HPE iLO 5 Standard v Advanced Web Management Walk-through

We have been doing quick videos on the web management interfaces of several server providers. HPE iLO 5 is found in multiple different flavors. We wanted to not only give STH readers an idea regarding the look and feel of the HPE ProLiant Gen10 management interfaces but also to show off some of the iLO 5 Standard v. Advanced differences. HPE segments its management feature sets to sell some base features in iLO 5 Standard with servers and up-sells other features in Advanced.

HPE iLO 5 Standard v Advanced Web Management Walk-through

Here is a quick walk-through of the HPE iLO 5 Standard and Advanced solutions using two HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 servers in our lab. We were setting up a small Ceph cluster and used two identically configured machines to show off the differences.

A quick note here, we are going through the solutions using the web management interface. Like other server management solutions, the real power comes from the data the BMC collects and the ability to act on the system using automation tools.

Perhaps the biggest feature in the iLO 5 Advanced is the ability to use KVM-over-IP. Some have told us this is the #1 reason customers upgrade to advanced.

Other server vendors offer this functionality included with their hardware, but HPE charges more if you want to use iKVM after the POST sequence has started and OS boot begins. For users, if you have iLO 5 Standard, you will not be able to troubleshoot OS issues remotely using iKVM. That requires an upgrade.

HPE also has a number of tools including their Firmware Verification which is part of iLO 5 Advanced’s security upgrades. Firmware Verification in iLO 5 Advanced scans the server’s hardware to ensure there are valid firmware signatures so that the system cannot be tampered with at a low-level.

Final Words

Overall, HPE iLO 5 is a higher-end solution and built to work in conjunction with tools like HPE InfoSight AI Management. If you want to learn more about what BMC’s like the iLO 5 do in servers, we have a guide you can reference here: Explaining the Baseboard Management Controller or BMC in Servers.