ProLiant 100th series - "lost younger brother"
The beginning of the second quarter of 2019 was marked by the upgrade of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise server portfolio. At the same time, this update returns to us the “lost little brother” - a series of HPE ProLiant DL100 servers. Since over the past few years, many have managed to forget about its existence, I propose to refresh our memories in this short article.
"Hundredth" series has long been known to many as a budget solution for architectures that do not imply explosive growth and scaling. With a relatively low cost, the servers of the 100th series fit well into architectures with a limited budget. But after the 7th generation, HPE decided to revise its server portfolio of solutions to optimize production costs. The result was the disappearance of the 100th series and, as a result, difficulties in designing low-cost architectures on HPE solutions. Until now, we only had the 300th series, which has outstanding performance and flexibility in configuration, but not so tolerant of budget constraints.
Due to the tough competition, HPE decides to return the 100th series to its portfolio. Starting with the current generation (Gen10), weave back to the Russian market. Since early April, HPL ProLiant DL180 Gen10 is available for order, and in summer ProLiant DL160 Gen10 will appear. Since I got a new DL180 in my hands, I decided to run through its main advantages and disadvantages. Since the one hundredth series is initially positioned as a simpler and budget version of the three hundredth, any review will inevitably lead to their comparison. What I will do when comparing the DL380 and DL180 Gen10 currently on the market.
')
Both models are dual-processor, dual-core (2U 2P) universal servers, suitable for almost any use case. This is the only common feature of the "brothers".
As already noted, the “weave” is notable for limiting the number of supported options and, in general, the flexibility of system configuration. DL180 servers (like DL160 in the future) will only be available as BTO - Built to Order.
This means a pre-prepared set of articles, which are assigned specific models of CPU and RAM. More precisely, the current variations are only 2: single-processor configurations based on Intel Xeon-Bronze 3106 and Xeon-Silver 4110 CPUs, both with pre-installed 16Gb PC4-2666V-R RAM and a basket for 8 SFF disks.
The number of RAM slots is reduced to 16 compared to the 24 slots of the DL380. From the list of supported memory modules, everything was gone except for the one installed in the base configuration: HPE 16GB (1x16GB) Single Rank x4 DDR4-2666 CAS-19-19-19 Registered Smart Memory Kit. There are currently no options with Dual Rank or Load Reduced DIMM.
If we talk about data storage, then the hundredth series loses much by three hundredth:
In the future we plan to add additional optional baskets for 8 SFF (up to 2 per chassis) and a new chassis for LFF drives.
For access to the network, the chassis is equipped with two 1 GE ports, which can be expanded to two 10 / 25Gb ports using the optional FlexibleLOM adapter.
The number of slots for PCI-E modules has not changed, the following options are available (with dual-processor configuration):
Due to the novelty of the released model, there is some confusion in the documentation. So, according to QuickSpecs, only hard drives with a SAS interface (300/600/1200 Gb 10k) are indicated. But the presence of the built-in Smart Array S100i raid controller, which only supports SATA drives, suggests an inaccuracy in the documentation.
Most likely, all Gen10 SATA drives from other server models are supported, as it was before. And if you install a discrete raid controller HPE Smart Array E208i, it will be possible to use SAS-drives.
Due to the freshness of the release (recall that it took place in early April 2019, that is, less than 3 weeks ago since the publication of this article), there is no complete list of supported options, but we can assume the absence of NVMe-drives and graphics accelerators, since power supplies has a limit of 500W.
In the bottom line, we get a confident "middling" in performance, with sufficient capacity and constant "buns" from HPE, which do not need too much representation.
Despite, or rather, due to the limited number of options, the 100-series model turned out to be a good solution for projects with limited budgeting. If your tasks require the scalability and performance of the DL380 Gen10, but in financial terms you could not afford it, then the DL180 Gen10 was created especially for you. It remains only to wait for the full list of options and LFF-chassis, which will appear on the Russian market with the DL160 Gen10.
"Hundredth" series has long been known to many as a budget solution for architectures that do not imply explosive growth and scaling. With a relatively low cost, the servers of the 100th series fit well into architectures with a limited budget. But after the 7th generation, HPE decided to revise its server portfolio of solutions to optimize production costs. The result was the disappearance of the 100th series and, as a result, difficulties in designing low-cost architectures on HPE solutions. Until now, we only had the 300th series, which has outstanding performance and flexibility in configuration, but not so tolerant of budget constraints.
Due to the tough competition, HPE decides to return the 100th series to its portfolio. Starting with the current generation (Gen10), weave back to the Russian market. Since early April, HPL ProLiant DL180 Gen10 is available for order, and in summer ProLiant DL160 Gen10 will appear. Since I got a new DL180 in my hands, I decided to run through its main advantages and disadvantages. Since the one hundredth series is initially positioned as a simpler and budget version of the three hundredth, any review will inevitably lead to their comparison. What I will do when comparing the DL380 and DL180 Gen10 currently on the market.
')
Both models are dual-processor, dual-core (2U 2P) universal servers, suitable for almost any use case. This is the only common feature of the "brothers".
As already noted, the “weave” is notable for limiting the number of supported options and, in general, the flexibility of system configuration. DL180 servers (like DL160 in the future) will only be available as BTO - Built to Order.
This means a pre-prepared set of articles, which are assigned specific models of CPU and RAM. More precisely, the current variations are only 2: single-processor configurations based on Intel Xeon-Bronze 3106 and Xeon-Silver 4110 CPUs, both with pre-installed 16Gb PC4-2666V-R RAM and a basket for 8 SFF disks.
The number of RAM slots is reduced to 16 compared to the 24 slots of the DL380. From the list of supported memory modules, everything was gone except for the one installed in the base configuration: HPE 16GB (1x16GB) Single Rank x4 DDR4-2666 CAS-19-19-19 Registered Smart Memory Kit. There are currently no options with Dual Rank or Load Reduced DIMM.
If we talk about data storage, then the hundredth series loses much by three hundredth:
- One 8 SFF disc basket
- Built-in S100i controller
- Optional E208i / E208e and P408i Controllers
In the future we plan to add additional optional baskets for 8 SFF (up to 2 per chassis) and a new chassis for LFF drives.
For access to the network, the chassis is equipped with two 1 GE ports, which can be expanded to two 10 / 25Gb ports using the optional FlexibleLOM adapter.
The number of slots for PCI-E modules has not changed, the following options are available (with dual-processor configuration):
- 3 + 3 PCI-E x8 (using FlexibleLOM requires a special riser module)
- 1 PCE-E x16 + 4 PCI-E x8
Due to the novelty of the released model, there is some confusion in the documentation. So, according to QuickSpecs, only hard drives with a SAS interface (300/600/1200 Gb 10k) are indicated. But the presence of the built-in Smart Array S100i raid controller, which only supports SATA drives, suggests an inaccuracy in the documentation.
Most likely, all Gen10 SATA drives from other server models are supported, as it was before. And if you install a discrete raid controller HPE Smart Array E208i, it will be possible to use SAS-drives.
Due to the freshness of the release (recall that it took place in early April 2019, that is, less than 3 weeks ago since the publication of this article), there is no complete list of supported options, but we can assume the absence of NVMe-drives and graphics accelerators, since power supplies has a limit of 500W.
In the bottom line, we get a confident "middling" in performance, with sufficient capacity and constant "buns" from HPE, which do not need too much representation.
Despite, or rather, due to the limited number of options, the 100-series model turned out to be a good solution for projects with limited budgeting. If your tasks require the scalability and performance of the DL380 Gen10, but in financial terms you could not afford it, then the DL180 Gen10 was created especially for you. It remains only to wait for the full list of options and LFF-chassis, which will appear on the Russian market with the DL160 Gen10.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/448552/
All Articles