Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers Reviews

The user interface is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The implementation process is quite good.

The pricing of the solution is fair.

I can't think of any features that are lacking on the solution. It works well for our clients for the most part.

It would be nice if the rack servers had an HCI solution as an option.

We've been using the solution for the past two years now.

The stability is good. It also lasts a relatively long time. Our customers are typically looking for something that will hold up for about five years, and this solution does that. It's not buggy. There aren't glitches. It doesn't crash or break down.

You can easily scale the solution up and down. Our customers want a solution that can work with for half a decade at least, so they need something flexible, and this solution delivers.

We deal with customers of all sizes, from small to large organizations. This solution works well for each of them.

The technical support is okay. We have an internal team, however, they are by no means experts. We need Dell to fill in the blanks and sometimes that can't help us the way we hoped they would. It might be helpful if the Dell site had more information so that we could just go there.

We use a variety of Dell options including FX and XE, among others. Which we use is dependant on the client requirements.

The initial setup is not complex. It's quite easy to set everything up, in fact. All of the underlying technology is the same on Dell, so we don't have an issue handling the implementation on the Dell servers for our customers.

We can handle the aspects of the installation ourselves, as it's pretty straightforward.

We are a service provider and a reseller. We use various versions of the solution. The deployment models also vary as it depends on customer requirements. We deal with a lot of hyper-converged solutions.

I'd recommend the solution. We've had no issues with it at all.

Overall, I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

These servers have been real work-horses. Dell has done a nice job at including more management tools, with OpenManage and the likes. The DRAC Enterprise is an amazing feature, especially when managing decentralized server farms.

One of the main factors in helping efficacy is having like-branded servers, which have compatible tools. There are are more universal management tools out there, but they are generally pretty costly. The fact that the servers have generally been quite reliable, has really decreased expenditure. I know that when I put a server in place, they will simply run. I had servers that were still from the PE2650, and PE4400 up until fairly recently when everything got replaced. There is something to be said about reliable hardware.

Unfortunately, I am now more in the space of IaaS, so I am a little bit removed from that particular area. In my experience when I was actively using Dell's servers, they were always improving their hardware, and coming up with more efficient solutions. One of the things that I had started using pretty extensively is blade servers, as they are more efficient on energy, and can provide the same computing power as racked servers, yet consume much less rack real estate.

I have used all series of Dell PowerEdge servers for about 12-14 years, through to the 12th generation.

For the most part, my experience with Dell was in conjunction with VMware vSphere, and VMware View. There were some issues that I encountered with the servers, but it is a result of having multiple server generations with different processors in place, which caused some problems with HA and DRS with VMware, but these don't necessarily quality as issues with the servers themselves. From a hardware perspective, these servers have always been rock solid.

I think the customer support at Dell is adequate, at least when it comes to their server support team. Some other areas are more lacking, but over all, and as it relates to servers, I have no complaints.

Most of my experience has been with Dell servers, so I can't comment much on different solutions.

If you're familiar with deploying servers, then it's not really complex. There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to setting up the OpenManage server and agents, but nothing unsurmountable.

I have always deployed my own servers. If you are operating in an SMB, I would recommend that you get your hands dirty, and learn how these servers are setup, connected, etc., as it is going to be a matter of when, not if, that the server is going to have some failed component, that you're going to want to know how to deal with. Typically, if you have your Dell support, even the basic one, I believe you are able to get a technician to come help with hardware repair/replacement.

Well, since this is a discussion about hardware, one would argue that ROI isn't really much of a relevant argument in this case, as the factors for it would depend more than just the actual server purchased. This is really a CAPEX expense, and given today's technology, and the business need and requirements, I personally would much rather start moving my computing resources to the cloud, (i.e: AWS, Azure, Rackspace, etc...), and shift that CAPEX into an OPEX and free up some funds for more fluid cashflow.

I have worked very minimally with HP servers as well, which were also pretty good servers.

We primarily utilize Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers as hosts for virtual machines.

We opted for the OCP primarily due to its exceptional modularity. With compute nodes and storage nodes sharing the same form factor and rack, it simplifies maintenance tasks. Any necessary adjustments can be made seamlessly without the need to unplug cables, as everything is contained within the rack itself. This user-friendly design streamlines operations, particularly for individuals with limited training in server management.

Our older PowerEdge servers consume significant amounts of power due to their age.

In terms of high performance, there hasn't been any improvement or decline. We have sufficient redundancy to tolerate the loss of multiple nodes without any impact.

In terms of productivity, we have the capability to interface directly with the servers when necessary, eliminating the need for remote access.

There is potential for enhancement in terms of its overall upgradeability.

I have been using it for five years.

In terms of stability, overall it has been satisfactory, although we encountered some issues due to outdated hardware. At one point, we experienced failures likely stemming from aging components, such as a faulty CPU that led to the shutdown of certain virtual machines.

It fulfills its intended functions, but we haven't identified any advantages to the additional features. Overall, I would rate it seven out of ten.

My clients use PowerEdge servers for Hyper-V by Microsoft and VMware machines. They're running ERP and CRM applications and agents for backup systems licensing models. The models we use include 730, 630, 620, 220, and 740.

The configuration and BIOS management are flexible. It's easy to install 10 GB network cards on the rack. They have a good selection that simplifies the network connections.

It takes a long time to deliver the hardware. The riser cards can be better. The riser cards are where the PCI cards connect. They need to have more than two riser cards in the server because it can be difficult to connect sometimes. 

I have been using PowerEdge Rack Servers for about 10 years.

PowerEdge servers are stable in general, but sometimes clients report having problems with the RAM. 

The scalability is good.

I rate Dell support seven out of 10.

Neutral

PowerEdge servers are easy to set up. You need about two or three people, including a specialist and an engineer, to maintain the solution. You usually need an engineer plus a specialist in Hyper-V or VMware.

I think the price of these servers is good.

I rate Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers nine out of 10. I recommend the product.

I use Dell R740 servers series as the main compute server to host IT workloads.

It's an excellent choice and it's integrated well with Dell-VMWare virtualization OS (ESXi).

Dell R series are very good engineered servers. Reliability and durability are the key to choose this product. This is a cornerstone to build a highly available IT system.

The reconstructive compatibility with VMware ESXi is the most valuable.

The only thing that could be improved is documentation. The product is highly customizable with a lot of options for each component. These options are not easily understood. It would be great to offer more user-friendly interface/Documentation to build up the system. 

I have been using this solution for four years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We can scale it by adding nodes, but some software and licenses are required for that. We have around 60 users using it on a daily basis

I never contacted them. We are usually able to resolve any issues within the company.

Yes, I installed and administered HP Proliant servers. It was a good product in my experience.

I switched because we got a competitive price.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have three team members for its deployment and regular maintenance.

It's easy to install and configure with suitable server administrator.

iDrac management solution is included with the server. It provides suitable zero-cost solution for monitoring and managing your hardware.

Yes we evaluate all possible alternatives like:

HP and Lenovo

I would recommend this solution for rack servers. It is perfect.

I would rate Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers an nine out of ten.

Our primary use case includes running workloads such as on-premises Active Directory, with a managed hybrid approach on Microsoft Azure and on-premises.

The solution has helped by ensuring no major security incidents or vulnerabilities, and has supported our sustainability goals through energy consumption management. It has also provided reliable uptime with planned downtimes for updates.

Its approach to user security measures is valuable. We haven't experienced any major issues, and the solution has been working really well.

I've been in this company for the last three years, and the solution has been used since before my arrival.

We do not have many issues with downtime; there are windows for planned updates or upgrades.

Dell's customer support is very good, especially since we have premium support for next-day hardware service.

Positive

The return on investment is notable as we've been using the same servers without incurring ongoing operational expenses often associated with the cloud.

The cost of ownership is differentiated by the absence of operational expenses typical with cloud services.

We use this solution for general computing and for ESX hosts for our virtual environment. 

We are a partner who sells PowerEdge to many different customers, and we also use it in our own environment. The solution can be customized based on a customer's needs and allows us to build whatever we need in our own environment at that particular moment.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase stack productivity. The solution's accelerated GPUs helped support demanding workloads for some of our customer's environments. PowerEdge helped to reduce data processing time in our company which has made us work faster. 

iDRAC is the most valuable feature because of the ease of use and management, and everything that it provides is super useful. The security features that PowerEdge provides, including firmware threat detection is good.

We do not currently use this solution's CloudIQ functionality for predictive analytics but we would like to use it in the future.

I have used this solution for five years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This solution is scalable. The way this solution is able to scale is impressive. Depending on how you build your PowerEdge server, it can serve the lowest end of customers up to the highest, depending on what their needs are. Whatever a customer is trying to accomplish, can usually be customized for their environment.

The quality of support for this solution varies. Sometimes you get agents who are amazing and other times you get agents who take a long time to resolve your query. I would rate support for this solution a six and a half out of ten. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took one to two hours.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

One valuable feature is the scalability to deploy thousands of desktops. 

Ideal for database applications, large virtual infrastructures and other data intensive workloads.

Dell PowerEdge R920 4U Rack Server

Here are more specs when considering scalability:

The R920 12G Server is a four socket, 4U rack server that offers increased performance and expandability, boasting a 100% increase in IOPS performance (Input/Output Operations Per Second) over the previous-generation PowerEdge servers. Enhanced storage and compute density enables the R920 to run intensive mission critical applications for any midsized to large enterprise environment effortlessly.

The PowerEdge 12G family of servers introduces the new Intel Xeon E7-2800, 4800, and 8800 v2 family of processors to the 4U form factor. Delivering more cores, additional cache, and better power efficiency over the previous generation of Xeon Sandy Bridge processors.

The system supports up to two E7-2800 V2 processors, or for more performance choose up to (4) E7-4800 or (4) 8800 V2 series, 15 core processors, for a total of 120 threads with Intel’s QuickPath Interconnect clock rates of up to 8GT/s (Giga Transfers per second).

The Intel C602J chipset supports DDR3 memory, providing faster speeds, higher compute density, and lower power consumption than the previous generation.

When used with a 4 CPU configuration, a maximum of 96 DDR3 DIMMs can support an impressive 6TBs of LRDIMMs of 64GB modules.

Depending on the processor, the R920 can achieve memory speeds of up to 1600MT/s (Mega Transfers per second).

A choice of storage configurations supports up to 24 2.5 inch SFF drives allowing you to choose between SATA, SSD, or SAS drive options to best suit your needs. For maximum performance, the R920 can be configured to support 8 PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD’s, optimizing input/output operations per second (IOPS), reducing mechanical latency and leveraging enterprise class reliability in NAND SSD’s, which offer a significant increase in performance and durability over standard hard drives.

The PERC H730P storage controller offers 12Gb/s on a PCIe 3 interface and supports RAID configurations 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, 60 with 2GB non-volatile flash backed write cache.

For external storage, the optional PERC H810 6Gb/s adapter provides 1GB non-volatile write cache and supports RAID modes of 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, and 60.

And, depending on the chassis configuration, the front of the PowerEdge R920 allows access to the power ON button, Non-Maskable Interrupt and system ID buttons, an LCD information panel, 2 USB 2.0 ports, optical drive, VGA connection, and an iDRAC vFlash SD card slot, which requires an iDRAC enterprise license.

The back of the server provides access to redundant power supplies, 2 USB 2.0 connections, VGA port, dedicated iDRAC Enterprise connection, serial port, a choice of quad port LAN or dual port LAN with dual 10Gbe port, and PCIe slots.

Choose between the platinum or titanium rated 750W power supply or the platinum rated 1100W power supply. Up to 4 hot plug redundant PSU’s can be configured with the system.

The R920 comes with 8 PCIe 3.0 slots standard and two more can be added so there’s plenty of room for expansion.

CPU 1

Slot 1: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x8 (x24 connector), baseboard

Slot 2: NDC riser slot (Network Daughter Card)

Slot 3: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x8 (x16 connector), baseboard

(optional riser)

Slot 1/1: full-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x4 (x8 connector), left riser

Slot 2/2: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x4 (x8 connector), left riser

Slot 4: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 connector), baseboard

Slot 5: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 connector), baseboard

4 CPU systems

Slot 6: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 connector), baseboard

Slot 7: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 connector), baseboard

Slot 8: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 connector), baseboard

Slot 9: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x16 (x24 connector), baseboard

(optional riser)

Slot 1/9: full-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x8 (x16 connector), right riser

Slot 2/10: half-length, full-height, PCIe 3.0 x8 (x16 connector), right riser

Various PCie cards can be installed including additional NIC’s, Infiniband cards, and Fusion IO drives.

Dell’s iDRAC 7 Express Level Management Technology comes standard offering remote management and monitoring without the need to install additional software. Upgrading to Enterprise allows you to maintain complete server control and access your server from any remote location using a browser, in addition to enabling the dedicated management port and vFlash SD slot.

The R920 can weigh up to 130 lbs. and is 6.8” tall…….18.99” wide…..and 29.65” deep (31.59” with PSU and bezel).

Supported operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux

Enterprise Server, Oracle Solaris, VMware, and Citrix XenServer.

A brief upbeat and informative video overview of the Dell R920 4U rack server: