Big, Big Power, Little Itty Bitty Footprint

Qualifications: I am the manager (Network Administrator) of a medium-sized server farm in the Mid-West, which consists of some 150+ Dell PowerEdge and HP Compaq ProLiant servers of various models and designs. These models include PE-1750, 1850, 2650, 2850, 2500, 2600, & 6650 as well as HP ProLiant DL-370 (G4) & DL-380 (G4) servers, running Windows 2003 Standard Server or Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition.

Disclaimer: This review is intended for those with intermediate or advanced server knowledge, or those individuals seeking in-depth information on Enterprise caliber server equipment. Few if any of the terms used throughout the review are expounded upon.

As I have stated in past reviews of Enterprise-class servers when you open the door to any modern Network Operations Center (NOC) and you are liable to find all manner of rack mounted servers contently humming away within. From the small 1U’s to the power hungry and space happy 6U’s servers are the life’s blood of the NOC; in fact they are the only reason such facilities exist at all. I have worked with all manner of server from all of the major server vendors; IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Compaq, and all offer a variety of servers to fit individual needs. We have a number of legacy applications that run on HP Compaq 1U, 2U and 5U servers including the HP Compaq DL-360 (G4) 1U rack mountable server.

The HP Compaq DL360 (G4) continues Hewlett Packard/Compaq’s long tradition of building quality enterprise-class server platforms; indeed the DL360 (G4) line of server is one of the companies most popular and is aimed squarely at Dell’s PowerEdge 1750 line of servers.

The (G4) in the description of this server stands for fourth generation of the DL360 (G4) server. Proceeding generations of the server have sported Pentium II and III processors, and have been free standing as well as rack mountable. The G4 is available in only in rack-mountable configuration.

The 1U rack-mount DL360 (G4) is optimized for space-constrained data center installations. The rack mount DL360 (G4) can be configured with up to (2) 3.4GHz Intel Xeon processors (3.0 and 3.6GHz processing speeds are all available) /w 1MB L2 cache, and 800MHz Front-Side Bus (FSB). The server uses the E7520 chipset and is also fitted with an integrated U320 Smart Array 6i controller for control of up to (2) Ultra 320 SCSI drives (SATA drives can also be ordered), and up to 12GB DDR2 400MHz SDRAM.

HP also equipped the DL360 (G4) with standard 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive, a 24X (max. speed) CD-ROM drive, and one full length and one half length 64bit/133MHz PCI-X slot, and dual port NC7782 Gigabit NICs; and integrated ATI Rage XL video controller w/ 8MB SDRAM. Supported operating systems include: Microsoft Windows 2000/2003, Novell NetWare, Linux (Red Hat, SuSE, UnitedLinux) and Solaris.

The incorporation of the Nocona based Intel Xeon dual 3.0 – 3.6GHz processor—each with 1MB of L2/L3 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus—represents a significant improvement over the G3 version of the server, which has dual 2.4GHz Xeons and a 533MHz front-side bus.

Along with Nocona-based servers, you get Intel's EM64T chipset. EM64T is a set of 64-bit extensions to the 32-bit x86 instruction set designed to bring 64-bit computing to the Intl platform at minimal cost. Microsoft has started shipping a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 that can take advantage of the 64-bit extensions. HP also supports the 64-bit Red Hat and Suse Linux, which do use the EM64T extensions.

The DL360 (G4) also supports PCI Express, a faster bus than traditional PCI-X, but in order to utilize PCI Express, you will have to physically change a riser card on the server backplane. And like the DL360 G3 and Dell PowerEdge 1850, the DL360 (G4) is equipped with hot-swap power supplies; new to the model are redundant, hot-swappable cooling fans, similar in placement and functionality to comparable Dell servers.

As I mentioned above the DL360 (G4) server can be equipped with up to (2) Ultra320 SCSI or SATA drives. HP has fitted the server with a new RAID controller in the form of the Smart Array 6i, which handles a throughput of 320MB per second per channel, utilizing the 64-bit 133MHz bus connection. In contrast, the G3's Smart Array 5i Plus was limited to 160MB per second per channel.

Around the Box Man

Access to the inside of the DL360 (G4) is via an easy to remove to latched access panel. The internal design of the server is neat, efficient, and orderly; all pertinent interfaces are mounted on the leading edge of the motherboard right next to the devices they are serving, cutting down considerably on extra cabling. The hard drives are of course in the front third of the unit, along with the floppy drive and CD-ROM drive. All are mounted for easy removal.

Looking down on the server with the chassis facing forward, right behind the drives bays are (3) blue hot-swap cooling fans all in a line abreast of each other. Next on the far left of the chassis sits the two Intel EM64T Xeon processors and of course they can be swiftly removed via a large easy-to-use clamp on the side. Smallish heat sinks cover each process, and an additional two hot-swap cooling fans are fitted in back of each processor to help direct airflow and promote cooling.

Immediately aft (after) of the processors sit a bank of six DDR2 DIMM sockets. The DL360 (G4) ships with a pair of DDR2-400 (400MHz) 512MB SDRAM memory modules in a dual channel configuration. DDR2 memory modules in addition to being noticeably smaller than DDR2 modules also use lower voltages (1.8 volts vs. 2.5 volts for DDR) and higher clock speeds, which allow for faster throughput. Lower voltages also translate into less heat. DDR2 memory utilizes FBGA (fine ball grid array) packaging that allows chip density to be significantly increased. Currently, HP can ships 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB modules.

Aft of the memory banks sit the expansion card daughterboard that can be easily removed to insert up to (1) full-length and (1) half-length PCI-X cards. And to the right of the memory banks and aft of the cooling fan, tucked in the far right of the chassis, sits two optional hot-swappable power supply bays. The base DL360 (G4) ships with a single hot-swappable 535W (460w in SATA model) power supply which is of coursed accessed at the rear of the chassis, but for fault tolerance a second power supply can be added.

Like most HP Compaq servers including the ML370, and DL380 (G4), the DL360 (G4) ships with a separate integrated 10/100BaseTX Ethernet adaptor that is used in conjunction with the with an ILO (Integrated LightsOut) remote management control system. ILO allows you to manage and monitor the server remotely via a web browser much the same way HP printers equipped with Ethernet adapters can be managed. With ILO an administrator can monitor the status of the server, view installed internal components, reset the server, as well as power the DL360 (G4) off and on. It is a powerful tool, and one I certainly appreciate since I sit on the sixth floor and the server is in the NOC in the basement of the building.

The back of the DL360 (G4) is tightly packed but efficient. On the far left sit the (2) expansion slots and below these are a lone 9-pin serial port and VGA monitor port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, (2) RJ-45 Gigabit NIC port, and ILO remote management RJ-45 Ethernet port, a single USB 2.0 port; all of which a aligned in a light abreast. Next stacked on top of one another are the ILO Ethernet port and (2) USB 2.0 ports.

The front of the DL360 (G4) is a study of compact and efficient design. The right of the chassis is dominated by the HHD, floppy, and CD-ROM drives, all of which are modular. Next to the drive bays site four cooling vents, and next to them are placed a series of system state LED’s, the power switch, and a single USB 2.0 port. Note: HP has equipped the server with an additional USB port on the inside of the chassis in the front of the unit.

Use

Because of its small size the DL360 (G4)’s flexibility is limited. With only two hard drives, both of which will be committed to a mirrored set (if you are smart), so that two is trimmed to one, the DL360 (G4) is best suited for duty as a front-end web or application server. Even at a maximum internal storage of 300GB, that amount of storage space is still inadequate for even workgroup-class long-term file storage; i.e. use as a file server. I recommend utilizing the DL360 (G4) in the following roles:

o AD Services; e.g. Domain Controller, DHCP, DNS, and or WINS server;
o Front-end Web Server;
o Front-end Application Server;
o Front-end MS Exchange Server;
o Print Server;
o General Purpose Server

So what does the DL360 (G4) do for our business? It runs a legacy (non-Microsoft) application for one of our specialty departments. Since the server is running a non-database application we installed (2) 36GB Ultra320 hard drives in each bay configured for mirrored (RAID 1) redundancy. We also opted for two processor, 4GB of RAM in two banks, and two power supplies.

Since being brought on-line some 1.5 years ago, the servers have never suffered a failure of any kind, which speaks volumes of the reliability of HP Compaq servers. And it is worth noting that the server is on-line 24/7/365 with very little scheduled down-time for maintenance.

Conclusion

Though most of our NOC is equipped with Dell servers of various makes and models, our complement of DL360 (G4) servers are in no way considered inferior; they very much hold their own against their black and gray competitors. And they suffer from far less down-time. But if one of the servers were to go down, they would be easy to service, thanks to the large number of hot-swap components. If you are looking for a small, but robust (somewhat expandable) general use, or specialized application 1U rack mount server with limited storage potential, the HP Compaq DL360 (G4) might very well fit the bill.

HP Compaq ProLiant DL360 (G4) Server Features and Specifications:
o Rack Design: 1U Rack Mount Chassis;
o Processors: Single or Dual EM64T Intel Xeon (Dual-core) processors (3.0GHz to 3.6GHz), w/ 800MHz Front Side Bus and 1MB or 2MB of L2 cache (two processors included in High Performance models);
o Chipset: Intel E7520 Chipset;
o Memory: 1GB PC2-3200R (DDR2-400/ 400MHz) Advanced ECC Memory (single processor) expandable to 12GB w/ online spare capabilities (2 GB included in High Performance 2-processor models); support for dual-rank 400MHz DDR2 memory; eight slots;
o SCSI Controllers: SAS (Serial attached SCSI) models include the Smart Array P600 Performance SAS Array Controller with 256MB Battery-Backed Write Cache. SCSI models include the integrated Smart Array 6i Ultra320 Array Controller with optional 128MB of Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC standard on all high performance models);
o RAID Controller: Embedded Smart Array 6i or Smart Array P600; Ultra320 SCSI;
o Drive Bays: (2) hot-plug Ultra320 SCSI drive bays; internal hot plug capacity 600GB standard (2 x 300GB HDD).
o Ethernet Controller: Integrated HP NC7782 Dual Port PCI-X 10/100/1000T Gigabit network adapter;
o Video: ATI Rage XL graphics chipset with 8MB SDRAM;
o Server Management: Integrated Lights-Out (with 10/100BaseTX port) industry leading remote management with new support for two-factor authentication, schema-free Microsoft Active Directory integration, Power Regulator p-state reporting, USB key virtual media and VLAN on the shared network port;
o Power Supply: (2x) Hot Plug Power Supply’s;
o Chassis Access: Tool-less access to all system components for easy in rack serviceability;
o Expansion Slots: Two 64-bit PCI-X slots including;
o Floppy Drive: Optional floppy disk drive (Included in High Performance Models);
o CD-ROM/DVD Drive: 24X Max CD-ROM (High performance models include DVD-ROM drive);
o USB Ports: USB version 2.0 support, one front port/ one port in the rear/one internal port ;
o Status Indicators: Front LEDs (show server status) and Unit Identification button/LED (for easy in rack server identification)