Name: Lenovo ThinkSystem SR Series
Rating: 8.3 (5 reviews)
Author: Lenovo

June 30, 2022

Don't Let Their Consumer-Grade Products Scare You Off!

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 201-500 employees

Score 8 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilize the Thinksystem SR590 and SR630's within our district as our virtual machine hosts. We are a mid-sized district, so budgetary concerns are always a leading cause behind our purchasing decisions. The Lenovo Thinksystem series is modular - so that it can be built to the specifications you need - so that you're not overpaying for hardware you won't utilize. VMWare also has a custom ISO for Lenovo-branded servers, so that the installation of ESXi doesn't run into any driver-related issues. It's fantastic, and makes deployment a breeze.

Pros and Cons

Affordability
Flexibility with custom builds
SATA/SSD/M2/SD support for front-end caching or for an entire storage solution
Allow x2 SD cards to be installed in a RAID0 setup, so that the host can run ESXi without any internal hard drives whatsoever. Also came with an internal battery for the RAID controller.
Lenovo Support is very quick to respond to issues - either by phone or by email.

A video tutorial on upgrading built-in firmware on their systems would be fantastic. As it was a bit difficult to navigate to find the download, and also the install process the last time I did so.
The remote BIOS utility through the XClarity controller is difficult to reset a password on - if it's forgotten. I have yet to find a way to reset it on a host that has a password not working.

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe all businesses would benefit from Lenovo's series of products - as they can be custom-built to meet your needs. We have been utilizing Lenovo servers for the past seven or eight years now, and have had get success with their hardware builds. We had one issue with a bad SD card that was in a RAID0 - they replaced both SD cards free of charge, and I had them the next business day (this, obviously, is contingent on the level of warranty protection that you purchase with your hardware - but support was fantastic to work with!)

Most Important Features

Affordability/Modular designs
Compatibility with VMWare
Large list of available hard drives that are "approved" for their server use - so you can use a brand you rely on/prefer
Warranties available from 1, 3 and 5 years - with various response times for each duration.

Return on Investment

Our uptime has increased from our old HP ProLiant servers from 8+ years ago.
These servers are also cheaper than previous models we have deployed in the past
XClarity controller allows for remote BIOS functionality - which we hadn't been able to utilize, previously.

Alternatives Considered

NETGEAR ReadyNAS

The initial selection of Lenovo for servers was provided to us as a recommendation from a reseller. I was skeptical, initially, as I am not a fan of Lenovo's consumer-grade laptops. I was very intrigued by the price of these devices though, so we purchased two for a location to see how they worked. The recommendation panned-out, and all of our needs were met (and exceeded) by this new line of products brought to our attention. I'm sure there are countless other stories like mine with dozens of other manufacturers - but we are more than pleased with our fleet of Thinksystem servers at our district.

Other Software Used

VMware ESXi, Sophos Intercept X, Microsoft Windows, Mitel MiCollab

Operating Systems	Unspecified
Mobile Application	No

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR Series

Overview

What is Lenovo ThinkSystem SR Series?

Don't Let Their Consumer-Grade Products Scare You Off!

Product Details

What is Lenovo ThinkSystem SR Series?