NetServer E 45

A multipurpose server in a minitowerchassis

Perhaps you're ready to expand your LAN to accommodate more office space and employees, or your small business needs to upgrade its current peer-to-peernetwork to gain the benefits of an NT or NetWare environment. If you need aserver that facilitates growth, is easy to use, and provides enterprise-levelperformance, the HP NetServer E 45 might be just the ticket. HP is targeting theNetServer E Series line at networks with 25 to 50 workstations, and the HPNetServer E 45 is the top-of-the-line offering within this series.

My first impression of the HP NetServer E 45 was a good one. Within minutesof opening the shipping box, I added the unit to the Windows NT MagazineLab's network and ran applications for 25 users. I evaluated the HP NetServer E45 by looking at four areas: hardware, software, documentation, and performance.

Sizing Up the Server
HP sent the NetServer E 45 preconfigured with Windows NT 4.0, Service Pack(SP) 3, a 266MHz Pentium II processor, 512KB L2 write-back cache, 128MB of RAM,one 3.5" floppy drive, a 24X IDE CD-ROM, and three 4GB SCSI hard disks. HPoffers options for a 233MHz processor, up to 384MB of RAM, and different sizesand types of storage devices.

The chassis features the standard HP sliding case; you flip two catchlevers on the sides and the case slides toward the front and off. The internalconfiguration was not what I had expected. I found a separate fan and coolingduct for the Pentium II CPU that you simply lift up and out of the chassis. Fromhere, you can access the entire motherboard. You can easily remove the PentiumII CPU and the Voltage Regulator Module (VRM), or replace the RAM. Themotherboard occupies only the top half of the chassis with the I/O slots on aback-plane bus that extends 90 degrees from the main board. Expansion cards areinstalled parallel to the main board. The lower half of the chassis contains thestorage drive slots and power supply.

Hooking It Up
On the software side of the server is the HP NetServer Navigator CD-ROM,which comes standard with all HP NetServers and includes several integratedutility management tools. The Navigator CD-ROM is a bootable CD-ROM designed toget the Server up and running immediately. To test the Navigator CD-ROM, Ireformatted the hard disks and started with a clean system. From the CD-ROM, theNetServer booted into MS-DOS and displayed the HP Navigator Window GUI. Ifollowed the onscreen instructions and selected the Installation Assistant. Theprocess then asked which network operating system (NOS) I wanted to install:OS/2, Microsoft, Novell, SCO, or other.

After selecting the Microsoft NOS, I chose the Automated NOS. I was using abeta version of HP NetServer Navigator and ran into a few glitches; but allthings considered, the process worked fine. The HP Configuration Assistant 2.0took me step-by-step through installing the NOS, selecting configurationparameters, and updating the system BIOS. HP NetServer Navigator created a DOSutility partition, and asked me for input information, such as the computername, the Administrator's password, and the domain name. I also had to supplythe NT Server CD-ROM.

The entire process of booting from the CD-ROM through installing andsuccessfully joining the domain took fewer than 50 minutes. During that time, Itook several coffee and email breaks, which left the system waiting for me toclick Continue. After installation, the system ran flawlessly, including themanagement utilities available on the Navigator CD-ROM.

The Navigator CD-ROM includes a variety of support utilities. One importantutility is HP NetServer Assistant, which includes the HP Support Anywhere agent,and other management tools that monitor the server for potential hardwareproblems. HP NetServer Assistant generates alerts for power supply failures,memory, disk capacity, and I/O slot failure, and you can customize the utilityto allow control from a remote PC. HP Support Anywhere uses Simple NetworkManagement Protocol (SNMP) for communicating alerts and configurationinformation. Some additional utilities include Symantec's pcANYWHERE32, toremotely control the server; HP Information Assistant, which provides a GUIinterface for system specifications, notes, accessories, configuration, andoptimization; and HP Diagnostic Assistant, to confirm hardware configurationsand test for common problems.

If the HP NetServer E 45 crashes, all the critical technical data you needis on the Navigator CD-ROM. However, you must install the HP InformationAssistant, as shown in Screen 1, on a client PC to view the necessary data.Because of this requirement, you need a working PC next to the NetServer toreference the Navigator CD-ROM. Alternatively, you can print all 300 pages ofthe information.

HP offers several support options, including same-day, second-day, or24-hour support packages for 3 years. Standard with the product is 1-year,on-site, next-business-day support, which your local reseller or HP's customersupport delivers.

The Owner's Manual
The HP NetServer Navigator documentation is available in five languages andincludes the Installation Roadmap, which is superb. The Roadmap steps youthrough installation in a well-documented, detailed manner and has diagrams foreverything from installing expansion cards to setting SCSI jumpers.

The NetServer hardware documentation is adequate, but I take exception tothe heavy emphasis on CD-ROM based content. A technician enjoys a printed manualwith product descriptions, diagrams, and detailed technical information. Aprinted manual lets you fully repair and replace every major component, andtroubleshoot the majority of system problems without having to scrounge upanother PC just to read the documentation.

How It Performed
For my performance tests, I used the Lab's standard configuration: a set ofclient machines on a 100Mbps Ethernet network that simulates the workload ofmultiple users. (For details about the Lab's test environment, see the sidebar,"The Lab's Test Environment.") I used Bluecurve's Dynameasure for FileServices 1.5 as the workload engine. (For information about this product, seeLab Reports, "Dynameasure Enterprise 1.5," September 1997.) Thecombination of Dynameasure and the Lab's test environment simulates typical userworkloads and provides quantitative benchmarks that you can use tocompare hardware and software performance.

For a comparison test system, I used a brand-name server with quad 166MHzPentiums, 512MB of RAM, four SCSI hard disks, and an Intel EtherExpress Pro/100Adapter running NT 4.0 and Service Pack (SP) 2. I selected the Copy AllBi-directional tests because of the random order of 16 different transactionsthat copy compressed data, uncompressed data, binary files, text files, andimage files between the server and the clients. Because HP targets the HPNetServer E 45 for 25 to 50 workstation networks, I tested a range of 10 to 100users. The results surprised me. With up to 40 users, the HP NetServer E 45could perform as well, if not better, than a quad Pentium system.

Overall, the HP NetServer E 45 was impressive. It was easy to install anduse across the network, and the performance was outstanding. Not bad for asystem in a minitower chassis.