HPE PROLIANT DL180 GEN10 review

ProLiant DL180 Gen10 from HPE is a 2U rackmount server. It is characterized by compactness, large capacity, good performance, great scalability potential; therefore, it can simultaneously serve as a base for computing, storage and a device for network resources. In other words, the HPE DL180 Gen10 is the right choice for cloud environments and frequently used applications.

About the HPE PROLIANT DL180 GEN10 Server

The ProLiant DL180 Gen10 server is designed for both storage, and its security and architectural agility is optimally suited for ever-increasing volumes of information for processing, as well as for interacting with applications in the cloud and in hybrid environments.

The presented equipment is mainly used by small and medium-sized businesses that plan to develop and increase the volume of work, and therefore expand the original server capabilities. It has good growth potential compared to previous generations of servers in this line - primarily due to more modern processors from the Intel Xeon Scalable family, higher frequency and memory, the presence of the latest generation of iLO 5, 3 PCIe 3.0 expansion slots, as well as installing up to 12LFF or 24SFF drives.

What's new in ProLiant DL180 Gen10

The main distinguishing features of the presented server include:

• Preinstalled HPE iLO 5 management system;
• support for a RAID 0/1/5/10 controller with the ability to mount more advanced HPE Smart Array E208x or E408x controllers;
• support for up to two hot-swappable and redundant power supplies up to 500 W;
• availability of the Infosight function - a proven tool for assessing and timely detection of critical problems caused by interruptions in the operation of equipment parts.

In addition to these innovations, the following should be noted:

• The motherboard has internal USB 3 and microSD card slots (which can be used when booting the embedded hypervisor), as well as an HPE PCIe Enablement accessory card that hosts two mirrored M.2 SSDs for OS hosting and connects to dedicated SATA interfaces on the motherboard;
• a Smart Array P408i RAID card located in a slot on the back of the motherboard is cabled directly to the drive's backplane;
• the riser card for three PCIe slots is placed as compactly as possible with the possibility of installing the same additional riser card, and the slot for the media module is installed under the riser card;
• there are dual-port Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE adapters used as additions to the server's two built-in gigabit ports;
• DIMM slots are grouped into blocks of 4;
• 16 HPE DDR4 SmartMemory memory module slots (64 GB per module).

All of the above updates to the ProLiant DL180 Gen10 server make it highly resistant to increased loads, provide redistribution of loads both between processors and between network nodes; improved hardware architecture makes it possible to automate system updates and integrations. In addition, the presented platform is able to support mobile applications that are demanding on the power of the computing base and storage capacity.

Built-in memory protection prevents information loss, and the status of all server components can be monitored online using indicators. In general, if we compare this server with previous generations, its efficiency, operability and other characteristics have increased significantly.

Specifications

Technical characteristics of the ProLiant DL180 Gen10 server.

Feature	Description
Processor	Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor 3200-8200 Series and 3100-4100 Series
Number of processor cores	4-24 (depending on processor)
Processor cache	8.25-35.75 MB L3 (depending on processor)
Number of processors	1 or 2
Processor speed	maximum 3.8 GHz
Maximum memory size	1TB maximum memory when using 64GB DDR4 memory modules
Memory slots	16 DIMM slots
Memory type	HPE DDR4 SmartMemory
Drives	8–24 SFF SAS/SATA drives with 2 rear SFF options, 8–12 LFF SAS/SATA
RAID-controllers support	Support for E208i-a SR, E208i-p SR, E208e-p SR, P408i-a SR, P408i-p SR, P408e-p SR RAID controllers
Infrastructure management	HPE iLO infrastructure management standard with Intelligent Provisioning (built-in), HPE OneView Standard (requires download), optional: HPE iLO Advanced and HPE OneView Advanced (requires licenses)
Power supply	Up to 2 HPE Flexible Slot power supplies (500W or 800W)
Expansion slots	3
Network controller	Integrated HPE 1Gb Ethernet 2-port adapter and optional HPE FlexibleLOM or PCIe riser card
Memory controller	HPE Smart Array S100i Controller and/or 1 HPE Essential Controller or High Performance RAID Controller (depending on model)

The 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor family supports the following operating systems and server virtualization software:

• Windows Server 2016*, 2019;
• VMware ESXi 6.5 U3*, 6.7 U3, 7.0;
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.6 с Kbase*, 8.0;
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP4*, 15 SP1.

The 1st Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor family supports the following operating systems and server virtualization software:

• Windows Server 2012R2*, 2016, 2019;
• VMware ESXi 6.0 U3*, 6.5 U3, 6.7 U3, 7.0;
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.9*, 7.3, 7.6 (с Kbase), 8.0;
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP2*, 12 SP3-SP4, 15 SP1;
• CentOS.

Scalability, security and remote management

The HPE ProLiant DL180 Gen10 is designed for a wide range of business needs, and therefore its hardware design provides all the features for efficient, fast and hassle-free scaling.

Scaling can be done thanks to:

• installing up to two Intel Xeon Salable 1 or Scalable 2 processors on the server;
• up to 16 DDR4 DIMM slots (1 TB - 16 x 64 GB LRDIMM 2933 MT/s and 1 GB - 16 x 64 GB RDIMM 2933 MT/s);
• support for 3 x PCIe 3.0 (x8 FHFL, x8 FHHL, x8 FHHL) slots for expanding memory and connecting I/O devices.

Also, this server is able to support network parameters in the following solutions:

• 2 RJ-45 x 1 Gb/s - built-in (depending on installation or configuration features);
• 2/4 RJ-45 x 1 Gb/s optional;
• 2/4 RJ-45 x 10 Gb/s - as an option;
• 2 SFP+ x 10 Gb/s as an option;
• 2 SFP28 x 10/25 Gb/s optional;
• Media Module adapter (2 RJ-45 x 1 Gb/s, 2 RJ-45 x 10 Gb/s, 2 SFP+ x 10 Gb/s).

Moreover, HPE ProLiant DL180 Gen10 might be scalable technically for different disk’s types using follow sockets: up to 24+2 х 2,5”, max 62,4TB SAS HDD, 52TB SATA HDD, 200TB SAS SSD +7.68TB SATA SSD;

or up to 12 x 3.5", maximum 144TB SATA/SAS HDD, 46.1TB SAS SSD, 23TB SATA SSD.

The security of the HPE DL180 Gen10 server is implemented both at the software and hardware levels, and is not limited to firewalls. Comprehensive security of this server is provided by:

• support for secure boot and secure startup using UEFI, Secure Boot and Secure Start technologies;
• immutable silicon root of trust;
• FIPS 140-2 validation;
• certification according to general criteria;
• setting for compliance with the PCI DSS standard;
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) in the browser;
• support for commercial national security algorithms (CNSA);
• Secure Recovery - "resuscitation" of critical firmware to a known good state when compromised firmware is detected;
• Tamper-Free updates - verified and digitally signed;
• the ability to roll back the firmware;
• secure deletion of NAND/user data;
• TPM (Trusted Platform Module) Option 2.0;
• chassis intrusion detection option;
• real-time monitoring of server operation with the identification of atypical behavior using Workload Matching, Workload Performance Advisor technologies.

Also, the server protection parameters include iLO Security Dashboard - a security panel that displays in real time the overall security status of the system and its most important components; and iLO Silicon Root of Trust - a digital signature on a chip that prohibits the server from interacting with unreliable firmware and checks them in the sequence: hardware, firmware, system.

Remote management of the HPE ProLiant DL180 Gen10 server is carried out using the iLO 5 Standard hardware and software technology, for the installation of which a gigabit port is provided. If you need advanced functionality of this technology (iLO 5 Advanced), you will need a paid license.

Using iLO 5 allows you to:

• fully and centrally manage the server without having physical access to it;
• receive alerts via SNMP protocol to email or to a management console, for example, HPE Systems Insight Manager (HPE SIM);
• rapidly deploy servers with a flexible, always-on Intelligent Provisioning tool;
• automatically configure IP addresses using DNS/DHCP, or configure a static IP address if DNS/DHCP is not available.

In addition, iLO has the ability to provide feedback to local administrators LED POST (Power-On Self-Test) indication; constantly monitors the physical state of the server using sensors of ventilation, power and temperature control systems; monitors browser interfaces, command line SMASH Redfish API and XML scripts.

iLO and UEFI/BIOS integrity signatures are built into the iLO ASIC, eliminating security signature spoofing at every step of connecting to server management.

Application area

Optimum performance, easy scalability and adaptability determine the possibilities of using the HPE ProLiant DL180 Gen10 as a terminal server, application server, domain controllers, for creating and storing backups, supporting cloud services and infrastructure for small and medium businesses.