HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 X3216, 8GB-U, 4LFF, non-hot-pluggable, SATA, 200W power supply, 1J VOS entry-level server

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For VDI FC Monday Login the MicroServer broke 1ms at just north of 35K IOPS and peaked at 40,594 IOPS with a latency of 1.35ms before dipping some. Example. Copy 38Gb file from my Nas to local storage under 2k19, get full 1Gbps, start a hyper-v vm, it slows to a few kbps, even copying from USB on the Windows 2019 server, not VM, Mouse becomes jumpy and unresponsive. Key changes in this generation are moving to a smaller physical footprint with an external power supply. Internally, changes were made to remove the optical drive bay, add iLO 5 management, and alter the PCIe slot configuration. We also witnessed a move from the AMD Opteron X3400 series to the newest generation’s LGA1151 Intel Xeon E-2224 and Pentium Gold G5420 processors that offer new features and more performance. There is a lot to cover, so if you were thinking about the HPE MicroServer Gen10 Plus and are familiar with the Gen10, that piece is worth going through. On the rear of the unit, we can see all of the ports and I/O surrounding a central fan. The fan is the only moving part in this generation. It is, therefore, non-redundant but half as likely to experience a fan failure as a two fan unit. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus Rear

We are going to focus more on this in our formal MicroServer Gen10 Plus review. MicroServer Gen10 Plus v Gen10 CPU Changes The new ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus still has four 3.5” hard drive bays. The bays utilize the same tray-less mechanism and the studs used for each drive are still stored on the front of the chassis which is a feature we absolutely love since it means you do not lose them. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus And Gen10 Front Drive Bays Our energy supplier is working towards using 100% renewable electricity and is a Principal Partner of COP26

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On the topic of bombshells, one may have noticed the heatsink difference. The new MicroServer Gen10 Plus has a much larger heatsink with copper heat pipes to aid in cooling. While the Gen10 used an AMD Opteron SoC with up to 35W TDP, the new MicroServer Gen10 Plus uses Intel CPUs with TDPs up to 71W officially. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 And Plus Heatsinks Switching over to sequential performance and starting with our 64K read, the MicroServer again had sub-millisecond performance throughout a majority of the run breaking 1ms at about 27K IOPS or 1.7GB/s and went on to peak at about 31K IOPS or 1.9GB/s at 4ms before dropping off some. For our transactional SQL Server benchmark, the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus had a score of 3,146.43 TPS with 1VM. The two NICs on the Gen10 have been upgraded to 4 NICs in this generation. This was a big upgrade that we are going to cover later. For random 4K write, the MicroServer stayed under 1ms until about 150K IOPS which was roughly its peak at about 250µs latency before falling off in performance and latency jumping sharply.

In the rest of this piece, we are going to go in-depth into what you can expect from the new MicroServer including the hardware, software, performance, management, and operational aspects. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus Hardware Overview This test uses SQL Server 2014 running on Windows Server 2012 R2 guest VMs, and is stressed by Dell’s Benchmark Factory for Databases. While our traditional usage of this benchmark has been to test large 3,000-scale databases on local or shared storage, in this iteration we focus on spreading out one 1,500-scale database evenly on our server. HPE has made many changes in the generational progression to the Gen10 Plus. Immediately obvious is the reduction in size, the Plus is roughly half the size of the predecessor. Much of this is related to moving the power supply (180W) outside the enclosure, which has a secondary benefit besides size. The reduction in heat within the server means HPE could also drop down to one fan from two fans in the prior chassis. This change has another cascading effect, with one fewer fans, the Gen10 Plus makes less overall noise which is important if we assume the myriad use cases for this server, will likely have it operating in populated areas, rather than an isolated server room. Last but clearly not least, the Gen10 Plus gets an option to add iLO, HPEs out of band server management software. This is a big deal for managing multiple units in geographically dispersed areas, a clear target HPE had in mind. When this option is enabled, HPE includes a dedicated card for Ethernet access and an iLO Essentials license. The license may be upgraded to iLO Advanced. The server also supports HPE InfoSight for Servers. Taking a moment to see the roadmap, upon announcement of the new server, we dissected the spec sheet of the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus. We then did a piece on the MicroServer Gen10 Plus (or Gen10+) versus the older Gen10 revision. We are going to discuss that briefly below, but we wanted to show what this mid-generation change offers in terms of differences. Some have called that piece a review, which is something we disagree with. This piece will be our formal review of the MicroServer Gen10 Plus including common HPE options. Next in this series will be a more expansive view of what is possible. We have just shy of 20 CPUs we are testing in our MicroServer Gen10 Plus and that simply takes time. We also have various options to give you ideas regarding how you can take the server’s base and turn it into something truly unique to fit your, or your client’s needs. On the right rear of the unit, we find the primary system I/O. This includes four 1GbE NICs, a VGA and DisplayPort (for management) and four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus Rear IO View

HPE’s smallest MicroServer yet delivers a surprising package for the price

Another change is that on the Gen10 HPE used the AMD Opteron SoC with an integrated GPU wired to the two DisplayPorts output. These could be used for digital signage or similar applications. The VGA was a management output. With the Gen10 Plus, both the VGA and DisplayPort are destined for management duties. MicroServer Gen10 Plus v Gen10 Drive Bays I assume Freenas ZFS will give better numbers. Will continue tests with more use cases (different NAS systems, VPN gateway role, VM).

The HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus v2 server comes with an available complete set of services from HPE Pointnext Services, delivering confidence, reducing risk, and helping you realize agility and stability. Continuing to add features such as a higher-end PCH and doubling bays may sound great, but then feature creep starts to bring it into HPE ProLiant ML30 Gen10 positioning. When we reviewed the ProLiant ML30 Gen10 we used an 8x 2.5″ model and that is based on a Xeon E platform as well. Our thought is that HPE is trying to service a specific market with the MSG10+ in the context of the company’s broader portfolio. HPE has an option for all-flash, it is simply a different server. HPE IT investment solutions help you transform into a digital business with IT economics that aligns with your business goals. While the latching mechanism is the same, instead of one row of four vertical drives, the Gen10 Plus has a 2×2 configuration with horizontal drives. This helps keep the unit more compact. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus Hard Drive In Bay On the rear of the unit, a whole lot has changed. HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus And Gen10 Rear With DC PSUServices provided under Operational Services include: HPE GreenLake Flex Capacity, HPE Datacenter Care, HPE Infrastructure Automation, HPE Campus Care, HPE Proactive Services, and multi-vendor coverage.