HPE ProLiant DL Servers Reviews

We've just found them so reliable and used them for so many years. We have found the quality and backup support reliable. They just tend to do what we want to do with them. So, they are very flexible, upgradable and versatile. Sometimes, you do have some issues but they tend to get repaired/replaced/fixed within a good time.

For us, it is more of reliability even though we have hardware maintenance.

Generally, we'll do 10 calls a month globally. With our offices all over the globe, 10 calls in a month are very minimal since we have 600 pieces of DL hardware. It's quite small.

A lot of where they can improve the product would be related to hot flexibility. If you want to change a DIMM, you have downtime to upgrade. It would be good if you could have hot DIMMs and hot CPUs, also for hard disk power supplies and bits. Hopefully, then there shall be no downtime. The biggest problem with our user base is downtime.

Stability is very good. Once the product is in, it seems to work. We do general maintenance. It's good.

Scalability can be a little bit difficult sometimes due to changing of CPUs which we try to over-spec. We don't need to scale up; we tend to replace after three years.

It gives us more because with passing time as technology increases, things get faster and better for us. There is more improvement.

We have looked at Dell and just recently looked at Dell FX2.

We will probably stick with HPE because of the long-time factor that we've had with them and other factors such as reliability and knowing the product. We know we're looking at HPE ConvergedSystem for our offices and that will be the next stage.

I've been in my company for 14 years. Initially we were using Compaq and now moved over to HPE. Thus, the setup took place a long time ago.

Have no doubts you'll be getting a product that will work. It will do what you want, as long as you follow the guidelines and best practices. You should speak to other people. The product will just tick along for its lifecycle. You will get the odd issue but it's fixable.

We've been more than happy with the DL product that we've used. We never buy them when they first come out; we always wait 6-12 months to buy them. Let somebody else do the testing during the first six months, even though they should be tested.

I used it for building an application, database middleware servers. It performed very well for my needs.

IT is easily manageable and expandable as well as usability for anything. especially for clustering using VMware vCenter server solution.

There is a lot of processors, I am only using half of what I need. In addition, they update the ILO to V. 5 so maintenance remains very easy. You can easily monitor everything from office needs, storage, performance, power supply, and temperature.

If they could put more disk array in one node or rebuild it in the same server, it would be very helpful and more powerful.

The stability is better with the added microSD instead of LD, so you can still install your operation into the microSD and give the other storage back.

Easy, fast and strong to scale in a different performance like disks, memory,  and power.

During our first year of using tech support, it was very good. But recently there has been a lack of help from their support team. Unless it is a special case, they are not very helpful.

Used OLD IBM, Dell, Sun and Huawei they are good but not like HPE, give you deferent feels.

Actually, there are no comlexity in the setup everything is straightforward and clear.

All my implementation are done in house one, as it is very symbol and easy to learn.

Four months approximately according to the solution that using.

My advice is to start getting the training by themselves for how to manage HP Dl servers as the setup is easy to learn then make pricing according to model number and performance last ask the cost from Gold partner of HP as partners give a good discount.

Actually, every company that worked with have preferred vendor according to what systems integrators gave to them,  in Thishknet I did the evaluation and select HP again according to performance, usability and price.

Start to use Nutanix Solution with HPE Dl Servers that recommend by Nutanix.

• It works
• It's easy to implement
• It's really good in terms of maintenance

The new function, which is coming at the moment, with the online firmware updates - that's one of the problems we're struggling with, with our customers, to have downtime - these live online updates are really, really a benefit we're waiting for.

It has been consistently stable over the years.

At the moment, all the migration from the rack mount to the enclosure systems, the implementation of storage - all of this is growing. With HPE, we have no problems in this area.

Tech support is perfect. We have HPE engineers on-site, and also the delivery of parts, it works really well.

The problem with the updates is sometimes our internal customer with the validation and qualification of the system. But the tools which HPE offers are working. It's really a question of change management.

We have a good relationship with HPE, they offer the products we need. They come back with solutions. It's uncomplicated to deal with HPE.

Stability. That's about it.

It saves us money.

Lower price. You have to pay for some of the features after the fact.

It stays up.

When looking for a vendor, I look for cost and support.

The setup was straightforward.

We have very specific standards, and only HPE met them.

Look at the product and look at the support. In the long term, the support of the hardware is crucial. It is not just about the price point.

It builds very well, is easy to install, is easy to maintain, is easy to administer remotely.

It allows me to run a lot of virtual machines at the same time. It helps me do a lot of testing, so I can build a virtual machine and try things out on it. If it doesn't work, I can just recreate it.

I guess more regular automatic updates would be nice. Sometimes when you call support they'll say, "Well, what version of frameware are you on?" And you'll say, "Version X, Y, Z," and they'll say, "You need to be on A, B, C."

The stability is rock solid.

I have not tried scaling it.

Regarding the technical support - it depends on the day, sometimes it's good, sometimes bad, but I always know how to elevate or escalate to get to the next level if I need to.

The setup was straightforward. It's easy to mount the rack, it's got great rails. Power it right up, launch and then you can start configuring it.

The most important aspect when selecting a vendor is ease of use. Probably the most important. We evaluated HP, IBM, Lenovo. We have a better relationship with HP.

Get it because it will work very well for you.

They are simple, modular and great machines to work with. They offer the best management interface.

Their modularity offers good local storage and connectivity options. We can expand the disk capacity, processor and memory based on our needs. The solution is easy to maintain.

Boot times are relatively slow. Legacy BIOS options are tricky, but discoverable and manageable with experience.

We have been using this solution for around seven years.

There haven’t really been any stability issues, but we have faced server rebooting during high CPU usage periods.

There have not been any scalability issues. The solution is extremely scalable. Most of the software and peripheral devices on the market are tested and certified on these platforms. They are reliable.

The technical support level is good. The support engineers have the skills needed to troubleshoot the issues.

I have used UCS. They are bit messy with their fiber interconnect and have too many configuration and maintenance activities involved. They are expensive compared to HPE ProLiant servers.

IMHO, you cannot get a more straightforward initial setup.

ILO licensing is bought separately, but it is worth it. It gives you that extra power to manage the entire server remotely and do the following:

• Re-image the server
• Change BIOS and storage options
• Control devices
• Monitor resource usage

You can basically do all day-to-day activities remotely that you can do with physical access to the server.

There is very stiff competition from Dell in recent times. One could go the other way based on the purpose and ROI you are seeking.

You wouldn’t regret purchasing this solution. However, do your homework on your needs and talk to relevant guys for any info you are missing.

HPE offers three rack mount server categories and several models in each variant. Carefully choose the one that suits you the best. There are those that occupy 2U and others that occupy 1U. This could bring down the space and rack usage drastically.

Take the following steps:

1. Find out the compatible processors from the server specifications.
2. Visit Intel‘s web site and carefully compare all the details of the supported processors.
3. Base your decision on the number of cores, speed, cache size, your usage, and the processor that you would like to combine with the server.

They're reliable. They work and I'm familiar with them. The iLO has been a solid out-of-band management tool for us, in comparison to some other out-of-bands that I've had to deal with. The performance out of the box, the stability of the servers, HPE's turnaround for support, and resolving issues.

The new rail kits are terrible. The older rail kits were great and simple. It took one person to do it. Now the new rail kits for the DL line, since the Gen-8s, are terrible. It takes more than one person to be there present in order to rack one of those systems without endangering yourself or the server by letting it fall to the ground. The older rail kits were great, the new ones are horrible.

Very seldom do we have problems with the hardware. If we do, it's a grand module that went bad or something that went bad, or a hard drive that failed, but otherwise the system boards themselves rarely give us a hard time and it's good for production.

If we need more, we buy more, and put more in. It's all the whether we have one or five thousand.

Technical support was good.

Primarily, my organization has been a ProLiant job since I've been there. Prior to that, I wasn't in this industry to have alternate experiences.

The Gen8's and previous were pretty easy going. We just received Apollo 2000s that we're trying to deploy to now, and getting over the humps of learning the new UEFI deployment which is kind of mandatory. It pushed us over the edge from legacy bios mode to UEFI, so we've got some lessons to learn in our organization to deal with that change with the new Gen9's.

HPE seemingly always wins the cost-to-benefit ratio for performance.

If we were to move away from using Proliants and HP, I think I'd be disappointed. I've had nothing but good experiences really, racking stacking and deploying to ProLiants. Based on my track record I would say that's probably a pretty good path to go down.