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Dell PowerVault Disk Backup and Discovery (DL, TL & ML Series)

Score8 out of 10

10 Reviews and Ratings

What is Dell PowerVault Disk Backup and Discovery (DL, TL & ML Series)?

Dell's PowerVault series presents both disk based and tape backup solution. The PowerVault TL and Powervault LTO are tape drives, while the PowerVault DR, RD, and DL series are disk based.

Categories & Use Cases

Dell PowerVault great value for a reasonable price

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Dell PowerVault TL1000 equiped with one LTO-8 drive, combined with Veeam Backup & Replication to export backup results from disk to tape. Autoloader is really helpful to reduce human manipulations. Tape labels are read by the autoloader and managed by Veeam to allow inserting and removing correct tape.

Pros

  • LTO tape writing and reading at fast speed
  • Reliable
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • OpenManage storage management interface should be upgraded / modernized
  • Compression / Deduplication should be added in addition to tiering
  • Improve Replication and Data Protection
  • Better integration with Veeam Backup & Replication

Return on Investment

  • Acquisition cost and straightforward integration with existing Dell/VMware infrastructure typically deliver solid short-term ROI
  • Scalability ceilings on mid-range models may force earlier-than-expected refresh cycles

Usability

Alternatives Considered

HPE MSA, Pure Storage FlashArray and NetApp AFF A-Series

PowerVault Review, the Good the Bad and the Ugly

Pros

  • Tape Solution
  • Small Business Solution
  • Good for direct attached storage purposes like video security.

Cons

  • The solution isn't really for large enterprise solutions except for direct attached solutions.

Return on Investment

  • If you need a lot of disks attached to a system, PowerVault is the way to go.
  • The cost of the unit is reasonable, and you can extend the life of the unit pretty far.

Other Software Used

CommVault, VMware ESXi

Good and Bad

Pros

  • Simple to set up.
  • Single pane of glass to monitor several arrays.
  • Ability to scale.

Cons

  • Maintenance is tough. Dell recommends bringing the unit down for any kind of maintenance of upgrades.
  • Internal IOPS monitoring could be greatly improved.
  • Arrays are locked down to Dell licensed disks.

Return on Investment

  • It has provided a great start for our business. Great entry into our client base.
  • Not great when you want to scale.

Other Software Used

Pure Storage, Nimble Storage

It works and works well.

Pros

  • iscsi
  • storage
  • and it's simple.

Cons

  • UI is lacking some love.

Return on Investment

  • as a tech/network guy i dont care for ROI... it works.