Dell vs. HP server

Both very good products for use with VMware vSphere, depends if you are a Dell or HP shop!

As a matter of preference, we prefer HP servers because the management aspect of iLo, HP Systems Insight Manager.

Depends on many aspects, you can usually get much better pricing on Dell, because your Account Manager, Sales Manager generally fight off HP with their pricing.

There will be not alot of performance difference between the servers, depends on the disks and memory you also purchase. (and BBWC Option fort HP!)

I personally run the DL385 G7 in my environment and it works great. If you plan on installing ESX/ESXi on it, there is 1 configuration you need to make in the BIOS to mitigate getting a rare PSOD, but other than that, it's' been solid. In reality, the differences between DELL/HP, IMO is more about what you're grown accustomed to; aesthetics of the BIOS; ease of firmware upgrades; and, of course, features.

Regards,
~coolsport00

How does Dell 's DRAC compair to HP's iLO?

Rememeber that full iLo requires a license, for KVM mode.

I'm not sure if this has been "fixed" yet, but DRAC cannot access AD to authenticate AD accounts.

On a personal note we prefer iLo.

Well I do not use iLO to access AD I guess I'm trying to find out which server hardware is better.

What about performance bench marks..

Performance:- Very similar, depends on memory and disks selected.

As for iLo, you configured it to is AD Accounts!

iLo - use AD Accounts.

There are no performance metrics that I'm aware of to compare the two; again, they are really about similar. It'll just mostly depend on personal preference rather than anything difinitve hardware-wise.

Right now I'm a HP but I always have an open mind due to price. I was more trying to find out if there are any know issues running VMware or SQL 2008 R2 on either server

None that I've heard for DELL, but for the DL385 there is, but there's a fix (BIOS configuration) that mitigates PSOD with ESX/ESXi (2K8 should be fine, though haven't installed it on my host...just ESX).

Here is the HP KB that explains the PSOD in the DL385; now, since this was the end of last yr that it happened to me, there may have been an updated firmware release for the BIOS to where this configuration doesn't even need to be done, but just verify.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02641719

We currently have both Dell and Hp servers where I work. Personally I prefer the HP servers for running ESX. We have a very large number (Hundreds) of these on the site and they hardly ever give us any problems.

How do the HP P410i with 1GB of cache and the Perc H700 with 1GB cache compair. Which provides for better IOPS for SAS drives.

Both are very similar controllers, performance will be similar, depending upon RAID level selected and number of disks.

It's the disks model and types, specification which will make the overall difference to total IOPS per RAID.

Both are PCIe Gen 2.0
Both are 6Gb/s SAS
2x4 internal SAS connectors
RAID levels - 0,1,5,6,10,50,60 (optional on HP)
Dell - 1GB Non-Volatile (NV) Cache, HP - 1G FBWC
Dell controller supports 16 Drives MAX, HP controller supports 24 Drives MAX.

Here is a report comissioned by Dell! (so I'm sure it has the usual Dell bias!)

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/Dell6Gbps-vs-HP6Gbps.pdf

another one, probably biased review!

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/drive-performance-comparison.pdf

Does Dell offer a way to centrally manage there server. For exmapl HP offers HP SIM

Dell OpenManage