahmed
Chief Digitalization Executive at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using.
New users can try it. It is good when it is in the right landscape. In certain cases, it could be a very useful tool.
I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
View full review »VP
Vlad Prozhogin
Managing Partner at SkyF Labs
In Russia, we have some problems with the presence of Western vendors here, so we have no support from US companies. I doubt anybody will increase the number of licenses or expand the installation because that involves support from the vendor.
I rate Dell NetWorker an eight out of ten. I recommend the solution.
We deployed Dell EMC NetWorker to 300 machines. It took us six to seven months to stabilize all issues during the upgrade and complete the deployment.
We only did maintenance for the upgrade and for versions such as the kernel, or the code slash code upgrade, or the version of the software. No major maintenance was needed for this solution.
There are two users in our company working with Dell EMC NetWorker. The backup is a daily process, while administration is not done on a daily basis. For checking and reviewing errors and failures, this solution is used daily.
Usage will depend on the company: how much activity they have and the types of activity they have, e.g. registration or development through IT.
The main reasons we're thinking of switching from Dell EMC NetWorker to another product include the reporting, support, and the bugs. There are so many issues we find annoying which require additional resources.
My advice to people looking into implementing this solution is that for big environments, it's so complicated. For example, for a clustered environment, you have a clustered environment for Oracle RAC, where you have so many firewalls in between, but Dell EMC NetWorker is not mature enough to handle that kind of environment and setup. Oracle RAC works well in big environments, but not this solution. Dell EMC NetWorker would be good for smaller environments where it won't be heavily used. We are an airline company with 300 machines, but we're not comparable to a big company like Google.
My rating for Dell EMC NetWorker is a seven out of ten.
View full review »I've been using the solution as a customer and an end-user.
I work on the latest version of the solution, however, I can't speak to the exact version number.
Currently, I'm just trying to find out if, let's say you've done a backup with NetWorker in the past, how are you'll be able to migrate that data to Commvault.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
View full review »I would recommend this solution. We plan to keep using it.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a nine out of ten.
View full review »AK
reviewer1486476
Consultant, Backup Systems at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
For a file system backup or one that is on disk or in a tape library, or for virtualization, I recommend using NetWorker. I say this because of ease of deployment, ease of use, and the user-friendly GUI.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
View full review »WR
Wasi Rizvi
IT Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
In my opinion, Networker is not a very good product. It's very complex compared to Veeam and other products. In short, we needed a single bundle solution, that's why we chose Networker. Overall, I think Veeam is better.
I don't recommend it because of its complexity and the updates, etc. We don't recommend that anyone uses Networker. We recommend looking into Veeam or another solution.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Networker a rating of five.
View full review »I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Dell NetWorker an eight out of ten.
View full review »I used to manage the backups, but I am no longer responsible for them.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »When it comes to choosing this solution, it depends on the environment and the scenarios that you're focused on. There are many advantages with EMC NetWorker compared to other disaster recovery solutions, but the software is lacking in some areas that other vendors focus on. It really depends on what you want to get from the solution.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
View full review »SS
SySA43dmin
System Administrator with 1-10 employees
Dell EMC Networker is really the best in the market! After evaluating the solutions, we automatically decided to use this solution.
View full review »On a scale from one to ten, I would give Dell NetWorker a seven.
View full review »I do not recommend Dell NetWorker as a solution. I rate the product a five out of ten overall.
View full review »EB
Leadoffsol67
Lead Offering Solution Architect Cloud and Workload with 10,001+ employees
We use the private cloud deployment model of the solution.
Networker is a fine solution, but there are other more modern automated solutions on the market. We are considering changing to one of those. They take up fewer resources, which is why we are considering switching. I believe this solution is better than Data Protector, but there's another one, Rubrik, that saves a lot of time and effort.
We should have involved EMC with the implementation because it was difficult. I would recommend others consider this lesson that we learned from our attempt.
I would rate the solution seven out of ten.
View full review »Before implementation, I recommend investigating to determine the types and sizes of workloads, as well as the expectations of their usage. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten. The solution is good, but it can be improved by consolidating multiple interfaces into one.
View full review »SJ
Stanislaw Jagielski
Trainer, storage consultant at Oxon
I'm working with the latest version of the product.
I'd advise new users to know the product before you start to implement it. Very often, people start to deploy the system without product knowledge. Sometimes the product implementation is really bad. If the implementation is bad, so it won't work for you smoothly. So know the product implementation and features, and you should know which ones will be the design architecture of the system.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
View full review »RS
reviewer1702752
Senior Account Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I would recommend Dell EMC NetWorker to any large enterprise. For entry and mid-size customers, I would recommend it only if it falls within their budget requirements. If they do not have the budget, they can purchase a solution that works with normal storage while purchasing NetWorker or Avamar requires a storage solution also, such as Dell Data Domain. It works in combination and delivers the best solution, but it is a little expensive. This is why it is best suited for enterprise customers who can afford it.
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a nine out of ten.
View full review »ST
Shrikant Teggi
Sr. Area Technical Manager at Tata Elxsi
I recommend this solution and rate it nine out of 10.
View full review »SK
SunilKumar
Manager at Securetech
I rate the solution a seven out of ten. Veeam Backup is a competitor in the market because it has a lot of utilization. It is easy for people to get a license with them, and they benefit from one solution. Regarding potential future improvements, they should look at IT and compare it to other products because things are becoming streamlined for all the product lines, new storage is readily available, and things are moving to the cloud.
View full review »This solution is suitable for enterprise-size organizations. I usually only provide NetWorker as an option if the customer asks for it. If it were my choice, I would recommend Veeam or IBM Spectrum Protect.
I rate the product six out of 10.
View full review »In order to use this solution, you need to rely on communication and information on how to do a proper setup. At the beginning, you have to understand how the process works to configure the devices data needs to be stored.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
View full review »SA
reviewer1195509
Senior Solutions Sales Consultant at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker eight out of 10. To people who plan to implement NetWorker, I suggest a high availability architecture, with a minimum of two NetWorker appliances to replicate each other, and you need to have a vProxy machine for each host in a VMware environment. If you have a tape library, you need a dedicated tape-out server.
View full review »My advice to anybody who is researching this solution is to first check to make sure that your environment is stable, and compatible with this product. Even before doing a POC, the environment needs to be considered. Once any incompatibilities have been ruled out then a POC should be done, where everything needs to be tested.
This product can be complex and difficult to understand, but once you have some experience it is very good.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
View full review »Don’t install the newest x.0 version of the product. Make sure you understand you own requirements and expectations of data protection in terms of Service Restoration and Disaster Recovery to ensure you are implementing the solution appropriately to meet those requirements.
View full review »ST
Shrikant Teggi
Sr. Area Technical Manager at Tata Elxsi
I would recommend this solution, but if asked specifically about the support then I would not recommend this solution's support.
As far as performance is concerned, and the working functionality point of view, definitely it is a good solution.
We have also used this solution for the last 20 years. Definitely, there is a level of comfort.
However, as of late, maybe when Dell had taken over from EMC, we have noticed there is an issue as far as support is concerned. We are not getting good support, which is what we are supposed to get from them, especially since we have been long-standing customers of EMC NetWorker. Regardless of what we were supposed to get, we are not getting it.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »There are some features that other software, like Avamar, does better, and that EMC could incorporate into Networker.
Ensure you have good architecture job before implementation. At our organization, we are scheduling all our backups from the same business line to ensure it's all done at the same time, to ensure all backups are scheduled at the same time.
View full review »BF
Bassam Fageer
Datacenter Administrator at Creative Solutions
I would not recommend NetWorker to other users and would rate it seven out of ten.
View full review »AK
Amine Koulali Idrissi
Senior Infrastructure Consultant at FORUM INTERNATIONAL
I would recommend the solution to others, especially due to the data domain system, as the target of the backup.
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a nine out of ten.
SA
Shiraz Ahmed
Founder & CEO at Technomatters
I would recommend this solution. If it's set up the right way, it's a stable product. So, my advice is to make sure you set it up right the first time. As long as you've done that, it will run for ages.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of six.
In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
View full review »Since they are going to stop developing this solution, I cannot recommend it to others.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »MC
reviewer1133397
Administrative at a university with 51-200 employees
We're Dell customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company.
I am the administrator of our Dell EMC NetWorker and I make backups of the servers and also run the solution. We only backup our server. We do not back up a user's workstation. The only backups are made by the administrators.
From my perspective, Dell EMC NetWorker is a good solution to make backups. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I'd rate it higher if the administrator's interface was easier to navigate.
View full review »AS
AnindyaSinha
Business Development Manager, Technology Integration Services at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Features are constantly evolving. Initially, I dealt with ERP backup, but we have since moved to the environment. Nowadays, there are cloud-related features. We position ourselves to meet the customer's needs, not just concerning any one given feature.
My advice is that a person who designs a solution for the backup or backup management, ensure that, in respect of the application, all agents take care not to encounter problems once the solution has been deployed.
I rate Dell EMC Networker as an eight out of ten.
View full review »SK
Sufyan Khan
CTO at New Horizon Computers
We have deployed this solution for many companies and for every kind of company, such as banks, logistics companies. One of the biggest companies in Pakistan is using Dell EMC NetWorker since 2015, and they are very happy with it. Another company with a big data center is using this solution since 2016, and they are also happy. There is no challenge in adapting and having this solution in your environment.
Dell EMC NetWorker is a very good software for physical workloads and virtual workloads. It is known for certain features. PowerProtect Data Manager is a next-generation backup software. It also provides you the simplicity and ease of use. It is not complex. I always recommend using the latest backup software. I would first recommend PowerProtect Data Manager. Avamar would be number two, and Dell EMC NetWorker would be number three.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »For newer software, EMC has expressed that they will not be supporting NetWorker for much longer. It is my understanding that they will continue for the next two years only.
We are looking for new technology, and we are in the middle of an RFI.
I would not recommend Dell EMC NetWorker, as the product will end in a few years.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »BO
Bolaji Olaloku
Enterprise Backup Administrator at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
When choosing a solution, I always consider:
- Support
- Availability of parts
- The technology of the solution.
Use EMC Data Domain (DD) system and EMC NetWorker. It really is number one on the market in backup and recovery solutions.
View full review »Take a training course before implementing this solution, especially if you are used to managing another backup solution. The backup integration generally takes a while to stabilize. However, once you have done it, you can forget about it. The backup will run automatically and backed up data will expire automatically based on configured policies.
View full review »WC
reviewer1777704
Storage Analyst III at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a ten out of ten.
View full review »HZ
reviewer1436463
System Administration Team Leader at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would not recommend this solution, we are switching to Veeam, and I would recommend it.
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »FA
reviewer1096965
Systems Administrator Team Leader at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
On a scale of one to ten, I would give Dell EMC NetWorker a seven.
They need to allow EMC NetWorker to be more agile and flexible with other cloud vendors. It has to come into the cloud arena because now everybody's talking cloud. They shouldn't be only restricted to on-premise. Everybody now is talking cloud, so it has to talk the latest language in IT. You need to make it more compatible with cloud vendors. When you talk about Commvault, it is very compatible with many cloud vendors like AWS. But you do not see the same thing with EMC NetWorker. They need to work on this point.
I would not hesitate to go to Commvault. Undoubtedly, Commvault is better. It is the best. If somebody would ask me which one to choose between EMC or Commvault, I would not hesitate to say go for Commvault rather than for EMC NetWorker.
View full review »SK
Sufyan Khan
CTO at New Horizon Computers
NetWorker is a good product.
There is no challenge in having NetWorker in your environment.
Powerprotect Data manager is the next generation backup software. I would recommend using the latest backup software suite.
NetWorker is also a very good backup software, for physical or virtual workloads. People know the features that NetWorker is providing.
If I had to choose one, I would go with Powerprotect. It provides simplicity and ease of use. It is not complex. Second I would recommend Avamar, then it would be Networker.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »AA
Ashraf Ali
Senior Consultant at global brands
For anyone using Dell products, it's important to have a backup software like NetWorker in the same ecosystem.
I rate the solution seven out of 10.
View full review »JO
reviewer908976
General Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.
View full review »ME
Mahmoud Ezz Eldin
IT Infrastructure Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We use the on-premises version of the service. We were also using a legacy solution from EMC.
In terms of recommending the solution, it would be my third choice, behind Rubrik and Commvault. There are newer versions, which are hyper-converged, but I would have to seriously evaluate them before I could recommend them.
I would rate this solution five or six out of ten.
View full review »It is a good product with some problems backing up virtual machines (slow restore). We use NetWorker Capacity Licensing Model. Estimating the backup environment's capacity is, for me, very complex, and I think not even clear.
TL
reviewer1510746
Presales Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
We are an authorized service provider of Dell.
The company is working on a hybrid cloud solution currently.
In general, I would rate the solution nine out of ten. If it offered better access to Linux or virtual systems of files based on Linux, it would be perfect.
I'd advise potential new users to take a look at the product if they are looking for a long-term solution. It is not software for one year. It is likely something that can be used for five or more years. That is why it is better to really research and compare to see if it really is needed as it's a bit hard to install it. And, once implemented, it's likely going to be hard to change.
View full review »NH
Nezar Hamed
Senior Storage Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The best feature in NetWorker is the data domain. If you're not using that then you cannot use NetWorker with any media or any storage vendor. There's no protection adviser to get selective reports and the graphs, so you need to get other products for that and it will consume a new server in your infrastructure. If you're providing customer support the solution is limited. I don't recommend this for dealing with customers. I do recommend it for internal use and for data domain only. You can get the best performance and best deduplication value and capacity saving.
I would rate this solution a six out of 10.
View full review »MS
Muhammad Sharfuddin
Solution Architect & Technical Team Lead at NDS
For anyone planning to implement this solution, it's essential to read the documentation, otherwise you will face a few issues. If you deploy having done all the reading, you won't have any problems. I believe that if something works as expected, it deserves a 10. In my case, it is working as per expectations so I don't have any complaints.
I would therefore rate this solution a 10 out of 10.
View full review »OI
OmarIsmail
Client Infrastructure Technical Specialist at Clicks
I will rate this solution an eight out of ten, based on my knowledge and experience on it. In the next version, I would like it if Dell EMC could back up IBM. They call it IBMi, or the A400 system. That would be awesome for the networker. My advice to others would be that they should be very specific who they use to set up the software and make sure they check references for successful installations.
View full review »SA
Shehan Attapattu
head of presales at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would definitely recommend NetWorker to others who are interested in using it.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker an eight out of ten.
View full review »SC
reviewer719127
System Administrator at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I would recommend the on-premise deployment of the solution but not the cloud version.
I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »We are using the on-premises deployment model.
I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
It's not easy to integrate. We have to read a lot of documentation in order to configure the solution.
View full review »If you need to backup multiple OS platforms, this is the product to purchase
View full review »AF
Adalberto Filho
Storback at storback
I rate NetWorker seven out of 10. Dell EMC needs to update NetWorker to stay competitive in the niche market for backup structures.
View full review »RV
reviewer1544718
Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Recommending this solution would depend on the customer. Certain customers will require this it.
Deployment is easy, but managing is more difficult when you run into issues.
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »This solution might be a bit complex for an end-user but it's a great solution for a technical person.
I think it's a very good solution.
I would rate it an eight out of ten. No solution can be a ten.
View full review »AM
reviewer721980
System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I would rate Dell EMC NetWorker a seven out of ten.
View full review »Be sure to do a PoC.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
Dell NetWorker
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell NetWorker. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.