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The Little HP Server That Can: Page 2 of 3

For network connectivity, the DL740 has two embedded PCI-X gigabit Broadcom NICs. And for maintenance, the entire server is designed for toolless repair. The power supplies, positioned on the front of the server, can be removed by lifting a latch and pulling the handle. The DVD drive resides in a hot-pluggable media bay.

The unit is divided into two sections: the host module and the power and media module. The host module comprises the system board, processors and memory. The power and media unit holds the SCSI drive bay, the DVD drive bay and power supplies. HP will overnight an entire module if a major component fails.

Good
• Extreme fault tolerance
• Compact 4U form factor
• Powerful processor and memory allocation and management
Bad

• Higher licensing fees for a Microsoft installation
• Limited internal drive capacity
Vendor Info
HP ProLiant DL740, starts at $24,999. Hewlett-Packard Co., (800) 888-9909. h18004.www1.hp.com/products/
servers/proliantdl740/index.html

The DL740's SmartStart let me configure and install Windows 2000 Datacenter rather than a standard Windows install, ensuring that device drivers and other system software were consistent across all the HP servers in my setup.

You can access the administrative interface, the Integrated Lights Out (iLO) module, remotely using a Java-enabled Web browser. The standard iLO allows for a text console, giving the administrator access to initial boot sequences and a text console into the OS. The advanced iLO adds a graphical remote console and virtual floppy. Both worked as advertised.