back to article HP busts out new ProLiant Gen9 servers

Hewlett-Packard has announced the first in a series of new Gen9 servers, racks and blades it reckons turn HP’s existing designs on their head. The world’s largest server maker unveiled the successor to its Gen8 range on Thursday, promising faster provisioning of virtual machines, quicker throughput, and reduced power …

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  1. GitMeMyShootinIrons
    Happy

    Am I getting old?

    I remember when Proliants were beige, weighed a ton and had a Compaq badge - and had the hot swap SCSI hard disks with the pair of claret colour catches that kind of butterfly out from the center. Ah, the good old days...

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Am I getting old?

      In a word, yep. Those big beige things went of production in 2006. I was there.

      "Proliant" is actually the catchall name of their "everyday" server products from the small dept server that is just a beefed up desktop PC to giant rack suckers that can measure 5u and have a petabyte of onboard HDD space and 64gb of RAM to blade servers the size of a dorm room refrigerator that go into even bigger racks.

      Google HP Proliant and select images. I've built, tested and shipped damn near everything you see there.

      1. dan1980

        Re: Am I getting old?

        Would you believe I still have one of those in production? (Nothing critical or customer-facing.)

    2. RobTub

      Re: Am I getting old?

      Hey, you just pushed me into the stone age. I was there even before Digital developed the Alpha chip. I was there buying and using Alpha servers, then after DEC was swallowed by Compaq, I took to buying and using Proliants. But the Proliants then were less reliable than the DEC's servers, or it seemed to me then. Yea, the good old days...

      1. dan1980

        Re: Am I getting old?

        Yeah, I had DECs running my voicemail system. That was a dog. I usually look back at the 'good old days' with fond memories; I choose not to look that far back when reminiscing.

        That said, the ProLiants peaked with the G5s - that's the last time I received a PL and actually said 'wow' out loud.

    3. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: Am I getting old?

      Rackmount Proliant 5000 - now there was a server that let you know if you'd dropped it on your foot.

      They don't make them like that any more.

      1. Smoking Gun

        Re: Am I getting old?

        I know a few NHS customers with a few of those remaining. No kidding.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Am I getting old?

        When the bullets fly around here (happens), I'm hiding behind my HP server. As for age, well I still remember how to quickly/properly coil paper-tape and sort punch-cards.

  2. Peter2 Silver badge

    Hmm.

    I was about to put in an order for a 380 in tomorrow to replace a pair of aging 2003 servers. Suddenly I feel a strong inclination to wait.

    When are these actually available to order? They might have been announced, but even HP's website doesn't offer them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Judging by the previous launches, even after release, it could be a while before your local HP partner stocks them. I would recommend buying the Gen8s as they will be cheaper around the time of this launch, and the performance gains are marginal. Even the iLO is just a re-branded iLO4. All the marketing stuff about DDR4 is way way into the future of Gen9s, and will cost a leg. If you want the flashy interface and plan on taking advantage of DDR4 a few years down the line then go for Gen9. Otherwise stick with Gen8.

      1. Smoking Gun

        I would also wait 6 months for HP to fix all the intelligent provisioning stuff which didn't work or was buggy as hell on Gen8 for a long time.

    2. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Intel are launching their new processors (Broadwell?) next month. I don't expect to see these new HPs until after that.

    3. dan1980

      One thing I have found over the years is that, while you should keep your 'finger on the pulse', you shouldn't let release cycles rule your deployment strategies.

      Some releases really are a big deal, such as the introduction of a completely new CPU architecture but when it comes down to it, there is always new hardware on the horizon so sometimes you've got to just put your fingers in your ears and get on with it.

      Unless you're working on a huge deployment then you're better off working to time and budget rather than putting off a project until a new line comes in. (Noting that release dates and actual general availability can be quite different!)

  3. David Austin

    Has anyone got experience off HP's equivalent of Dell ProSupport in terms of SMB? IE: What's it called, and is it as good?

    I find the standard HP support not as good as Dell's: end up spending too long on the phone to reception logging the call, then 1st line who can't help with the more complex issues. Had dispatch send out incorrect or broken parts more than a few times, too.

    Loved HP Gen8 series, so happy to give Gen9 a stab, especially if there's better support available. It'll be fun to this and Dell's PowerEdge x30 series go head to head over the next few months.

    1. Peter2 Silver badge

      Having dealt with both Dell and HP, I prefer HP.

      When your ordering huge quantities you'll find that both send DOA stuff on occasion and both occasionally totally cock up orders. That said, HP wins IMO because their support is in Scotland instead of in India.

      I can forgive much for having problems resolved quickly and efficiently with a minimum of miscommunication. That and for not having to feel a need to throw myself out of a window in the middle of a call to end the torment of speaking to an Indian call centre.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "That said, HP wins IMO because their support is in Scotland instead of in India."

        Why the preference of Scotistan over India? They are both horrible accents...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          The Scottish accent has been found to be most trustworthy in testing (Edinburgh specifically). Also in the same market testing it was found that generally people who thought they were speaking to India were actually speaking to an unqualified minimum wager in Birmingham. Those who thought they were speaking to an English person were generally speaking to the highly qualified well paid (locally) English degree holder in India.

          The Welsh and the Geordies are considered friendly accents but not necessarily trustworthy, so when you ask for a manager you'll get Scottish I believe regardless of the locality of the call centre.

          Did you really think this stuff hadn't been studied in detail to take advantage? If Tesco can pipe in the smell of a roasting joint and fresh bread...

    2. Crazy Operations Guy

      File a ticket through the warranty checker, rather than calling them up. I've had HP send me a replacement switch next-day by filing a ticket through there (It was a used switch I bought off of eBay and they still honored the Warranty). All I own from HP now is just a pair of ProCurve switches and DL 320 G5.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Phone?!

      "end up spending too long on the phone to reception logging the call, then 1st line who can't help with the more complex issues."

      If you're calling in issues then generally either you've set up the servers wrong or it's not a hardware issue. HP And Dell both have self reporting systems now so if any hardware thinks it might be about to break, or has broken then a new part will arrive as you read the email about the incident being logged.

      Of course, there are firmware and driver issues as well, but the real question there isn't "what's the support like?" but rather "who writes better code?". In the case of firmware stability, the answer is generally "not IBM!"

      1. Macka

        Re: Phone?!

        "If you're calling in issues then generally either you've set up the servers wrong or it's not a hardware issue"

        Or your servers are in a firewalled subnet that doesn't have direct access to the internet.

        1. Lusty

          Re: Phone?!

          The messages don't go out of the LAN interface, they go out of the non fire walled management interface, iLO or Drac for instance.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      We're pretty small, ~50 peeps and ~20 production HP boxen.

      The support has always been pretty good for us, clear communication and it's always been the right part.

    5. M. B.

      I think...

      ...it depends on where you are located. As a customer of Dell, IBM, and HP, my preference was to deal with Dell ProSupport above the other two. I never got someone in a "faraway land" and issues were always resolved quickly and with less hassle. HP was easily second so long as you got a decent level one tech with a... less noticeable accent. IBM was always a gong show (how many times do I need to speak to fulfillment on a single issue?), no matter who you were speaking with.

      As a partner who leads with HP and provides the break-fix in our geographic location, I can tell you our customers first level experience results in regular complaints to our account managers but second level and on-site guys are easily meeting the SLA requirements and doing a good job overall.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hi Ref to the support and hanging on the line etc. You can register a warranty call online with HP, which is much quicker and can be tracked through to closure, this can also include the ordering of spare parts etc.

      You need to self register for the online web based system, it takes 10 mins and no more phone calls. The Online system is called the ITRC system. Here is the link..

      http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public?ac.admitted=1413297855180.876444892.199480143

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "turned XXX on their head"

    Just because you are covering someone from last decade, doesn't mean you've to use a cliche from the last decade!

  5. wx666z

    release schedule?

    "first in four waves of a Gen9 launch between September and June 2014." Neat trick, will Doctor Who be involved?

  6. Nate Amsden

    request to HP

    hire Jordan Carver to help market those new racks.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Renaming ML & DL 3x0e boxes to 1x0 boxes

    Oh you mean like they did for the G7 and all the previous generations.

    Prior to Gen8s the entry level systems were all 100 series and the 300 series were the fully fledged ProLiants. So they're just rewinding the clock back. Except of course marketing people can never do that so they have to present this U turn and a new way forward.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. dan1980

      Re: Renaming ML & DL 3x0e boxes to 1x0 boxes

      @AC

      The difference is that the current 360/380e models are very similar to the 'p' models.

      The old 100 range was actually different in ways other than CPU/RAM specs so it will be interesting to see how they differentiate them this time.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Renaming ML & DL 3x0e boxes to 1x0 boxes

        An ML310e is an ML110 by anyone's reckoning.

        The 1xx series G7's were much closer to the 3xx boxes as they got the full iLO3.

  8. handle

    "three times the response times"

    Doesn't sound very good to me.

  9. ecofeco Silver badge

    "The existing DL 360e and 380e are also being rebranded as the 160 and 180, HP said, in order to give HP a better shot at low-priced “value” competitors.".

    Oh bullocks. It's just meant to confuse buyers. These are some pretty decent price to performance small-to-mid range rack servers. If they aren't selling, there is a reason for that.

    1. dan1980

      Yes and no.

      The 'e' and 'p' models are currently very similar machines so I think they are looking to differential them further than they already are.

  10. lyonsy

    the best thing about the proliants was doing the course and getting the compaq screwdriver (black with white top and bits in it)

    still got it and its going strong :)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great Step Forward

    Seriously sounds awesome. HP's DNA of server design is second to none. Too many "naysayers" throw about the "commodity server" tag line far too often.

    Gen8 was a good improvement over G7 and below, but with Intel Haswell (up to 18c) and DDR4 memory bandwidth, performance will be awesome, not to mention VM density. Introduction of dual boot ESXi, M.2 cards and great management applications like OneView.

    I understand HP's need to change directions at the lower end of the market against DELL and even Cisco to compete on price. I've had coworkers suggest buying DELL and they do, but when they arrive find out they they omitted things like storage controllers to win on price against HP. Not very ethical. and don't get me started on DOA units from them, there is a reason they de-listed from the stock market.

    Virtual Connect technology for BladeSystem increasing to 20gb and 40gb uplinks is pretty cool as well. "How long does it take to evacuate an ESX box now?" All in the same c7000 enclosure.. only vendor on the planet who hasnt had to refresh their blade enclosures to support new generations. Great technology designed the right way from the very beginning.

    All in all great first step HP, cant wait to see what else will come out in the next 6 months.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Great Step Forward

      Dual boot ESXi?

      You're doing it wrong.

  12. MyHandle256

    Dells support is in Scotland too

    Just to correct the comment above, its only if you take out Dells lowest level of basic warranty that you'll end up in India. The naming convention is screwed up though - Theres Basic warranty, handled in India, and Basic Pro Support, handled in either Glasgow or Dublin. Theres a big difference - India will only deal with failed hardware in the individual box, Pro will deal with the project. India sort you with replacement parts, Pro will sort performance problems with iSCSI offload when using NPAR across your VMware cluster.

    Anyway, this has got bugger all to do with the shiny new Proliants, so as you were......

  13. Jay108

    Oddly enough there has been positive mention of the Gen8 series. They managed to revise part of the hardware/software that dealt with the *shudder* onboard RAID *shudder* which was a major gripe. The p and e series are practically the same, on our resell list at least ML350p = onboard P420i and ML350e = onboard B120i. The B120i is not really for RAID, only direct passthrough is recommended but RAID can be enabled.

    Their support options have generally better now that they have stopped threatening their resellers for upgrading a client's firmware and a whole host of other threats about "first party support".

    If the new Gen9 lives up to expectations then hopefully HP management won't then screw it up by bad decision making or lack of foresight. That is a might big quandary though based on their previous decision making record.

  14. Kelli

    If you have an hour to kill, here they explain new features:

    http://hpbroadband.com/mp.aspx?key=HPServerTV

  15. Alistair
    Coat

    Gen9 servers on the table now

    Apparently if you're large enough and are looking at the right project - just did a meeting about a gen9 based IaaS cabinet or three......

    And the specs on the hardware look *very* nice. FYI = KVM is supported in OO.

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