HPE Apollo 4200 9Gen 6 SFF Rear Hard Drive Cage Kit
Mfg # 838833-B21
CDW # 4972856
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The HPE Apollo 4200 Gen9 6 SFF Rear Hard Drive Cage Kit is ideal for use with SFF models.
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HPE Apollo 4200 9Gen 6 SFF Rear Hard Drive Cage Kit is rated4.25 out of5 by4.
Rated 5 out of 5 byPrincipa575f from Powerful enough that we may only need half the number of GPUs in our next unitWhat is our primary use case?We've only been using it for about a month so far. This is a system that's on loan to us from HPE. It's a Gen10 version with eight NVIDIA V100 GPUs and four nodes. We have already purchased the unit. This is on loan to us until we receive the Apollo 6500 that we ordered.For storage we're using a Seagate SSD Array, all-flash array, as well as EL4000. The Apollo 6500 is for machine-learning, specifically for wafer generation, wafer analysis, for one of our operations sites in Minnesota.What needs improvement?I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding. That in conjunction with what Mellanox offers would provide us with a very high-speed networking interface.The other thing is we may could, perhaps, use more GPUs in the future, go from eight to 16 GPUs per instance. That could run head-to-head against the DGX-1, the DGX-2 that NVIDIA has developed in their own chassis. That would be interesting to see.For how long have I used the solution?Less than one year.What do I think about the stability of the solution?Excellent product. It's extremely reliable so far. The loan-er model we have is excellent. We have had no problems with it.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?In some ways, we think it may go beyond what we need moving forward. We don't know yet. We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now. But that's what we think we're going to end up seeing as we continue to go through this process of machine-learning.How is customer service and technical support?Tech support has been outstanding. In fact, what HPE is doing is helping us develop the software stack for us to be able to move forward with this whole approach. Our intent is to develop a machine-learning and inference capability within all of Seagate operations, which include eight sites around the world.My expectation is that this is going to be a rather huge improvement in our operations process. It takes about six months for us to build a single hard drive, and we sell millions of them per year. So you can imagine how important it is for us to develop an analytics capability that HPE is offering us. So it isn't just the Apollo 6500, it's also the software stack that runs on top of it.Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2018-06-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 byit_user568107 from It supports our network requirements for network captures at high data rates. We're looking for faster disk-write capability.What is most valuable?We're using the Apollo 4200 as a data capture system. The most important things for us are the amount of storage on there, the ability to configure it, and change the configuration so we could do the network captures we need at very high data rates. It meets our network requirement of being able to capture up to 40-gig with a small form factor.How has it helped my organization?We are moving from existing 10-gig environments to a 40-gig environment. The ability to capture those high data rates is really important to us. We need to know what's going on in the network. We need to be able to explain to our customers any issues or problems, and where they might have occurred.What needs improvement?We're looking for faster capability to write to drives. We're fully loaded with all the small form factor drives loaded into the system. It is practically at the limit of the capability supported by the architecture. So we need new solutions, new types of drive capabilities, and faster bus speeds.What do I think about the stability of the solution?It is good in terms of stability. We are struggling a little bit with some of the configuration we need to do, particularly with write capability to drives. That's the only part where we struggle with getting the solution going; but we've had significant conversations with HPE, and worked through a load of issues. We are actually getting the solution that gets to our capabilities.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?We tend to only use a single rack-mount server for what we're trying to do. The ability to keep it small, reduce the footprint and reduce costs are the most important things that the Apollo 4200 gives us.How is customer service and technical support?Technical support has been very good. We've been given access to senior HP personnel in America. They've given us lots of guidance and help in actually configuring the system.Which solutions did we use previously?We were previously using the older DL 380's with MSA drives. We knew their limitations using the fiber channel in terms of the transfer rates we could get out of it, for example, but we needed something that would work with the move to a 40-gig network environment.How was the initial setup?The initial setup was fairly straightforward. What we're trying to do with the solution added to the complexity; so we needed some guidance, mainly on how to configure the way the drives and everything were allocated to enable us to actually do the captures. From that initial build to where we are now, it's taken a little while to get there; but it is a fairly complex system.Which other solutions did I evaluate?We looked at four or five different vendors. Some of them were talked about very expensive solutions. The HPE solution cost about one-third less. Taking into consideration the cost, HPE gave us the ability to actually do what we wanted to do. Also, the relationship and being able to talk to them was important in our decision. Getting access to their technical people is very important to us. We've been an HP user for many years.What other advice do I have?Not many companies will have a similar type of requirements as we do. But if you need a low cost solution with a low footprint, then the Apollo 4200 is an ideal system for that.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-12-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 byit_user368157 from It allows us to use a few nodes as possible for storing log-file data so that we have as much direct space capacity as possible.Valuable FeaturesApollo's most valuable features for us are its density and storage capabilities.Improvements to My OrganizationWe're trying to keep all log files in our Hadoop server, which amounts to several terabytes a day of locked data that we need to analyze. Apollo allows us to use as few nodes as possible for this so that we have as much direct space capacity as possible. It gives us much more space per gigabyte.Room for ImprovementIt's a very good system when you need a lot of disk capacity. But it's unclear whether the performance of the IO will be sufficient when calculating the theoretical amount of time to read all the disc space. If the workload is not purely sequential, then performance in the IO is less than optimal because it's optimized for streaming processing.Deployment IssuesWe have no issues with deployment.Stability IssuesWe installed it in place about a week ago, and it's been running without problems.Scalability IssuesWe have probably some 6,000 or 7,000 physical cells already and are planning more.Customer Service and Technical SupportWe have technical account managers who work with us. It's pretty much a direct line to HP without having to dial the general support number.Previous SolutionsWe previously used the DL380s. Compared to those, Apollo has roughly four times the amount of space per server, which means we can really do a lot. We technically could have four DL380s, but the licensing cost would have been significantly more.Initial SetupThe initial setup was straightforward, and we've been happy about it.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-01-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 byit_user568143 from Stable solution for management and monitoring.What is most valuable?It's a stable product; very reliable. It is a good basis upon which to build further. You see some evolution, but not too much. If you go to their events every year, you see an incremental evolution which is normal in that road.How has it helped my organization?I'm just a general manager and I’m not really technical. However, it gives you a nice, better flavor of the monitoring. I have heard that it provides better management and you can see the possibilities.What needs improvement?OpenView ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-openview ) is a new product which does not support older versions of the hardware. This is an issue. That's why we cannot switch to the newer one. We continue using the older product, and that's working fine. I would like to see a bit more integration. This is the major topic.What do I think about the scalability of the solution?It is stable and scalable, but the new product has some advantages which we like. However, we cannot switch because we have an issue between non-supported and supported devices.What other advice do I have?When choosing another vendor, we look at the overall product and then the software product on top of that. Switching to another vendor is always a big step. We normally don't do that because it presents issues. Every solution will migrate to the same functionality. There is not a great difference between various solutions, but only an incremental one.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-12-28T00:00:00-05:00