HPE has four HPE ProLiant Gen11 platforms powered by a series of 4th Generation AMD EPYC™ Processors. This blog will look at each one of these four 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors powered servers to help you decide which one is best for you.
You need a new state-of-the-art rack server – but how do you choose the server that delivers all the options you need for your particular applications or workloads?
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is currently shipping the 11th generation of the HPE ProLiant server rack portfolio. The HPE ProLiant Gen11 platforms build upon 30 years of innovation – including a trusted and secure platform – designed and built from the ground up to address the needs of your hybrid world.
Meet the 4th Generation AMD EPYC™ Processors
The HPE ProLiant Gen11 DL3x5 server family is powered by a full range of 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors that are available in several configurations.
- Processors: 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors, ranging from 16 to 128 cores per socket. With up to 256 total cores for 2P servers.
- Cache: Get up to 382MB of L3 cache on standard CPUs, and up to 1152MB of L3 cache with CPUs with AMD 3D V-Cache
- Two sizes of rack units: 1U (1.75" in height) and 2U (3.5"). All rackmount servers are 19" in width.
Memory, I/O, and storage capabilities for massively intense workloads
With all of that processing power, you need a memory subsystem that is large and fast enough to keep up. This is why we pair it with DDR5, enabling 4800 mega transfers per second, or almost 63GB per second and up to 3TB of memory per processor socket. Data-in-use is protected with AMD EPYC hardware Secure Memory Encryption and Secure Encrypted Virtualization memory encryption.
With all that CPU horsepower, fueled with DDR5 memory, data must be transported to and from NVMe, accelerators, I/O devices, and other components on the PCIe bus. This new generation has PCIe 5.0 connecting all essential components at 32 giga transfers per second – which is twice the speed of the previous generation of PCle. Plus, with up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes per socket, you can connect more devices at a faster data rate to keep up with the processing power.
Full lifecycle security
Our zero-trust security framework is fundamentally architected in every single HPE ProLiant platform. You can find evidence of this approach in our sourcing strategies, supply chain of manufacturing, testing, and shipping to your data center door.
The embedded and immutable HPE silicon root of trust is a game changer in protecting millions of lines of microcode, and protects more than 4 million lines of code. AMD Infinity Guard is an additional security feature set that continues to add physical and virtual security layers onto what is already a secure platform from HPE – thanks to the silicon root of trust.
World records for performance and energy efficiency
It’s no wonder why HPE ProLiant servers, powered by the 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors, have 43 world records, including up to 99% higher performance[i] and up to 43% more energy efficiency[ii] compared to the previous generation of servers. You can read more in our HPE ProLiant Gen11 world records in this announcement.
A closer look
HPE ProLiant Gen11 DL325 (1P, 1U) and HPE ProLiant Gen11 DL345 (1P, 2U)
The DL325 is not only cost-optimized because of its single processor, but it is a more-than-capable platform thanks to the range of available 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors that range from 16 to 128 cores.
Next is the big brother of the DL325, the DL345. From a technology perspective, these two machines appear to be the same. They have the same AMD-based processor options and up to 3TB of RA. However, the DL345 was designed for those situations where you might need more disk space or IO options. The DL345 is the storage-optimized variant of the two cost-optimized platforms. You will find that both the DL325 and DL345 are great for workloads like software-defined storage. Non-datacenter locations, such as retail locations or remote office locations that still need some applications hosted locally, are good candidates for either the DL325 or DL345 single-processor servers.
Depending on your workload needs, you might discover that a software-defined solution like VMware vSAN in a 3-node cluster could provide ample compute power. Depending on which model, this approach could support 8, 10, or up to 24 local disks per server for the data generated at remote sites. These certainly have a home in the data center too, but sometimes you need compute and software-defined storage at the edge too.
When equipped with an HPE NS204i-U boot device, the DL345 is a hardware-based RAID 1 device intended for the boot volume of the server. This allows storage up front to be dedicated data and doesn’t waste two drives for a local boot. It also complies with strict software-defined storage rules that may require NVMe devices to be directly connected to the CPU complex – without a RAID controller. This provides a cost-effective but resilient area for the core operating system installation.
HPE ProLiant Gen11 DL365 (2P, 1U)
The HPE ProLiant DL365 Gen11 is a 1U form factor, dual-socket server, that can host two 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors with a staggering 256 cores and 6TB of memory. With the full portfolio of the 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors at our disposal, we can tune this platform perfectly for workload virtualization.
Sometimes a sweet spot for the number of cores has to do with our licensing agreements. For example, let’s look at the 32 core SKUs. The great thing about the sweet spot is that you have three or four SKUs to choose from. For general-purpose virtualization, we could select a 3.25GHz base frequency, but for VDI where clock cycles rule the non-accelerated VDI workloads, there’s a 3.85GHz that can boost up to 4.30GHz per core—making the DL365 a very flexible solution.
HPE ProLiant Gen11 DL385 (2P, 2U)
The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen11 has the same awesome technology as the DL365 Gen11, but in a slightly larger 2U package, that allows even greater flexibility in the number of disks that can be supported. Up front, there are up to 24 SFF SAS/SATA/NVMe, with the potential for another 2SFF or 4 LFF in the back.
The 2U size gives us more flexibility in the I/O options, as well. The two risers allow for up to 6 x 16 expansion slots, and the GPU version of this chassis allows for four (4) doublewide/full-length or eight (8) single-width/full-height full-length GPUs. First generations of support for the AVX-512 instruction set—necessary for the latest acceleration of simulations, financial analytics, AI, and 3D modeling are matched with a pair of powerful 4th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs with up to 256 cores (two 128-core processors). This provides massive I/O capability fed by the 128 PCI lanes per socket of support AI and ML, as well as performance-hungry data analytics, and accelerated VDI.
For more information, please check out the following resources:
HPE and AMD: Delivering EPYC™ solutions together
For more information about each HPE ProLiant DL3x5 Gen11 server, please see:
HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen11 QuickSpecs
HPE ProLiant DL345 Gen11 QuickSpecs
HPE ProLiant DL365 Gen11 QuickSpecs
HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen11 QuickSpecs
Meet HPE Blogger, Chris Bradley.
Chris joined HPE in 2004 as a Learning Program Manager, creating training for HPE ProLiant and the software customers use to manage their fleet of servers.
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[i] Compared to previous generation. SPEC and the names SPEC CPU, SPECrate, SPECspeed are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC). The stated results are published as of 11-10-22; see spec.org.
[ii] SPEC and the names SPECpower_ssj 2008 are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC). The stated results are published as of 11-10-22; see spec.org. Comparing DL385 Gen11 vs DL385 Gen10 Plus v2.
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