A multipurpose server in a minitower
chassis
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-peer
network to gain the benefits of an NT or NetWare environment. If you need a
server that facilitates growth, is easy to use, and provides enterprise-level
performance, the HP NetServer E 45 might be just the ticket. HP is targeting the
NetServer E Series line at networks with 25 to 50 workstations, and the HP
NetServer 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 minutes
of opening the shipping box, I added the unit to the Windows NT Magazine
Lab's network and ran applications for 25 users. I evaluated the HP NetServer E
45 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. HP
offers options for a 233MHz processor, up to 384MB of RAM, and different sizes
and types of storage devices.
The chassis features the standard HP sliding case; you flip two catch
levers on the sides and the case slides toward the front and off. The internal
configuration was not what I had expected. I found a separate fan and cooling
duct for the Pentium II CPU that you simply lift up and out of the chassis. From
here, you can access the entire motherboard. You can easily remove the Pentium
II CPU and the Voltage Regulator Module (VRM), or replace the RAM. The
motherboard occupies only the top half of the chassis with the I/O slots on a
back-plane bus that extends 90 degrees from the main board. Expansion cards are
installed parallel to the main board. The lower half of the chassis contains the
storage 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 integrated
utility management tools. The Navigator CD-ROM is a bootable CD-ROM designed to
get the Server up and running immediately. To test the Navigator CD-ROM, I
reformatted the hard disks and started with a clean system. From the CD-ROM, the
NetServer booted into MS-DOS and displayed the HP Navigator Window GUI. I
followed the onscreen instructions and selected the Installation Assistant. The
process 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 a
beta version of HP NetServer Navigator and ran into a few glitches; but all
things considered, the process worked fine. The HP Configuration Assistant 2.0
took me step-by-step through installing the NOS, selecting configuration
parameters, and updating the system BIOS. HP NetServer Navigator created a DOS
utility partition, and asked me for input information, such as the computer
name, the Administrator's password, and the domain name. I also had to supply
the NT Server CD-ROM.
The entire process of booting from the CD-ROM through installing and
successfully joining the domain took fewer than 50 minutes. During that time, I
took several coffee and email breaks, which left the system waiting for me to
click Continue. After installation, the system ran flawlessly, including the
management utilities available on the Navigator CD-ROM.
The Navigator CD-ROM includes a variety of support utilities. One important
utility is HP NetServer Assistant, which includes the HP Support Anywhere agent,
and other management tools that monitor the server for potential hardware
problems. HP NetServer Assistant generates alerts for power supply failures,
memory, disk capacity, and I/O slot failure, and you can customize the utility
to allow control from a remote PC. HP Support Anywhere uses Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP) for communicating alerts and configuration
information. Some additional utilities include Symantec's pcANYWHERE32, to
remotely control the server; HP Information Assistant, which provides a GUI
interface for system specifications, notes, accessories, configuration, and
optimization; and HP Diagnostic Assistant, to confirm hardware configurations
and test for common problems.
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