Dell NetWorker Reviews

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.

We are customers of Dell and I'm a Data Protection Supervisor Engineer at a Telecommunications company.

Data domain is the best feature in this solution. I think that this application was better when it was a backup window for a huge number of VMs. 

Networker with Data Domain  has a great value in integration with VMware regarding the enhanced backup window and high value of deduplication and capacity saving we can get with this setup especially in case of protecting high number of VMs.

Things could be improved in several areas beginning with support. If you compare it to Commvault or Veritas solutions, their support is better than Networker. In terms of features that are lacking, I think the restore feature is important and it's not available on NetWorker. The other solutions have more programs. 

For additional features, I'd like to see integration with any storage place. NetWorker finance also doesn't enable deduplication, there is no source deduplication while using NetWorker, it's only accessible if it's on a different domain. I hope to see that in the next release. I also think the data protection adviser should be embedded in the NetWorker software so there is no need to install another server to collect logs. Finally, the PMR is no longer supported in Linux. 

I've been using this solution for 5 years. 

We have a few bugs but it's generally a stable solution. 

Technical support really needs improvement. Getting assistance is a long journey starting with collecting logs. If we're lucky, we can have things sorted in a day. If the issue is related to an application or a link or a restore issue, anything regarding the performance, it's very difficult to get assistance. 

The initial setup is easy, it's not complex.

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. 

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. 

Our primary use case for the solution is for backup and recovery in all environments, such as physical and virtual ones.

The solution offers compatibility with many types of database systems. It is one of the largest backup solutions. Additionally, it gives important information about data domain systems with deduplication. 

I have been using the solution for approximately three years. 

The solution is stable.

We have more the five customers using Dell EMC NetWorker.

The technical support was slightly impolite in my experience.

The deployment of the solution is easy when integrated with the data domain systems. Additionally, the documentation is available and it is simple to follow. It took approximately one week to deploy it. 

The implementation of the solution took approximately one week and we used two engineers. 

The pricing of the solution is not the cheapest compared to other similar solutions. The Networker is available as a component of the Dell EMC Data Protection Suite package and it should have the ability to be purchased separately. 

The solution requires a perpetual license. We can upgrade the solution without the need to be renewed at an additional cost. 

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. 

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.

We use this solution for disk storage, and to administer Save and Restore functionality in our client's data center.                                                             

When it was required that data had to be restored for our customer, it was accomplished successfully and this has kept our end users satisfied.                                                    

Stability of NetWorker is very good.

We would like support for tape space reclaim, using either the same or another pool.

NetWorker uses only a stage directed to a clone pool, which is not enough to recover space on the tape.

Dell EMC should be more aggressive with its marketing; such as is done by Commvault.

There should be total integration of the replication and cloud logistic back up on cloud.

The stability has been fine thus far. 

The solution is definitely scalable.

Technical support is good. 

The initial setup is completely easy, not hard at all. 

The pricing is okay.

Commvault does more aggressive marketing than Dell EMC. 

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.