Assessing the HP Proliant DL120 G6 ...

Myke's 'blob.

Assessing the HP Proliant DL120 G6 Server [Updated] Sun, Jan 16. 2011

Proliant DL120 G6 - Is it on? I don't know.

The new server arrived early on Friday ... I'd basically ordered it on Thursday. Wow. Already off to a decent start; with the Suns it was weeks between first-sales call and final delivery. Being able to buy the server from my favourite local computer store doesn't hurt either. (And they're a customer!)

Some notes, roughly cribbed from our internal Wiki:
  • Arrived with 1x2GB stick of memory - notable because bcrl says these CPUs have really finicky memory controllers that usually want pairs
  • Arrived with 2x500GB 7200.12 consumer-class drives - sure, at $1200 this is a 'cheap' server, but really? Desktop-grade hard-drives?
  • Requires a Torx key, included in a rear-mounted snap-in holder - this will get lost, at the most inopportune time
  • Torx is needed to unlock lid
  • Empty HDD caddies will take drives, Torx bolts are included. Not hotswap. Dell, Oracle, IBM blanks won't take drives.
  • Power LED has almost no differentiation between on & off - at least to my colourblind eyes (green/yellow? I think?) and some fans are always on, which makes determining power-state even more difficult!
  • Rails are cheap, but better than the generic stuff, haven't racked the machine yet, so I don't know how it'll go. Looks to only need a screwdriver if your cabinet is more than 31" deep. (IIRC ours are 36" because we have some super deep machines)
  • Uses less than an amp! At 121VAC, it's maxxed out at 0.9 amperes. Pretttttttty good!

    On now?
    Both images' white balance set to 2600K

    The biggest thing for me is the IPMI/"iLO" system. Basically it's a tiny computer running in the server that's meant for managing and controlling the base hardware. On the Suns, it's fully featured - letting you control power, hit the reset button, connect to the console over the network like you've got a keyboard & LCD jacked right in. They also let you attach a CDROM over the network so you could install an OS or some other random software. Very very very cool stuff. Huge reason we switched to Sun.

    Alas, HP isn't quite so generous. You don't get the RKVM or remote media support with base iLO license - you have to pay up for that! I don't know how much, yet. Pretty much all you get is power control and serial redirection, both of which are important and probably all I'll need for this role.

    I like the machine though. The cable-management is cool, it'll take 4 drives, which is super nice, and it's easy to reroute the cables to the PCIe risers if I find I don't like the on-board SATA controller.

    Just tried memtest86+ over the serial redirection... works well! How often can you copy 'n paste the output of that? :-)

    
       Memtest86+ v2.01      | Pass  6% ##
    
 Intel Core 2527 MHz         | Test 80% ###############################
    
 L1 Cache:   32K 126352 MB/s | Test #3  [Moving inversions, 8 bit pattern]
    
 L2 Cache: Unknown           | Testing:  140K - 2040M 2039M
    
 Memory  : 2039M  33250 MB/s | Pattern:   02020202
    
 Chipset :
    
  WallTime   Cached  RsvdMem   MemMap   Cache  ECC  Test  Pass  Errors ECC Errs
    
  ---------  ------  -------  --------  -----  ---  ----  ----  ------ --------
    
    0:00:41   2039M     265M  e820-Std    on   off   Std     0       0
    
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Motherboard of being photographed?

    Will we buy more? Probably.

    UPDATE Yow! The license to get full RKVM & RVOL is $350... a year?! No thanks. No remote OS reloads going to be happening on this box!
    • Posted by Mike Geiger in Tech Comments: (3) Trackbacks: (0)

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    #1 - hobbs 2011-01-20 11:24 - (Reply)

    Of course, you don't actually have to buy Dell drives, the DRAC works just great and doesn't have a yearly fee, hotswap is prevalent, and Torx is nowhere to be found :-)

    Comment (1)

    #1.1 - Myke said:
    2011-01-20 11:51 - (Reply)

    Every Dell server a client has colo'd in my rack all come with dummy disk trays that cannot have drives installed. At least, all the hotswap ones.

    DRAC does not work well with FreeBSD, I've had enough of those same clients buy the card and let me try, it's not pretty. It CAN be made to work, but it's perfect on the Suns.

    Torx is lame for sure.

    Comment (1)

    #2 - Criggie said:
    2011-05-18 05:42 - (Reply)

    More info - we run five of these for various tasks.

    The coldswap machines come with drive caddies/sleds and screws and cables ready to go. The hotswap variants don't... instead they have bay covers only. ebay and trademe have them though.
    These boxes DO take 2TB drives, tested that.

    The budget ones also lack optical drives in the default build.

    Memory - the default models come with 2GB UDIMMS which are ECC DDR3 ram at 1333 or 1066 MHz. They cannot be mixed with RDIMMs which are registered ECC at 1066 or 800 MHz. Speed slows as number of DIMMs installed increases.

    Another gotcha - the onboard NICs do not support Jumbo frames. Too bad, add a PCIe card as well.

    Comment (1)


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