Good Cheap Server - HP Proliant Microserver 4 BAY - OWNERS THREAD

Anyone running a gen8 as a nested ESXi server?

My N54l doesn't appear to have enough grunt to do this and I'm considering getting a gen8 with a 1230v2
 
I splashed out on my Xeon and went for a new Xeon 1265Lv2 to keep the temps down. Keep a close eye on the temps if you are using the normal 1230v2. You'll certainly want to change the cooling profile in the BIOS.

'Kingston Technology ValueRam DDR3 1333 MHz ECC DIMM - 16 GB Memory Kit (2 x 8 GB)' was £120, shouldn't take much finding. Model number is KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G.

The Celeron is comes with is surprisingly ok, keeps the power bills down and runs nice and cool. Unless you are in need of extra cores for virtual stuff, I'd imagine it will be fine for a storage server.

I'm running HyperV on mine so can't be help with ESXi questions. There is a HP ESXi image for the G8 around somewhere that should give you drivers out of the box.
edit - here they are http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/servers/solutions.html?compURI=1499005#tab=TAB4

If you are installing a supported OS, you can use the built in Intelligent Provisioning stuff to do all the drivers etc for you. I needed to update mine before it would install 2012R2 properly, but it was all very slick.
 
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beavis said:
The Celeron is comes with is surprisingly ok, keeps the power bills down and runs nice and cool. Unless you are in need of extra cores for virtual stuff, I'd imagine it will be fine for a storage server.
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Definitely. Maybe even overpowered for a small home file server in that you can certainly run on less powerful chips just for simple file storage. The Celeron G1610T is easily able to transcode one 1080p stream so I think it's a nice balance for me atm. Anyway dispatched already, so one microserver en route. :)
 
Dandle said:
I bought a Pico psu for mine and power it with a Dell 19v 120w power brick I already had.
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How has it worked with the 120w power brick? I would have thought you would need to go to 140 or 150w?

My psu is on the way out and I need a silent solution, are you able to provide a shopping list of everything you needed please.
 
Cheers for the advice, will bare that in mind. Hopefully I get a chance to play around with tomorrow but this is dependent on everything turning up and getting some free time.
 
Nope. It will get a little toasty but looking at the link I posted a few posts up, it should be alright and well within critical ranges.
 
Where is the best place to get the BIOS mod that will enable full speed for the 5th SATA port? I have an N54 and an N36 that both need modding, the N54 one is more pressing.

Thanks in advance.


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
Where is the best place to get the BIOS mod that will enable full speed for the 5th SATA port? I have an N54 and an N36 that both need modding, the N54 one is more pressing.

Thanks in advance.


rp2000
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It's in this thread somewhere otherwise my username .co.uk and follow any tag for micro server and I host a version from my site. You need to do the HP stuff yourself but the actual German bios I host as it isn't "protected"
 
My new toy arrived yesterday. Have spent a few hours with it trying out all the different settings and just thought I'd post some initial thoughts.

  • Very well built and I couldn't have put together anything this nice for the same money. Screams of quality throughout although it has some annoyances and quirks to be aware of.
  • The Kingston PL318E/8G memory runs fine. I know this is fairly obvious given it's sold as HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 specific memory and not an ideal configuration to run alongside the 2GB stick but this is fine for now.
  • As someone used to building my PC's from parts it took some getting used to iLO, Self Provisioning and the BIOS settings. It's certainly very slow at start-up but I appreciate this is a fully fledged server.
  • Came with the latest Firmware installed already.
  • UnRAID ran straight away out of the box. Within minutes I could setup the array and start using it, although the array being built obviously takes a long time. Strikes me as an almost perfect small UnRAID box.

Noise levels:
When you first start it up or choose to run using the embedded RAID 120i controller (Ubuntu doesn't include the drivers...great) the main fan runs at 6%. It's near silent and absolutely acceptable within a lounge or as an HTPC at this level. However running AHCI seems to raise the fan speed to 11-13% from what I've seen so far. This makes the main fan more audible and the fan far more noticeable. It's louder than my current Linux Server (self-build) but I do need to spend some more time monitoring this. I understand from reading all the various HP and HSS forum threads that the noise on AHCI mode is a lot better now than it was before the newer firmware. Certainly when the unit is starting up the fans spin quite fast and it does sound like a hairdryer or original Xbox 360.

Annoyances (aware of some of these before purchasing):
  • Can't run Ubuntu Server with the embedded RAID controller. At least without downloading a driver that's not included in the kernel. And using the RAID controller (as mentioned) doesn't spin down drives.
  • Can't boot easily from the ODD port and it takes some adapters to get power to the SATA port (molex splitter or FDD power to SATA, although the latter is about £23). You can buy a separate SATA controller card but again around £20+ pounds.
  • I wish it had HDMI on it, rather than the VGA port. Although it seems allow a PCI-E card to be the primary display this is obviously an extra cost. I realised I've only got one screen in the house left that has a VGA input.
  • No spare HDD screws or Torx tool included. Minor complaint but seems a bit cheap to me.

Still to do:
  • Want to play with Ubuntu Server on it.
  • Want to work out how best to install an SSD to run Ubuntu Server. My current thinking is to buy an 2.5" to 3.5" adapter that's about £8/9 and plug my existing SSD into one of the 4 main bays. I think the most storage I'll run is 3 x 4TB REDs in RAID5 so this seems a workable solution.

One possible stupid question. I've seen screenshots of being able to view the Microserver rebooting through a console. How is this done, or can you not do this via iLO standard and require an advanced license? EDIT: please ignore - answered.

So a bit of work to do before I can decommission the old Synology/Linux setup. I can appreciate this is a fantastic machine for running virtual-OS's though but not really wanting to try this yet, but a possible no-brainer if you are into that. Anyway hope that helps becuase I know these are very tempting at the current price.

P1010750.JPG
 
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ANDARIAL said:
Weren`t they on the back of the door?Like the N54L ? :)
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You get one small Torx T10/T15 bit on the inside of the door. Then your get 4 screws on each of the HDD brackets but no spares as mentioned. After years of getting loads of spares bits on Lian Li/CM cases I just think it would have been nice to receive some.

I've also worked out the answer to my question about the remote console. I didn't see it before in the iLO pages (partly becuase of my browser choice) but also becuase I wasn't paying attention.
 
Timber said:
One possible stupid question. I've seen screenshots of being able to view the Microserver rebooting through a console. How is this done, or can you not do this via iLO standard and require an advanced license?
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I suspect you can do this to some degree using the standard (default) license, certainly it's OK for the BIOS/boot. You'll need to ensure the iLo NIC is plugged in and you know what IP address it's on. Best way is to configure it with a static IP during boot, reset the password while you are there.

Then just browse to the IP from another PC
** No hotlinked images **
http://www.monkery.co.uk/hpg8/ilo4_1.png

And select remote console. You may need to install a .NET helper, instructions are on that page.
http://www.monkery.co.uk/hpg8/ilo4_2.png

edit - sorry, missed that you'd already figured it out. I'll leave this here in case it's useful for someone else.
 
beavis said:
I suspect you can do this to some degree using the standard (default) license, certainly it's OK for the BIOS/boot. You'll need to ensure the iLo NIC is plugged in and you know what IP address it's on. Best way is to configure it with a static IP during boot, reset the password while you are there.

edit - sorry, missed that you'd already figured it out. I'll leave this here in case it's useful for someone else.
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Thank you. I should have edited my original post to begin with (now done). I've gone as far as playing around with the 60-day trial and I'm impressed, although the cost is going to be too prohibitive for me to run.
 
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