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

Quartz · 21 Jul 2019 at 12:02

Have you configured the RAID controller?

easyrider · 21 Jul 2019 at 22:25

Don’t suppose anyone has a spare hard drive Allen key for the HP 54L do they ?

Went to clean mine today and no key was in the door

saayinla · 22 Jul 2019 at 09:56

Quartz said:
Have you configured the RAID controller?

I had to pull out the 4 HDDs before windows will boot. I think one of my failing drives was responsible.

Is is possible to boot from the SSD if I have th Raid controller disabled by any chance? When i turn off the raid controller I can no longer see the SSD. nor any of the drives in the bays.

Quartz · 22 Jul 2019 at 10:26

saayinla said:
Is is possible to boot from the SSD if I have th Raid controller disabled by any chance?

No, it isn't as the SSD is controlled by the RAID controller. I have my 4 HDDs controlled by a separate controller but before I had that in, I configured the B110 RAID controller to have two sets of RAID 1 HDDs (4 in all) and the SSD in the optical bay. I configured the SSD as the boot drive.

Steveocee · 22 Jul 2019 at 13:02

easyrider said:
Don’t suppose anyone has a spare hard drive Allen key for the HP 54L do they ?

Went to clean mine today and no key was in the door

It's only a torx key. Nothing special. Should be able to pick a set up cheaply locally.

easyrider · 22 Jul 2019 at 16:06

Steveocee said:
It's only a torx key. Nothing special. Should be able to pick a set up cheaply locally.

Is it? Ok cool..thanks

ultim · 1 Aug 2019 at 21:52

im struggling to into the Dynamic Smart Array screen to configure my raid. I've pressed f5 during bootup but keep booting into windows. What am i doing wrong?

Rabtech · 1 Aug 2019 at 22:34

ultim said:
im struggling to into the Dynamic Smart Array screen to configure my raid. I've pressed f5 during bootup but keep booting into windows. What am i doing wrong?

Sounds like your embedded flash memory with the SSA software has gone bad, mine did when I did a firmware update - its a known fault and you get a motherboard replacement if your Gen 8 was still under warranty and it happened. You can work around it by downloading the following ISO, burn it with Rufus and boot from it. You can then configure your array as required.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_fac66a01809546579a9c3fd050

IT Troll · 3 Aug 2019 at 10:39

Snapshot said:
If you search the computer section of the auction site for 'gen8 cotton' you will be rewarded with an item containing a neat aluminium frame and three filter sheets. I'm pretty sure the filters are no more made of cotton than I am but do look like they're washable. The frame fits inside the Gen8's door, holding the filter in place. I don't know how effective it is yet but it looks like it should catch the worst of the dust drawn in without restricting the air flow too much.
Although it's supposed to be shipped from China, mine actually shipped from the UK and arrived in less than a week.

This has been a PSA.....

Thanks, looks like a useful bit of kit. Just wish I’d discovered these before my Gen8 was full of dust.

Avalon · 3 Aug 2019 at 11:11

IT Troll said:
Thanks, looks like a useful bit of kit. Just wish I’d discovered these before my Gen8 was full of dust.

Compressed air works wonders, just do it outside.

ultim · 15 Aug 2019 at 20:58

Rabtech said:
Sounds like your embedded flash memory with the SSA software has gone bad, mine did when I did a firmware update - its a known fault and you get a motherboard replacement if your Gen 8 was still under warranty and it happened. You can work around it by downloading the following ISO, burn it with Rufus and boot from it. You can then configure your array as required.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_fac66a01809546579a9c3fd050

Thanks for replying. Was trying again today and it worked. Your info was good to know though for the future.

Stephanie Peterson · 15 Aug 2019 at 21:36

Well i fitted an lsi sas controller from ebay for 20 to my dl380 to rid myself of the 410i and its great.
Disks the HP crap turned its nose up at the new unit sees happily.
Going to get another to run a jbod box down the line, one for the 8 internal bays and one for 8 external 3.5" drives that are miles cheaper.

HEADRAT · 27 Aug 2019 at 06:43

I'm starting to lose my sanity, I'm trying to create a new USB stick for my Gen8 Microserver (the existing USB had an encounter with an over zealous 6 year old!)I'm starting to lose my sanity, I'm trying to create a new USB stick for my Gen8 Microserver (the existing USB had an encounter with an over zealous 6 year old!

I've got my bootloader (DS3615xs 6.1 Jun's Mod V1.02b as DSM install was running 6.1) and I've updated the:

VID for USB
PID for USB
MAC for NIC
Serial

using OSFMOUNT (verified that the image does indeed have these values, edited grub.cfg using Notepad++). I then use RUFUS to create a bootable image from the IMG file.

The problem is that the Gen8 refuses to boot of the USB stick (I've tried several), the Gen8 is able to boot from USB as I've confirmed this with a ubuntu-19.04-desktop-amd64 iso.

It's been a number of years since I've done this but I don't recall it being particularly problematic, this has really got me "scratching my head". I looked at loads of post/youtube videos and I'm following the correct process but I'm going wrong somewhere!

Just a thought, I'm getting the bootloader from "Xpenology_Tool_V142" maybe that's an issue, what a good source for the "DS3615xs 6.1 Jun's Mod V1.02b" bootloader?

Beans on toast Dave · 1 Sep 2019 at 20:21

have a gen8 microserver, can i use the 2nd network port to supply internet to a tv directly? if so how?

thanks

Avalon · 1 Sep 2019 at 21:06

challengedavid said:
have a gen8 microserver, can i use the 2nd network port to supply internet to a tv directly? if so how?

thanks

You could, but the practicalities depend on your choice of OS, a switch is cheap, transparent and doesn’t require the microserver to be powered on.

Beans on toast Dave · 2 Sep 2019 at 08:10

Avalon said:
You could, but the practicalities depend on your choice of OS, a switch is cheap, transparent and doesn’t require the microserver to be powered on.

thanks, yes agree with that but would the option, w10 but not sure where to start

Avalon · 2 Sep 2019 at 08:24

challengedavid said:
thanks, yes agree with that but would the option, w10 but not sure where to start

I believe Windows 10 has Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) built in (not used it), so i’d start with that. A switch would still be the better option and they’re relatively inexpensive.

fuzzylogic · 8 Sep 2019 at 09:13

Hopefully this is the right place to ask. I've just acquired a Gen8 MS and I want to get exsi going on it so I can learn the environment. A colleague has helpfully installed exsi already but it seems to hang a lot while navigating the admin panel, especially when trying to view storage properties. When attempting to restart or shut down the server it never seems to be successful and I have to power it off (I haven't tried leaving it for longer than 30 minute tbf).

The image that's currently on there is HPE-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-iso-650.U1.0.6.5.1. MS spec is Xeon E3-1220L V2, 16GB RAM, and 1x WD Red 2TB.

IT Troll · 9 Sep 2019 at 00:07

IT Troll said:
Thanks, looks like a useful bit of kit. Just wish I’d discovered these before my Gen8 was full of dust.

Received my “cotton” filter kit. Mine did come from China and so delivery was around three weeks. It fits nicely tough and was only around £9 delivered.

IT Troll · 9 Sep 2019 at 00:18

fuzzylogic said:
Hopefully this is the right place to ask. I've just acquired a Gen8 MS and I want to get exsi going on it so I can learn the environment. A colleague has helpfully installed exsi already but it seems to hang a lot while navigating the admin panel, especially when trying to view storage properties. When attempting to restart or shut down the server it never seems to be successful and I have to power it off (I haven't tried leaving it for longer than 30 minute tbf).

The image that's currently on there is HPE-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-iso-650.U1.0.6.5.1. MS spec is Xeon E3-1220L V2, 16GB RAM, and 1x WD Red 2TB.

I have almost the same spec and don’t experience any of these issues. I am currently running 6.7 U2 but have run pretty much all the versions before that. The image you have should work fine. Where is ESXi installed? I installed ESXi to a USB stick plugged into the internal port. It is also possible to install to an internal Micro SD card, but I have heard of some issues with that. It might be worth checking the RAID configuration in case it is trying to check for a missing drive.