Hardware Update

After several years, HPE has completely revamped its ProLiant server series and launched the 11th generation. The 10th generation has been EoS (End of Sales) for a few months now and availability is slowly but surely becoming uncertain. For this reason, we have updated our large rack servers with the new models.

Hard discs

From now on we only use SSD (Solid State Disk) hard drives. Although the prices are still higher than for conventional hard disks, they are already cheap enough for us to no longer want to do without the performance boost.

Network ports

There is also good news regarding the network ports: All servers now have 4x 1GB network RJ45 ports, so there is no longer any need to install an additional network card for the optional Management-LAN.
We will leave one of the 4 ports permanently free for the iLO Management so that the server can be conveniently administered remotely.

Housing / form factor

– All of the following three HPE servers are 19″ rack servers with 1U height.
– All servers are supplied with rack rails.

Memory / RAM

All servers now have at least 16GB DDR5 RAM.

Power Server

The Power Server is still based on a DL20, now updated to Gen11 with more RAM (16GB) and a faster SSD hard drive. The new Quad-Core XEON CPU now also supports Hyper-Threading (4 cores, 8 threads) and is significantly faster than the previous model.

– Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor (4C/8T)
– 16 GB RAM
– 960GB SSD hard drive (LFF, Non HotPlug)
– 4x 1GBit network ports

Performance Server

This model is also based on an updated DL20 Gen11 with a better CPU. The Performance Server is recommended for up to 1500 concurrent users

– Six-core Intel XEON (6C/12T)
– 16 GB RAM
– 960GB SSD hard drive (SFF, HotPlug)
– 4x 1GBit network ports
– Optional 2-port 10GBit network card, either with copper (RJ45) or SFP+ connections

RAID no longer available

Due to the low demand and the high effort involved in checking availability and purchasing, we have decided to discontinue the optional RAID kit.

High Performance Server

The High Performance Server is the largest model in our range and offers the best performance as well as redundancy for hard drives and power supply units. This server is recommended for 1500 or more concurrent users.

– 16-Core AMD Epyc (16C/32T)
– 32GB RAM
– 2 redundant power supplies
– Hardware RAID 6 or 10 with cache and battery with 4 SSD hard drives (SFF, HotPlug)
– Incl. 2-port 10GBit network card, optionally with copper (RJ45) or SFP+ connections

On-site service

The 3 HPE servers have a 3-year basic warranty. There is also the option of 3 or 5 years on-site service including a shorter response time than the basic warranty (next business day). Service will be handled directly by HPE.

LITE, Basic, Advanced Server

There have also been changes to the mini PCs through to the small rack servers, which are worth a closer look.

Goodbye LITE Server

The small LITE server (APU/pcengines) has been retired and can no longer be purchased from us. It has served us well for many years, but is now clearly outperformed by its larger colleague LITE Plus (see below).

LITE Plus

The LITE Plus server has now found a new fan community among our customers, who greatly appreciate the connection for a monitor so that they don’t have to deal with serial connections when things go wrong. In addition to a CPU that is twice as fast, the additional network ports and the robust housing are also popular features.

– Dual-core Intel i5 (2C/4T)
– 4GB RAM
– 64GB SSD
– 4x 1GBit network ports

Basic Server

The Basic Server is the smallest 19″ rack server in our range and offers a fast CPU and also has 8 network ports, which has already made an additional switch superfluous for some customers. It is well suited wherever there is space for the somewhat unusual fan outlet at the bottom. If you are concerned about overheating, the slightly larger model, the Advanced Server, is a good choice.

– Quad-Core Intel i5 (4C/8T)
– 4GB RAM
– 120GB SSD
– 8x 1GBit network ports

Advanced Server

The Advanced Server is a small 19″ rack server that ranks above the Basic Server and below the Power Server in terms of purchase price. It has the great advantage of having 2 fans at the rear and can therefore dissipate the heat better than the more compact Basic Server. At the same time, it is not as loud as its larger HPE colleagues.

– Quad-Core Intel i5 (4C/8T)
– 8GB RAM
– 500GB SSD
– 6x 1GBit network ports

Warranty

The 3 small servers: LITE Plus, Basic and Advanced Server come with 2 years bring-in warranty. In the event of defects within this period, you can send the device to the manufacturer in Germany. As the manufacturer only offers the 2-year guarantee from the date of purchase, we may offer a reduced guarantee of up to 6 months due to stock-keeping, which is why we guarantee up to 18 months. Due to the low hardware costs of these models, it is advisable for partners with many customers to keep a replacement device in stock in order to be able to react quickly.

Bring your own server hardware

We support a variety of available standard server hardware. As a rule of thumb, if the server is certified for one of the major Linux distributions (RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu, …), the chances are good that IACBOX will also run on it. If you already have your desired hardware with you, a quick IACBOX installation will immediately show you whether everything is working. If not, there is often only one driver missing that needs to be loaded – please contact our support team who will help you to clarify whether this hardware can be supported in the future.

VMs

For some, the best hardware is no (separate) hardware. More and more customers are running the IACBOX on VMs (vmWare, HyperV, Linux/KVM-based hypervisors such as Proxmox, OpenStack, Nutanix, …). Depending on the features used, the IACBOX supports up to 1000 simultaneous users or even more with a corresponding amount of dedicated resources.

Questions?

If you are unsure about choosing the right hardware, please contact our technical support team at support@iacbox.com who will be happy to help you make the right decision.