Paul Ferrill, Author at ServerWatch

Windows Admin Center Overview (formerly Honolulu Project)

Paul Ferrill — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Windows Admin Center is a browser-based management tool from Microsoft that delivers functionality similar to the Azure-based Server Management Tools, a service that was retired at the end of June 2017 only to have many of the same capabilities resurrected in Windows Admin Center. To help ease of use, traditional server management tools from Microsoft […]

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HPE SimpliVity 380 Server Review

Paul Ferrill — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The HPE SimpliVity 380 Server was designed to deliver the high performance required by enterprise data centers in a simplified package. One of the key differentiators made by a large majority of the new wave of IT innovators is in how they bring simplicity to the complexities of the legacy data center. With the massive […]

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Compare HP’s iLo & Dell’s iDRAC Server Management Tools

Paul Ferrill — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Most servers shipped from the major manufacturers today come with some type of out-of-band management tool or baseboard management controller (BMC). Two of the most popular of these are HP’s Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) or Dell’s Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). Both the iLO and iDRAC have features that specifically address systems management as defined […]

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Citrix XenServer & XenDesktop Review

Paul Ferrill — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When you look at the X86 virtualization market the two big players are Microsoft and VMware. According to Gartner, the market leader for multiple years running is VMware with a comfortable lead, especially in the enterprise market. Similarly, the desktop virtualization market has two primary leaders in Citrix and VMware, with Citrix holding down the […]

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HPE OneView Review

Paul Ferrill — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

While the term “software defined” appears in the product pages of many enterprise IT vendors, it doesn’t always mean the same thing. HPE adopted the phrase “composable infrastructure” to describe their Synergy platform, which is an evolution of their blade system line of products. The secret sauce of composability is also software-based and consists in […]

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Lenovo’s SR850 Server Packs Four CPU Sockets in a 2U Box

Paul Ferrill — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Lenovo recently refreshed their server line and expanded the SR850 with the ability to now pack four Xeon CPUs into a 2U box. This system has the flexibility to cover a wide variety of server scenarios, including CPU-intensive operations. We were shipped two identically configured SR850’s to use for evaluating Microsoft’s Storage Spaces Direct feature […]

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Lenovo’s DX8200C Powered by Cloudian Provides Object Storage to Enterprises

Paul Ferrill — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you know anything about storing large amounts of data in the cloud, you’re probably aware of Amazon’s S3 object storage service. Lenovo has partnered with Coudian to provide a storage appliance that combines the Lenovo DX8200C platform with the Cloudian Hyperstore software to bring object storage to the enterprise. Lenovo sent us three of […]

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Server Management and Development Made Easy by HPE

Paul Ferrill — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Very few developers or IT pros these days connect directly to the console of a server for developing server apps or managing a system. Everything you need to manage a remote server can be accomplished from any PC and, in many cases, from a tablet or even a smartphone. Windows-based systems come with a built-in […]

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vSAN 6.6.1 Steps Up VMware’s Hyper-Converged Game

Paul Ferrill — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

With each new release of VMware’s vSAN comes better performance, more features, and with the debut of vSAN 6.6.1, a configuration assistant to help get you started in the right direction. That last point is especially important if you’re installing vSAN on your own hardware and not using a vSAN-ready node from any one of […]

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Supermicro’s New X11SPM-TF Sports Intel Xeon Gold CPU and More

Paul Ferrill — Sat, 23 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We have reviewed a number of Supermicro systems in the past and found them to typically deliver solid performance for a great price. For this review we were provided with an X11SPM-TF motherboard (see Figure 1 below) and a 1U SuperChassis. The X11SPM-TF motherboard sports an Intel Xeon Gold 6132 CPU, which has 28 logical […]

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