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With new HPE EdgeLine systems, its about data proximity

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Less than a year ago, HPE announced a new set of products under its EdgeLine banner.  These devices were created to enable the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect with other IT infrastructure and to allow IT to tap into sensor data and other capabilities directly attached to devices.   With the term, Internet of Things, visions of connected refrigerators and connected toaster ovens spring to mind, but when it comes to the Enterprise, where the new HPE is clearly focused, what does an IoT play look like?

HPE believes that when it comes to IoT in the enterprise, it is all about empowering processing and analytics to occur close to where the data is being generated.  This past week at HPE Discover in Las Vegas, HPE announced the EdgeLine 1000 and EdgeLine 4000 series of devices that allow more processing power to be deployed into the field near these connected devices that generate data.  These devices join the EdgeLine EL10 and EL20 gateway devices it introduced in December at HPE Discover in London.  The idea is that by processing the data in the field, the enterprise can save on data transmission, security and can really do some interesting new things in the field.  HPE sees this as critical in the success of IoT for enterprise.

The EdgeLine 1000 uses a single ProLiant cartridge (the kind used in HPE Moonshot) in a ruggedized metal case with built-in expansion slots for drives and PCI cards.  The EdgeLine 1000 shown off at HPE Discover also featured integrated wireless networking on the system.  The EdgeLine 4000 accommodates up to 4 ProLiant cartridges and resembles a traditional rack-mount server.

Why Process Near the Data?

Many of these industrial uses of IoT may be in remote and disconnected parts of the world.  It may not be feasible or cost-effective to pay for the data plans required to connect these devices and push all of that data to a datacenter or the cloud.  Remote oil platforms, refineries, industrial sites, and even remote jungle deployments [like the one HP showcased with Conservation International] may not have available connectivity options.  Or if they do, satellite internet connections are metered and expensive.  And even in well connected areas, it may come down to security and not wanting these devices actually talking to the Internet.  There may be regulations or laws that govern what connectivity can be established – or it may be simple corporate secrets where they do not want to introduce the risk of transmitting the data outside of its corporate IT.

While at HPE Discover, the team from DS Virgin Formula E racing talked with our group of bloggers.  One of the most interesting things about Formula E racing is the amount of sensor data created by the electric race cars and then the amount of data analytics that the teams are performing on that data in the field.  For the DS Virgin Formula E team, this was a huge contributor to a much more successful season in year 2.  During the first year, the team did not have analytics in the field and were purely racing based on instinct and some review of the sensor data manually.  Now the team has deployed HPE Moonshot in the pit and they can download and analyze the sensor data received from the car.  In a typical race day, the team comes to a track, has no previous experience with the track, and after a couple rounds of qualifying with short times in between, they run the final race.  By using analytics, they take the data obtained by the car in qualifying and they can make adjustments and plans about how to run the race best and most efficiently.  The results show for themselves with the team taking the poll in most of the races this season and ranking currently 3rd in the entire field for the year.  Taking the same data and sending to to the cloud is a waste of time – the transmission time is better spent doing analytics during very tight turn-arounds.  The same principal applies with IoT data.

You also have to determine what data is actually valuable.  Everyone talks about the astronomical size of the data that will be generated from IoT devices.  Even if you have good connectivity, using all of your available upstream bandwidth to transmit sensor data is probably not the best use case of your connectivity.  Case in point, I personally started with a DropCam at home for security reasons – but I dislike the device because it clogs my upstream – constantly transmitting video the cloud.  Instead, I have setup another set of cameras that only transmit minute long clips when a camera detects motion.  That’s really what I care about – knowing that something moved and seeing video of that – not broadcasting 24/7.   IoT generated data is a lot the same and this is where HPE’s vision lies – putting the software to detect the motion or a failure or other event near the data generating device and then allow the detection to occur there.

Unlocking New Capabilities

Also by having processing available in the field, you open up new capabilities to remote workers.  HPE was demoing a pump system from FlowServe on the show floor at HPE Discover.  FlowServe makes industrial pumps for major operations around the world.  Approximately 10,000 of those pumps are outfitted with sensors that can communicate problems, status and operational data points.  FlowServe has been working with HPE and the EdgeLine product line to take their sensor-enabled pumps and extend those capabilities by connecting them.

Ckin_ewVEAEaZEAIn the demo I saw, FlowServe was able to connect the pump system to an EdgeLine 1000 system and then run real time monitoring of the pump.  With these located thousands of miles away from main office locations, this sensor data could enable operators to know when conditions that may ruin a pump occur and shutdown the system to prevent problems.  Now, that’s not new – what is new about the solution is that the EdgeLine system could then transmit that problem to a help desk and arrange for a repair automatically.  That’s the power of connectivity.

Once a repairman is onsite, however, he may have never seen the installation and may not know anything about where the actual problem occurred.  HPE and FlowServe were showing off an augmented reality program that paired an iPad with special software that take a live picture of the installation and overlays sensors and status to the live picture.  This augmented reality app can show the repairman where the problem has occurred, give them important data about what needs to be services and even allow the repairman to start the system back up and ensure that his repair was successful by communicating security with the EdgeLine system in the field.  A photo of the augmented reality app is to the right.

Smart Cities

HPE was talking specifically about industrial applications – manufacturing, oil, gas – but an interesting fourth example – smart cities.  In the case of smart cities, HPE is thinking about traffic cameras, environmental sensors and other applications of technology to connected devices.  In its concept of smart cities, HPE showed demos of connect vehicles communicating with one another or with drivers to warn about potholes or other obstructions in the roadway – sort of like Waze, but with much more automation and precision.  Booths also showed off solutions for smart parking, health care, supply chain, waste management, the connected car and personal safety tracking devices.  All of the solutions were built around interactions that we would have with technology to assist us in our daily lives.

I also talked with a security researcher in Hewlett Packard Labs and we had an interesting discussion about pushing facial recognition analytics out to individual cameras where specific persons of interest could be recognized by the camera, rather than having to transmit all the video data back for centralized analytics to run on it.  Innovation like that could enable quicker arrests and pinpointing terrorists before they strike.

While I walked around the booths demoing concepts for the smart city, I have to admit that I thought about TomorrowLand and Walt Disney.  This had to be sort of how TomorrowLand felt when it first debuted.  Very futuristic concepts of how a smart city could run.

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ComputeDatacenterSoftwareStorage

Simple iLO Firmware updates with PowerShell

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

ilo

The Hewlett Packard Enterprise iLO PowerShell cmdlets make it extremely easy to update iLO Firmware in mass.    The Update-HPiLOFirmware cmdlet is an extremely handy for updating firmware across many systems.  I particularly like this method because it fast, which isn’t always the case when trying to script upgrades.  The syntax of the cmdlet is easy to remember and with Get-Help not far away, even if you forget the simple syntax, you can easily find the details.  Combine the Update-HPiLOFimware functionality with the Find-HPiLO cmdlet used to discover and report iLOs using a network range and you have a winning combination to automate iLO firmware.

This method proved to be handy for me because I make a point to update iLO firmware prior to updating servers with a new Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP).   Since I utilize the virtual media feature in iLO to deploy the SPP to ESXi nodes, I have found it is best to update iLO first and then let the SPP install all other firmware.  If the iLO firmware is updated and it restarts during the SPP run, this causes the installer to fail because it lost its media.

Before you start

There are a couple quick things you’ll want to ensure before you start.

  1. You’ll need the HP iLO Toolkit.  It is available here – http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-software/product-detail.html?oid=5440657.
  2. Make sure you have a consistent admin credential for iLO.  It makes updating multiple hosts much easier.  The credential can be a local account in iLO or it can be an account from Active Directory if you have defined and setup AD integration on your iLOs.
  3. It is easiest to pass your credentials by variable using a PowerShell credentials object.  You can do that easily with the Get-Credential cmdlet.

    [code lang=”Powershell”]$ilocreds = Get-Credential[/code]

    Alternatively, you can use the -username and -password switches on the Update-HPiLOFirmware cmdlet later.

Step-by-step

Working through the process step-by-step, you’d run the following commands to update firmware:

  1. The first step is to get a list of the servers using the Find-HPiLO cmdlet.

    [code lang=”Powershell”]$servers = Find-HPiLO 192.168.200.1-255[/code]

  2. Next, you can investigate the current version of firmware on each iLO found with this simple Select and Sort statement.

    [code lang=”Powershell”]$servers | Select HOSTNAME, PN, FWRI | Sort PN, FWRI [/code]

  3. Now that you’ve seen what the Find-HPiLO cmdlet returned, you can scope down the list to what you want to update.  In this example, we are looking for firmware older than version 2.22 on iLO4 in teh Where statement.  Confirm the output list of servers are the servers you wish to patch.

    [code lang=”Powershell”]$servers | Where {$_.FWRI -lt 2.22 -AND $_.PN -like "*iLO 4*"} [/code]

  4. Repeat the scoped list and now pipe that into the Update-HPiLOFirmware cmdlet.  This cmdlet need the credentials you setup earlier and it accepts the list of servers through the pipeline.  The last switch needed is the location of the firmware file to load.

    [code lang=”Powershell”]$servers | Where {$_.FWRI -lt 2.22 -AND $_.PN -like "*iLO 4*"} | Update-HPiLOFirmware -Credential $ilocreds -Location C:\firmware\ilo4\ilo4_222.bin[/code]

Condense it down

The same can be done as a one liner too – Find, Where (scope) and Update…  You still need to set your credentials ahead of time.

[code lang=”Powershell”]Find-HPiLO 192.168.200.1-255 | Where {$_.FWRI -lt 2.22 -AND $_.PN -like "*iLO 4*"} | Update-HPiLOFirmware -Credential $ilocreds -Location C:\firmware\ilo4\ilo4_222.bin[/code]

HP PowerShell Toolkits

In addition to the iLO PowerShell toolkit, HPE also has sets of cmdlets to administer BladeSystem OnBoard Administrators and HP ProLiant BIOS settings.  You may grab all three sets of cmdlets and find full documentation at http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-software/product-detail.html?oid=5440657.

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ComputeDatacenterSoftwareStorage

HP releases BIOS PowerShell cmdlets

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

PowerShellHP has introduced another batch of over 90 PowerShell cmdlets with a focus on BIOS management.  The new batch of cmdlets joins two previous batches of cmdlets that allow management of iLO, the onboard IP management interface on ProLiant servers,  and for Onboard Administrator, the primary management interface on HP’s BladeSystem hardware.

OneView introduced the ability to set BIOS settings during the provisioning of systems and these BIOS cmdlets put the same level of control into more system admins and engineer’s hands, even if the environment has not adopted HP OneView.

When I read this news, the first thing that popped into mind was using this to ensure that my Windows cluster hosts are set to the correct Power Management mode and easily enough, that is the example that is found in the HP documentation that shipped with the toolkit.   For my Windows clusters running things like Exchange or SQL, we follow the best practice to set the Power Management to Static High Performance mode and this toolkit gives me an easy way to write a script to collect this information from multiple hosts and send an email alert for hosts where this is set incorrectly.

Use Scenarios

The HP BIOS Cmdlets are compatible with both WinPE and standard Windows installations meaning that the BIOS cmdlets can be used during system deployment to adjust and set BIOS settings on a host.  This is useful if an enterprising admin wants to ensure the BIOS settings of the hardware during an System Center Config Management installation or with third party imaging systems like Altiris. Interestingly, there is a cmdlet that create an HP customized WinPE image that is deployed with the BIOS cmdlet distribution.

The bulk of the cmdlets are Get- and Set- verb cmdlets, as you would expect.  These cmdlets allow you to retrieve and set specific settings with each cmdlet.  All of the BIOS cmdlets are listed at the end of this post as an overview.

Getting Started

There are some pre-requisites, but anyone using PowerShell will likely already have the pre-requisites installed.  The pre-req’s are:

The installation for the HP BIOS PowerShell cmdlets is found at www.hp.com/go/powershell.  The download is an MSI and the installation is simple and straight forward.  The QuickSpecs are found here for easy reference.

Connecting & Disconnecting

Connecting to a host is simple.  According to the documentation, the syntax for a connection is very similar to connecting to vCenter Server using PowerCLI.

[code lang=”PowerShell”] $variable = Connect-HPBIOS 192.168.0.100 -Username "username" -Password "password"[/code]

All of the documentation and examples show using a connection variable with the Get- and Set- cmdlets, so that may be a best practice, but it is entirely possible to perform a connection in a single line if you only need to adjust a single setting.  Connecting takes a bit of time, so using an establish connection will save you a lot of time.

Storing the connection in a variable for reference also allows you the benefit of establishing multiple sessions to different hosts.  This could be useful for setting settings across multiple hosts with a simple For loop in PowerShell.

Disconnecting is just as simple.

[code lang=”PowerShell”]Disconnect-HPBIOS $variable[/code]

Receiving Updates

Like the previous version of HP cmdlets for iLO and Onboard Administrator, HP has packaged an Update-HPBIOSModuleVersion cmdlet that checks the HP website and automatically pulls down the newer versions of HP BIOS cmdlets when they are available.

What do you connect to?

So, it begs the question – when you do a Connect-HPBIOS cmdlet, what are you connecting to?  The answer is the Windows OS.  You are not connecting to the iLO, as I first thought.  So, this means, only targets running the Windows OS are going to be viable to you.  I had hoped that maybe the PowerShell toolkit was talking to iLO and its RESTful API, but this is not the case. Connected to the RESTful API would have meant you could use PowerShell to script against Linux and VMware hosts in addition to Windows hosts, but perhaps this will come in future versions.

Quick References of the BIOS Cmdlets

Cmdlet Description
Connect-HPBIOS Creates connections to one or multiple BIOS targets.
Disconnect-HPBIOS Closes the connection.
Get-HPBIOSACPI_SLIT Gets BIOS ACPI SLIT preferences information.
Get-HPBIOSAdminInfo Gets the reference information for the server administrator.
Get-HPBIOSAdvancedMemoryProtection Gets BIOS advanced memory protection options information.
Get-HPBIOSAdvancedSystemROMOptions Gets BIOS advanced system ROM options.
Get-HPBIOSBootControllerOrder Gets the current Boot Controller Order.
Get-HPBIOSBootMode Gets the current Boot Mode for the systems that support UEFI.
Get-HPBIOSBootOrderPolicy Gets the current Boot Order Policy in UEFI systems.
Get-HPBIOSCustomPostMessage Gets BIOS custom post message.
Get-HPBIOSDataDirectIO Gets BIOS Data Direct I/O information.
Get-HPBIOSEmbeddedNIC Gets BIOS Embedded NIC information.
Get-HPBIOSEmbeddedUEFIShell Gets BIOS embedded UEFI shell information.
Get-HPBIOSEMSConsole Gets the EMS console configuration.
Get-HPBIOSHyperTransport Gets the current HyperTransport Frequency.
Get-HPBIOSIntelNICDMAChannels Gets BIOS Intel DMA Channels information.
Get-HPBIOSIntelPCM Gets BIOS Intel Performance counter monitor information.
Get-HPBIOSIntelTurboBoost Gets BIOS Intel Turbo Boost information.
Get-HPBIOSInterfaceMode Gets the interface mode displayed for ROM-based utilities.
Get-HPBIOSIPLOrder Gets the current Standard Boot Order (IPL) configuration.
Get-HPBIOSMemoryChannel Gets BIOS memory channel mode information.
Get-HPBIOSMemoryPower Gets the current settings of memory related power management.
Get-HPBIOSMemoryProximityReportingForIO Gets BIOS Memory Proximity Reporting for I/O information.
Get-HPBIOSModuleVersion Gets the module details for the HPBIOSCmdlets.
Get-HPBIOSNodeInterleaving Gets BIOS Node Interleaving information.
Get-HPBIOSOneTerabyteMemoryLimit Gets BIOS One Terabyte Memory Limit information.
Get-HPBIOSPCIePower Gets the current PCIe related configuration, which may impact system power usage.
Get-HPBIOSPowerCapping Gets the current status of Memory Power Capping and Dynamic Power Capping Functionality.
Get-HPBIOSPowerProfile Gets the level of power versus performance for the system.
Get-HPBIOSPowerRegulator Gets the current HP Power Regulator.
Get-HPBIOSPrefetcher Gets BIOS HW prefetcher, Adjacent Sector prefetch, DCU prefetcher and DCUIP prefetcher information.
Get-HPBIOSProcessorOptions Gets the current settings of processor options.
Get-HPBIOSProcessorPower Gets the current settings of processor related power management.
Get-HPBIOSQPI Gets BIOS QPI snoop configuration, QPI bandwidth optimization information.
Get-HPBIOSQPILinkPower Gets the current Intel QPI Link Power Management and Frequency.
Get-HPBIOSRedundantPowerSupplyMode Gets the current redundant power supply configuration.
Get-HPBIOSSerialConsole Gets the serial console configuration.
Get-HPBIOSSerialPort Gets the serial port configuration.
Get-HPBIOSServerAvailability Gets BIOS server availability information.
Get-HPBIOSServerInfo Gets the reference information for the server administrator.
Get-HPBIOSServerSecurity Gets BIOS server security information.
Get-HPBIOSServiceContact Gets the reference information for the server service.
Get-HPBIOSUEFIBootOrder Gets the current advanced UEFI boot order list.
Get-HPBIOSUEFIOptimizedBoot Gets the current UEFI Optimized Boot configuration.
Get-HPBIOSUtilityLanguage Gets BIOS system utility language.
Get-HPBIOSVideoOptions Gets BIOS video options information.
Get-HPBIOSVirtualization Gets the hardware virtualization configuration.
New-HPBIOSCustomWinPEImage Creates HP WinPE image.
Set-HPBIOSACPI_SLIT Sets BIOS ACPI SLIT preferences.
Set-HPBIOSAdminInfo Sets the reference information for the server administrator.
Set-HPBIOSAdvancedMemoryProtection Sets the BIOS advanced memory protection method.
Set-HPBIOSAdvancedSystemROMOptions Sets BIOS system ROM options.
Set-HPBIOSBootControllerOrder Sets the Boot Controller Order.
Set-HPBIOSBootMode Sets the Boot Mode for the systems that support UEFI.
Set-HPBIOSBootOrderPolicy Sets the Boot Order Policy in UEFI systems.
Set-HPBIOSCustomPostMessage Sets a custom post message.
Set-HPBIOSDataDirectIO Sets BIOS Data Direct I/O.
Set-HPBIOSEmbeddedNIC Sets BIOS NIC setting.
Set-HPBIOSEmbeddedUEFIShell Sets BIOS embedded UEFI shell.
Set-HPBIOSEMSConsole Sets the EMS console configuration.
Set-HPBIOSHyperTransport Sets the HyperTransport Frequency.
Set-HPBIOSIntelNICDMAChannels Sets BIOS Intel DMA Channels.
Set-HPBIOSIntelPCM Sets BIOS Intel Performance Counter Monitor.
Set-HPBIOSIntelTurboBoost Sets Intel Turbo Boost.
Set-HPBIOSInterfaceMode Sets the interface mode displayed for ROM-based utilities.
Set-HPBIOSIPLOrder Sets the Standard Boot Order (IPL).
Set-HPBIOSMemoryChannel Sets BIOS memory channel mode.
Set-HPBIOSMemoryPower Sets the memory related power management.
Set-HPBIOSMemoryProximityReportingForIO Sets BIOS Memory Proximity Reporting for I/O information.
Set-HPBIOSNodeInterleaving Sets BIOS Node Interleaving.
Set-HPBIOSOneTerabyteMemoryLimit Sets BIOS one terabyte memory limit.
Set-HPBIOSPCIePower Sets the current PCIe related configuration, which may impact system power usage.
Set-HPBIOSPowerCapping Sets the status of Memory Power Capping and Dynamic Power Capping Functionality.
Set-HPBIOSPowerProfile Sets the level of power versus performance for the system.
Set-HPBIOSPowerRegulator Sets the HP Power Regulator.
Set-HPBIOSPrefetcher Sets BIOS HW, Adjacent Sector, DCU and DCUIP prefetcher.
Set-HPBIOSProcessorOptions Sets the current processor options settings.
Set-HPBIOSProcessorPower Sets the processor related power management.
Set-HPBIOSQPI Sets BIOS QPI snoop configuration and QPI bandwidth optimization.
Set-HPBIOSQPILinkPower Sets the Intel QPI Link Power Management and Frequency.
Set-HPBIOSRedundantPowerSupplyMode Sets the Redundant Power Supply Mode.
Set-HPBIOSSerialConsole Sets the serial console configuration.
Set-HPBIOSSerialPort Sets the serial port configuration.
Set-HPBIOSServerAvailability Sets BIOS server availability.
Set-HPBIOSServerInfo Sets the reference information for the server administrator.
Set-HPBIOSServerSecurity Sets BIOS server security options.
Set-HPBIOSServiceContact Sets the reference information for the server service.
Set-HPBIOSUEFIOptimizedBoot Sets the UEFI Optimized Boot state.
Set-HPBIOSUtilityLanguage Selects the language for the system.
Set-HPBIOSVideoOptions Sets BIOS video options.
Set-HPBIOSVirtualization Sets the hardware virtualization configuration.
Test-HPBIOSConnection Determines if the connection to the target is still valid.
Update-HPBIOSModuleVersion Determines if an updated version of the BIOS cmdlets is available and returns the link to download this new version.
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ComputeDatacenter

Adjusting UEFI boot order on ProLiant DL580 Gen8

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

When HP introduced the ProLiant DL580 Gen8 last February, HP also launched it’s new UEFI firmware, which replaced traditional BIOS and became the standard across all ProLiant Gen9 servers introduced last September.  Typically, the powerhouse ProLiant DL580 servers lag behind the introduction of other generational servers and the Gen8 model was no different, being introduced well over a year after Gen8 debuted.  Its pretty safe to assume that HP sells many less units of the DL580 model than other ProLiant rackmounts and it was a pretty smart strategic move to add UEFI to this model before launching it across the entire line of mass-market servers.

Some of the menus in the UEFI inteface on the ProLiant DL580 Gen8 are a little clunky.  One of those is the boot order screen.  After several failed attempts at changing the boot order, I engaged the help of a product manager within HP who explained where I was going wrong.  And for the benefit of others, I wanted to put this out to explain how to make boot order changes on the ProLiant DL580 Gen8.  The trickiness comes when you actually make the change – getting to the boot options is straight forward.

Fortunately, the same product manager confirmed that ProLiant Gen9 servers have an improved version with clearer instructions.

Changing Boot Order on a DL580 Gen8 with UEFI

During the normal boot sequence, you get the normal POST screens and options along the bottom – one of those is F9 for System Utilities and you should press F9 to invoke those menus.

FmenuOptions

Once the System Utilities menu appears, choose the System Configuration option and press enter.

systemConfig

From System Configuration, you will choose Boot Options and press enter.

bootOptions

From the Boot Options, you come to the RBSU and the first option is the UEFI Boot Order.  Choose UEFI Boot Order and press enter.

This screen also confirms whether you are using UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS for booting.  If you wanted to make a change, this is the screen where you change to Legacy BIOS from UEFI or vice versus.  If you make a boot mode change, all options will get greyed out and you will need to reboot and go back into System Utilities to make further changes.  

rbsuMenu

Once you’re in the UEFI Boot Order screen, you see a list of options along with brief instructions.

bootOrderScreen

You must press enter to go into the boot order screen and make changes.  Scroll to the item you want to move in boot order and press the + or – keys to move the item up or down the list.

makeChanges

Once you make the changes, press Enter to save those changes.  There is no onscreen prompt that says this, but pressing F10, even though it says Save in the display, will not save it.  Pressing ESC will lose your changes.

savedChanges

Once you press Enter, you go back to a screen and should see your new boot order confirmed.  You may press F10 here to save the settings.  Press Enter as instructed on the on-screen prompt and this saves the changes.

pressF10

When the system reboots, now you should immediately begin booting from your USB device or hard drive that you moved to the first position in boot order.

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ComputeDatacenter

ProLiant servers getting RESTful API for management

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

ProLiant servers are getting some REST – a RESTful API.  One of the innovations HP is showing off on the HP Discover showroom floor is a new RESTful interface packaged as part of the iLO management chips on ProLiant servers.  With the RESTful API, HP hopes to deliver future generations of ProLiant that can be easily provisioned and controlled from tools like HP OneView.  RESTful interfaces are becoming the go-to standard within HP for interoperability between their products.

HP RESTful API is a management interface can be used to perform configuration, inventory, and monitoring.  The RESTful API is available on Gen8 and Gen9 hardware with iLO firmware 2.0 and greater.  On Gen9 and future hardware, the interface will be able to configure both BIOS and iLO settings on the server.  On Gen8 servers, the RESTful API will only expose the capabilities inside of the iLO.

According to HP, a REST client will send HTTPS operations to the iLO web server and there are three modes that can be used – command line interface, file based and JSON-formatted data.  The use of HTTPS is a big security plus versus many other remote management interfaces that are often

The folks at HP are working with other vendors in the market to establish a standard that they call the Redfish Specification.  Redfish is supposed to create a standardized interface for IP Management Interfaces on servers to allow uniform control and reporting across multi-vendor server environments. The standardization should allow the same management software to be able to manage heterogeneous servers.  Redfish is corporately sponsored by Dell, Intel, HP and Emerson.

For more information, see http://www.hp.com/go/restfulapi.

Disclaimer: HP invited and paid for my trip to attend HP Discover EMEA.  The views and opinions I’ve written were not dictated or approved by HP and are my own.  

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ComputeDatacenterVirtualization

Stick to the recipe to keep ESXi on HP hardware cooking

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Back in September, I blogged about a potential problem between HP’s September software bundle for ESXi and ProLiant Gen8 blade servers with Emulex CNA’s.  Long story short, the issue was caused by a mismatch of firmware between Virtual Connect and the Emulex CNA’s.  The mismatch was induced by me, as the administrator, not keeping all my components on a tested firmware ‘recipe’ from HP.

A couple years ago, HP made a shift in the BladeSystem firmware that unified the individual components into a tested configuration and began publishing the firmware together as release sets.  This meant that if you installed a recipe of Onboard Administrator, Virtual Connect and iLO firmwares, they would be more stable since they had been tested together for interoperability.  About a year later, HP unified software drivers and firmware on all ProLiant systems in a similiar way with the release of the Service Pack for Proliant (SPP).  The Service Pack for ProLiant did the same thing for OS level drivers and hardware firmware that the earlier release sets did for BladeSystem firmware.  All components were tested together at specific levels and the SPP’s unified release made it easy for administrators to apply a blessed recipe of software across components.

HP also does a similar thing with its OEM version of ESXi, which includes additional software components that allow a Common Information Model (CIM) implementation within the OS to display hardware status among other things.  Because of the add-in software, HP maintains a recipe between this software and the SPP bundle and firmware levels required and tested on their hardware platforms.

The moral of the story is to stay with HP’s recipes and SPP releases.  When you deviate from these, having firmware older than recommended along with newer drivers or agents, problems can occur.  In my own experiences, when I have stayed with the recipe, I haven’t experienced major malfunctions.  As with any software, new releases fix different bugs and there are times when you want to move outside of a recipe, if a newer version fixes a specific issue you’re experiencing, but in general, the rule is stay in recipe.

The other great benefit that you receive as a customer is a guarantee of support.  Traditionally, HP support pointed to older firmware as the first course of action for many support calls.  Following the SPP and ESXi recipe models, you now get a year of support from the release date of a bundle.  With this, you can push back on support and say “I’m in a supported configuration, now support me.” if you’re ever asked to update firmware without troubleshooting first.  This is a great position for the customer.  Support can also point to specific resolutions in release notes if there is a problem resolved that requires you to move to newer release, but following HP’s guidelines ensures that all the separate components have been tested together for the best possible operational environment that you can have.

And that advice is based on years of struggle in the pre-release set world of HP hardware, experience with HP support and my own personal lapses in following my own advice…  Hope this helps you avoid my struggles…

Service Pack for ProLiant – http://www.hp.com/go/spp

VIBS Depot from HP – http://vibsdepot.hp.com

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HP’s Sept VMware driver bundle may cause issues with Eumlex CNA’s

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

Final Update (11/1/14):  The drivers and bundle in question work with newer Flex-10 interconnect firmware.  My configuration was out of the blessed recipe of firmware and driver versions and I had problems as a result.  According to HP and independent community feedback on Twitter and by email, I can safely say that if you are running within an HP recipe, you should not experience this issue.  Also, for anyone out of recipe compliance, running Virtual Connect Flex-10 4.10 firmware and Onboard Administrator 4.12 firmware with the September ESXi HP bundle, expect problems with ESXi 5.1, but ESX 5.5 will run without issues.  Downgrading to June seems to solve ESXi 5.1.

As a rule, stay within HP’s published recipes from vibsdepot.hp.com and you will avoid most problems.  

 

HP released a new set of vibs with drivers and HP software to run inside of ESXi last week.  As part of a support case due to a hardware issue, the updated drivers bundle was installed on two BL460c Gen8 blades with Emulex converged network adapters and caused the system to experience issues with the NIC.  Working with VMware support, I downgraded to the driver to the previous version I was running the problem disappeared.  This occurred with VMware ESXi 5.1 Update 2 as the operating system and I am not clear if it effects 5.5 versions or not.  The affected hardware are HP FlexFabric Emulex 10Gb 554FLB adapters.

Symptoms

After successfully installing the Device Drivers for HP Custom ESXi 5.1.0 Update 2 Image 5.68, the system comes back online and appears to be fine.  The first symptoms appear while trying to vMotion virtual machines onto the host.  The host goes offline from vCenter and the virtual machines that had successfully moved are also unreachable over the network.  No network traffic is passing into the host for management, virtual machines or vMotion.  Using the ESXi Shell for troubleshooting, the system appears very sluggish and unresponsive.  When examining the vmkernel.log, VMware noted NIC disconnects that were seen by ESXi.

Attempting to recreate the issue after reboot, leaving the system stays in maintenance mode with no virtual machines, it stays online.  Soon after one or more virtual machines is relocated to the host, the system will go unresponsive in vCenter and the virtual machines will be offline.  This was repeated several times on the two affected hosts.

One ESXi 5.1, the Emluex NIC driver that appears to be causing the issue is be2net version 10.2.293.0.  This version was released with the 5.68 Device Drivers for HP Custom ESXi on September 9, 2014.  Prior to loading this device driver bundle, I was running the next latest bundle from June 2014 on the system with no issues.  The be2net driver listed as current on the vibsdept.hp.com site for June 2014 is version 4.9.288.0, first included in the February 2014 bundle.

device_bundle

Workaround

The workaround that I implemented with VMware was to downgrade to the version of be2net driver available in the June 2014 bundle.  You can locate this at the HP VibsDepot website, http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/jun2014/esxi-510-devicedrivers/ or http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/jun2014/esxi-510-drv-vibs/be2net/, and it is installed from ESXi command line either in ESXi Shell or over SSH using esxcli.  If you SFTP the vib file into /tmp on the host, you can install with the following command line.

[code]esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/Emulex_bootbank_net-be2net_4.9.288.0-1OEM.510.0.0.802205.vib[/code]

Followup

I tweeted about the potential problem last week and waited to hear back from HP Support before putting something out, but I didn’t want to wait any longer.  If you use the HP Custom ESXi and stay up to date, this is something to pay attention to.  It seems pretty specific to the Emulex converged network adapters and affects at least ESXi 5.1 Update 2.

I have an ongoing case with HP and as I find out more or see an advisory, I will update this post with new information.

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ComputeDatacenter

HP unwraps ProLiant Gen9 hardware, strategy for 25 more years of compute

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

This morning, HP CEO Meg Whitman unwrapped a new generation of HP’s ProLiant servers and unpacked the company’s compute strategy the years ahead. HP first introduced the server to the world 25 years ago and in celebration of that milestone, HP is looking forward to the 25 years to come.  The strategy is wrapped around a focus on customer outcomes rather than the incremental tick and tock of hardware.

HP is responding to the increasing pressure being put onto IT shops due to the increase of data, data devices, apps and connections.   In its research, the growth curve of incremental change in server hardware and the curve of requirements for IT shops simply don’t match.  Incremental change won’t allow business to keep up with the increasing needs based on time, power or space.  So the focus for the future from HP is to orchestrate and reduce the manual steps required for administrators to accomplish their work.

HP ProLiant Gen9 Family

HP see the future of compute as an increasing amount of pooling for resources, dynamically re-alloacting and re-tasking resources based on changing needs throughout the day.  HP Helion and OpenStack will play a major role in the transformation of the future of compute.  Traditional applications just can’t meet business needs.

I had the chance to talk with Peter Evans, vice president of HP Servers Global Marketing, this morning and he told me that the ProLiant Gen9 hardware has a strong focus on increasing the performance per dollar, kilowatt and square foot.   HP has spent a lot of time working to reduce the number of manual processes and clicks that are required to perform the tasks that consume a lot of practitioner’s time.

While HP is talking about their vision for the next 25 years of compute, they’ve been delivering on this vision for the past 2 year with ProLiant Gen8.  A lot of the innovation that went into Gen8 aligns with the focus that HP has with this strategy.  HP has collected and aggregated data that it gleaned from the Insight Online data and diagnostics information, information provided back by their partners and based on the experiences of their professional services organization and system engineers.  All of this feedback and data has gone into the prioritization and decision making of what features get the precious attention of HP development cycles.  The focus is more focused customer outcomes and not just on the technology.

Evans unpacked 3 metrics of focus that HP is delivering with the Gen9 announcement.  The first is economics of the datacenter.  ProLiant Gen9 offers customers a 3x improvement in performance.  HP has performed comparative studies against its own G6, G7 and Gen8 systems as well as competitor’s servers.  The second area is time to service. It is all about optimizing the number of clicks and amount of time before customer are able to begin using a solution on the ProLiant server.  In some cases, Evans says that HP has reduced the number of clicks required from 480 to just 4 using iLO, OneView, Intelligent Provisioning and other methods.  The last is value of service.  In that, HP is focused on providing the best possible experiences for running particular applications, enabling better density and more productivity for its customers.

ProLiant Gen9 Enhancements

Among the new features are enhancements to the iLO including iLO Federation, UEFI BIOS, updates to the Intelligent Provisioning and improvements to SmartCache, array controllers and drives supported.

iLO gets an upgrade by adding a redesigned API interface with OneView integration in mind.  iLO will have a fully compliant RESTful API that OneView can use for orchestration.  OneView will also make use of the new iLO Federation feature that debuts with the Gen9 systems.  Althought new with Gen9  servers, iLO Federation is also available to Gen8 systems.

iLO Federation takes the standard iLO4 and allows it to multicast at boot and join other iLO on the network.  From there, administrators can form groups of servers to aid in management from the iLO.  The iLO Federation enables a new cascading firmware deployment method rather than sequentially and the ability to change and push settings across multiple systems easily versus making the changes 1 system at a time.

UEFI BIOS is another new feature for the Gen9 hardware. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is the extension of EFI firmware that Intel originally developed for Itanium processors back in the 90’s.  UEFI replace EFI and is a standard for low-level software between the OS and the hardware. It is meant to replace BIOS, which has limitations.  UEFI is programmable, allowing OEM’s like HP to put additional software in this low-level operating system.  UEFI allows HP to implement a new Secure Boot technology, though the specifics weren’t fully disclosed.

Intelligent Provisioning 2.0 will debut in the Gen9 hardware and will feature acceleration features aimed to get the server deployed and running a workload in less time and with less clicks.  One of the tidbits I heard from the StoreVirtual team is that the new Intelligent Provisioning 2.0 will include the ability to deploy a StoreVirtual VSA easily.  Intelligent Provisioning will go out and retrieve the latest version of the StoreVirtual VSA and deploy it onto the hardware with minimal interaction required.  In addition, HP has been giving away free 1TB StoreVirtual VSA licenses with new server purchases all throughout the Gen8 line and is likely to continue [I did not confirm], making this a free and easy SAN to deploy.

In terms of workload acceleration, HP has extended support for 12 Gb/s SAS Expander cards and 12 Gb/s Smart Array Controllers and 12 GB/s SSD Drives.  PCIe Workload Accelerators and HP SmartCache deliver additional performance bumps.  HP says that the 12Gb/s SSDs and SmartCache will deliver 4x performance improvement.

The ProLiant Gen9 systems continue the same industrial design as the Gen8 servers, according to the systems that were shown during the webcast, with the silver and black metal bezels.

Although a lot of discussion about compute, there was absolutely no word on the processors inside of the Gen9 servers.  HP did not disclose a time frame for the ProLiant Gen9 hardware to ship, either, but it did mention that the following systems would be the first to ship:

HP BladeSystem

  • HP ProLiant BL460c Gen9

Rack and tower servers

  • HP ProLiant DL160 Gen9
  • HP ProLiant DL180 Gen9
  • HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9
  • HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9
  • HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9

Solid Heritage

The ProLiant Gen9 builds on a solid platform of the ProLiant Gen8.  The last new ProLiant was introduced earlier this year, the DL580 Gen8, which brought the Gen8 features to the biggest x86 rack-mount server that HP offers.  The DL580 Gen8 also features the UEFI BIOS.

ProLiant Gen8 was announced back in March of 2012 and brought a lot of features directly aimed at easing administrator’s problems.  The Gen8 models introduced the iLO4 management processor, HP SmartMemory and SmartDrives.  iLO4 was a big step forward, moving monitoring capabilities that had been running inside of the system’s operating system into the management processor and removing the needs for hardware monitoring agents inside of the OS.  iLO4 also improved on the KVM and IP management experience for administrators.  At the same time, HP announced Insight Online, a system health portal that the iLO4 could report into that was hosted with HP.  In addition to automatically creating cases for hardware issues, the portal also collected system information and would allow HP to identify common problems across customers and address those based on the analytics from data submitted.

SmartMemory and SmartDrives were both innovations that were direct responses to customer requests.  SmartMemory provided proactive failure reporting for RAM and attempted to alleviate common memory failures.  SmartDrives added an indicator to the drive to show whether it was safe to pull the drive or not.  It had an illuminated warning light if the drive was in use and unsafe to remove.  From an administrator’s standpoint, that was a great innovation because pulling a mirrored drive is a common fail-back mechanism in the datacenter, but pulling the wrong drive or the right drive at the wrong time can lead to a system crash.

ProLiant Gen8 also brought location awareness to the platform.  Combined with smart racks, the server could identify back to HP management software where it was positioned in the datacenter and through the combination of the Sea of Sensors, HP’s software could help to identify hot spots and problems in the datacenter environment.  The new blue power adapters, indicated the Location Discovery Services capability of the hardware.   The feature was rolled out incrementally across the rack and blade servers in the Gen8 line.

Good Timing

The new generation of ProLiant is positioned at a great time in the industry.  An IDC report this week indicates that server sales may have turned the corner and showed 2.5 percent growth versus the previous year.  HP was still on top with over 25% of the revenue share.

Of all the servers that I have ever administered, HP ProLiant is my first choice.  iLO adds tremendous value to me as an administrator.  The Gen8 additions of drive indicators, pre-fail warnings, agentless hardware management have been time saving and welcome addtions as my server farms and responsibilities have grown.  The Support Pack for ProLiant and integrated testing of OS agents, drivers and firmware has brought a higher level of stability to the hardware platforms.  The addition of Intelligent Provisioning and on-the-board deployment services saved the time of having to download and burn and ISO for SmartStart to ease system deployment.  And ProLiant Gen9 extends upon that with easier Intelligent Provisioning features, iLO Federation and general performance improvements.  I’ll be excited when our first model rolls in…

More information is available at hp.com/go/compute and inside the official Press Kit at hp.com.

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ComputeDatacenterHome Lab

Review: HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8 has big biz features in a small biz box

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

ReviewMicroserver

Its been two months since my HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8 arrived and I’ve had an opportunity to run it in a couple different configurations.  Out of the box, Windows Server Essentials 2012 came pre-installed on my eval unit and on first boot, configuration kicked off to setup and configure an Active Directory domain and setup all the basics of a small office deployment.

Procs & RAM

First, I am really glad that HP chose to move to Intel processors for the Gen8 model of the MicroServer.  Their AMD processors in the G7 model was probably the only reason that I did not purchase one of those units before.  For some reason, I along with many other administrators just have a disposition towards Intel processors instead of AMD.  When speaking with Shad Madina, Group Manager for Portfolio Planning and Solutions at HP, he also shared that HP found the AMD processors to be a sticking point with domestic buyers, although the AMD processors seemed to be well accepted in Europe.

The processors in the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 are more along the lines of desktop processors rather than the normal Xeon processors normally found in servers.  The lower end server features Intel Celeron processors and the higher end Gen8 model features a Pentium processor.  Both models feature dual core models but unfortunately there is not even an option for a quad-core model at this time.  As I covered earlier, the Gen8 model raises the RAM limit to 16GB which helps to accommodate a wider range of opportunities in the market, including small virtualization farms.

Hide and go RAID

I knew from the spec sheets that the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 included a SATA RAID controller in the unit, however, during boot and the initial OS load, I noticed that it did not mention anything about Smart Array or offer a management interface to access and provision RAID sets like the larger Proliants do.  This is simply because the embedded SATA controller is turned on by default and the RAID SATA controller is not enabled.  A quick trip through the BIOS turned up the option to enable the Dynamic SATA controller and after a reboot and POST, I was able to login to Intelligent Provisioning and create RAID sets from the drives I had installed.

When I spoke with Madina, he was quick to point out that HP purposefully decided when designing the MicroServer to have a different set of trade-offs than were normal.  The normal trade-offs were basic functionality, like RAID, cut for the sake of saving money.  With the MicroServer, one of the trade-offs is the lack of hot-swappable hard drives and bays. This is a bit of a bummer but its a small price to pay when HP didn’t want to compromise other basic necessities.

Noise, or lack thereof

HP touts the quietness of the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 saying that it is quieter than a laptop.  This is certainly the case.  Today, when I walked into my office, I actually had to check and ensure that it was on and running because I could not hear any noise coming from the unit.  Now, this is after the MicroServer has been on and settled down.  At boot, like its big-brothers, the Proliant MicroServer sound like a jet ready for take off – but after POST completes and the system begins booting, things quiet down to a negligible level.

My first week with the MicroServer was a slightly different story, however.  When I first received the unit and powered it up, I thought it was fairly noisy, especially for someone touted to be under 20db of noise.  But, my first week’s experience was a fluke of some kind – because once I shut it down to explore inside and then booted it again, the noisiness was nowhere to be found.

I will go on to say, that after testing the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 and comparing it with my home-built server, I prefer the MicroServer hand-down and big reason is how much quieter this unit is than my server.

Virtualization friendly

After a month of exploring the MicroServer while running Windows Server Essentials 2012, I reinstalled the server to run ESXi and this is how I plan to keep the system running in the future.  The demo unit I received came with the maximum 16GB of RAM loaded.  This is a very welcome configuration for running a lab ESXi install.  I was able to install the HP OEM version of ESXi onto the MicroServer which included additional agents inside the OS.

ESXi installs flawlessly onto the MicroServer Gen8.  There were no special drivers or hoops to jump through to make it work on this hardware.

Even though the MicroServer Gen8 received a RAM limit boot, I wish still it had gone higher or that it accepted 4 x 8GB DIMM instead of two.  32GB of RAM and even better 64GB would greatly broaden the virtualization use cases for many customers.  Still, 16GB is sufficient for many test and lab environments to be able to test many solutions.

Remote Management, sort-of

One of the nice surprises in the unit is the inclusion of a full iLO4 chip on the motherboard.  This replaces the optional remote management card which came with the G7 models of MicroServer.  The iLO4 is much more capable and potentially useful than the previous remote management cards, however the one let-down was the unit comes with iLO Standard only, which does not support virtual media and remote console, except during boot.  To get the additional features, an iLO Essentials or iLO Advanced license is needed.

HP has introduced iLO Essentials licensing and targets it directly at SMB users who want remote management.  iLO Essentials license includes fully functional remote console, virtual media and email alerts for $129. Its a small tax to get basic remote management functionality and its better than the requirement to purchase iLO Advanced license for $299, since most small businesses would not use the additional features that iLO Advanced brings.  iLO Advanced brings features like recording remote console sessions, authentication from directory services, multi-user remote console (for collaboration) and advanced alerting options. (For a full comparison of licensing levels and features included, see this PDF from HP).

iLO Standard is not useless, however.  There is a lot that iLO does with no additional license — agent-less hardware management, remote support, remote power buttons, and the embedded health systems.  The onboard system integrates with HP’s Insight Online service to allow administrators to manage and view all their systems and health through a central portal for free.

But, I will say I expected remote console and virtual media to be included, so it was let-down here.  However, here is a pro-tip for you – make sure to check secondary markets (eBay) for these licenses.  It may be possible to pickup iLO Advanced license for less than you can buy the iLO Essentials license.

PS1810-8G Switch

I am really happy with the PS1810-8G switch.  I like the way that it compliments the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 and its space saving for my home lab.  8 ports accommodates three home servers easily and allows for some room to grow.  The VLAN support helps partition traffic among my servers so that I can segment video traffic away from web and management traffic and then keep my normal browsing, Netflix and home operations separate from my lab environment.

Pricing

Pricing for the Proliant MicroServer Gen8 starts at just $449 with an Intel Celeron G1610T processor and 2GB of RAM.  The higher end server is priced at $529 and comes with an Intel Pentium G2020T processor and 2GB of RAM.  Bundles are available with the PS1810-8G switch and are priced at $634 and $714 respectively directly from HP.

Verdict

I would score the HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8 a solid 8.5 out of 10.  On the plus side, it is quiet, power-efficient and well suited for out-of-datacenter uses that most  businesses have.  I think there are so many remote-office and branch-office uses for the server beyond just the small and medium business markets.

On the downsides, I wish the processors were quad-core instead of dual-core.  I also wish the RAM could be expanded beyond 16GB.  But the downsides really stop there.  Dual gigabit NICs are very capable and if you required more, there is a PCI expansion slot that could accommodate up to an additional 4 ports.  The PCI slot could also be used for HBA or other peripherals as required.

The pricing of the systems also puts this in a sweet spot for many small businesses who don’t have dedicated IT budgets.  I’ve worked with a lot of small business and for entry level servers, its a hard sell with a $1,200 to $1,500 server.  The MicroServer represents a very compelling additional option for a lot of use cases.

I’m very impressed with the system overall.  I think its a fantastic choice for a lot of small business and remote office use cases.  I’m impressed enough that I plan to buy a second unit for home to use as a lab system in the near future.  I’ll discuss why I’d choose this over a whitebox build in a later post another day.

Now, go win one…

Its your turn now to win a bundle just like my eval bundle for your home or small office or your remote office needs.  Its very easy to win – just head over to our Giveaway page for all the details on the contest and you could be a winner.  And keep in mind, there are two other bloggers giving away the same bundle the same time as Techazine – make sure to go and enter there too.

Disclaimer: HP provided me with both the HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8 and the HP PS1810-8G for review at no charge.  The opinions and views of the hardware written here are entirely my own and HP had no say in what I choose to write.  The hardware came with no strings attached.    

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ComputeDatacenterNetworking

HP’s PS1810-8G is a perfect compliment to the MicroServer

by Philip Sellers
written by Philip Sellers

ReviewMicroserver

c03738934

When I unboxed my MicroServer several weeks ago, I was surprised to find an unexpected second box inside.  The surprise turns out to be an HP PS1810 8-port gigabit switch to compliment my Proliant MicroServer. The PS1810-8G is specifically manufactured to sit perfectly on top of the Proliant MicroServer Gen8.  Its the epitome of “made for each other.”  Its kind of like butter and popcorn.

c03738899

But don’t mistake this as style over substance – the PS1810-8G is a very capable switch in its own right.  With 16Gbps of throughout, this unit features 8 RJ45 Gigabit copper Ethernet ports.   It is web managed and supports VLANs, link aggregation trunking, Spanning Tree (STP), flow control and can be optionally powered by an upstream PoE switch.  The wide feature set ensures that the switch can be used as part of a growing infrastructure or fit into an existing infrastructure seamlessly.  While many small businesses rely on unmanaged switches for their needs, there is an increasing need for advanced features as systems converge.

The PS1810-8G also includes a number of green features, including Energy Efficient Ethernet settings.  Administrators can configure low-power idle on ports, auto port power down and cable length detection all to save power.  It can be configured to turn off LED lights on ports based on a specific schedule. All of these features are intended to save power, but I’m not sure how much impact it really makes over the course of a year.

Based out of the 3COM lineage, the PS1810-8G uses a web management interface which is intuitive and easy to use.  The web management interface makes a lot of sense for a small business who probably has very little in-house networking expertise, but the PS1810-8G will provide any IT pro with the necessary features to get the job done.  The PS1810-8G switch also includes an automatic Proliant discovery interface which senses and registers Proliant servers onto a page so that the admin can quick-launch into the iLO interface.  This provides the end-user and end-administrator with a quick management interface to see all the Proliants connected – not just MicroServers.   While the discovery is nifty, its not a very deep integration at this point, but it does show potential. In addition to the Proliant server discovery, the switch also features Link Layer Discover Protocol (LLDP).  This discovered my third party remote management interface on a whitebox server.

In terms of security, by default, management is only enabled for HTTP and not HTTPS.  Options are available within the switch to upload a custom certificate or generate a self-signed certificate and enable HTTPS.  There is also only a single password for the switch and it is not a username and password combination – just a single password.

All in all, this is a solid home office or small office switch.  8 ports will accommodate a number of offices and use cases.  The switch comes with many of the necessary enterprise features that would come in handy in a small office.  Priced at $185 direct from HP and generally available for around $160 elsewhere, the PS1810-8G is an affordable managed switch option.

Screenshot gallery

Disclaimer: HP provided me with both the HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8 and the HP PS1810-8G for review at no charge.  The opinions and views of the hardware written here are entirely my own and HP had no say in what I choose to write.  The hardware came with no strings attached.    

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