Sorry for the lack of publishings lately it has been a pretty hectic few months. I am just back from 2 weeks in the US where I was in Las Vegas at VMworld, in Cupertino at the HP Executive Briefing Centre and finally San Francisco where I presented at Oracle World. I am working on a bunch of postings right now so stay tuned for lots of new info, but I just this very minute saw this announcement that I thought I would publish immediately.
It has been announced that HP is to acquire LeftHand Networks for $360 million; helping to expand our virtualisation offerings. LeftHand specialises in iSCSI SANs and helps midsize companies and remote offices or branches of large corporations to protect critical business data.
LeftHand's portfolio of products will expand HP's reach in the virtualisation market with software that runs on both existing storage and industry-standard server hardware. LeftHand's software essentially allows a user to create a storage "cloud" connected via iSCSI as an alternative to Fibre Channel.
Check out their web site for further details.
http://www.lefthandnetworks.com/home.aspx
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
ProLiant, BladeSystem & VMware Training
The HP Education curriculum has been revamped recently and is now available for viewing at www.hp.com/learn/proliant - the main page will show you generic information and any new announcements in relation to courseware and then you simply select your country from the right hand column for the list of courses and dates in your area.
New Training Credits - Day Rate Care Packs
For customers who would like to buy training with their IT solution it is now possible to buy 1 day training credits which are valid against all ProLiant, BladeSystem and VMware trainings. Likewise for our partners it makes things easier if the customer has not yet decided or are unsure as to which specific course they would like to take at the time of purchase. The credits are valid for 12 months allowing the customer to decide later, which course to take.
NEW Portfolio Day Rate HPES Care Packs
HF385E 1 unit quantity = 1 day of public scheduled ProLiant / BladeSystem training
HF386E 1 unit quantity = 1 day of public scheduled VMware training
Totally flexible:
Training can be taken any time during 12 month period
Customer can spend value on any HPES service
For more information visit www.hp.com/learn/proliant and/or www.hp.com/learn/vmware
New Training Credits - Day Rate Care Packs
For customers who would like to buy training with their IT solution it is now possible to buy 1 day training credits which are valid against all ProLiant, BladeSystem and VMware trainings. Likewise for our partners it makes things easier if the customer has not yet decided or are unsure as to which specific course they would like to take at the time of purchase. The credits are valid for 12 months allowing the customer to decide later, which course to take.
NEW Portfolio Day Rate HPES Care Packs
HF385E 1 unit quantity = 1 day of public scheduled ProLiant / BladeSystem training
HF386E 1 unit quantity = 1 day of public scheduled VMware training
Totally flexible:
Training can be taken any time during 12 month period
Customer can spend value on any HPES service
For more information visit www.hp.com/learn/proliant and/or www.hp.com/learn/vmware
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
HP ProLiant & BladeSystem Launch Information May 2008
May has been a very busy month for the HP ProLiant server divison with one of our biggest product launches in quite a while. Highlights of the launch include the launch of our new 8 socket Quad Core ProLiant DL785, new and updated Insight Control management software including HP Insight Dynamics, a new range of scalable modular PDUs, low power memory, and a new range of CPUs from both Intel and AMD for our G5 ProLiants.
Summary
More demands are being placed on the technology infrastructure each day. Companies are being asked to instantly react to ever changing business environments and their IT needs to be able to follow and deliver no matter what demands are placed on it.
IT is faced with controlling this change with fewer resources while driving the business to new growth and profitability. The first step to reaching this goal is to connect business technology with IT, making your infrastructure become more adaptive. HP offers a new class of management software to continuously analyze and optimize your infrastructure. With the new HP Insight Dynamics – VSE, customers can cut operational costs and adapt their infrastructure as their business grows. Customers can tackle the toughest IT projects and top business priorities in previously unimaginable ways with Insight Dynamics – VSE capabilities such as HP Logical Server Capability, Real-time Capacity Planning and Unified Control of Physical and Virtual Resources.
Whether servers are housed in an IT closet or a corporate data center, nearly every organization faces IT sprawl, resulting in under used server resources. In order to alleviate this problem, HP is introducing a new 8-socket HP ProLiant DL785 G5 Server. Think of the HP ProLiant DL785 G5 as a consolidation workhorse. The key is to do more with less—more sockets, more memory, more I/O power—all designed to help with the drive toward virtualization and consolidation. The DL785 G5 offers support for 8 Quad-Core AMD® Opteron® processors, 256GB of memory and 11 PCI-e I/O slots. With this highly-scalable feature set, this server is an ideal choice for growing enterprise class database, consolidation and virtualization environments seeking to get more compute power at a lower total cost.
Full details of the lauch can be found here.
Summary
More demands are being placed on the technology infrastructure each day. Companies are being asked to instantly react to ever changing business environments and their IT needs to be able to follow and deliver no matter what demands are placed on it.
IT is faced with controlling this change with fewer resources while driving the business to new growth and profitability. The first step to reaching this goal is to connect business technology with IT, making your infrastructure become more adaptive. HP offers a new class of management software to continuously analyze and optimize your infrastructure. With the new HP Insight Dynamics – VSE, customers can cut operational costs and adapt their infrastructure as their business grows. Customers can tackle the toughest IT projects and top business priorities in previously unimaginable ways with Insight Dynamics – VSE capabilities such as HP Logical Server Capability, Real-time Capacity Planning and Unified Control of Physical and Virtual Resources.
Whether servers are housed in an IT closet or a corporate data center, nearly every organization faces IT sprawl, resulting in under used server resources. In order to alleviate this problem, HP is introducing a new 8-socket HP ProLiant DL785 G5 Server. Think of the HP ProLiant DL785 G5 as a consolidation workhorse. The key is to do more with less—more sockets, more memory, more I/O power—all designed to help with the drive toward virtualization and consolidation. The DL785 G5 offers support for 8 Quad-Core AMD® Opteron® processors, 256GB of memory and 11 PCI-e I/O slots. With this highly-scalable feature set, this server is an ideal choice for growing enterprise class database, consolidation and virtualization environments seeking to get more compute power at a lower total cost.
Full details of the lauch can be found here.
HP Virtual IT Centre
HP has just launched our new online HP Virtual IT Centre, a uniquely interactive environment designed to showcase our latest technology solutions. The VITC focuses on minimising challenges faced by organisations of all sizes including driving efficiency, managing costs, optimising resources and conserving energy. A combination of video and animation, the VITC allows users quick access and customizable downloads for the following solutions:
- Power & Cooling
- Infrastructure
- Virtualisation
- Unified Management
- Solutions in Action
Friday, April 18, 2008
ProLiant & BladeSystem Technology Papers now available to the Public
A huge amount of ISS Technology Papers have now been made available to our customers and partners. This information goldmine was previously only available internally within HP but this is now available to all.
Not only will you have the opportunity to read the latest technology updates from HP ProLiant but you can also read through the archives as well. I highly recommend taking a look at the archive PDF (click here) which has a complete index of the technology papers and then regularly checking the ISS Technology Papers Home page (click here) for new updates.
An RSS feed will allow you to subscribe to this technology newsletter and will be added very soon.
The current edition looks at the following topics
Not only will you have the opportunity to read the latest technology updates from HP ProLiant but you can also read through the archives as well. I highly recommend taking a look at the archive PDF (click here) which has a complete index of the technology papers and then regularly checking the ISS Technology Papers Home page (click here) for new updates.
An RSS feed will allow you to subscribe to this technology newsletter and will be added very soon.
The current edition looks at the following topics
- Enhancing setup and usability in HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2
- Using Virtual Connect and non-Virtual Connect modules in the same HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure
- Storage HBAs are determined by the storage array provider
- ProLiant management tip of the month
- Interconnect infrastructure in the HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure
- Future-proof your infrastructure with 10 Gigabit networking
- Recently published industry standard server technology communications
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
HP Insight Dynamics - Data Centre Transformation and Optimisation
I am just back from HP Tech@Work which was held in Barcelona last week. The big news from the event was the previewing of HP Insight Dynamics - VSE. We demonstrated it's capabilities to more than 2,000 enterprise customers at the event.
HP Insight Dynamics - VSE is next-generation management software that enables customers to continuously analyse and optimise their IT environments. HP Insight Dynamics – VSE will change the game in both physical server and virtualisation management. It brings the freedom and flexibility of virtualisation to physical servers. It offers the industry’s most advanced real-time capacity planning tool that continously analyses server capacity and power usage based on thousands of historical data points. And it lets administrators manage virtual and physical resources in the same way. It is the world’s first integrated solution to visualise, plan and change physical and virtual resources in exactly the same way.
In addition to changing the game for our customers and competitors, Insight Dynamics – VSE represents a major step forward for our HP ESS Infrastructure Software division. It builds on HP Systems Insight Manager, Insight Control and the HP Virtual Server Environment, the best of HP’s industry-leading infrastructure management portfolio. And it brings them together one integrated solution.
To learn more about HP Insight Dynamics – VSE, please visit the following website: www.hp.com/go/insightdynamics
HP Insight Dynamics - VSE is next-generation management software that enables customers to continuously analyse and optimise their IT environments. HP Insight Dynamics – VSE will change the game in both physical server and virtualisation management. It brings the freedom and flexibility of virtualisation to physical servers. It offers the industry’s most advanced real-time capacity planning tool that continously analyses server capacity and power usage based on thousands of historical data points. And it lets administrators manage virtual and physical resources in the same way. It is the world’s first integrated solution to visualise, plan and change physical and virtual resources in exactly the same way.
In addition to changing the game for our customers and competitors, Insight Dynamics – VSE represents a major step forward for our HP ESS Infrastructure Software division. It builds on HP Systems Insight Manager, Insight Control and the HP Virtual Server Environment, the best of HP’s industry-leading infrastructure management portfolio. And it brings them together one integrated solution.
To learn more about HP Insight Dynamics – VSE, please visit the following website: www.hp.com/go/insightdynamics
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Truth about Server Market Share
February 2008 — IDC released a quarterly update to their Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, citing market share figures for the 4th calendar quarter of 2007 (4Q07). Here are some of the Q407 highlights...
1. For the 46th consecutive quarter, 11 ½ years, HP ProLiant is the x86 server market share leader in both factory revenue and units [1], shipping 1 out of every 3 servers in this market.
2. HP extended the lead in the blade server market, with a 47.7% revenue share Worldwide, and a 45.5% units share taking share from both IBM and Dell.
In EMEA this market share is well above 50% and closer to 60% which mirrors our performance in the Irish market.
HP grew blade revenue 74.6%, year over year, gaining 5.6 points of revenue market share while IBM lost 3.9 points of revenue share over the same period.
HP grew blade units 54.4%, year over year, gaining 5.6 points of unit market share while IBM lost 4.8 points of share over the same period.
Dell a distant third in blade units and revenue lost 4.0 points unit share and lost 4.9 points revenue share, both year over year.
For the full story please visit hp.com
1. For the 46th consecutive quarter, 11 ½ years, HP ProLiant is the x86 server market share leader in both factory revenue and units [1], shipping 1 out of every 3 servers in this market.
2. HP extended the lead in the blade server market, with a 47.7% revenue share Worldwide, and a 45.5% units share taking share from both IBM and Dell.
In EMEA this market share is well above 50% and closer to 60% which mirrors our performance in the Irish market.
HP grew blade revenue 74.6%, year over year, gaining 5.6 points of revenue market share while IBM lost 3.9 points of revenue share over the same period.
HP grew blade units 54.4%, year over year, gaining 5.6 points of unit market share while IBM lost 4.8 points of share over the same period.
Dell a distant third in blade units and revenue lost 4.0 points unit share and lost 4.9 points revenue share, both year over year.
For the full story please visit hp.com
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
HP Virtual Connect wins Virtualisation Award
SearchServerVirtualization.com recently announced the winners of its first annual Products of the Year awards, spanning four categories: Virtualization Platforms, Hardware for Virtualization, Systems Management and Data Protection.
HP’s Virtual Connect architecture won Gold in the Hardware for Virtualization category!
This is not surprising as the customer adoption of Virtual Connect has been very high and it is now one of the most popular interconnects in our BladeSystem portfolio.
---EXTRACT---
HP Virtual Connect architectureServer virtualization simplifies server and operating system management in countless ways, but one area that has remained stubbornly resistant to improvement is managing a server's physical hardware -- specifically its network and storage connections. With its Virtual Connect technology, Hewlett-Packard Co. made serious inroads toward alleviating the problem of managing network and storage connections in a virtual architecture and has garnered our judges' vote for Gold.
In a nutshell, Virtual Connect is a novel approach to connecting and adapting server, local area network (LAN) and storage area network (SAN) domains with the aim of reducing cables and minimizing the number of switches IT administrators need to manage.
Available for HP BladeSystem servers, Virtual Connect consists of Ethernet and Fibre Channel virtualization modules that define server connection profiles for each server bay. This profile establishes and maintains Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for all Network Interface Controllers, the World Wide Names (WWNs) for all host bus adapters (HBAs), and SAN boot parameters. When a server is changed, its configuration and connection profile stay constant. When a new server takes its place, the same profile is assigned.
In this way, Virtual Connect decouples servers and the network so infrastructure changes don't require an administrator to make manual changes to LAN and SAN configurations, reducing the time it takes to reconfigure a server from hours or days to a matter of minutes.
Full details can be found on the SearchServerVirtualization web site - >>click here<<.
To learn more about HP Virtual Connect >>click here<<.
Learn More about HP Virtual Connect - Video >>click here<<.
Demo of VMware ESX Host AutoRecovery using HP Virtual Connect >>click here<<.
HP’s Virtual Connect architecture won Gold in the Hardware for Virtualization category!
This is not surprising as the customer adoption of Virtual Connect has been very high and it is now one of the most popular interconnects in our BladeSystem portfolio.
---EXTRACT---
HP Virtual Connect architectureServer virtualization simplifies server and operating system management in countless ways, but one area that has remained stubbornly resistant to improvement is managing a server's physical hardware -- specifically its network and storage connections. With its Virtual Connect technology, Hewlett-Packard Co. made serious inroads toward alleviating the problem of managing network and storage connections in a virtual architecture and has garnered our judges' vote for Gold.
In a nutshell, Virtual Connect is a novel approach to connecting and adapting server, local area network (LAN) and storage area network (SAN) domains with the aim of reducing cables and minimizing the number of switches IT administrators need to manage.
Available for HP BladeSystem servers, Virtual Connect consists of Ethernet and Fibre Channel virtualization modules that define server connection profiles for each server bay. This profile establishes and maintains Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for all Network Interface Controllers, the World Wide Names (WWNs) for all host bus adapters (HBAs), and SAN boot parameters. When a server is changed, its configuration and connection profile stay constant. When a new server takes its place, the same profile is assigned.
In this way, Virtual Connect decouples servers and the network so infrastructure changes don't require an administrator to make manual changes to LAN and SAN configurations, reducing the time it takes to reconfigure a server from hours or days to a matter of minutes.
Full details can be found on the SearchServerVirtualization web site - >>click here<<.
To learn more about HP Virtual Connect >>click here<<.
Learn More about HP Virtual Connect - Video >>click here<<.
Demo of VMware ESX Host AutoRecovery using HP Virtual Connect >>click here<<.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
BladeSystem Updates
First of all let me apologise for not having updated the blog in recent weeks; it has been a really busy end of year and I am only getting time to catch my breath this week before heading off to sunny Houston next week for a technology update on all things ProLiant. You can expect me to be out and about updating (berating) you our partners and customers as soon as I get back with all the latest and greatest info. Bookings are now being accepted :-).
So now to the updates...
Shorty is here
The biggest news in the past month has been the launch of the c3000 BladeSystem or 'Shorty' as we call it in HP. We had over 200 customers and partners at the launch events in Dublin and Belfast and interest since has been huge.
Shorty brings all the benefits and enterprise features of the bigger c7000 model to our SMB customers. It can hold up to 8 servers, storage or Tape Backup devices and is packaged in 6U. It plugs directly into standard wall outlets and is designed to work equally well in computer rooms or offices. It is a unique solution for the market and no other vendor has such an offering for the SMB market. More information on the product can be found at http://www.hp.com/ie/shorty.
You can also take an interactive guided tour of the c3000 at http://www.hp.com/go/smallsiteblades
There are a whole host of end of year BladeSystem and Insight Control Management toolset promotions to celebrate the launch of 'Shorty'. Your local HP reseller has all the information.
As well as the Shorty launch we also launched an 'All-in-One' Storage Blade, the AiO SB600c delivering 1.6TB of shared SAS storage. Check out http://www.hp.com/go/SB600c for more information.
The BL680c server also has arrived which is a quad socket, quad core Xeon server based on the new Tigerton chipset from Intel.
For those of you awaiting the new AMD Quad Core systems they have now slipped to March 2008 when HP will launch a full range of 2 and 4 socket blade and rack servers with the B3 chipset from AMD.
BladeBuilder University II (for HP Resellers)
On 13th November we will hold the BBU II. If you have sold at least one c-Class blade implementation or attended the well received Blade Builder University I in June, then this class is for you. This all new course focuses on business growth (versus selling technology in Blade Builder University I) and delivers modules that shows business partners exactly how to position the technology to our customers with real life examples and templates. More details to follow but places are limited and registration is now open on http://bladebuilderuniversity.com/
That's all for now - I'll post an update as soon as I get back from Texas!
So now to the updates...
Shorty is here
The biggest news in the past month has been the launch of the c3000 BladeSystem or 'Shorty' as we call it in HP. We had over 200 customers and partners at the launch events in Dublin and Belfast and interest since has been huge.
Shorty brings all the benefits and enterprise features of the bigger c7000 model to our SMB customers. It can hold up to 8 servers, storage or Tape Backup devices and is packaged in 6U. It plugs directly into standard wall outlets and is designed to work equally well in computer rooms or offices. It is a unique solution for the market and no other vendor has such an offering for the SMB market. More information on the product can be found at http://www.hp.com/ie/shorty.
You can also take an interactive guided tour of the c3000 at http://www.hp.com/go/smallsiteblades
There are a whole host of end of year BladeSystem and Insight Control Management toolset promotions to celebrate the launch of 'Shorty'. Your local HP reseller has all the information.
As well as the Shorty launch we also launched an 'All-in-One' Storage Blade, the AiO SB600c delivering 1.6TB of shared SAS storage. Check out http://www.hp.com/go/SB600c for more information.
The BL680c server also has arrived which is a quad socket, quad core Xeon server based on the new Tigerton chipset from Intel.
For those of you awaiting the new AMD Quad Core systems they have now slipped to March 2008 when HP will launch a full range of 2 and 4 socket blade and rack servers with the B3 chipset from AMD.
BladeBuilder University II (for HP Resellers)
On 13th November we will hold the BBU II. If you have sold at least one c-Class blade implementation or attended the well received Blade Builder University I in June, then this class is for you. This all new course focuses on business growth (versus selling technology in Blade Builder University I) and delivers modules that shows business partners exactly how to position the technology to our customers with real life examples and templates. More details to follow but places are limited and registration is now open on http://bladebuilderuniversity.com/
That's all for now - I'll post an update as soon as I get back from Texas!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Power and Cooling - HP Labs Technology
Power and Cooling has jumped right to the top of most customers IT agenda and HP has a lot to offer; from the power regulation technologies in our ProLiant and BladeSystem servers all the way up to the dynamic data centre portfolio of solutions. I have already published quite a lot of information in previous postings on this blog regarding power and cooling technology but I have come across 2 new items this week which I felt were worth sharing with you all.
First off we have just released the Insight Power Manager product which is an option for our ProLiant and Blade servers. This gives customers the ability to proactively manage the power utilisation of their servers, implement power policies inc. power capping and measure the actual power savings in € for your entire server estate. >>Click here<< for further information. Other server vendors claim they also offer the functionality to control power but in reality they provide power control as part of the Windows 2003 OS which also needs modification to enable power control; furthermore there is no ability to measure real power savings or implement power policies. If you need more information please just let me know; this is a great HP .
Secondly 'Information Week' did a great piece on what HPs are doing with regard to power and cooling. If you would like to learn more about Dynamic Smart Cooling and see it working real time and hear about our strategy around cooling innovations in the datacenter, watch this video from Chandrakant Patel, HP Fellow, founder of HP Labs' thermal technology research program. You’ll need only 9 minutes to become experts !
To view the blog >>click here<<.
To view the 9 minute video >>click here<<.
First off we have just released the Insight Power Manager product which is an option for our ProLiant and Blade servers. This gives customers the ability to proactively manage the power utilisation of their servers, implement power policies inc. power capping and measure the actual power savings in € for your entire server estate. >>Click here<< for further information. Other server vendors claim they also offer the functionality to control power but in reality they provide power control as part of the Windows 2003 OS which also needs modification to enable power control; furthermore there is no ability to measure real power savings or implement power policies. If you need more information please just let me know; this is a great HP .
Secondly 'Information Week' did a great piece on what HPs are doing with regard to power and cooling. If you would like to learn more about Dynamic Smart Cooling and see it working real time and hear about our strategy around cooling innovations in the datacenter, watch this video from Chandrakant Patel, HP Fellow, founder of HP Labs' thermal technology research program. You’ll need only 9 minutes to become experts !
To view the blog >>click here<<.
To view the 9 minute video >>click here<<.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
BladeSystem Promotion extended to August 31st - Free Enclosure and Switch
HP Ireland are running a cClass BladeSystem end user promotion for the month of July which has been extended to August 31st, 2007. Customers can receive up to €14,500 cash back. Simply populate 50% of the ProLiant c-Class enclosure, include your choice of two interconnect modules and receive the enclosure and one interconnect free.
To support this promotion, purchase the HP Installation and Startup Service for HP BladeSystem in conjunction with your blade bundle and receive an additional €1,450 cashback. For full details of HP Care Pack Services please visit www.hp.com/ie/carepack
The full list of qualifying servers, enclosures and interconnect modules as well as the terms and conditions that apply can be found on http://www.hp.com/ie/freebladeenclosure
Please note that the promotion web site is due to go live on July 12th.
To support this promotion, purchase the HP Installation and Startup Service for HP BladeSystem in conjunction with your blade bundle and receive an additional €1,450 cashback. For full details of HP Care Pack Services please visit www.hp.com/ie/carepack
The full list of qualifying servers, enclosures and interconnect modules as well as the terms and conditions that apply can be found on http://www.hp.com/ie/freebladeenclosure
Please note that the promotion web site is due to go live on July 12th.
How to size Power and Cooling for ProLiant and BladeSystem
Power and Cooling requirements are becoming ever more important on the criteria list when devising an IT solution. The ability to accurately predict in advance what power and cooling requirements your computer room or datacentre will require in order to support the proposed solution is of the utmost importance and can determine what the final solution will look like. HP has put a lot of effort into the whole power and cooling aspect of our servers by offering sizing tools, power management and monitoring tools and implementing innovative new technology in our BladeSystem and ProLiant ML/DL servers to both reduce your power requirements while not adversely affecting performance. Most vendors give you some basic sizing and monitoring tools but HP goes the extra step in providing strong integrated OS independent hardware based power management meaning our customers can leverage for Microsoft, Linux or VMware solutions.
For our channel partners this is a great way to add value to your customer proposals differentiating yourselves from the competition and providing the customer with information they will very much appreciate.
Click on the links below for further information
Power Regulator Technology for ProLiant ML/DL/BL Servers - Understand how it works
Power Calulator Utility for ProLiant DL rack based servers - Understand how to use it
Power Sizing Tool for ProLiant Servers - Go do it for ProLiant ML and DL servers
Power Sizing Tool for HP BladeSystem - Go do it for BladeSystem
For our channel partners this is a great way to add value to your customer proposals differentiating yourselves from the competition and providing the customer with information they will very much appreciate.
Click on the links below for further information
Power Regulator Technology for ProLiant ML/DL/BL Servers - Understand how it works
Power Calulator Utility for ProLiant DL rack based servers - Understand how to use it
Power Sizing Tool for ProLiant Servers - Go do it for ProLiant ML and DL servers
Power Sizing Tool for HP BladeSystem - Go do it for BladeSystem
Monday, May 14, 2007
New - BladeSystem Online Resources!
Two great new resources have been launched. The first is a BladeSystem Connect Online site which allows you to establish contact with other BladeSystem interested parties including HP specialists, BladeSystem customers, and more with peer to peer support forums, chat rooms, discussion groups etc. You can request assistance or contribute and share your knowledge and best practices.
There is also a great new EMEA BladeSystem Community site with all the latest and greatest technical information and demos on HP BladeSystem cClass.
There is also a great new EMEA BladeSystem Community site with all the latest and greatest technical information and demos on HP BladeSystem cClass.
Friday, May 11, 2007
ProLiant & BladeSystem - Promotions
HP Ireland are currently running a number of promotions for our ProLiant and BladeSystem range of products for the month of May..
When you buy a selected HP ProLiant server with an additional second processor between 1 and 31 May 2007, you can receive the second processor absolutely free.
Check out www.hp.com/ie/proliantcpu
HP BladeSystem, simply purchase any 3 qualifying BL480c models between 1– 31 May 2007, then complete the claim form to claim cashback to the value of the lowest priced model!
Check out www.hp.com/ie/bladesystem3for2
When you buy a selected HP ProLiant server with an additional second processor between 1 and 31 May 2007, you can receive the second processor absolutely free.
Check out www.hp.com/ie/proliantcpu
HP BladeSystem, simply purchase any 3 qualifying BL480c models between 1– 31 May 2007, then complete the claim form to claim cashback to the value of the lowest priced model!
Check out www.hp.com/ie/bladesystem3for2
Friday, May 04, 2007
BladeSystem Site Planning Guide
Sorry for the gap in postings but it has been a really busy few weeks and I have also been away on holidays. A great new document has been made available which tells you all you need to know on site planning for the HP c-Class BladeSystem. It also has sample configurations with min and max for power and cooling etc. as well as rack, floor, pdu requirements. Anyone who has a c-Class or is considering implementing c-Class shoud take a look at this. It is available at the following link
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Latest Updates for BladeSystem and Management Tools
Apologies for the delay in updating the blog but it has been a busy month. I have been to the Worldwide BladeSystem Ambassador Academy in Houston, Texas and my head is busy trying to absorb all the new information I picked up there as well as deal with the backlog of work that I had waiting for me when I got back. So what's been happening this past month?
HP regains No.1 spot in Blades
Well I guess the biggest news from my point of view is that HP BladeSystem has finally recaptured No. 1 unit and revenue market share from IBM in the blade server market. It has taken us 10 Quarters but it has been on the cards ever since cClass was launched given the huge demand we have experienced and massive adoption of BladeSystem worldwide. Since cClass was launched HP has outpaced the market every quarter and according to IDC now holds 41.9% Revenue Share and 40% total Factory Units Share and has 10 times the growth of IBM in units and revenue year over year.
Anyway enough crowing what developments have there been in ProLiant and BladeSystem in the past few weeks.
New firmware available for Onboard Administrator
Version 1.3 of the OA is now available for download with some tweaks and fine tuning of the power utilisation and also implements zoned cooling in the cClass which further increases the cClass power and cooling efficiencies. One case of note was at a bank in the UK who upgraded the OA to version 1.3 and for their specific configuration with a full blade enclosure saw a 10% decrease in total enclosure power draw (300W). By implementing zoned cooling we now dynamically increase and decrease the RPMs of the fans in 4 zones. We increase the RPMs of the fans in that zone which require extra cooling whereas prior to 1.3 all fans would have increased.
SIM Updates
Systems Insight Manager 5.1 is now available and includes some nice new features (48 in fact but I will spare you and just point out the highlights) inc. Active Directory synchronization: integrates with group lists and authorization as an active directory resource group; Ease of use enhancements: quicker installation and easier configuration make HP SIM 5.1 easier to use than ever before; Improved enclosure views: enhanced view shows health status, environment information, and firmware revisions in life-like detail and a Custom tool wizard: allows you to easily integrate your programs, scripts and custom commands into HP SIM.
The best feature IMO which before was a stand alone product but is now a core feature of SIM is the Remote Support pack. The HP Services Essentials Remote Support Pack integrates with HP SIM to improve warranty and contracts management, provide optional automated support calls to HP, and add intelligent events and advanced troubleshooting resources. When the Remote Support Pack is fully installed, turning on remote monitoring for any particular device is then just one-click away within HP SIM. Enabling the Remote Support Pack will also give customers access to the new warranty and contract entitlement feature in HP SIM 5.1. For further information visit http://www.hp.com/go/hpsim
HP regains No.1 spot in Blades
Well I guess the biggest news from my point of view is that HP BladeSystem has finally recaptured No. 1 unit and revenue market share from IBM in the blade server market. It has taken us 10 Quarters but it has been on the cards ever since cClass was launched given the huge demand we have experienced and massive adoption of BladeSystem worldwide. Since cClass was launched HP has outpaced the market every quarter and according to IDC now holds 41.9% Revenue Share and 40% total Factory Units Share and has 10 times the growth of IBM in units and revenue year over year.
Anyway enough crowing what developments have there been in ProLiant and BladeSystem in the past few weeks.
New firmware available for Onboard Administrator
Version 1.3 of the OA is now available for download with some tweaks and fine tuning of the power utilisation and also implements zoned cooling in the cClass which further increases the cClass power and cooling efficiencies. One case of note was at a bank in the UK who upgraded the OA to version 1.3 and for their specific configuration with a full blade enclosure saw a 10% decrease in total enclosure power draw (300W). By implementing zoned cooling we now dynamically increase and decrease the RPMs of the fans in 4 zones. We increase the RPMs of the fans in that zone which require extra cooling whereas prior to 1.3 all fans would have increased.
SIM Updates
Systems Insight Manager 5.1 is now available and includes some nice new features (48 in fact but I will spare you and just point out the highlights) inc. Active Directory synchronization: integrates with group lists and authorization as an active directory resource group; Ease of use enhancements: quicker installation and easier configuration make HP SIM 5.1 easier to use than ever before; Improved enclosure views: enhanced view shows health status, environment information, and firmware revisions in life-like detail and a Custom tool wizard: allows you to easily integrate your programs, scripts and custom commands into HP SIM.
The best feature IMO which before was a stand alone product but is now a core feature of SIM is the Remote Support pack. The HP Services Essentials Remote Support Pack integrates with HP SIM to improve warranty and contracts management, provide optional automated support calls to HP, and add intelligent events and advanced troubleshooting resources. When the Remote Support Pack is fully installed, turning on remote monitoring for any particular device is then just one-click away within HP SIM. Enabling the Remote Support Pack will also give customers access to the new warranty and contract entitlement feature in HP SIM 5.1. For further information visit http://www.hp.com/go/hpsim
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
February '07 Product Launch
Highlights of this months launch include the introduction of the much anticipated Virtual Connect modules and Cisco SAN Switch for the BladeSystem c-Class plus further processor refreshes across the AMD product range. Also worth noting the launch of the Workstation blade (xw460c) and the Integrity blade (BL860c) also for the cClass BladeSystem.
HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fibre Channel for c-Class BladeSystem
The HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module provides transparent SAN connectivity to external networks to enable server moves, adds or changes without impacting network operations.
HP 1/10 Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet Module
The HP Virtual Connect Ethernet Module provides transparent LAN connectivity to external networks to enable server moves, adds or changes without impacting network operations.
HP ProLiant xw460c Workstation Blade
The HP ProLiant xw460c workstation blade is a data center workstation without boundaries. It offers customers data center security, control and multi-location access flexibility - all with a workstation class user experience. With Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor and features similar to desktop workstations, the dual processor capable, Dual-Core Intel Xeon xw460c combines power-efficient computing, and high density with expanded memory for maximum performance.
HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade
The HP Integrity BL860c server blade enables customers to utilize the powerful capabilities of Intel's Itanium processors and HP-UX in a BladeSystem c-Class form factor. The BL860c fully supports Integrity Virtual Machine for unsurpassed virtualization capabilities supported by up to 48GB of available memory. The BL860c is ideal for server and application consolidation in an HP-UX environment not previously available. It also allows Windows, UNIX, Linux, multiple pieces of hardware to operate on single operating system. BL860c is also well suited for superior performance in demanding database intensive, high performance, and scientific computing environments.
HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch
The newest addition to the GbE2 family, the HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet blade switch now provides four SFP fiber uplink ports in addition to five RJ-45 ports that provide the flexibility to choose between fiber or copper uplinks. A maximum of five 1 Gb uplinks are supported. This is also the first c-Class switch with layer 3 routing, filtering and QOS queuing making it ideal for high bandwidth switching applications within the enclosure. Along with the switch comes a new option, the BNT Fiber SFP Module Kit that contains two 1Gb SR SFP’s.
Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem
The Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch introduces a Cisco-branded embedded 4Gb Fibre Channel switch for HP BladeSystem c-Class that offers exceptional performance and scalability for the most demanding environments. The integrated design lowers TCO and enables higher levels of availability, it's also easy to configure and manage. Integrating the Fibre Channel switch within the HP BladeSystem c-Class increases flexibility, performance and simplifies management while reducing costs through consolidation.
HP BLc PCle Modular Option Kit
The HP PCI express mezzanine expansion card for HP BladeSystem c-Class is a four lane PCIe expansion card that is required to provide PCIe connectivity from a full height c-Class blade server to the HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade.
BladeSystem C KVM Interface Adapter
The BladeSystem C KVM Interface Adapter connects HP BladeSystems c-Class blade servers to an HP KVM for ease of management. Features include a single interface adapter, hot pluggable and it is compatible with all HP Cat five based KVM switches. It can also accept a USB device connection. This adapter eases cable management for a much cleaner solution.
HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fibre Channel for c-Class BladeSystem
The HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module provides transparent SAN connectivity to external networks to enable server moves, adds or changes without impacting network operations.
HP 1/10 Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet Module
The HP Virtual Connect Ethernet Module provides transparent LAN connectivity to external networks to enable server moves, adds or changes without impacting network operations.
HP ProLiant xw460c Workstation Blade
The HP ProLiant xw460c workstation blade is a data center workstation without boundaries. It offers customers data center security, control and multi-location access flexibility - all with a workstation class user experience. With Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor and features similar to desktop workstations, the dual processor capable, Dual-Core Intel Xeon xw460c combines power-efficient computing, and high density with expanded memory for maximum performance.
HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade
The HP Integrity BL860c server blade enables customers to utilize the powerful capabilities of Intel's Itanium processors and HP-UX in a BladeSystem c-Class form factor. The BL860c fully supports Integrity Virtual Machine for unsurpassed virtualization capabilities supported by up to 48GB of available memory. The BL860c is ideal for server and application consolidation in an HP-UX environment not previously available. It also allows Windows, UNIX, Linux, multiple pieces of hardware to operate on single operating system. BL860c is also well suited for superior performance in demanding database intensive, high performance, and scientific computing environments.
HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch
The newest addition to the GbE2 family, the HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet blade switch now provides four SFP fiber uplink ports in addition to five RJ-45 ports that provide the flexibility to choose between fiber or copper uplinks. A maximum of five 1 Gb uplinks are supported. This is also the first c-Class switch with layer 3 routing, filtering and QOS queuing making it ideal for high bandwidth switching applications within the enclosure. Along with the switch comes a new option, the BNT Fiber SFP Module Kit that contains two 1Gb SR SFP’s.
Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem
The Cisco MDS 9124e Fabric Switch introduces a Cisco-branded embedded 4Gb Fibre Channel switch for HP BladeSystem c-Class that offers exceptional performance and scalability for the most demanding environments. The integrated design lowers TCO and enables higher levels of availability, it's also easy to configure and manage. Integrating the Fibre Channel switch within the HP BladeSystem c-Class increases flexibility, performance and simplifies management while reducing costs through consolidation.
HP BLc PCle Modular Option Kit
The HP PCI express mezzanine expansion card for HP BladeSystem c-Class is a four lane PCIe expansion card that is required to provide PCIe connectivity from a full height c-Class blade server to the HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade.
BladeSystem C KVM Interface Adapter
The BladeSystem C KVM Interface Adapter connects HP BladeSystems c-Class blade servers to an HP KVM for ease of management. Features include a single interface adapter, hot pluggable and it is compatible with all HP Cat five based KVM switches. It can also accept a USB device connection. This adapter eases cable management for a much cleaner solution.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
SAS Drive Technology - Large or Small?
I have had quite a lot of questions from channel partners and customers alike around hard disk drive technology. There is quite a bit of confusion in the market right now 1st of all around the new SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) hard drives and secondly since they are currently available in 2 form factors, Large Form Factor (LFF) and Small Form Factor (SFF); which drive type is best? Most hardware vendors have not made it any easier by making both types of drives available for their servers which means end users are faced with multiple options when trying to decide on a configuration.
First of all I should point out that SAS is the successor to SCSI. SAS is a serial technology where every drive can have it's own dedicated 'pipe' or bandwidth lane to the SAS RAID controller as opposed to traditional Parallel SCSI whose drives share a 'pipe' to a single channel on the SCSI RAID controller. For example the P400 controller in the HP ProLiant DL380 G5 is an 8 port SAS controller i.e. 1 port for every drive in the DL380 G5 which can house 8 Small Form Factor (SFF 2.5") drives.
HP have had a lot of success in the past with our Universal SCSI drive which meant that the same SCSI drive would go in our ML, DL or BL servers and MSA storage i.e. 1 drive for all servers and DAS (Direct Attached Storage) and shared storage solutions. As a result of this strategy which our customers have overwhelmingly applauded, HP has decided to adopt a new single universal drive type for the latest SAS and indeed SATA technologys based on the SFF 2.5" disk meaning our customers will only have to endure a single drive type transition. The industry is rapidly moving towards SFF 2.5" disks and LFF 3.5" disks are only a temporary stop gap to fill areas where capacity is more important than performance or even price/performance.
As stated HP has transitioned all of our enterprise servers to the new universal drive type; Small Form Factor 2.5” SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). We did this primarily to avoid our customers going through 2 transitions i.e. from U320 3.5” Parallel SCSI hard drives to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.5” Large Form Factor Drives and then to Small Form Factor 2.5” SAS drives.
HP currently offers SFF 2.5” SAS drives in 36GB and 72 GB capacities at 15K speeds. We also offer SFF 2.5” SAS 10K drives in 36GB, 72 GB and 146 GB. It is important to note that no vendor offers a 146GB 15K 2.5” SFF disk drive as this is still has not been launched by the hard disk vendors. This is not a major issue as the performance difference between SFF 2.5” 10K SAS and 15K LFF 3.5” SAS is very low. In a RAID 5 set of 4 drives this can be as low as 5% – see diagram below.
SFF Drive - Physical Advantages
The HP SFF 2.5” SAS drives are 2nd generation SAS hard drives compared to 3.5” LFF SAS drives which still use U320 parallel SCSI mechanics. The SFF drives use less power (about half that of LFF drives), are quieter, have a better MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) rating increasing availability and reliability and the server supports more spindles which ultimately has the greatest impact on performance.
Sample Scenario
To achieve a 400GB RAID 5 disk partition we could use 4 x 146GB 2.5” SFF SAS 10K Hard Drives. This would give much better price/performance than the 3.5” LFF 15K disk solution, however the 15K 3.5” LFF drive array would be approximately 5% faster performing.
First of all I should point out that SAS is the successor to SCSI. SAS is a serial technology where every drive can have it's own dedicated 'pipe' or bandwidth lane to the SAS RAID controller as opposed to traditional Parallel SCSI whose drives share a 'pipe' to a single channel on the SCSI RAID controller. For example the P400 controller in the HP ProLiant DL380 G5 is an 8 port SAS controller i.e. 1 port for every drive in the DL380 G5 which can house 8 Small Form Factor (SFF 2.5") drives.
HP have had a lot of success in the past with our Universal SCSI drive which meant that the same SCSI drive would go in our ML, DL or BL servers and MSA storage i.e. 1 drive for all servers and DAS (Direct Attached Storage) and shared storage solutions. As a result of this strategy which our customers have overwhelmingly applauded, HP has decided to adopt a new single universal drive type for the latest SAS and indeed SATA technologys based on the SFF 2.5" disk meaning our customers will only have to endure a single drive type transition. The industry is rapidly moving towards SFF 2.5" disks and LFF 3.5" disks are only a temporary stop gap to fill areas where capacity is more important than performance or even price/performance.
As stated HP has transitioned all of our enterprise servers to the new universal drive type; Small Form Factor 2.5” SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). We did this primarily to avoid our customers going through 2 transitions i.e. from U320 3.5” Parallel SCSI hard drives to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.5” Large Form Factor Drives and then to Small Form Factor 2.5” SAS drives.
HP currently offers SFF 2.5” SAS drives in 36GB and 72 GB capacities at 15K speeds. We also offer SFF 2.5” SAS 10K drives in 36GB, 72 GB and 146 GB. It is important to note that no vendor offers a 146GB 15K 2.5” SFF disk drive as this is still has not been launched by the hard disk vendors. This is not a major issue as the performance difference between SFF 2.5” 10K SAS and 15K LFF 3.5” SAS is very low. In a RAID 5 set of 4 drives this can be as low as 5% – see diagram below.
SFF Drive - Physical Advantages
The HP SFF 2.5” SAS drives are 2nd generation SAS hard drives compared to 3.5” LFF SAS drives which still use U320 parallel SCSI mechanics. The SFF drives use less power (about half that of LFF drives), are quieter, have a better MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) rating increasing availability and reliability and the server supports more spindles which ultimately has the greatest impact on performance.
Sample Scenario
To achieve a 400GB RAID 5 disk partition we could use 4 x 146GB 2.5” SFF SAS 10K Hard Drives. This would give much better price/performance than the 3.5” LFF 15K disk solution, however the 15K 3.5” LFF drive array would be approximately 5% faster performing.
The HP list pricing (Feb. '07) for the 2 drive types are as follows
€355 for a 146GB 10K SFF 2.5” SAS Drive
€505 for a 146GB 15K LFF 3.5” SAS Drive
For a 400 GB RAID array based on 4 Hard Drives with both drives types in terms of price and relative performance. (See Diagram Below for performance data)
€1420 – SFF 2.5” 10K for 1200 IOPs approximately
€2020 – LFF 3.5” 15K for 1260 IOPs approximately
The price/performance for the 10K array would be far superior to the 15K solution while the performance is approximately 5% less.
The advantage of using SFF 2.5” 10K drives is that due to their smaller size you can have a total of 6 per DL360 G5 1U server, 8 per DL380 G5 class 2U server and 16 in both the DL580 G5 and ML370 G5. This means we can add up to 2 more drives a typical 2U server (8 as opposed to 6 with 3.5") to the RAID Array increasing not only the available disk space in the RAID array but also dramatically increasing performance. By adding a 5th 146 GB 2.5” 10K SFF SAS drive to the array we exceed the performance of 15K SAS (see diagram below) while still being a more cost effective solution.
At 5 drives IOPS approx.
15K LFF gives 1260 IOPS – limited to 4 drives in a 2U server.
10K SFF gives 1490 IOPS and costs less.
You are still left with the option to add a 6th drive to the RAID set at a later date if you would like to further increase the performance and/or size of the array.
At 6 drives IOPS approx.
15K LFF gives 1260 IOPS - limited to 4 drives in a 2U server
10K SFF gives 1650 IOPS and costs fractionally more.
Conclusions
In conclusion Small Form Factor 2.5” SAS drives are the new universal drive type in the industry. HP have adopted the standard universal drive for all of our servers meaning our customers will not have to transition again in 12-18 months time away from legacy 3.5” drive technology. Small Form Factor 2.5” drives are not available in capacities greater than 72GB in 15K disk speed.
SFF drives provide more advantages than a 15K 3.5”SAS drives in terms of power, cooling, reliability, and density and we have shown that the overall solution can beat 15K in terms of not only price/performance but also raw performance.
Monday, January 15, 2007
NEW! - HP ProLiant Family Guide
The ProLiant family guide has been updated to reflect the latest ProLiant and BladeSystem product offerings. This Guide provides a side-by-side comparison of the HP ProLiant server family, from entry-level to high-end servers, and includes related offerings typically purchased with ProLiant servers. With powerful, flexible solutions and innovations in manageability, virtualisation, power and cooling, HP ProLiant servers help you build the right adaptive infrastructure for your IT. >>Click here<< to download the guide in PDF format or contact your HP reseller for hard copies.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
AMD selects HP BladeSystem for next generation chip designs
AMD recently purchsed 900 HP Blade servers for their next generation chip design projects. Read how AMD is experiencing an increase in performance-per-watt of up to 30 percent in the new server blade-based environment compared to currently installed standard rack-mounted servers.
“HP’s Linux-based BladeSystem solution’s integrated consoles and power control help us to manage more servers without increasing our staff,” said Mike Lowe, director, Chipset Engineering, AMD. “These new systems help AMD take advantage of the latest HP and AMD high-performance and power-saving technologies and dramatically increase the density of our world-class engineering design compute cluster to enable us to bring new generations of chip designs to market efficiently and cost-effectively.”
Read the full report here
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/061121a.html
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