Anyone who reads this site frequently will know that I try to predict the future and speculate on what’s to come in the realm of blade server technology.  HP recently developed a new offering that opens up the possibilities of how blade servers will be used in the near future.

In early March of this year, from a tight partnership with Microsoft, HP created the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.  This single part number offering gives users nearly everything they need to stand up a Microsoft Exchange 2010 server using best practices from both HP and Microsoft.

The E5000 is a 3U high system that includes 16 hot-swap drive slots combined with a pair of HP BL460 blade servers powered with dual Intel Xeon 5500 CPUs.   This is what makes the offering exciting to me. HP has created a new use case for blade servers that don’t require investing into a huge shared infrastructure.  HP could have used DL380′s like they did back in the early 2000′s with the HP Proliant DL380 G3 Packaged Cluster, but now that technology has advanced, HP can get the horsepower they need to drive an application like Microsoft Exchange.

The system comes with the Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise server software and Microsoft Exchange 2010 Enterprise software pre-installed.  With the aid of a wizard driven interface, HP claims that users can stand up the E5000 Messaging System in a matter of minutes, versus days with the traditional manner.  The wizard helps walk you through all phases of setting up your system, including creating the Microsoft Exchange Database Availability Groups (DAGs)

The chassis also has an Enclosure Management Unit, or EMU, that provides acccess to the chassis environmentals (via an EMU processor) and it provides connectivity to the 2 blades’ iLO ports.  Here’s a glimpse of what the management looks like.  If you have HP gear already, it should look familiar:

Models

HP is offering several versions of the E5000 – each capable of being upgraded in the future:

HP E5300 12 TB LFF MDL SAS Messaging System – 500 1.2 GB mailboxes  HP Part #: BV839A
HP E5500 16 TB LFF MDL SAS Messaging System – 1000 1.2 GB mailboxes HP Part #: BV895A
HP E5500 32 TB LFF MDL SAS Messaging System – 1000 2.5 GB mailboxes HP Part #: BV840A
HP E5700 40 TB LFF MDL SAS Messaging System – 3000 1.2 GB mailboxes HP Part #: BV896A
HP E5700 80 TB LFF MDL SAS Messaging System – 3000 2.5 GB mailboxes  HP Part #:BV841A

One note that you should be aware of – while the E5000 Messaging System comes with the server software required for the solution, the CALs (Client Access Licenses) are not included.  You’ll have to buy them separately.  If you need help understanding what CALS you need – send me an email and I’ll help you out.

E5000 Networking

When I saw this solution in person, my first question to the product engineers was how the I/O worked.  The E5000 chassis is a lot different from a traditional blade chassis.  For the E5000 messaging solution, there are 4 I/O module slots in use.  They are called the  LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) modules and are installed in pairs.  The I/O is fairly straight forward: the RJ45 port labled ”1″ on each module maps to the 1st port on the network card and “2″ is well, you get the port.   The top two modules map to the onboard NICs to the 2 x BL460′s, the 2nd two modules map to the 2 port NIC pre-installed on the E5500/E5700 modules.  If you get the E5300 module, you only get 2 NICs, but it can be upgraded.  Here’s a diagram that should make it easier to understand:

If you are a careful observer, you may ask – what about that 3rd set of bays located above the power supplies.  What are they for?  Good question.  I did not show that the blade servers each have an HP StorageWorks 1210m Controller located in mezzanine slot 2 that provides blade connectivity to the 16 x SAS drives and the external SAS connectivity.  Understanding that I/O bays have to map to mezzanine cards, this tells me that the reason that 3rd set of bays is not in use is because there’s nothing to connect to them.  The HP engineers wouldn’t confirm or deny this speculation only that those bays aren’t for use “with this configuration”.  That opens other questions as to what other “solutions” is HP working on with this design?  Perhaps a Microsoft SharePoint offering or a Microsoft SQL offering.  I guess only time will tell. 

 What do you think of this solution?  What other software bundles would you like to see HP offer in this type of packaging?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

For more images of the E5000 Messaging System, click here.

To learn more about the HP E5000 Messaging System for Exchange 2010, visit HP’s web site.

I have a scoop that another movie recently chose to use HP blade servers to finalize production. While I can not disclose the studio, I can say that it is not their first venture with HP blade servers. The studio used quite a bit of blade server processing power with 384 HP BL460′s each with dual quad-core Intel CPUs and 16 to 32GB of RAM. That equates to 768 CPUs and 3,072 processing cores!

The studio used the blades for a period of around 4 months. It’s not clear as to whether the movie was live action or animated, but I’m pretty sure it was for a sequel of an well known animated movie.

I’ve previously blogged about HP’s success with movie studios, but I would like to know if Dell or IBM have provided technology for any movies. If you have any scoops, let me know!

HP announced a while ago a new product they call the HP BladeSystem Matrix.  Okay, well, it’s not really a “product” as much as it is a solution.  HP calls the BladeSystem Matrix “a cloud infrastructure in a box” – which is a good way to look at it.  The infrastructure that is “the Matrix” is simply HP’s BladeSystem chassis, loaded with blade servers and attached to an HP storage SAN.  Add to the mix some automation, via templates, and you have the BladeSystem Matrix.  The secret behind this unique solution is the “Matrix Orchestration Environment“, which combines automated provisioning, capacity planning, and disaster recovery, with a self-service portal into one “command center.”  However, this is not a single software, but a combination of HP Insight Dynamics – VSE and Insight Orchestration .

What’s In a BladeSystem Matrix?

There are two options for the HP BladeSystem Matrix bundle – a Starter Kit and an Expansion Kit.  The Starter Kit is designed to include all of the infrastructure necessary to manage up to 16 blade servers, with the option of adding a HP StorageWorks EVA4400 SAN.   The HP BladeSystem Matrix Starter Kit (hardware components) contains:

• HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, single-phase, single-phase with 6 power supplies, 10 fans
• HP BladeSystem c7000 Onboard Administrator with KVM option, redundant pair
  HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet modules, redundant pair
  NOTE: No transceivers/SFPs included so that you can choose these options – need to add to order.
• HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 24-Port FC Module for BladeSystem c-Class, redundant pair
  NOTE: Two [2] Fibre Channel SFP+ transceivers included with each module; therefore, 4 total transceivers per redundant pair.
• BladeSystem Matrix documentation CD
• BladeSystem Matrix label attached to 10000 series rack door handle

The part number for HP BladeSystem Matrix Starter Kit (hardware components) is 535888-B21. It is important to note, the starter kit does not contain any blade servers or storage.  Those must be ordered separately.

The HP BladeSystem Matrix Starter Kit (software components) provides HP Insight software licenses for 1 enclosure / 16-server with standard 1 year 24×7 Technical Support and Update Service unless 3-, 4-, or 5-year Support Plus 24 Care Pack uplifts are purchased to increase support and update period. These licenses include:

• Insight Dynamics – VSE suite for ProLiant with Insight Control suite
• Insight Orchestration software
• Insight Recovery software
• Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager software
• HP Insight Remote Support Advanced (formerly Remote Support Pack)

The part number for HP BladeSystem Matrix Starter Kit (software components) is TB462A.

Once you have the Hardware and Software Starter kits, then you’ll need to purchase the HP Professional Services – for installation; the Central Management Server (CMS) – a BL460 with 2 CPUs, 12GB RAM; additional blade servers and the storage that you need.

The HP BladeSystem Matrix Expansion Kit (HP part #507021-B21 ) is very similar to the Starter Kit:

• HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, single-phase, single-phase with 6 power supplies, 10 fans
• HP BladeSystem c7000 Onboard Administrator with KVM option, redundant pair
  HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet modules, redundant pair
  NOTE: No transceivers/SFPs included so that you can choose these options – need to add to order.
• HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 24-Port FC Module for BladeSystem c-Class, redundant pair
  NOTE: Two [2] Fibre Channel SFP+ transceivers included with each module; therefore, 4 total transceivers per redundant pair.
• BladeSystem Matrix documentation CD
• BladeSystem Matrix label attached to 10000 series rack door handle

However, it also includes software licenses for:

• Insight Dynamics – VSE suite for ProLiant with Insight Control suite
• Insight Orchestration software
• Insight Recovery software
• Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager software
• HP Insight Remote Support Advanced (formerly Remote Support Pack)

Once again, you’ll need to purchase the HP Professional Services – for installation; then your blade servers and the storage that you need.

As you can see, the HP BladeSystem Matrix is not a new product – it is an easy way to order HP BladeSystem products and use HP services and software to easily get your server infrastructure in place.  Let me know your thoughts – feel free to leave comments.  For more on the HP BladeSystem Matrix, visit HP’s web site at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/matrix/main.html