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HPE Apollo Systems pros and cons

Vendor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

4.2 out of 5

23 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

HPE Apollo Systems integrates easily with Omni-Path architecture and supports scalable software-defined solutions, certified for Linux. Users appreciate the configurable CPU and storage options and high reliability. However, cooling and shared battery replacement need improvement. Ubuntu Linux support is challenging due to missing RAID drivers. Availability of 8TB disks and price-to-storage density also pose issues. Despite these, customers value its cost-effectiveness, resilience, and technical support.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HPE Apollo can seamlessly integrate into Omni-Path architecture, enabling efficient software-defined solutions.

It offers scalability and flexibility, allowing configurations with varying nodes and storage options.

Performance is enhanced by powerful CPUs, hard drives, and the option for all flash drives.

It supports diverse use cases such as Hadoop and Ceph while providing reliable performance with no failures reported over an extended period.

HPE Apollo provides cost-effective pricing and valuable technical support, suitable for large storage requirements with easy implementation.

CONS

Cooling improvements are needed as high compute power in a single rack creates significant issues.

Lustre is considered a bit unstable and requires enhancements.

The process of replacing the shared battery for cache controllers requires taking down all three nodes.

Delays in obtaining 8TB disks for storage expansion have been reported.

Increased flexibility in running various network protocols such as InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, and iSCSI is desired, particularly at high speeds.

HPE Apollo Systems Pros review quotes

Senior Director of Research at PSC

Jun 7, 2017

Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world

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Gayan Senadheera

Director at Tyax Pvt Ltd

Jul 21, 2023

With HPE Apollo, we can propose configurations with many hard drives, making it suitable for large storage needs.

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Professor at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 13, 2017

It's going to meet our needs moving forward, it is scalable.

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HPE Apollo Systems

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Data Center Manager at Maples And Calder

Dec 5, 2017

It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it.

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Network End Data Center Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 5, 2017

We usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks.

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Principal Engineer at Seagate Technology

Jun 24, 2018

We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now.

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IT Architect

Dec 5, 2017

It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage.

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Senior Account Manager

Dec 5, 2017

It enables us to implement software defined solutions very easily, because Apollo servers are certified for use with Linux systems

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Solution integration Architect (HPE, Dell, Vmware, AWS, Azure) at Computer Marketing Company Pvt Ltd

Jun 16, 2023

HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature.

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System Engineer at Mr Green

May 9, 2018

When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance.

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Show 5 more reviews (out of 15)

HPE Apollo Systems Cons review quotes

Senior Director of Research at PSC

Jun 7, 2017

What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security.

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Gayan Senadheera

Director at Tyax Pvt Ltd

Jul 21, 2023

If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo.

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Professor at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 13, 2017

Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall.

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HPE Apollo Systems

Free Report: HPE Apollo Systems Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about HPE Apollo Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.

861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Data Center Manager at Maples And Calder

Dec 5, 2017

One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker.

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Network End Data Center Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 5, 2017

We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo.

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Principal Engineer at Seagate Technology

Jun 24, 2018

I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding.

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IT Architect

Dec 5, 2017

There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one.

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Senior Account Manager

Dec 5, 2017

We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there.

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Solution integration Architect (HPE, Dell, Vmware, AWS, Azure) at Computer Marketing Company Pvt Ltd

Jun 16, 2023

The solution's deployment, security, and scalability need improvement.

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System Engineer at Mr Green

May 9, 2018

We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE.

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Show 6 more reviews (out of 16)

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Product Categories

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Popular Comparisons

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