The folks over at Servers Plus are running a rather good competition which allows for people to use their imagination and come up with a creative funky design for the case of a new HP Proliant Microserver.  Once all the submissions have been entered (by Friday 11th November) public voting will then take place with the creator of the winning design having their very own design created and applied to a brand new HP Microserver, which they win.   

These highly affordable (especially with the £100 cash back offer – though get in soon if you intend to buy one as word is that this cash back deal may be ending real soon with the introduction of the new N40 based Microserver model) entry level servers/PCs offer an excellent platform for a basic home or work VMware vSphere lab environments and are compatible (although not officially supported) with VMware vSphere 5.

Here are some of the entries that have been submitted so far, great stuff!

Feeling creative?  Head on over to the competition page at Servers Plus here for entry details and the competition form.  Time allowing, I’m going to try and come up with a TechHead themed MicroServer design… should be interesting.

I’ve had quite a few questions from readers over the past few weeks asking whether VMware vSphere 5 will run on the HP Proliant ML110 G5 or ML115 G5 servers? Both these models of server are highly popular amongst those running their own VMware vSphere or general home/work IT lab.  They are small, quiet and have been relatively well priced, especially when HP had them on special at UK £90 each!  But that is a few years ago now, and since then the AMD based ML115 series of Proliant has been dropped (and semi-replaced with the HP Microserver) and the ML110 model is up to the 7th generation (G7) – with a slightly heftier price tag associated with it.

Well, the good news is that I can confirm that VMware ESXi 5.0 (latest build at time of writing: 4659512) installs and runs on both the ML110 G5 and the ML115 G5.  All of the core components are identified by the ESXi host as you can see from the screenshots below.  So if you’re a proud owner of one of these great little servers in your work/home lab there is no better time to look at upgrading it to vSphere 5. 

HP Proliant ML110 G5

Disk Controller:

Network Card (embedded):

DirectPath I/O:

Power Management:

Health Status:

HP Proliant ML115 G5

Disk Controller:

Notice that as well as the onboard disk contoller, ESXi 5.0 has also successfully detected the HP Smart Array E200 hardware controller that I have installed into this server.

Network Card (embedded):

DirectPath I/O:

Power Management:

Health Status:

ServersPlus are kindly offering FREE delivery on all MicroServer purchases for TechHead readers.  To take advantage of this deal give them a call and mention ‘TechHead’.  Check out the Hot Deals section at the very top of this page for any decent current HP MicroServer deals.

Here’s a quick post just to give all you UK TechHeads out there thinking about buying one of the HP MicroServers at the current very low price (after rebate) a heads up that this particular model is going end of life and stock levels according to Servers Plus are getting very low.

So if you’re thinking about purchasing one of these great little entry level lab servers then now may be the time to take the plunge else risk missing out.  The good news is that the HP MicroServer range isn’t also going end of life with a new part code being given that supersedes the current model being sold off with the rebate deal.

From the HP MicroServer quick spec and HP web site there is a new part code (Globally: 633724-xx1, UK: 633724-421) for the MicroServer but from the associated specification the only real difference seems to be with the power supply dropping from 200W to 150W and the hard disk being upgraded from 160GB to 250GB.  In light of these extremely minor changes it makes the existing MicroServer on special an even better deal considering that the pricing of the ‘new’ model will no doubt go back to somewhere near the original price.

Those of you who are running VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi on an Intel Xeon X3430 CPU based HP Proliant ML110 G6 may have attempted to try and enable the Hyperthreading within ESX or ESXi after seeing that it was currently ‘Disabled’ within the ‘Configuration’ tab of the vCenter client and that all supposedly needs doing is it enabling in the BIOS of the server.

Without wishing to be the bearer of bad news unfortunately your Intel Xeon X3430 CPU in your particular model of ML110 G6 doesn’t actually have Hyperthreading installed on the CPU’s die.  VMware ESX/ESXi seems to identify that your ML110 G6 does have an Intel Xeon X3400 series CPU installed though doesn’t distinguish between the various sub-models of this CPU some of which do have Hyperthreading.  The X3430 is the only CPU in the X3400 series without Hyperthreading, for a complete list of which Intel CPUs come with Hyperthreading and which don’t check out this list here. 

So the result is that despite the vCenter client telling you to enable Hyperthreading in the BIOS of your X3430 based ML110 G6 you’ll be looking a long time as you won’t be able to.

One very important point to note however is that there are models of HP ML110 G6 that do come with Xeon CPUs such as the X3440 which do in fact have Hyperthreading capabilities which can be utilised within ESX/ESXi

Hope this helps avoid any confusion. 

UPDATE:  *** OFFER HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL THE END OF JANUARY 2011 ! ***

*** ANOTHER UPDATE: 14th January 2011 ***  ServersPlus inform that the last remaining HP MicroServer stock at the reduced price has now gone!  You maybe able to find stock with the £100 cash back deal elsewhere though it is highly unlikely from what I have seen. 

It’d be nice to see HP extend a similar deal to the newer HP MicroServer model (the only difference being a 150W vs a 200W power supply and it having a 250GB hard disk).  I personally was expecting a rather more exciting update to the MicroServer than those two minor ‘tweaks’.

Wow, HP have lowered their prices for the second time in as many months on the HP Proliant MicroServer and not since the days of the ML110 G5’s 18-24 months ago have we had a potential entry level vSphere lab server for less than £100 (minus extra memory, CD/DVD drive and cable)!  HP are now offering a whopping £100 cash back on the RRP price of £189.99 ex VAT on all new MicroServers until the end of December 2010.  Unfortunately this HP cash back deal is only for UK based residents, though I’ll keep my ear to the ground for any similar HP Proliant MicroServer deals in other countries and will post them here.

As mentioned in my recent MicroServer blog posts here, here and here the server will suit those of you looking for a small VMware virtualization lab server suitable for running >4-6 low to moderate workload VMs (assuming it is using 8GB memory). For anything requiring more CPU horsepower and/or memory I would recommend taking a look at the ML110 G6.

Check out the ServersPlus site for more details on this great deal and also check out their VMware virtualization HP MicroServer bundle here which offers good value for money and can also have the £100 cash back deal applied to it.  Keep in mind that you will also need to buy a CD/DVD drive and cable for it and that it also only has two DIMM memory sockets, so if you want to take it up to the maximum 8GB you’ll be looking at utilising both sockets with 2 x 4GB DIMMs.  Even still with this £100 cash back deal it offers exceptional value.