HP Gen8 Server Class Review

Hewlett-Packard has released the details of their new product line the Gen8 (don’t call me G8) servers.  The new line as, you would expect, has all of the performance increases that seem necessary when coming out with a new product.  The new Sandy Bridge XEON processors are onboard, they’ve increased the number of DIMM slots, increased the total amount of memory allowed per system while also increasing the memory speed supported.  HP has also switched over to PCI 3.0 which is providing much faster speeds for PCI devices.

It is quite apparent that HP’s main focus was on life cycle management and reducing administration.  They have made many changes that should reduce both the amount of downtime and the amount of time required by System Administrators to provision and manage their systems.

Integrated Lights out (iLO)

HP is doing away with the LO cards that came with their 100 series line of servers.  Now all servers will come equipped with the iLO cards.  It was decided that better management of the servers required an upgrade to how iLO functioned.  The new iLO boards now come with a  4Gb NAND chip so that they can store their own data.  This is a major advance to how the servers can be managed.  This means that there will no longer be SmartStart disks to use when building a new server.  The SmartStart data will be stored onboard and you can enter the setup screen by pressing a function key at boot time.  This means that the System Administrator doesn’t need to go into the datacenter and stand in front of the server to update the firmware and install the operating system.  This may be a small thing, but that time adds up.

The next thing changed was there is now video on the iLO card.  The video doesn’t do much, but if you’ve ever booted a server and gotten a black screen, this change will excite you.   Now instead of getting a black screen, iLO can display the information about what is happening and you can report that info to support and get the resolution much faster.

HP is now logging system data to the 4Gb NAND chip so that if there is an issue with the server, this data can be retrieved and a resolution can be determined, hopefully with less downtime.  In addition to just the logging, they’ve gone from logging around 400 objects to over 1600 which gives much more granular information for troubleshooting.

HP Insight Online

Now that the iLO chip is storing system events, HP setup their new HP Insight Online service which will allow companies to upload their system events to HP support either automatically, manually or not at all.  If your company decides to upload system events automatically, HP can proactively monitor your systems for potential issues such as a pre-fail drive.  Tickets can then be auto created and they can ship you a drive (covered under warranty, of course) before the drive actually fails.  It will also allow them to track their servers so if they had a batch of servers off their production line that have a higher failure rate, they can proactively look for issues before they happen and contact users about a possible issue and how to fix it.  This type of automatic uploading of logs should dramatically lower administrator’s time to pull change logs, and system logs to send to support when their is an issue.

Firmware Updates

HP realized that their patching was confusing and hard to manage so they’ve modified their own process.   HP will begin releasing their firmware and drivers bundled into a “Service Pack” and these service packs will be release on a regular schedule.  These service packs will be firmware and drivers that have been tested together and validated and can be installed online while the server is running.  If a reboot is required, you can either reboot immediately or wait.  The new service packs will also give the ability to revert back to the previous firmware if a failure occurs.

Power Discover Services

If you are using HP Gen8 servers as well as the HP PDUs in your racks, you can utilize HP’s Power Discovery Services which allows you to not only monitor how much power is being used, but also get a graphical map of which servers are plugged into which PDU and which port.  This can help eliminate plugging dual power supplies into the same PDU by mistake.

Location Discovery Services

Similar to the Power Discovery Services, if you are using the new HP racks with your HP Gen8 servers, you can get a graphical representation of which Rack Units your servers are sitting in and which rack.  This can eliminate the time spent updating Visio or spreadsheets with all of your servers in the racks.  They will be automatically tracked.

HP Drive Cages

The new HP Drive cages have new lights.  The lights will still show disk activity, but will turn yellow if they are in pre-fail, amber for failed, and a new light will show up if the disk should not be removed because data loss would occur.  For instance if you have a mirror with two drives and one drive fails, the working drive will get a new light that shows the disk should not be removed.

Chassis

Lastly, the new HP Chassis requires no tools to replace any components.  If a replacement to a part needs to be done, there should be no screwdriver required.  All components are color coded and snap into place.  The baffles no longer sit in the case, but rather snap into place to make sure they are in correctly.

The CPUs now have fail proof way to install the processor.  You will now slide a processor into the guide and snap it into place.  This eliminates the issues with bent pins which comprised 30% of all motherboard issues.

And best of all, look at these sweet new bezels (sold separately).

For more information check out HP’s website

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/servers.html