Proliant DL380 G3 Upgrade options

[Jef Haney]

We have a server that is getting hammered, and we are looking to present some upgrade options to our corporate group. I want to research some of our options so we can present the best possible solution. Here's what we have:

HP Proliant DL380 G3
Dual P4 Xeon 2.4 Ghz CPU
5 Gb Memory (4x 1.0 Gb, 2x 512 Mb)
Windows 2000 Server

This server has a SQL Database running on it, which is taking everything it can get it's greedy little hands on....

Here are my questions...

The server has 5 Gb, but Win2K Server can only see 4.0 Gb. Can the hardware make all 5 Gb available even though Windows only sees 4 Gb? We can add an additional Gb of RAM, but if the OS can't use it, it would be pointless.

With dual 2.4 Ghz XEON CPU's, what are our upgrade options? XEON CPU's are up to 3.6 GHz. How high can we take the CPU with the G3 server? Will we have to get new voltage regulators as well?

Here is some of the data I've collected over the last day and a half...

Dual CPU Average is 36.5% over the last 43 hours, with many 100% peaks.
Available memory (remember, 4 Gb available) has bounced between 4 and 450 Mb free, averaging less than 200 Mb available at any one time.
Swap file is pretty constant at about 31%.

Any and all information would be wonderful!

Thanks all!

[Terri Harris · Accepted solution]

My first recommendation is to also post this question to the ITRC Microsoft - Windows 2000 forum. Your need is very app-specific with a SQL Database (is this SQL Server? What version?)

Adding more memory will not help. The application is Windows-based and can only take advantage of the memory that the OS can use. I would be interested to know if 2000 Advanced Server (for instance) would help.

CPU upgrade: You have the 2.4 GHz (512MB L2 cache) DL380g3 model. This system/processor board supports a maximum of 2.8 GHz. To go faster (up to a maximum of 3.20 with 2MB L3 cache) would require a system board upgrade. I don't believe the difference between 2.4 & 2.8 would be appreciable.

[Jef Haney]

Terri, thanks for your reply... I was afraid of that sort of thing... Anyway, I'll check with MS and see what they have to say. Thanks again!

[Jef Haney]

New information found... As stated before, we have dual 2.4 GHz in our SQL server (DL380G3), and apparently we can only upgrade those to 2.8s. We do, however, have a new member server (DL380G3) with dual 3.06 XEONs.

Win2K Server
SQL server has two 74 Gb SCSI, RAID 1+0 on the Smart Array 5i.
It also has an external drive cage with 8 drives (on a 6400 controller card), and an external tape drive on the external plug for the onboard 5i controller.

New Member server has two 36 Gb drives in RAID 1+0 for the C and D drive, and two 74 Gb drives in RAID 1+0 for the U drive for data storage.

Since we can't swap CPU's, what are the chances of shutting down the servers and swapping the hard drives / 6400 controller card / tape drive / external drive cage? When we bring up the newer G3 with the drives from the older one, will it recognise everything and continue to work? It is running Win2K server.

Thanks again!

[Jef Haney]

And now, for your viewing pleasure, our CPU chart from yesterday. We had an issue at about 7:50 yesterday AM, so we are aware of that spike. We don't fully know yet what else was happening yesterday. It seems higher than normal. Attachment is zip file with excel charts. Each page is 6 hours, and it is combined (dual) CPU.

[Jef Haney]

Sorry to bump my own thread, but we just got a "If you really want, try it, but good luck."

What's the easiest way to move two RAID drives (for C and D partition) from one server to another very similar one and keep everything working happy?

[Terri Harris]

Jeff,
I see the drives are currently on a SmartArray 5i. If you will be moving it to a server with a 5i you can simply move the drives. If it is not a 5i, report back which RAID controller it is (to see if it is compatible).

[Jef Haney]

AFAIK, they are both identical except:

CPU's
Drives

Both are running off of the 5i controller.

What is the best way to do this? Do I have to break any arrays or anything? One CPU has two drives (one array), the other has four drives (two arrays), all are on the 5i.

Also, there is an external array on the SQL server on the 6400 controller. Should we move that controller and external array at the same time as the Hard Drives?

[Andrzej Kowalik]

As long as you use the same hardware (I mean the same system board in dl380), you can connect hard drives to 5i controller and plug new server.
If exist any dependences between data on 6400 controller (for example: SQL binaries are on disks connected to 5i and data on disks connected to 6400) you have to move it on the same time.
regards,
Andrzej

[Jef Haney]

They are all DL 380 G3. How do we know if the system boards are the same? Some are 3.06 GHz, some are 2.4.

As for the basic structure, yes, we are going to move the add in card at the same time we move the hard drives. I know we may have to setup that card through the BIOS, but we are ready for that.