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Proliant Server

HP releases BIOS PowerShell cmdlets

by Philip Sellers July 20, 2015

written by Philip Sellers

HP 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:

Microsoft .Net Framework 4 or Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5
Windows Management Framework 3.0 or Windows Management Framework 4.0
For WinPE, Windows Assessment and Development Kit is needed.

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.

July 20, 2015 1 comment

Compute Datacenter Storage

Installing Windows 2012 R2 on ProLiant DL380 G7 without SmartStart

by Philip Sellers April 22, 2015

written by Philip Sellers

Since HP SmartStart CD went the way of the dodo bird before Windows 2012 R2 was released, HP ProLiants older than a Gen8 require administrators to manually install Windows 2012 R2. On ProLiant Gen8 and higher, you have Intelligent Provisioning – the replacement for SmartStart – embedded on the system, but this isn’t available on G7, so the user needs to manually install Windows according to the “Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2012” technical whitepaper.

error

In the case of the HP ProLiant DL380 G7, the normal Windows installation doesn’t recognize the P410i storage controller during installation and it fails with the strange “We can’t create a new partition or locate an existing one.” Searching forums, you find several solutions suggesting boot order or removable mdia like USB or SD storage causes the problem in many cases, but for the DL380 G7, however to get past this on my servers, I needed to download the storage controller driver and add it during installation.

You will need a USB drive where you can load the drivers during Windows installation.

The steps to do this and successfully install Windows 2012 R2 are below:

Browse out to hp.com and go to the Drivers & Software download section or directly to http://www8.hp.com/us/en/drivers.html.

Search for the DL380 G7 in the search and click on the link for the server displayed after search.
Select Windows 2012 R2 as the operating system dropdown.
Navigate to Storage Controller and download the latest “HP ProLiant Smart Array SAS/SATA Controller Driver for Windows Server 2012 x64 Edition.” If you use this link, make sure to check revision history to ensure this is the latest available.

Click the Download button and then run the .exe file. Use the Extract button to copy all the files onto a USB stick.
Boot the system and begin Windows 2012 R2 installation from CD or from ISO connected via remote console on the iLO.
Click the Install Windows.

Custom Installation.
Storage window – choose Have Disk. Make sure USB is plugged in on the server.
Choose the HP driver

Click next and the installation will now continue instead of giving the error.

April 22, 2015 12 comments

Compute Datacenter

Adjusting UEFI boot order on ProLiant DL580 Gen8

by Philip Sellers February 12, 2015

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.

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.

February 12, 2015 1 comment

Compute Datacenter

ProLiant servers getting RESTful API for management

by Philip Sellers December 3, 2014

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.

December 3, 2014 0 comments

Compute Datacenter Virtualization

Stick to the recipe to keep ESXi on HP hardware cooking

by Philip Sellers November 6, 2014

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

November 6, 2014 2 comments

Compute Datacenter Storage Virtualization

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

by Philip Sellers September 15, 2014

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.

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.

September 15, 2014 1 comment

Compute Datacenter

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

by Philip Sellers August 28, 2014

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.

August 28, 2014 0 comments

Compute Datacenter Storage Virtualization

Patching HP customized ESXi installs with latest agents and drivers

by Philip Sellers April 22, 2014

written by Philip Sellers

If you’re running ESXi deployed from custom HP ESXi installation images but you’re not patching the HP utilities inside with each ESXi update, you may be setting yourself up for trouble in the future. And simply pointing to the VMware repositories won’t update these custom tools — you also have to point towards the HP vibs repository to get all of the latest updates. So, lets look at how to do that…

Updates & Patching for ESXi

VMware has done a good job of providing administrators ways to keep their ESXi deployments up to date – both with offline bundles and with VMware Update Manager for patching the ESXi systems. Either method is pretty simple and HP leverages these same tools for its custom vibs.

For HP, administrators should point to http://vibsdepot.hp.com for the latest and most up to date information about the correct recipe of VMware and HP tools and driver versions. This is also the repository for automated updates that can be plugged directly into VMware Update Manager – or can be manually downloaded and loaded into Update Manager or used as offline bundles.

Why not just deploy VMware’s default ESXi?

Some administrators adopted the HP customized ESXi image early and others have held out until the latest ProLiant Gen8 hardware was released. The latest ProLiants need storage and network controller drivers included in the customized HP ESXi image to successfully deploy ESXi on Gen8. So now, a growing community has deployed additional HP utilities into their ESXi as well. In my own experience, that’s not been an issue, however I did hit a problem a couple months back where excessive logging from one HP tool filled up my ESXi RAMdisk. Filling the RAMdisk made the system unmanageable even though the VM’s continued to operate on the host. So like any other software, you need to patch those drivers, tools and utilities from HP if they’re present in your ESXi.

Patching options for HP customized deployments

As mentioned earlier, the HP updates are deployed using the same VMware provided tools as all other ESXi patches. Administrators can use VMware Update Manager for a more automated deployment, ESXCLI for command line or scripted installations or they can use Image Builder tools to package the HP vibs into images that they are creating for deployment. Since I’m primarily focusing on patching, Update Manager and ESXCLI would be our two go-to tools.

Update Manager Repository

For Update Manager, the easiest way to get the HP updates into Update Manager and onto hosts is to point to a new repository in the Update Manager tool. Adding an additional repository in Update Manager must be done through the Configuration tab of the Update Manager settings using the traditional Windows vSphere Client. It doesn’t appear to be configurable in the vSphere Web Client.

Navigate to Solutions and Applications and choose Update Manager.
On the Configuration tab, under Settings, click Download Settings.
In the Download Sources pane, select Direct connection to Internet.

Click Add Download Source.
In the Add Download Source window, type the new download source URL. For the HP repository, the URL will be http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/<release date>/index.xml.
Tip: You may navigate to http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/ to see a directory list of all the release dates.
Click Validate URL to verify that the URL is accessible.

Click OK and then Apply.

Once you have setup the custom repository, click Download and let those updates be imported into Update Manager. Once imported, rescan your hosts and now the HP customized tools will also be remediated during patching.

Update Manager Manual Import

Alternatively, you can download the individual zip files of the updates from the http://vibsdepot.hp.com website and import the individual updates into your local Update Manager library. Once imported, make sure these updates are included in a baseline and attached to a host and rescan the host. The new patches will show up and you’ll be able to remediate the hosts with these patches.

ESXCLI

For users who want to script, who want or need to use ESXCLI, one additional line will pull down and deploy the updates from an HP release to your ESX hosts:

[code]esxcli software vib install -d http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/<release date>/index.xml[/code]

Just replace the <release date> in the URL with a correct release date to point to an active repository.

Limited Time Only

With both Update Manager and ESXCLI, keep in mind that you’ve configured and/or remediated against a single, point-in-time HP repository, so you will also need to add new repositories as the patches change and new updates are released from HP. You may navigate to http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/ to see a directory list of all the release dates. Configuring against a single release is the recommended HP method to ensure you get the correct patches according to the recipe for your ESXi patch level.

Recipes

HP also releases a list of recipes for which version of tools and drivers work with which version of ESXi and its patch levels. These recipes give administrators additional validation that the tools loaded have been tested with the ESXi patch level and everything should run correctly together. The recipes are available on the same site with the patches and downloads at http://vibsdepot.hp.com. The PDF recipes highlight more than just the software aspect of the ESXi and HP tool integration – it also highlights the firmware levels desired by ProLiant make and model to ensure that everything has been tested together.

April 22, 2014 3 comments

Compute Datacenter Storage

HP bundling StoreVirtual VSA with new ProLiant purchases

by Philip Sellers December 6, 2013

written by Philip Sellers

HP is bringing software defined storage to the masses by bundling the StoreVirtual VSA (virtual storage appliance) with the purchase of new ProLiant hardware. The new offer, announced November 12, is available with 10 models of ProLiant and includes a 1TB entitlement for StoreVirtual VSA. That license can be combined on up to 3 nodes for a total capacity of 3TB of total storage in a free software SAN. And although the license is limited to 3 nodes within the StoreVirtual cluster, the storage can be made accessible to any connected servers in the site.

The new offer is attractive for small office or enterprise remote office deployments where typically only a few servers are deployed. HP is targeting the SMB market with the new offer in an attempt to gain market for the StoreVirtual software defined storage line of products according to Dale Degen, category manager for Software Defined Storage at HP.

“I’m pretty excited because this will expand the scope of who has been exposed to this concept,” Degen said during a call this week.

Chock full of features

The free 1TB licenses are no gimmick. The licenses include the full package of StoreVirtual capabilities, excluding Adaptive Optimization. Those capabilities include large enterprise features like asynchronous replication, snapshots, thin provisioning, network RAID and storage clustering. The only thing not included with the 1TB license is HP’s Adaptive Optimization feature for sub-LUN tiering and support. Users who want support for the StoreVirtual can upgrade to a retail copy of StoreVirtual, with pricing beginning at $3,000 list for 3 nodes of 4TB each and includes 3 years of support. Although the free licenses are limited to 3 node clusters, customers are free to create multiple clusters and the StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console manages multiple storage clusters easily, which is a great benefit to larger companies who may have StoreVirtual storage at both primary and remote sites.

The free licenses are easy to obtain, according to Degen. Any of the eligable ProLiant servers shipping after November 1 include a sticker with a key that can be used to unlock the license from the HP website. Customers can take their keys and and fulfill the request, download the VSA software package and retrieve the licenses.

From personal experience, the deployment process of the StoreVirtual VSA is very easy. Users can obtain the ‘Zero to VSA’ toolkit, as Degen called it, from the HP website which offers a streamlined deployment process for the VSA. In my lab environment, the manual deployment steps took about 10 minutes – mostly pointing the wizard to your vSphere or Hyper-V environment and then letting it push out the appliance. Deegan also said that the Zero to VSA toolkit includes a CLI environment which could let power users automate the deployment in enterprise environments.

SMB users: what is StoreVirtual and what’s a VSA?

Many SMB users may not have heard of HP StoreVirtual and may be wondering what it is all about. At a high level, StoreVirtual takes the local storage inside of a server and uses software to pool the storage and offering it up as an iSCSI based SAN. Multiple servers deployed with StoreVirtual also pool together and replicate among each other to create a RAIN (redundant array of independent nodes) configuration. Like RAID, RAIN is the concept of stripes or mirrors for the data between nodes. StoreVirtual is a software-only solution, although HP also sells hardware solutions created around StoreVirtual software. Originally created by Lefthand Networks, the StoreVirtual continues to run the Lefthand OS on bare metal installs and inside of the VSA or virtual storage appliance. Lefthand OS, formerly known as SAN/iQ, is currently at verison 11 and is a very mature product in a market full of new solutions.

StoreVirtual’s feature set is also on par with much larger enterprise storage platforms, but by utilizing existing storage or servers, it offers a much lower price point for many customers looking for SAN storage. Virtualization and particuarlly vSphere have pushed many SMB users to look towards SAN solutions to accommodate virtual workloads and provide highly available storage.

The VSA (virtual storage appliance) concept is an outgrowth of the Lefthand OS within a virtual machine. Like installing Lefthand OS on bare metal hardware, the VSA uses onboard, local storage under the ESXi or Hyper-V hypervisor and creates pools on this storage so that it can be served up for any number of uses on the network, but many times that use case is to store virtual machines. While the VSA can present storage back to its local virtual host machines, it can also be used by any other server or virtual host with connectivity to its SAN network.

Sounds great, how to I get it?

For all the latest information about the offer, about StoreVirtual VSA and about how to take advantage, go to the HP website at http://hp.com/go/FreeVSA.

December 6, 2013 0 comments

Compute Datacenter Home Lab

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

by Philip Sellers November 17, 2013

written by Philip Sellers

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.

November 17, 2013 61 comments