If you're an HP ProLiant customer, hopefully you’re using Integrated Lights-Out, or iLO for short. iLO Advanced - the cornerstone of HP Insight Control - is the IT Administrator that ships with every ProLiant server. iLO is enabled through a management processor, or if you know the lingo, a baseboard management controller (BMC) that enables IT administrators working in a central network operations centre to remotely control servers in far flung locations.
But unlike pedestrian BMC's that provide simple server power-on power-off capabilities, iLO and the iLO Advanced upgrade (part of comprehensive Insight Control server management) allow up to six IT administrators to view and share control of a remote management session. It makes it easy to install software updates or even an entire operating system over the network. It can capture and replay server boot and fault sequences, and it can be used to remove viruses and other malware (with some help, of course).
iLO Advanced is also the brains behind ProLiant's industry leading power and thermal management with Insight Control power management. It captures power and thermal measurements; it regulates processor clock speed to optimise power efficiency; it can cap power at a specific wattage to make peak power usage more predictable and help IT departments fill their server racks; and it provides pinpoint control of fans to deliver airflow only when and where it's needed.
What's even better is that iLO just got a power-boost. All of HP's new ProLiant G7 servers will ship with iLO 3 and support HP Insight Control. With iLO 3, you can remotely install new operating systems and patches faster than its predecessor and the turbo-charged remote console performance removes the need for any other remote management consoling software or hardware. For the security conscious, iLO 3 now supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in hardware, so you gain the benefit of best-in-class encryption without the performance hit. iLO 3 also supports IPMI-LAN and the new Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI) to allow core management functions to be carried out in a consistent way across x86 server platforms. And increased CPU and memory capacity, you can bet on more time and cost saving capabilities in the future.