Dell NetWorker Reviews

We use Dell EMC NetWorker as our backup application and everything backs up to Dell EMC Data Domain, where we replicate it to another EMC Data Domain. The two solutions work combined to meet our use case. Both solutions are from the same vendor and work very well together.

I started off as a storage engineer and ended up owning Dell EMC Data Domain and Dell EMC NetWorker. I've not used any other backup solutions at this scale. Dell EMC NetWorker does what I need it to do, it's efficient.

The front end of the solution could improve. The user-friendliness is lacking.

I have been using Dell EMC NetWorker for approximately eight years.

We have had limited downtime, the solution is highly reliable.

Dell EMC NetWorker is scalable.

When I need Dell EMC NetWorker support and there's a Dell EMC Data Domain issue, it's really easy to have support for both of them from one location. Support has always been there when we needed them.

We have a team of two that does the management of Dell EMC NetWorker and Dell EMC Data Domain.

I rate Dell EMC NetWorker a ten out of ten.

Backup jobs can be scheduled and automated

Monitoring of backups and configuration tasks are centralized

Compatibility of the solution covers large OS/DataBases/Applications

In a large enterprise DataCenter there is traditionally a lot of applications/databases which are owned by different administrators.

Without a centralized backup solution, each application/DB owner has to ensure its backup separately and if a problem occurs, he has to execute recovery tasks. In these conditions, the application rower has to make some extra jobs : backup scripting, verifying backups have finished successfully, recovery jobs... This does impact his efficiency and the global enterprise efficiency.

If a centralized backup solution like Networker is deployed, the backup/recovery tasks will be on the responsibility of only one resource which is the backup administrator. This does directly involve that each application/DB owner can spend more time on his real job: optimizing the platform that he owns.

With Networker 8.0 I had an issue related to VMware VADP backups.
An Image level backup of a RHEL VM finished successfully, but when I tried to restore it the transfer speed was very low, and the restore operation took 20 hours to restore 17 GB which represents 50% of total VM size. I was then obliged to abort the restore operation because there was backup jobs planned and Networker was deployed with only one tape drive in this case (the tape drive can't write backups and perform restores simultaneously).

I contacted the support team to analyze this performance issue. They said that this happened because it was a Linux machine backed up with Windows Vcenter Proxy. For me this is not acceptable... I hope this will be resolved in the 8.2 version of Networker, because restore speed is important (RTO)

4 years

Deployment tasks are not really hard. Networker is well documented.

7/10

Initial setup was complex because I had to integrate Exchange Server and I had no knowledge on how it works.

I asked to the Exchange administrator to assist me on the deployment and together we setup up the Exchange backup job.

IBM TSM; HP data protector; Symantec Netbackup/Backupexec are main competitor to Networker.

I remember a customer asked me to advise him between deploying Networker or TSM. The customer wanted to integrate a Data Domain device to his backup solution. I advised him to use Networker because TSM is not compatible with DDBoost protocol which improves DataDomain performance: Deploying TSM in this case was a limitation!

We use Dell EMC NetWorker for backing up VMs, files, and databases.

The user interface is hard to use, it should be simplified. There are a lot of web-based management interfaces which they should consider.

I have been using Dell EMC NetWorker for approximately eight years.

I have found Dell EMC NetWorker to be stable.

Dell EMC NetWorker is scalable.

The support of Dell EMC NetWorker is very good.

The initial setup is complicated. It is difficult to implement for clients.

The price of the solution could be lower, it is expensive.

We have evaluated Veeam.

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.

We have everything - we have Oracle databases, SQL databases, Windows platforms, Linux platforms, Exchange Servers. We have many servers along with several different storages. This is a very big group with a variety of systems.

Although Dell EMC NetWorker is a little bit more complex to combine with other products, it is really a very strong product. It became stronger when we started doing backups to disks instead of to data simulators when we import the Data Domain. The solution became stronger because the backup to disks is faster and the duplication ratios and compression are very high so it will save lots of space at this storage size. The granularity of the Exchange Servers is very good.

In terms of what can be improved, they need to be compatible with the cloud because EMC NetWorker cannot compete with other products at the moment. The other products like Veeam and Commvault are more flexible and are more compatible with other cloud vendors. EMC cannot do the same thing. EMC focuses only on their own cloud and do not take into consideration other cloud vendors.

I started using Dell EMC NetWorker in 2012.

It's stable. It is very, very stable software.

There are no problems in terms of stability. But as I said, the configuration, the deployment, etc... are more complex when you compare to the other products. That's the only thing. But from a stability point of view, it is very stable.

In terms of scalability, unfortunately, we were unable to upgrade the EMC NetWorker. We're still on version 8.1. So I have no idea of the capabilities of the latest release in terms of scalability. But for sure, when you compare to other products, EMC NetWorker will not be able to compete because other products are more agile and more compatible with many cloud vendors. They need to put more effort into that.

Despite it being more complex, it is a very powerful solution but still requires effort so that users can have good access to it. I cannot see people choosing EMC Networker. At the moment everybody chooses to go for Veeam and Commvault. At the moment everybody is waiting for BIM to go to Commvault. I've been in a deep study of the previous one and backup solutions, and I met many people and everybody prefers to go with Commvault or Veeam. I didn't see anybody preferring to go with EMC NetWorker.

The initial setup is complex. It requires a long brainstorming because you need to consider servers, storages, storage nodes, client servers, and the main backup server. It's quite complex. Brainstorming and designing will take time. You need the full verification and sometimes more than that if you have many servers where you need to install the client.

In order to implement, a consultant is needed. Without that, you cannot do it yourself. You can do it but there is a risk. So it's better to have another person.

In terms of pricing, yes, of course, EMC is cheaper. Commvault is more expensive. Maybe with the latest release, EMC Networker became more expensive, but I have no idea about the latest prices from EMC. Whatever we spent on EMC NetWorker was far cheaper.

What I've seen is renewal prices. Maybe the price of the implementation would be more expensive. But, at least from what I've seen, Commvault is more expensive than EMC NetWorker.

There are some main differences between Commvault and NetWorker and a lot of people prefer Commvault. First of all, worldwide ranking. If you look at the ranking starting from 2017 until today, you will find Commvault is always ranked first of second. EMC is not at those levels. Whenever you want to buy a backup solution, you need to look at the worldwide ranking. You need to conduct customer feedback. This is the first main difference between EMC NetWorker and Commvault. The second thing is their architecture, which is easier with Commvault. Commvault is easier to deploy.

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.

We are service providers and provide NetWorker for our end-users, our customers.

For POC purposes, we use it on our premises. Also, to have an overview of each and every kind of NetWorker.

We have a number of projects that we supply Networker for and we are completely satisfied with it. We use NetWorker to serve both workload types; a physical workload, and a virtual workload.

Dell EMC NetWorker is a very solid Backup software. It is the oldest backup software from EMC. It comes from Dell EMC's legacy.

The most valuable feature of NetWorker is the wide spectrum of available plugins for each and every software you can back up. For example, SAP, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle, and AIX.

Networker is very good backup software. It always provides you with incremental backups.

When you reach out to your maximum license availability, or you exceed your license limit, NetWorker never stops doing your backups.

With one terabyte of a license, you can back up a hundred terabytes of data back up. They never stop doing that. We always need to follow a fixed software but some customers have an overcapacity license, and they are happy about this feature.

It has a rich set of features.

It is not easy to understand. 

It's not easy to deploy.

It's complex in nature.

When it's deployed, the customers always need to have training from us. In order to make it user-friendly, there is an agent that can be used to back up every product.

Networker users many agents, and just like Powerprotect Data Manager, you can install its VM to import the VM into vCenter, and from Center, you can start your backups.

With NetWorker, you always need to have one server, and from that server, you need to initiate all backups.

You will need to know the interface and NetWorker CLI.

It's not user-friendly.

If NetWorker could be deployed on a virtual machine, similar to Avamar, that would be a great feature.

The features that are required in NetWorker are available in PowerProtect and Avamar. There is no need to enhance Networker, they just need to rename it to PPDM or Avamar. That would be better.

I have been using Dell EMC NetWorker for six years, since 2014.

This product is stable. Our customers have never experienced any issues.

Dell EMC NetWorker is scalable.

We have many different companies that we deal with, some are banks, using Networker. One of the largest companies in Pakistan has been using this solution since 2015. Another client with a big data center has been using it since 2016. We have many other vendors who are happy with this solution.

The NetWorker price point is excellent. When you purchase the Data Protection Suite, NetWorker is free with that suite. If you purchase Avamar, NetWorker is free with Avamar, for one terabyte license capacity.

NetWorker is very competitive.

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.

The full backup is a great feature. Restoration is also good and very quick. 

The UI needs some enhancement to be more user-friendly.

I've been using this solution for over a year. 

Once it's deployed, the solution is very stable. 

Both Veeam and Veritas are similar solutions. I went with Dell NetWorker because my hardware is Dell, so it's one call for support.

The initial setup doesn't take very long. It's only used by the backup admin.

Licensing is moderately expensive.

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. 

We use NetWorker for login support for SAP and VMware. I handle all maintenance-related issues on my own.

There's a lot of room for improvement. The user interface has to be improved.

Sometimes it duplicates jobs. Overall, it's a strong legacy product but there's still a lot of room for improvement.

We have to perform the very basic client registration process twice. We have to do it on the client-side and the NetWorker server-side. Sometimes just re-installing a client can be a nightmare. 

Also, the layout can be a bit scattered. It's difficult to learn for a new newcomer. If you work with Linux clients, if you've got another non-Windows system, it's a little bit tough — a little complex.

When it comes to the monitoring of backups, or if you want to grab a certain log, it's not as intuitive as other solutions. For example, if you want to find a backup for a certain client, it's not straightforward. With other solutions, like Avamar, this process is much easier.

Scheduling is complicated. If you use the GUI to create a schedule and you auto mark all your backups SQL, it's simply not there. You have to change the view of the schedule from a calendar view to what they call a non-calendar view. Then you have to modify the attributes. You have to operate in a non-conventional way. Typically, when using the GUI, the expectation is to use the GUI for everything. With this solution, you have to go online to check the logs. You have to do some manipulations here and there — it's complex.

Recovery is also complex. You have to build what we call 'a proper workflow' for recovery. 

It's quite a stable product. 

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.

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers.

When we initially implemented this product, it was used for virtual machines that were running SAP. It is used for virtual machine backup, database backup, Exchange backup, and file-level backup.

The interface is user-friendly and can be used by the end-users.

It is a little buggy at times, which is the only thing that I dislike about this product. If they could clear up this issue then it would be great because, for the most part, this is a very effective product from my perspective.

I would like to see more integration with third-party products, including both tape and disk products. I want to be able to perform backups not only from Dell EMC. Having this wide level of support would be very much appreciated.

It could be easier to deploy.

This is a scalable product.

The response time in my region is a little bit slow. It will take 12 hours, or even 24 hours depending on your problem. In the past, the response time was much better. I can recall when they responded within 10 minutes, which was very fast.

Now, only premium users, or enterprise-class users, receive a fast response.

Improving the response time for regular customers would be very helpful.

I have used several versions of this solution.

The initial setup for a new deployment can be a bit complex but with experience, it's very smooth. It takes perhaps 20 minutes to install.

Our technical team can handle deployment and maintenance.

Licensing is based on the number of terabytes, so you need to purchase packages.

In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.