Dell PowerEdge External Media System 1634 User Manual download pdf

Comparison of system administration tasks:

Dell Unified Server Configurator version 1.3 vs.

HP SmartStart version 8.30 x64

TEST REPORT

MARCH 2010

KEY FINDINGS

 The Dell USC 1.3’s unified design let us

complete all tasks in this report on the Dell

PowerEdge R710 through a single

interface. For the HP ProLiant DL380 G6,

we had to use four different utilities.

 The Dell USC 1.3’s media-free design

greatly reduced the external media we

needed to complete the tasks in this report

compared to the HP ProLiant DL380 G6,

which required a maintenance CD and two

ROMPaq bootable USB drives.

 The system data archived in the Lifecycle

Controller’s dedicated, on-chip RAM

greatly simplifies rollback operations and

keeps firmware versions in sync after

replacing a system component, such as a

RAID controller.

 Dell USC 1.3 has many features beyond

those the tasks in this report required,

including onboard support for six

languages, powerful remote management

capabilities, UEFI and HII standards

compliance and FTP downloading

capabilities directly to the Lifecycle

controller.

Executive summary

Dell Inc. (Dell) commissioned Principled Technologies (PT)

to compare the following eight system management

operations on the Dell™ PowerEdge™ R710 and HP

ProLiant DL380 G6:

 Pre-OS deployment

 Windows Server

2008 R2 deployment

 Updating the BIOS

 Rolling back the BIOS

 Configuring BIOS and NIC options

 Configuring RAID 5 (outside of OS installation)

 Loading diagnostics

 Flashing the firmware for a replacement part

For the Dell PowerEdge R710, the Dell Unified Server

Configurator (Dell USC) version 1.3 enabled by the

Lifecycle Controller provides a single interface for firmware

and other updates, hardware configuration, RAID

management, native deployment of supported operating

systems, and system diagnostics. Because the Dell USC is

on an embedded chip, no compact discs (CDs) are

necessary and no recovery partition is required; your

system management is not at risk should a disk drive go

bad. We were able to perform all the system management

tasks via the Dell USC.

For the HP ProLiant DL380 G6, we had to use four utilities.

The main utility we used was HP SmartStart (SmartStart) version 8.30, x64. Unlike the Dell USC, SmartStart is a

CD-based utility. However, we could not execute all management tasks using SmartStart; we also had to use the

ROM-Based Setup Utility (RBSU), two different ROMPaq bootable USB drives, and the HP Firmware

Maintenance v8.70 CD.

For results and a description of the comparison, see the Test results section. For complete test system

configuration information, see Appendix A; for more detailed test information, see Appendix B.

The Dell USC also has many features that we did not need for the tasks in this report. These include the

following:

 Onboard support for six languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Simplified

Chinese),

 Powerful remote management capabilities, full compliance with the UEFI and HII standards

 The ability to connect directly to the Dell FTP site and automatically determine the firmware versions

available for update for the specific machine that makes the request.

The Dell USC has many features whose benefits are not quantified as part of this study, but can be significant in

real-world user environments.. One example is the reduced staff training for future updates that a single,

standards-based interface allows.

For more information, see http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Lifecycle+Controller.

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Summary of Contents

Page 1 - Executive summary

Comparison of system administration tasks: Dell Unified Server Configurator version 1.3 vs. HP SmartStart version 8.30 x64 TEST REPORT MAR

Page 2 - What we tested/What we found

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Page 3 - Rolling back the BIOS

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Page 6 - Servers

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Summary of Contents

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