HP Gen8 Servers - Where's the SmartStart media you ask?
Where's the SmartStart disc? That's what I was asking myself when unpacking a new HP ML350 G8 destined for one of our client sites.
The answer was found in the Setup Poster PDF on the documentation CD. HP has taken the SmartStart media to a whole new level and now accomplishes the same tasks and more through their new Intelligent Provisioning. To quote from the HP PDF:
Intelligent Provisioning
Several packaging changes have taken place with HP ProLiant Gen8 servers: SmartStart CDs and the Smart
Update Firmware DVD will no longer ship with these new servers. Instead, the deployment capability is
embedded in the server as part of HP iLO Management Engine’s Intelligent Provisioning.
Intelligent Provisioning is an essential single-server deployment tool embedded in HP ProLiant Gen8 servers
that simplifies HP ProLiant server setup, providing a reliable and consistent way to deploy HP ProLiant server
configurations.
• Intelligent Provisioning assists with the OS installation process by preparing the system for installing
"off-the-shelf" versions of leading operating system software and automatically integrating optimized
HP ProLiant server support software from SPP. SPP is the installation package for operating
system-specific bundles of HP ProLiant optimized drivers, utilities, management agents, and system
firmware.
• Intelligent Provisioning provides maintenance-related tasks through Perform Maintenance features.
• Intelligent Provisioning provides installation help for Microsoft Windows, Red Hat and SUSE Linux, and
VMware. For specific OS support, see the HP Intelligent Provisioning Release Notes.
For more information on Intelligent Provisioning software, see the HP website (http://www.hp.com/go/ilo).
For more information about Intelligent Provisioning drivers, firmware, and SPP, see the HP website
(http://www.hp.com/go/spp/download).
So, there you have it. Hope this saves you some time digging around for it. I haven't looked at a setup poster for an HP server for quite some time because of the number of HP servers I've dealt with over the years. Outside of the sheet inside the chassis for RAM placement, there isn't normally a lot that changes... I thought. :-)