Eight Dual-Processor Pentium Pro Servers Vie For The Enterprise
Given its positioning in the market, it's no surprise that the HP model offers tremendous capacity. It can support up to 12 hot-swappable drives in the system (something the Compaq ProLiant 5000 can do only after adding two external disk array subsystems at $1,000 each) and can support a whopping 2 GB of system memory. We also liked the 10 expansion slots and the use of embedded SCSI, video and communications ports on the motherboard. Contrast this with the servers from ALR, SAG and Polywell, which consume an expansion slot for each of these functions.
HP bundles a complete array of
services and software utilities that separate it, along with the Compaq and IBM, from the rest of the pack. The NetServer Assistant is very helpful and OpenView for Windows lets the server and other Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-capable devices on the workgroup network be managed.
Another optional feature t
hat sets the HP apart is the HP Remote Server Assistant card (available for about $1,000), which provides the ability to perform out-of-band graphical control of NT servers. Although Compaq and several other vendors that include Intel's LANDesk Server Manager Pro ISA card offer a similar remote management board, none of them offers remote control of Windows NT. They display only the text-based boot up of the server--once NT gets to its GUI component, their services end. The Remote Server Assistant card is a tremendously useful option for anyone performing out-of-band remote NT management.
HP also offers the best accessibility of the group. The top cover of the server can be easily remo
ved--exposing all expansion slots--making installation of adapters easy. Additionally, HP provides thorough documentation of all system components, similar to what Compaq offers, letting server administrators who are not familiar with the server easily navigate inside.
Dell Computer Corp. PowerEdge 4100
 The Dell PowerEdge 4100 is a strong player, offering a combination of good performance, a very attractive price and a host of fault-tolerant features that make it suitable for most applications.The PowerEdge 4100 would be an excellent choice in any IT shop.
The PowerEdge 4100--which is rather large--can accommodate six hot-swappable drives and five PCI and three EISA slots, offering plenty of capacity for most applications. Like HP and Compaq, Dell places its communications and embedded SCSI ports on the motherboard, saving slots for other devices.
For the paranoid or overly caut
ious network administrator, the PowerEdge 4100 offers an array of features to keep the system going. Not only does the PowerEdge ship with dual power supplies, but these are hot-swappable, letting the system remain operational even when you're replacing a failed power supply. Another nice touch is the dual power cables, which attach to each power supply.
Al
though these fault-tolerant features provide higher availability, they do not compete with those of traditional higher-end servers, such as those offered by NetFRAME, which allow for hot-pluggable PCI slots and fans. For the money, however, Dell's array of fault-tolerant features is impressive.
On the management front, Dell supplies Intel's LANDesk Manager application, which lets you monitor various system-level components, such as temperature, processor and fan status, and OS statistics. LANDesk Manager supports alerting of events via SNMP, e-mail and network broadcast.
In terms of performance, the Dell server did well. Its raw transactions p
er second were good--even with 80 and 100 clients. It showed no drop-off in performance, leveling out as clients were added. With price taken into account, the Dell ranked third at 80 and 100 clients, providing an average of 1.23 transactions per second per $1,000, showing it to scale reasonably well for the price. But it did not scale as well as the Polywell or SAG servers, which maintained better price/performance averages.
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