Updated
This is the most common disappointment among first-time buyers of used enterprise hardware, and it is entirely avoidable with one question asked before purchase. The machine arrives, it boots, the management web interface loads, everything looks correct — and the one feature you bought enterprise hardware for is greyed out.
Everything below comes from vendor documentation, listed at the bottom of this page. Community workarounds for unlocking licensed features exist and are widely discussed; they are not on this page, because this page is about what the vendors document and mixing the two would make it impossible for you to tell which is which.
Dell tiers iDRAC as Basic, Express and Enterprise, with a Datacenter tier above Enterprise on later generations. Basic management — power control, health monitoring, the hardware inventory — is present on every machine. Express adds more. Enterprise is the tier that carries the full virtual console and virtual media, and on the generations that have one it is also the tier that enables the vFlash media slot.
That mapping is consistent across iDRAC7 on 12th-generation machines, iDRAC8 on 13th and iDRAC9 on 14th. What changes between generations is the interface and the surrounding feature set — iDRAC9 adds RESTful management with Redfish and iDRAC Direct, both of which Dell documents for the 14th-generation platforms — rather than where the console sits.
Applies to the Dell machines we cover: PowerEdge R730xd, PowerEdge R730, PowerEdge R740xd, PowerEdge R740, PowerEdge R720, PowerEdge R630, PowerEdge R640.
HPE separates a free iLO Standard tier from licensed tiers, and the licensed tiers are where the Integrated Remote Console with virtual media lives. The structure is the same across iLO 4 on Gen9 machines and iLO 5 on Gen10.
Two HPE-specific things are worth knowing. The machines have a dedicated iLO network connector on the rear, separate from the data NICs — HPE's Gen9 documentation shows it in the rear-view diagram — which means the management interface may need its own cable before you can reach it at all. And iLO 5 carries its own on-system management memory, which HPE documents as 32 MB of flash with 4 Gbit of DDR3 with ECC protection; that is a hardware fact rather than a licensing one, but it explains why iLO 5 feels like a more capable environment than iLO 4.
Applies to: ProLiant DL380 Gen9, ProLiant DL380 Gen10.
Lenovo ships the XClarity Controller in Standard, Advanced and Enterprise tiers. Lenovo's own model tables carry an XClarity Controller column marked S, A or E against each machine as configured from the factory, which is unusually transparent — it means a given part number shipped with a known tier.
As with the other two vendors, remote presence with virtual media sits in the higher tiers rather than in Standard, and the licence belongs to the machine.
Applies to: ThinkSystem SR650.
The licence is tied to the machine rather than to an account, so in the ordinary case it travels with the hardware. That is the vendor position and it is why a used machine can arrive with an Enterprise-tier licence still active.
What it does not mean is that any specific machine has one. Fleets are licensed inconsistently, some organisations bought the base tier deliberately, and a decommissioned machine may have had its licence handled in any number of ways before it reached the market. We cannot see inside a listing and neither can you.
So the practical advice reduces to a single question, asked before money changes hands: which management licence tier is active on this specific machine? Ask for the licence page from the management interface. Both Dell and HPE display it. A seller who does volume in this market will answer immediately; one who cannot may not have examined the machine at all, which tells you something separate and useful.
Decide whether you actually need the console before treating it as a dealbreaker. If the machine is going to live somewhere you can reach with a monitor and keyboard, basic management is genuinely sufficient — you get power control, health monitoring and hardware inventory, which is more than a desktop offers.
If the machine is going in a garage, a basement or another building, the console is most of the point and you should filter for it while shopping rather than solve it afterwards. Buying a machine that already carries the tier is the cheapest reliable route, and it is a filter you can apply for free. Vendors also sell licences directly, which is the supported way to add one later.
Alongside the storage controller, this is one of the two specifications that are far cheaper to select for than to change. Both are single questions to a seller, both have written answers, and both determine whether the machine does the job you bought it for. Our controller guide covers the other one.
The rest of the pre-purchase checklist — reading a configuration out of a listing title, what a barebones machine costs to finish — is on where to buy, and what to test once it arrives is on verify on arrival, where confirming the console works is a step in its own right.
8 in-stock listings · conventionally recorded, array-grade, in stock now · ranked by live cost per tb, refreshed every few hours
| Drive | Capacity | Interface | Recording | Condition | $/TB | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HGST Ultrastar He10 10TB SAS 12G HUH721010AL5200 | 10TB | SAS-12G | CMR | REFURB | $23.50 | $235 | Buy |
| Toshiba MG07ACA14TE 14TB SATA Enterprise MG07ACA14TE | 14TB | SATA-6G | CMR | REFURB | $23.50 | $329 | Buy |
| MDD 14TB SATA 6G 7200RPM 256MB Enterprise MDD14TSATA25672E | 14TB | SATA-6G | CMR | REFURB | $23.57 | $330 | Buy |
| WD Ultrastar 12TB SATA HUH721212ALE604 HUH721212ALE604 | 12TB | SATA-6G | CMR | REFURB | $25.00 | $300 | Buy |
| MDD 10TB SAS 12G 7200RPM MDD10TSAS25672E | 10TB | SAS-12G | CMR | NEW | $25.00 | $250 | Buy |
| MDD 18TB SATA 6G 7200RPM NAS MD18TSATA25672NAS | 18TB | SATA-6G | CMR | REFURB | $25.00 | $450 | Buy |
| Seagate Enterprise Capacity 10TB SAS Helium ST10000NM0096 | 10TB | SAS-12G | CMR | REFURB | $25.06 | $251 | Buy |
| MDD 18TB SATA 7200RPM NAS MDD18TS25672NAS | 18TB | SATA-6G | CMR | REFURB | $25.56 | $460 | Buy |
Every tier claim on this page traces to one of these vendor documents. Where a document does not state something, this page does not claim it.
Not included on this page: any community method for enabling licensed features. Those exist and are discussed elsewhere; they are not vendor-documented, and mixing them into a page of vendor facts would make the whole page harder to trust.
The hardware is on every machine and basic management is present without a licence. What is not free is the tier that carries the full virtual console and virtual media - the remote-KVM behaviour that lets you install an operating system and rescue the machine from a laptop. That sits in the Enterprise tier on both iDRAC8 and iDRAC9. So 'the machine has iDRAC' and 'the machine has the feature you want' are different statements, and only the second one matters.
The licence is tied to the machine rather than to a person, so in the normal case it stays with the hardware when the hardware changes hands. What we will not tell you is that this is guaranteed for any specific unit, because we cannot see what is installed on a machine we have not bought. Treat it as a question for the seller with a written answer, not an assumption.
For most homelab and small-office use, the one with the remote console and virtual media. That is the feature that makes a machine able to live somewhere inconvenient - a garage, a basement, a rack in another building - because you can install, reinstall and rescue it without standing in front of it. Without it you will be carrying a monitor and keyboard to the machine, which defeats a large part of why enterprise hardware is appealing.
Ask the seller to log into the management interface and tell you what the licence page reports, or to send a screenshot of it. Both Dell and HPE expose the installed licence in the web interface. A seller doing volume in this market will know exactly what you are asking; one who does not may be selling a machine they have not examined, which is itself information.
Vendors do sell licences, and that is the supported route. What we are not going to do is point you at the various unofficial approaches that circulate in forums, because this page is a vendor-documentation page and those are neither documented nor supported. If the licence matters to your build - and it usually does - the cheapest reliable path is to buy a machine that already has the tier you need, which is a filter you can apply while shopping rather than a problem to solve afterwards.
Vendors have historically offered evaluation periods for the higher management tiers, and where a vendor documents such a trial it is a legitimate way to confirm the feature does what you need before committing. Because the availability and length of those offers change over time and are not something we can verify continuously, we point you at the vendor's own licensing pages rather than stating current terms we might be wrong about.
Structurally yes. Lenovo ships XClarity Controller in Standard, Advanced and Enterprise tiers - the S, A and E column in Lenovo's own model tables - and remote presence with virtual media sits in the higher tiers rather than Standard. As with Dell and HPE, the licence belongs to the machine, so the buying advice is identical: ask which tier the specific unit carries.