Gen8 – TechVirtuoso

Insight Online: Where have you been all my life?

May 10th, 2012 at 11:10 AM 1 Comment Frank Owen

I am used to additional software and functionality for server management to cost money, especially when it comes in the form of a cloud hosted service. I was surprised to hear at HP’s recent Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour that HP rolled out a free online version of the Insight software focused on making administrators duties less painful, take less time, and provide proactive support. This new service is called HP Insight Online and can benefit everyone from the SMB, to the Enterprise and even VARs. It is completely free to anyone who purchases a Proliant Gen8 server, because according to Doug Haskell, “You were a smart guy…you bought a Proliant!”. After your server is out of contract, some functionality will be reduced, but you still have access to the base features of the product.

Privacy Concerns

The participation of Insight Online is opt-in, so it doesn’t automatically just start sending information from your servers to HP. Insight Online has also been certified through the TRUSTed Cloud certification program to ensure sound data management practices. In order to keep this certification HP has to work with TRUSTe to get re-certified annually and have to go through a strict listing of requirements for the program.

Interface

The interface of HP Insight Online is a breath of fresh air. It goes along HP’s new design scheme where pages without a lot of text has a black background (which @mattvogt doesn’t like) but I think it was easy to read and to follow. Very simplistic but it allows you to drill down on each server to gain more information. You can also add users to specific servers so they only have access to the servers that they need to manage.

Hardware Fails

It happens, even to the market leaders. Hardware, especially the pieces that have moving parts, fail. In the past, your monitoring system would send you an alert and you would investigate and then call support. Then you would spend at least 30 minutes (if not hours, especially if they want logs) going through prompts and giving the technician the information. Why can’t this be easier? Well, with HP Insight Online it is. If you opt in, your new Gen8 HP Proliant will communicate failures to your local CSM server that pushes the information out to HP (they are working on a direct connection for those instances where you do not have a CSM server). It gathers the needed data, automatically opens up a ticket, emails you the information, and (depending on the problem) earmarks a shipment out to your location. If you need to contact a technician about the issue, you already have an open case and HP has all of your information.

Not only will they detect problems, they can also detect trends with hardware failures. If they see a lot of a specific type of hardware failing in mass they can cross check that hardware to see if it all came in on the same batch. If they find a pattern they will automatically send out a replacement part to the clients that haven’t reported any issues before the part fails.

Warranty Tracking

This is a feature I am sure many HP fans will love. In the same interface with your server status you can also see which service contracts you have and when they expire. No more spreadsheets! Something small, but it is a feature that is low overdue.

VAR Access

HP is very VAR friendly, and their Insight Online product is no different. You can give your VAR permission to have a lot of the same information that you see in your portal. They will see a similar interface but have all of their clients grouped in the main dash board. This allows var’s to show their clients more valueadd as well as strengthen their relationship with the client.

Wrapup

You can tell HP put a lot of thought into this product before it was launched and went through the scenario’s from the system admins viewpoint. This is a win-win for both the customer and HP. The customer gets better service from HP and HP can take the information they get and use it to improve their products. This is one of the many solutions that came with Gen8 that is adding value to the Proliant line to differentiate the product from the competition of commodity based server providers. I believe it is a welcome addition to any IT toolbox and will benefit you if you have 1 or 500 servers in your organization.

Jeffrey Powers from Geekazine recorded the presentation by Jeff Carlat. It is located below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oduIu98vNzM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

Disclaimer: HP invited me to the Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour and paid for all accommodations while I was there. I received some swag and a 32GB thumb drive but I was not required to blog anything good or bad about this trip. My opinions are my own and cannot be bought.

HP Gen8: More then just a Pretty Face..plate

May 7th, 2012 at 3:07 PM Comments Off Frank Owen

Day 1 of the HP Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour is over and there was a lot of information I need to digest. One thing is for sure, the face plate wasn’t the only major change that HP made to this generation of servers! I will be going more in depth about some of this items but I wanted to quickly share what I thought was most important from the presentations and demos today.

Less Headache for the Customer

One of the biggest transformations was the focus on making things easier for the client and less time spent fixing the server when there is an issue. When there is a hardware failure instead of your monitoring software notifying you, you investigate and then contact HP Support and answer questions/gather logs to send the server can (not a requirement, but the functionality is there) notify HP with all the pertinent information. HP can already start processing the RMA for the failed part and getting your replacement into your hand. This, to me is a must have.

Smarter Hardware

HP added “intelligence” to many components on the servers to allow each component to save logs about possible issues or operating conditions to each piece of hardware, instead of on each specific controller. If a RAM chip starts failing, the Insight software doesn’t just show that the RAM slot has a bad chip but saves this information onto the RAM stick itself. This way if the stick is accidently placed in another machine it will show immediately as a failed chip instead of running and possibly causing problems.

This same functionality is also built into the new hard drives. However, instead of just making the hardware “smart”, they also helped the end user from being dumb. I have never pulled the wrong hard drive out of a working server, but I have pulled the wrong card out of a working PBX, and I am sure that is almost as fun (as in not). This seems to happen a lot, afterall the majority of us are human and we make mistakes. With Gen8 HP has put a “dummy” LED that gives the user a little reminder that bad things may happen if you pull this drive. This to me is something small that makes a big impact.

HP has also re-designed the way the processesers are installed to the servers. They even called it a “Smart Socket”. This new socket allows for you to slip in a Intel CPU and install it without worrying about bending the pins on the system board. This will not only help out for customer installed upgrades, but also with pins that get bent in the factory.

Firmware Upgrades

I am sure the majority of small to medium sized shops have probably never upgraded the firmware on their hardware. When you are short staffed, don’t have the expertise and things are working properly you usually don’t want to mess with things. This can cause problems down the road as well as security concerns. With HP’s new Smart Update Manager, they make this a fairly pain free automated process. It will download the updates, check dependencies, apply them in order and if one of them fails, roll back to the previous versions. Instead of taking hours or even days to patch a few racks of servers, this can be done painlessly in minutes.

Mobile iLO

HP released a mobile iLO application back in Feburary for iOS/Android phones and tablets. This brings iLO functionality to the mobile sysadmin. Gone are the days of lugging that laptop bag with you everywhere and trying to find a corner and wifi to check on an alert you received from Solarwinds on one of your servers. You can now perform these same duties from a very mobile friendly app and can be done on your portable tablet or phone.

I am looking forward to what HP has in store for us tomorrow. We will be going more in depth with HP’s Automated monitoring and management, power and cooling ideas and also CloudSystem Matrix.

Disclaimer: HP paid all expenses for my trip to Houston to experience the HP Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour. I was not required in any way to write anything about the trip, good or bad. I was given a reusable HP branded grocery store bag, a nice water bottle, a polo shirt and a Gen8 DL380 server (if you really think they gave me a server, then you must be drinking). My opinions are my own and if I cannot be bought by a iPad2 I for sure can’t be bought by a re-usable grocery bag.