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

IT Troll said:
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.
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It's installed on the MicroSD, worth swapping to a USB3 drive? I'm an absolute beginner at this so apologies in advance for daft questions. I've searched a bit about this and a few people are suggesting the HP storage driver might need rolling back, which I'm not sure how to do.
 
IIRC the header in the Gen8 is USB2, not that for a simple ESXi it would make that much difference anyway.
 
fuzzylogic said:
It's installed on the MicroSD, worth swapping to a USB3 drive? I'm an absolute beginner at this so apologies in advance for daft questions. I've searched a bit about this and a few people are suggesting the HP storage driver might need rolling back, which I'm not sure how to do.
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When I looked at it a few years ago the MicroSD had a few issues. Sometimes is would get disabled and wouldn't boot (different to what you are seeing) and so I went the USB route. The controller can be run in either SATA or RAID mode. If you just have a single drive, either mode would work for you. I run mine in RAID mode and never had to mess with storage drivers.
 
Actually, looking back at your image version I am struggling to match it for compatibility. There are different builds for Pre-Gen9 (i.e. Gen8) and Gen9 onwards. Could it be that a Gen9 image was used?

ESXi 6.5 U1 Nov 2017 – Last Pre-Gen9 custom image
VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-6765664-HPE-650.U1.9.6.5.1-Nov2017.iso

ESXi 6.5 U2 Sept 2018 – Last Pre-Gen9 custom image
VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update2-9298722-HPE-preGen9-650.U2.9.6.8.3-Sep2018.iso

As the titles suggest, HP are not producing any more custom install images for the Gen8. But once 6.5 is installed you can perform an in place upgrade to 6.7.
 
IT Troll said:
Actually, looking back at your image version I am struggling to match it for compatibility. There are different builds for Pre-Gen9 (i.e. Gen8) and Gen9 onwards. Could it be that a Gen9 image was used?

ESXi 6.5 U1 Nov 2017 – Last Pre-Gen9 custom image
VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-6765664-HPE-650.U1.9.6.5.1-Nov2017.iso

ESXi 6.5 U2 Sept 2018 – Last Pre-Gen9 custom image
VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update2-9298722-HPE-preGen9-650.U2.9.6.8.3-Sep2018.iso

As the titles suggest, HP are not producing any more custom install images for the Gen8. But once 6.5 is installed you can perform an in place upgrade to 6.7.
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That's interesting, and would explain a lot. I'll give that a go tomorrow.

UPDATE: Haven't had much time in the last few days but looked at the image again and it should be 6765664. Still, tempted to try reinstalling to USB rather than SD card.

Also need to check if this is an issue: https://www.johandraaisma.nl/fix-vmware-esxi-6-slow-disk-performance-on-hp-b120i-controller/
 
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I have an ageing N54L (Gen7) running MS whs2011 that I'm wanting to replace, it currently performs as a) a file server, DriveBender installed for drive management and folder replication and b) as my Mediaserver running Emby severing both client inside and away from home.

Looking for recommendations on what to replace it with, the Gen 10 has been out for a couple of years and the next HPE iteration isn't due until next year so wondering what the alternatives were?

Any recommendations appreciated, cheers.
 
I went down the custom build route as the Gen8 was a mile better than the Gen10 by the time I had upgraded it, really does depend on what your usage now, and in the future might be...
 
The Gen10 isn’t so popular. The CPU is soldered, it does not have ILO, has odd PCI slots, and limited RAID. Hopefully the next gen doesn’t continue in this direction as the Gen8 was a much better system overall.
 
Only reason I got rid of my Gen8 was down to the 16Gb RAM limit, if it would have taken 32Gb I'd still be running it now..
 
Hi all

A friend has recently asked me to sort out his aging N40L - it wouldnt boot at all - turns out it was the PSU and it up and running fine again
As SSDs are cheap im going to put a 250GB SSD in the optical to put the OS on it to give it a speed boost - takes minutes to start up at the moment +5

The question is really whats the best OS to put on - hes currently running plain Windows 10 - think he has 8gb memory (not checked)

Ive recommended XPenology although Ive not used that myself - any other recommendations

He was using it as a newz downloader and plex server / file server

Thanks anyone
 
Xpenology on Gen8 does work great BUT of course it isnt windows / I moved back to w10 as I had a Tv tuner that only had W10 drivers and software.
But really W10 does great as a fileserver/plex machine/web browser .
I did have some issues with xpenology and plex , re plex stopped working on my version of xpenology . SO i stopped my plex subscription.
 
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Thanks all - thats what I think would be best

But hey he still wants windows 10 - some people :)

Thanks anyway - he will come back when it reaches EOL
 
Synology France (translated): "You should know that the use of XPEnology is illegal, and violates the intellectual property of Synology while infringing it's copyright. It is not allowed to install DSM on another server and may pose legal problems. DSM consists of two parts: GPL and our proprietary software. Synology has not granted any rights to third parties to install our own software on non-Synology servers."

Link: https://www.cachem.fr/xpenology-mot-fin/

Now call me crazy, but when the 'official' XPEnology regularly breaks on major version upgrades and advice is to avoid them like the plague 'for a few months' or until someone posts they got it to work, and how on the forum (and it's clear from some of the comments that some people just don't update), why would you spend a few hundred+ on hardware, potentially the same a year on power, and then use a bodged boot loader and pirated software? Surely your time/data is worth more than that?

UnRAID, FreeNAS/NAS4Free/XigmaNAS, OMV and many others exist and are cheap/free, yet still I keep seeing Xpenology recommended with no obvious reason, logic or regard to what it is, where it comes from, and the potential implications of it's use.
 
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