c-Class Blades compared with DL/ML Servers

[PSL Technical]

Hi,

Can somebody share me some information on the performance of c-Class Blades are compared to DL/ML Servers?

I need to provide a customer with some information of comparison and would be greatful for some information as i cannot find much at the HP Website.

Many thanks.

[HEM_2]

I would probably start here under the heading, "Why HP Blades":

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/316661-0-0-225-121.html

[Andrew Young_2]

Hi.

The performance of the different servers is very similar accross the range.

ML servers are used when you have a need to use multiple expansion cards or a site that requires only a few servers where racking would not be required.

Use DL's where you don't need many expansion slots or too many HDD's and the number of servers required warrants racking the units, note ML's can be racked too.

Blades offer the largest density but really only become economical after the eighth server. They offer easy expansion especially in SAN environments and now with the new storage blades also a reasonable amount of local storage. Note that blades offer no additional hardware support except SAN connectivity. Blades are ideal for larger data centres or clusterred environments and offer ease of maintenance, deployment and re-allocation or provisioning. Initial setup of the blade infrastructure is more complex but management thereafter is a lot simpler. Always remember that if you are planning to use the centralised deployment/management options for your blades you will need the one server "to rule them all" although in most SAN environments you could probably get away with using the Storage Manager Appliance (server) in this role as well, depending on the size.

HTH

Andrew Y

[Andrew Young_2]

Hi.

In terms of performance, all the HP range use the same processors and chipsets across the range, so performance will be very similar between similarly equipped MLs, DLs, BLs. Differences in design are merely to optimise each type for specific roles and a decision should be based on the customer requirements.

Regards

Andrew Y

[PSL Technical]

Thanks guys for your advice.