TrustRadius Insights for Dell Networker are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
Dell EMC Networker is a versatile backup solution that is widely used across various industries and organizations to protect critical data. For example, Provident Funding relies on Networker to back up virtual machine images, physical Windows systems, and Cellera NAS, ensuring the safety of their data. The IT team at Provident Funding uses Networker directly and can easily make recovery requests as needed. By leveraging Networker, Provident Funding reduces the risk of data loss and maintains the integrity of their information.
Additionally, Networker has been chosen by numerous companies to safeguard their data. Although there have been experiences where the product did not meet expectations, such as backups failing regularly and encountering poor support at one undisclosed company over the past three years, for the most part, Networker has proven to be a reliable backup solution. It is utilized by both SMBs and enterprise-level organizations to protect a variety of systems including file servers, application/database servers, VMs, and databases. Moreover, Networker is often paired with Dell DataDomain to create a comprehensive backup infrastructure that handles a large volume of critical backups. This combination offers peace of mind and enhanced data protection for organizations across different sectors.
Overall, Dell EMC Networker provides valuable backup capabilities for protecting crucial data assets in diverse environments. Its versatility makes it suitable for businesses of varying sizes and needs, offering a single application to manage different backup datasets effectively. While there have been instances where users encountered challenges with the product or received subpar support, many organizations rely on Networker to ensure the integrity and availability of their data.
Dell EMC was used as our primary backup system. It is now past warranty and is our secondary backup system. We have two to backup our local file shares, SQL, and other data on our network. A lot of this is becoming more scarce because of systems moving to the web.
Pros
Backs up data.
Hardware notifications.
Easy to use interface.
Cons
Support is not so easy to work with.
replacing drives can be difficult.
Our model doesn't support VMs.
Likelihood to Recommend
Dell EMC Networker works well for straightforward backups. We use it for SQL and data backups. We have been doing that with our VM and non-VM environments. Nowadays there are better solutions for VM environments that can back up the whole VM for faster recovery. If you want to just copy files and or SQL this will work just fine.
VU
Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
Dell EMC Networker is a data protection suite that gives us peace of mind over our more important data and its backups. We are using it at the Data Center to give us another layer or level of backup prowess as well as a means to hold onto critical data. The business problems that are solved by its use are having corrupted, failed, or missing backup data.
Pros
Gives us deep, granular control over our backups data.
Automates a lot of the hard work for us, saving much time.
Gives both physical and virtual environments a safe place for data to rest.
Cons
Dell software in general feels a bit data and can be cumbersome.
Upgrades, patches, and bug fixes are behind when an important security issue is found.
We sometimes have trouble getting answers from support.
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I would tell a colleague that this is really a supplement to their fully fleshed out backup system. We use comm vault for the heavy lifting, and Networker for the critical data and systems. This allows us to have separate backups and less of a single point of failure.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
Dell/EMC NetWorker is utilized here to take care of some critical backups for servers that need enhanced data protections. We use it to keep a tight hold on integral backups that would be needed in the event of a disaster recovery or security incident. It solves the problem of relying on regular backup software that cannot perform the advanced functions.
Pros
Solid backups and successful recoveries.
Dell/EMC has a good support team with quick response time.
The dashboard is robust and information can be displayed in various ways.
Cons
Sometimes getting to the right support team can be problematic.
Sometimes navigating through the software can be confusing.
The GUI could use some enhancements to make it faster (HTML5!).
Likelihood to Recommend
Ok so if someone wanted to know about this product I would first see what they're currently using for backup software. A lot of basic backup options are available in most enterprise backup products. But if the colleague asking for a recommendation is needing low-level control and deep data security, then I could recommend this to them.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
Dell EMC Networker is a solution for protecting the data of our file servers and App/DB servers. We got it to solve the problem of missing data protection features in our existing Commvault backup solution. We compared its features to others and found it will be good enough to protect our File, App, and DB servers across the organization.
Pros
The latest version has patched many bugs and runs well
The GUI is simple and straight forward but is powerful when needing to do more
Well priced solution among its peers
Cons
Documentation is lacking
Prior versions had many bugs and interface issues
Competitors have some more advanced features
Likelihood to Recommend
For users with a basic backup system that does not provide advanced data protection this is a life saver in the age we live in where hackers are looking to encrypt and ruin your important backups. I would recommend [Dell EMC Networker] based on its features, price, and ease of use. If you have a similar product already it does not offer many unique features however.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
Teknicor uses [Dell EMC] Networker to protect our customer data. Our customers range in size from SMB to Enterprise. It is a powerful, versatile, and reliable data protection solution, especially when used in conjunction with DataDomain.
Pros
Seamlessly integrates with DataDomain
Seamlessly integrates with vmWare for extremely fast VM backups
Provides agent-based integration for a very wide array of applications-aware backups, including but not limited to: Microsoft SQL/Exchange/Sharepoint, Meditech, Oracle, DB2, Informix, SAP
Integrates with a wide family of NAS solutions for NDMP backups
Cons
[Dell EMC] Networker is a not a backup software that is not for the faint of heart. It is challenging to understand, implement, and troubleshoot. Many of the errors are nondescript and undocumented, and have left many a seasoned administrator in the dust. If Networker is not implemented by an experienced professional, it will cause nothing but grief for the customer. However, if it is properly implemented and maintained, it will provide reliable, robust, flexible, and scalable data protection.
It really needs to transition away from Java ASAP. The HTML5 GUI is decent but still a far cry away from being ready to replace the Java interface from a functionality perspective. The Java UI is probably the weakest and most frustrating aspect of Networker, because it is clunky, resource intensive, unreliable, and just a plain eye-sore.
Networker support will either be a lifesaver or will dig you an early grave, depending on who takes your call. There are Networker SMEs at Dell that have been in the business for decades. If you're lucky enough to reach one, they will provide some of the best support you'll ever come across. Of course, your odds of getting to one of those people is slim, and you'll like end up getting connected to a L1 technician that just learned how to spell Networker. I know because I used to be one of those L1 technicians, and it usually just makes the customer want to find the closest bridge.
Likelihood to Recommend
[Dell EMC] Networker is very powerful at the Enterprise level, especially environments requiring a mixture of VM, physical server, and specific application aware backups. Networker's versatility, scalability, and flexibility make it ideal in such scenarios. Networker is also very capable in small and mid-sized environments, although its true potential is only really unlocked at the Enterprise level.
I would not deploy Networker in an environment that does not have a senior-level infrastructure engineer that is committed to being the "Networker guy" --- ie. the person that understands the product and is willing to continually learn about it. Do not hand this product to a junior tech or anyone who only has a passing interest in backup administration. It will not end will for your organization.
Networker is being used in conjuncture with Dell DataDomain to facilitate the backup and restores of a large number of VMs as well as a number of Databases. We are using it as a department and not across the entire enterprise. It provides data recovery in the event of user or hardware error. That being said, it has been hard to work with, is not user friendly and tends to fail backups at a regular basis. We've been looking for an alternative.
Pros
Works with other Dell EMC products.
Works with VMware.
Cons
UX is just horrible.
Workflow is hard to easily understand.
Does not feel seamless.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are already a strong Dell EMC shop and they give you a screaming deal on Networker, it may be worth it. Dell has been promoting new backup and recovery products, but they seem to be being lapped by the startups in the space.
VU
Verified User
General Manager in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)
We use Dell EMC Networker to protect about 90 virtual machines and a handful of physical servers across two AD domains. We had been looking for dedicated backup hardware and settled on Data Domain as the solution. At the time we were using Acronis as the software side of our DR strategy and were aware we needed something more robust, but this was secondary to having dedicated storage appliances. Dell offered to bundle Networker with this hardware and the price/feature set seemed to be a good fit.
Pros
I don't think this product does anything well. It shines only because of the Data Domain integration.
The support teams is excellent, which is good, because you'll need them. Frequently.
The project implementation team is also competent and professional but their hands were often tied due to poor direction from the sales team.
Cons
The GUI is horrible. Giant windows that don't size properly, confusing terminology, multiple clicks to get things done, it's just a disorganized mess. I can't put this in front of my junior techs because it requires some background in DR software to fully comprehend, and even then it's not easy. It feels very much like this was tacked on to a command-line based product as an afterthought.
Better management features. It's difficult to integrate with Active Directory, for one. You'll need a Dell EMC tech to help you. Items can't be renamed and have to be recreated. Options are buried in multiple GUI tabs and often are just command line strings in a free-text field. Diagnosing failed jobs and workflows is cumbersome and the errors are often cryptic without some experience. Design it well and pray for uptime, because you need this to work when disaster requires it to.
Poor reporting features for an enterprise class product. You can't schedule any type of simple summary (an audit requirement for us) in the base product. To do this requires the additional cost of Data Protection Advisor, which is also horribly designed and impossible to get working quickly.
Post-sales contact is non-existent. We've been through a few reps and the project team dropped us at one point with a half-finished implementation when the original sales guy moved on. We only got the the promised product implementation by telling Dell that we weren't paying the bill until they delivered what they promised and were contractually obligated to.
Likelihood to Recommend
Networker is only suited for one thing: being a front end for good hardware. We love our Data Domains, the dedupe is insane and they ingest data rapidly. You'd be better off using Veeam, which can talk to the Data Domains natively (that's what we're doing now).
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
Networker is being used as the primary backup software for our organization.
Pros
Networker has a UI and set that is relatively easy to use. It has a policy-based backup system that is straightforward as far as configuration.
Networker has fairly robust reporting on current save sets and easily exportable pdfs and spreadsheets of statistics and metrics
Networker has a monitoring dialogue which allows you to find out quickly what has succeeded or failed.
Cons
Networker's customer service could use a bit of improvement. While some problems are handled quickly, complex issues sometimes have limited responses with difficulty to escalate up the chain.
Networker prior to version 9 is using outdated policy configuration which tends to make some backup windows and obligations awkward.
Networker needs a bit better method for accommodating plugin integration with other applications, and better documentation on implementation of those modules.
Likelihood to Recommend
Networker is well suited for small to medium environments where additional features aren't needed. Dealing with additional devices and light disk to disk backup works fairly well. Where it may be less appropriate, at least before version 9, would be in environments where complex enterprise level schedules might be required or which have applications which need specific backup needs.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)
At Provident Funding, we use Networker for backing up virtual machine images, a few physical Windows systems, and some of our Cellera NAS. We push it all to a data domain. It is being used only by IT directly and users make requests to us as needed for recoveries. Networker gives us reduced risk of data loss.
Pros
Networker has proven to be really reliable in restores. If it says it was backed up successfully we have never had a restore failure which is great. Some backup software fails at this most important task, but Networker has been reliable.
Networker is efficient on system resources. It takes a lot of backing up in order to put our Networker (VM) under any meaningful load. We back up about 60 VMs at a time while backing up other resources (such as the NAS) and it is a breeze for the system.
Networker is flexible. It takes a little bit to understand how everything is linked together in the interface, but you can customize just about anything about your backup jobs from speeds, threads, backend targets, schedules, and level all very easily.
We backup to a data domain, which I think does most of the magic, but it is a very compressed/deduped/small backup size relative to the whole sum of the data which is great. Essentially it is very efficient on the storage side, at least when coupled with a data domain.
Cons
Networker terminology is awful. My favorite example is that many required-to-function configuration changes need to occur with the advanced configuration enabled. To make this worse, the 'advanced configuration' I am speaking of is actually called 'Debug Mode'. That's right, you must use debug mode in order to have a functional administrator interface.
Errors are common and to resolve you often must go to support. You really need to be an expert to fix many errors, the steps usually involve being really knowledgeable in the CLI tools, which I am getting good at, but the public documentation is seriously lacking for troubleshooting these issues. That said, support (through emc) is really good at handling the common issues, friendly, generally knowledgeable, and quick to respond.
It runs on Java, and sometimes I need to clear java cache to fix interface bugs. Generally this isn't an issue, but it is additional software you must worry about.
Likelihood to Recommend
Networker is really good at backing up a lot of data and it might be the right tool for the job if you have a title like 'backup administrator'. I say this because I think to really master and benefit from Networker it requires an immense amount of time playing with the CLI tools before you could comfortably solve many issues on your own. Due to the need I have (and I generally don't have to do this for similar type/complexity products) to reach out to support so often I wouldn't generally recommend it as I work in many systems and my job requires me to administer multiple back end systems of comparable size and importance. However, it is incredibly efficient and reliable, so if you have a large infrastructure and have plenty of time to get really intimate with the software, it can be a good friend. I didn't chose Networker, at first I didn't like it, and now I think it is an OK or even good solution, but it took a lot of experience to feel that way.
We have been using NetWorker for the past three years for all Open Systems (Windows and Linux) backups. It has been the worst nightmare of my 40+ years in IT. We never had even one day when all of our backups completed successfully. Support was horrible. We are now in the process of completely replacing it with a different solution.
Pros
When used with a Data Domain appliance, using either DDBOOST or a VTL, it is quick and does a wonderful job of deduplication. We have 2.3 PB stored on a 140 TB DD 4500. While this is expensive storage, the cost for 2+ PB would be even higher.
It does a good job of brick-level backups of Exchange mailboxes, and does so in very good time. A few hours backs up our entire organizations mailbox stores in a way that provides object level restore.
Used in combination with DPA (Data Protection Advisor), it has a very good reporting capability. DPA, however, requires more than just surface knowledge in order to get really good reports, and the DDOS changes can wreck havoc with customized reports.
Cons
NetWorker has a number of glaring flaws. For starters, it does not have any built-in vaulting capability. I simply cannot believe that EMC thinks nobody takes tapes out of their libraries. Their response to our inquiry about it? "We can write a program for you that will cost x-thousands of dollars, or you can develop one yourself." We wrote our own customized program to vault tapes.
NetWorker does not posses any Disaster Recovery reporting capability. Again, we had to custom code reporting for this so that tape librarians would know what tapes to recall from offsite storage for entire groups of servers. During a crisis there isn't time to be doing that on a one at a time basis for hundred or thousands of servers.
NetWorker is extremely sensitive to DNS changes, and appears to cache DNS data in hidden locations. We have servers being reported by NetWorker as not connected when they were decommissioned years ago, removed from AD and DNS, yet we still cannot get NetWorker to stop complaining about them.
NetWorker does not play well at all with multi-homed clients (more than one network interface). In environments where it is not conducive to backup servers of a production network, it becomes crucial to do so over a dedicated or secondary LAN. This causes huge issues with NetWorker.
If a group contains a number of clients, and one of those gets hung up during a backup, the entire group fails. That is a very wasteful approach for both time and infrastructure resources. Instead, it should fail the one client and allow the remainder in the group to complete successfully. It should also allow the group run to be canceled and still keep the good clients backups rather than registering the entire group as failed.
There is no way in NetWorker to identify specific file/directories that fail to backup successfully. It will report on savesets, but I need to know that file abc.dat or directory F:\Program Data\ failed and why. It does me no good to get a warning that the saveset for the F drive failed. What failed and why? It may have been a critical problem, or it may have been of no importance.
We endured three years of NetWorker experiencing problems, enduring a grueling process of trying to get knowledgeable and rapid support -- sometimes taking days and weeks, and only after getting really pushy with support managers -- only to have the problems return over and over. For example, it has been a regular issue for the peer information to get clobbered for no apparent reason. The result is the backup fails for that client, and then I have to go in and remove the peer information on the NetWorker Server, all affected Storage Nodes, and the client. I can now run nsradmin -p nsrexec and then the print and delete statements for nsr peer information in my sleep.
Likelihood to Recommend
I would <b>not</b> recommend NetWorker to anyone for any reasons. It is huge, cumbersome, extremely problematic and EMC's support organization with rare exceptions is the worst in the industry. We have had nothing other than serious problems with it for three years, despite consistent attempts to get it working correctly. Every time an EMC engineer came on site (always someone different) that person would ask "Why did you do it this way? That's not the best way to do it." He/she would then change things to how they thought it should be set up (in direct contrast to what the previous EMC person had done and said). In other words, there are no consistent best practices across their support organization. This caused major issues for us, and left me extremely stressed knowing that there was no way in hell we could ever recover from a true disaster.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
