HP Proliant Gen7 End of Life – What can I do?

In April 2018 the time has come, after nearly eight years, the HP ProLiant Gen7 server series is now End of Life (EoL). Affected are DL380, DL385, DL360, ML350 and Blade Server BL460.

In this article, we will examine what alternatives the owners of such server have to keep their IT infrastructure up and running.

We would like to take a closer look at the following three options:

1. Buy a new Server
2. The way to the Cloud
3. Maintenance extension by a Maintenance Specialist offering End of Life Maintenance

At the time, the Generation 7 ProLiant server series was the best-selling server in the SME segment. By 2010, the trend towards virtualization was unstoppable. Many mid-sized companies had been looking for servers that can use a lot of RAM, and with two CPUs have enough computing power to operate their entire virtual server environment.

The ProLiant Gen7 server could be upgraded to up to 384GB of RAM. With two Intel Xeon six-core processors, it had enough power to support almost any SME application, virtualized or not. HP had a solution for every size. As strong single machines the HP DL380, or DL385 was used. For medium sizes of the DL360 and for the little ones the ML350 could be used. The Blade Server BL460, however, was ideal for larger IT environments.  

After the storage needs of customers grew larger and larger, HP also had a solution here. With a storage capacity of up to 24TB in one server and RAID options of RAID 0/1/1 + 0/5/5 + 0, the DL380 could almost go through storage servers.

For the reasons mentioned above, the Gen7 servers are still widely used today and are still in use in many companies and data centers. With the End of Life announcement from HP, there is no longer any support from the manufacturer for this server series. What option do customers now have who use such servers?

Companies that still have ProLiant Gen7 server in operation usually do not yet have a need for stronger machines. Otherwise they probably would have done it already. Even though the server series is already eight years old, the technology in the servers is not outdated. Although DDR3 RAM is much slower than DDR4, it is perfectly adequate for standard window applications. The same goes for the processors. Six-core processors are certainly not as fast as 12, or 24 core processors, but sufficient for most environments. Processor performance is rarely the bottleneck. Exactly the same principle also applies to the hard disks. Both SATA and SAS disks have not become significantly faster in the last ten years. Those who need speed can simply invest in SSDs. As long as the storage capacity is sufficient, there is no reason for new hardware.

If we take a closer look there is hardly a reason for the Gen7 owners to buy new server. Should we decide to buy a new server, it’s close to consolidating our server environment and merging services. Also a redesign of the existing IT infrastructure should at least be considered, because the migration effort is coming to us anyway.

If you don’t want to go down the road with new hardware anymore and realize when revising your IT environment that many services are already offered as cloud products, you should consider at least partially migrating services into the cloud. Especially standard office environments offer many possibilities. For example, running your own Exchange Server is redundant in most organizations and can be easily replaced with Office 365 or hosted Exchange products. Similarly, domain controllers, print servers or ERP systems can be moved to a private or public cloud.

Even entire desktop as a service, or infrastructure as a service offerings can now be covered by the cloud without security concerns.

If you don’t trust the cloud providers completely, you can also rent a completely new infrastructure. With providers like www.rent-it.shop, we can not only choose which IT environment we want, but also where it should be. As with cloud services, billing runs on a monthly basis. This gives us full control over the hardware and the location, but we enjoy the advantage of not having to advance the costs. This relieves the cash flow and, unlike leasing, we also have full service on all rented components.

The topic of Third Party Maintenance (TPM) has now also established itself in Central Europe. These manufacturer-independent maintenance specialists are a very good way out of manufacturer dependency. They can still guarantee the operation of their hardware if the vendor no longer wants to support the devices and sets End of Life or End of Service. They can offer this service because they build up their own inventories, which usually make hardware support possible for at least another ten years. Well-known suppliers, such as hardwarewartung.com, not only have the spare parts, but also the certified experts. This enables them to maintain and support the hardware and software in a very high quality.

However, caution is advised when selecting the TPM. There are many small maintenance providers who offer maintenance at a very low cost, but whose service levels are not guaranteed. We recommend hardwarewartung.com. They have the necessary size and standing in the market to manage and maintain IT infrastructures of any size. Of course there are other players in the market, but none in Europe has the modern structures in sales and the level of automation in operations to offer very good prices even for individual servers.Nevertheless, they remain flexible enough to meet their customers on an equal footing and on their special requirements.

No matter what decision you make, you shouldn’t buy just the next generation of server. Rather, it’s time to think about your own infrastructure and whether the existing concept is still up to date. If you’re not sure yet, just buy the time by extending your maintenance on a TPM and you’ll see which way you want to go.