Hewlett Packard HP Compaq DL-380 Generation 4 (G4) Server Review

Bottom-Line: If you are looking for a robust 2U rack mount server with plenty of storage potential, the HP Compaq DL380 (G4) might very well fit the bill.

The 2U HP Compaq DL-380 Generation 4 (G4) rack-mount server is a traditional chassis design that incorporates (6) Ultra320 hot-swap hard drives into a neat package.  If one of the drives is omitted, a DAT-72 TBU, can be put in it place.  On top of the drive bay cage HP placed the floppy and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives.  One the far right of the chassis you will find the power switch, several LED indicator lights, including status lights for Ethernet activity, as well as power supply status indicators.  All of the Ultra320 SCSI drives come mounted in industrial-strength metal carriers, and the maximum (native) storage is 1.8TB utilizing 6x300GB Ultra320 15,000rpm drives.

Access to the inside of the DL380 (G4) is via an easy to remove to latched access panel.  The internal design of the DL380 (G4), like its larger cousin the ML370, is neat, efficient, and orderly; all pertinent interfaces are mounted on the leading edge of the motherboard right next to the devices they are serving, cutting down considerably on extra cabling.  The hard drives are of course in the front of the unit, with the floppy drive and CD-ROM drives mounted on top for east removal. 

Right behind these drives are (6) hot-swap cooling fans all in a line abreast of each other.  Next on the far left of the chassis sits the Intel E7520 Chipset and associated chips.  To the right of these sit a bank of six DDR2 DIMM sockets; The DL380 (G4) was one of the first enterprise-class servers to ship with the new PC2 memory configuration. 

The DL380 (G4) ships with a pair of DDR2-400 (400MHz) 512MB SDRAM memory modules in a dual channel configuration.  DDR2 memory modules in addition to being noticeably smaller than DDR modules also use lower voltages (1.8 volts vs. 2.5 volts for DDR) and higher clock speeds, which allow for faster throughput.  Lower voltages also translate into less heat.  DDR2 memory utilizes FBGA (fine ball grid array) packaging that allows chip density to be significantly increased.  Currently, HP can ships 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB modules. 

The two Intel EM64T Xeon processors sit immediately aft of the memory banks and of course can be swiftly removed via a large easy-to-use clamp on the side.  Smallish heat sinks cover each process, and an additional two hot-swap cooling fans are fitted in back of each processor to help direct airflow and promote cooling. 

Use

So what does the DL380 (G4) do for our business?  It runs a legacy (non-Microsoft) application for one of our specialty departments.  Since the server is running a non-database application we installed (5) 36GB Ultra320 hard drives in each bay with one hot-swappable spare giving the DL380 (G4) 180GB of storage space.  We also opted for one processor, 4GB of RAM in four banks, and two power supplies. 

Since being brought on-line some 1.5 years ago, the servers have never suffered a failure of any kind, which speaks volumes of the reliability of HP Compaq servers.  And it is worth noting that the server is on-line 24/7/365 with very little scheduled down-time for maintenance.      

My Viewpoint

Though most of our NOC is equipped with Dell servers of various makes and models, our complement of HP Compaq ML330 (G4) servers are in no way considered inferior; they very much hold their own against their black and gray competitors.  And they suffer from far less down-time.  But if one of the servers were to go down, they would be easy to service, thanks to the large number of hot-swap components.  If you are looking for a small footprint but robust (somewhat expandable) 2U rack mount server with plenty of storage potential, the HP Compaq DL380 (G4) might very well fit the bill.     

HP Compaq ProLiant DL380 (G4) Server Features and Specifications:

• Rack Design: 2U Rack Mount Chassis;
• Processors: Single or Dual EM64T Intel Xeon (Dual-core) processors (3.0GHz to 3.8GHz), w/ 800MHz Front Side Bus and 1MB or 2MB of L2 cache (two processors included in High Performance models);
• Chipset: Intel E7520 Chipset;
• Memory: 1GB PC2-3200R (DDR2-400/ 400MHz) Advanced ECC Memory (single processor) expandable to 12GB w/ online spare capabilities (2 GB included in High Performance 2-processor models); support for dual-rank 400MHz DDR2 memory; eight slots;
• SCSI Controllers: SAS (Serial attached SCSI) models include the Smart Array P600 Performance SAS Array Controller with 256MB Battery-Backed Write Cache. SCSI models include the integrated Smart Array 6i Ultra320 Array Controller with optional 128MB of Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC standard on all high performance models);
• RAID Controller: Embedded Smart Array 6i or Smart Array P600; Ultra320 SCSI;
• Drive Bays: (6) hot-plug Ultra320 SCSI drive bays; internal hot plug capacity 1.8TB standard (6 x 300GB HDD), or five hot plug hard drives and one DAT 40 or DAT 72 hot plug tape drive.
• Ethernet Controller: Integrated HP NC7782 Dual Port PCI-X 10/100/1000T Gigabit network adapter;
• Video: ATI Rage XL graphics chipset with 8MB SDRAM;  
• Server Management: Integrated Lights-Out (with 10/100BaseTX port) industry leading remote management with new support for two-factor authentication, schema-free Microsoft Active Directory integration, Power Regulator p-state reporting, USB key virtual media and VLAN on the shared network port;
• Power Supply: (2x) Hot Plug Power Supply's;
• Chassis Access: Tool-less access to all system components for easy in rack serviceability;
• Expansion Slots: Three 64-bit PCI-X slots (2 available on SAS models), including two non-hot plug 100MHz slots and one non-hot plug 133MHz slot or optional PCI-X Hot-plug cage or Optional PCI Express Non-hot plug Cage (U320 SCSI Models only);
• Backplane: Optional dual channel drive backplane (2/4 split) for U320 SCSI models (Included in SCSI High Performance Models); optional dual channel drive backplane (2/4 split) (Included in High Performance Models);
• Floppy Drive: Optional floppy disk drive (Included in High Performance Models);
• CD-ROM/DVD Drive: 24X Max CD-ROM (High performance models include DVD-ROM drive);
• USB Ports: USB version 2.0 support, one front port/ two ports in the rear;
• Status Indicators: Front LEDs (show server status) and Unit Identification button/LED (for easy in rack server identification)