HP ProLiant MicroServer - Discussion/Help

degsie

Please post your installation/configuration/upgrade experiences and help requests here.

HP support forum...
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/psi/home?sp4ts.oid=4248009&ac.admitted=1434805592243.876444892.492883150

Danger781

Managed to get unRAID 6 up and running today and it is currently going through the parity sync so I'll wait until that finishes before adding any files to the array. It has so far been an absolute dream to use!

I don't have a cache device set up yet because I forgot the fact my SSD would need power.. oops I'll run some benchmarks later to see what kind of speed I get to / from the array without cache.

Danger781

So I've got 1 Parity disk and 1 data disk with no cache installed. These are the benchmarks from CrystalDiskMark:

5 x 1GB passes


5 x 4GB passes


I think these look okay considering I don't have a cache device setup

Compared to my 1TB internal drive..

Danger781

I'm loving unRAID so far. Transferred over my movie collection today and set up the Plex container. Will be setting the up the Deluge container as well later on after dinner.

After all my fuss about wanting a hypervisor I still haven't even thought about setting up any VMs yet.

zweton

a bit off topic but does the hp microserver allow 32gb?
i wanted to buy one for vmware lab, i know 16gb would prob do but to have potential for 32gb down the line would be great. also where is the cheapest to buy, amazon uk?

Danger781

zweton wrote: »

a bit off topic but does the hp microserver allow 32gb?
i wanted to buy one for vmware lab, i know 16gb would prob do but to have potential for 32gb down the line would be great. also where is the cheapest to buy, amazon uk?

AFAIK the gen8 is limited to 16GB

zweton

is there any that can take 32?

Danger781

For those of you using unRAID;

What Dockers are you using? I have finished implementing my torrent / media setup (Deluge, Transmission, Plex, Sonarr and Couchpotato). Also set up Teamspeak and DuckDNS last night.

My next plan is to set up an RSS aggregator for keeping up with my favourite sites, podcasts, etc. There doesn't seem to be any decent web apps for keeping up with the various sites I like so I think a self-hosted solution would be best. Does anyone have any recommendations?

gordonl

Tiny Tiny RSS (TT-RSS) is an excellent aggregator. There are a fair few docker images of it available.
I can't comment on them as i have it installed on the host.

SparrowHawk

Hi All,

looking to purchase a remote access card (615095-b21) for the server. Anywhere I've seen on-line is out of stock.

Does anyone know where I could get one?

Thanks in advance,

SH

Got a Gen8 recently but am still in the process of getting it up and running. It's the G1610T with 16GB of RAM, two 2TB WD Reds and a 240GB SSD. My intention is to use it both as a NAS (using the WD Reds) and a Hyper-V test bed with the VM system drives on the SSD. Also have the iLO 4 Advanced licence.

Noticed a few issues though. In RAID mode with the B120i controller, TRIM doesn't seem to work because the Server 2012 R2 defrag and optimise utility said that optimisation was not available. In AHCI mode, you can't boot from SATA port 5, so I worked around that by putting BOOTMGR and the Boot directory on an old 64MB MicroSD card I had knocking about, and put that in the motherboard's MicroSD slot. So now that it's in AHCI mode I need to decide on whether to use plain old dynamic disks for the mirror or to go with Storage Spaces.

Was having another issue with Windows Deployment Services in a VM, but I'll make a separate thread for that.

Danger781

Let's talk about security..

I'm running unRAID 6 with multiple dockers exposed to the web. I understand now that this is a big nono so I will look into taking these offline today. The issue with this is that some of them are used externally to my network and I don't want this to change;

Torrents - I have a torrent client that grabs torrents from a private tracker via Sonarr and an RSS feed. This is 90% automated, which is great.. but as far as I remember this required me to open a port for Sonarr and a port for the torrent client (Deluge & Transmission) which are forwarded to the IP of my server. I can transfer the torrent client to my desktop if needed but this wouldn't be ideal.

Plex - I use Plex at my GFs house frequently via the android app and the chromecast. This is best used on the server so we can access it 24/7 without worrying about turning on my desktop. I have also given her sister access to Plex via the same setup (iPhone + Chromecast). This required forwarding a port to the server.

Teamspeak / DuckDNS - I host a teamspeak server for my friends when we play games together. Rather than accessing this directly via the IP of the server I just give them my DuckDNS address (Another docker container). Can't remember if this required a port or not.

---

What are my options for implementing a more secure environment?

I thought about implementing a VPN docker BUT I'm not sure if this will work with the chromecast. I used to have a subscription to 'Private Internet Access' and if I ever connected to that via their app I was no longer able to find the chromecast when using Netflix. I assume Plex will be the same.

I realise some of this is possibly unRAID specific.. but any tips appreciated

Danger781

Just to note my server is connected directly to gigabit switch which is connected to my UPC Router.

Cuddlesworth

Put a firewall on it. Block except ssh traffic to your local network and then move from there to opening specific ports to specific things.

Danger781

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Put a firewall on it. Block except ssh traffic to your local network and then move from there to opening specific ports to specific things.

What would be the best option for installing a firewall on the server? My only options are docker containers, or in a VM.. What would work best?

Cuddlesworth

Danger781 wrote: »

What would be the best option for installing a firewall on the server? My only options are docker containers, or in a VM.. What would work best?

I've never worked with docker but a glance at it implies its complicated. It seems to run a linux OS with virtualized containers within. So in theory you can put a firewall on the host or just use ip-tables. But in reality its built to be behind a firewall.

The other option and also the next step is to ensure that all traffic is authenticated. So teamspeak, plex all require a plug-in with limited auth tries and timeouts. In reality its a home server. Its not that important in the scheme of things to other people to invest the time and money to get into.

dunworth1

my gen8 arrived today.

i have 4gb of ram yet to arrive to up it to 8gb

i bought a ilo4 advanced lic for $22 and have that installed work a treat.

i currently installing 2012 r2

and i'm doing it all with ilo you can mount a iso to the server and boot from it

it also allows you to connect remotely to it

so i'm setting up everything without ever having to connect it to a monitor

dunworth1

dunworth1 wrote: »

my gen8 arrived today.

i have 4gb of ram yet to arrive to up it to 8gb

i bought a ilo4 advanced lic for $22 and have that installed work a treat.

i currently installing 2012 r2

and i'm doing it all with ilo you can mount a iso to the server and boot from it

it also allows you to connect remotely to it

so i'm setting up everything without ever having to connect it to a monitor

iLO is brilliant, I did the very same.

Here's the latest HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) if you need it. It will give you all of the firmware and driver updates up to June of this year.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd-generic/p67859018/v110210/SPP2015060.2015_0605.106.iso

dunworth1

Karsini wrote: »

iLO is brilliant, I did the very same.

Here's the latest HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) if you need it. It will give you all of the firmware and driver updates up to June of this year.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd-generic/p67859018/v110210/SPP2015060.2015_0605.106.iso

cheers already did that forgot to mention.
i actually had to phone hp support as i had an issue linking the server to my account to access the downloads

there is also a newer ilo firmware available then the one that's included new version is 2.22

my3cents

Has anyone worked out how much power they are burning running one of these servers in a specific setup 24x7?

I've reduced my power usage by doing day to day browsing on a netbook rather than a quad core desktop and only keep and old Dell inspiron 530 desktop running 24x7 rather than the old quad core and I'm wondering if I can justify a new server based on saving money on the electric bill?

The old Dell desktop has a Dual Core E6320 in it and runs Win Srv 2008 with TMG. It has a USB3 card and I use it for file sharing on 3 external 2GB 2.5inch USB drives. Other members of the family can be up at any time of the day or night using the internet which is why the TMG server stays on.

I used an inline meter on my MicroServer and it was pulling about 30W at idle. I have the G1610T version with two WD Red disks.

stimpson

my3cents wrote: »

Has anyone worked out how much power they are burning running one of these servers in a specific setup 24x7?

I've reduced my power usage by doing day to day browsing on a netbook rather than a quad core desktop and only keep and old Dell inspiron 530 desktop running 24x7 rather than the old quad core and I'm wondering if I can justify a new server based on saving money on the electric bill?

The old Dell desktop has a Dual Core E6320 in it and runs Win Srv 2008 with TMG. It has a USB3 card and I use it for file sharing on 3 external 2GB 2.5inch USB drives. Other members of the family can be up at any time of the day or night using the internet which is why the TMG server stays on.

The E6320 will consume nearly double the power of the G1610T: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo-E6320-vs-Intel-Celeron-G1610T

A bigger consideration is the OS and how often it spins down the drives. Half a dozen spinning drives will be a bigger drain than the processor.

Also, if you have a Graphics card in the Dell, that will make a difference too.

As a rule of thumb, 1W run 24x7 for a year will cost around a euro. So if there is a 50W difference, that's going to save you €50 over a year.

dunworth1

got windows installed last night and all updates installed this morning.

have reinstalled plex media server and imported back in my old database.

my3cents

stimpson wrote: »

The E6320 will consume nearly double the power of the G1610T: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo-E6320-vs-Intel-Celeron-G1610T

A bigger consideration is the OS and how often it spins down the drives. Half a dozen spinning drives will be a bigger drain than the processor.

Also, if you have a Graphics card in the Dell, that will make a difference too.

As a rule of thumb, 1W run 24x7 for a year will cost around a euro. So if there is a 50W difference, that's going to save you €50 over a year.

Thanks for the comparison link. It also gives me a good idea what to expect if I was to run the same software on an HP MicroServer.

Finally got around to measuring the current set up (pun not intended) and its not that bad. It settles down to 68-69 Watts with a couple of old internal drives (200GB Maxtor that it boots off and a 500GB WD blue(?) drive) and with the three external HDD's plugged in its 77-79 Watts. I don't need to use the second 500GB internal drive so might disconnect it. I could also run the whole thing off an old laptop HDD. All parts were free (apart from the external drives and the USB 3 controller) so the MicroServer will have to go back on the wish list for the time being.

No CD/DVD and only the onboard graphics card. All values in Watts from a cheap Maplin inline mains power meter.

zzyxxx

I'm looking to set one of these up as a HTPC type setup (connect to TV with a graphics card that has HDMI out).
Would it be able for playing HD content?
I also would like to use wake on lan, has anyone experience of this? Specifically - it will sit beside a UPC router.
I also would like to use ILO to manage it from my laptop. My laptop will be connected to the WiFi from the UPC router (again, is this possible with said configuration?).
Ideally I would like to use some version of Windows Server, so I can set up TFS to learn something about that. I would also like to set up folder shares and user accounts for other users in my house.

is there a specific RJ45 port I need to connect to for Wake on Lan or ILO?

Thanks for any help.

The iLO has a dedicated RJ45 port. But you can also enabled Shared mode, which allows you to use it on one of the existing ports if required. Regarding WOL, I haven't tried it but you could log into the iLO and power it up from there. There's even an iOS app for iLO, probably Android too. So you could power it up from your phone.

One thing to be aware of, if you add an external video card, the remote console in iLO no longer works, because it relies on the onboard Matrox G200 video. It might be possible to add a second card and use that as the secondary card, keeping the G200 as the primary, but I haven't tested.

zzyxxx

Karsini wrote: »

The iLO has a dedicated RJ45 port. But you can also enabled Shared mode, which allows you to use it on one of the existing ports if required. Regarding WOL, I haven't tried it but you could log into the iLO and power it up from there. There's even an iOS app for iLO, probably Android too. So you could power it up from your phone.

One thing to be aware of, if you add an external video card, the remote console in iLO no longer works, because it relies on the onboard Matrox G200 video. It might be possible to add a second card and use that as the secondary card, keeping the G200 as the primary, but I haven't tested.

Thanks for that info. I didn't realise that the iLO can turn on the server from sleeping, so I don't really need to worry about WOL.
The idea is to get a low profile internal video card.
I'm sure it would pick up the video card and allow me to play through it to the TV (by RDP'ing to Windows through iLO)..?

Yep looks like there is an Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.essn.iss.ilo.iec.spa

From my testing, with an Nvidia GeForce 210, the initial POST appears on the iLO but once the Nvidia card is initialised, you just get a black screen from then on. I never thought of setting the Nvidia card as the secondary card to see how it would work.

By the way, the iLO operates even when the server is off, once it has power of course. So that's how you can power it on and off.

zzyxxx

Karsini wrote: »

From my testing, with an Nvidia GeForce 210, the initial POST appears on the iLO but once the Nvidia card is initialised, you just get a black screen from then on. I never thought of setting the Nvidia card as the secondary card to see how it would work.

By the way, the iLO operates even when the server is off, once it has power of course. So that's how you can power it on and off.

Quick bit of research shows that you can do this:

http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5639-proliant-microserver-gen8-links/page-3#entry66370

Wossack

Danger781 wrote: »

Let's talk about security..

I'm running unRAID 6 with multiple dockers exposed to the web. I understand now that this is a big nono so I will look into taking these offline today. The issue with this is that some of them are used externally to my network and I don't want this to change;

Torrents - I have a torrent client that grabs torrents from a private tracker via Sonarr and an RSS feed. This is 90% automated, which is great.. but as far as I remember this required me to open a port for Sonarr and a port for the torrent client (Deluge & Transmission) which are forwarded to the IP of my server. I can transfer the torrent client to my desktop if needed but this wouldn't be ideal.

Plex - I use Plex at my GFs house frequently via the android app and the chromecast. This is best used on the server so we can access it 24/7 without worrying about turning on my desktop. I have also given her sister access to Plex via the same setup (iPhone + Chromecast). This required forwarding a port to the server.

Teamspeak / DuckDNS - I host a teamspeak server for my friends when we play games together. Rather than accessing this directly via the IP of the server I just give them my DuckDNS address (Another docker container). Can't remember if this required a port or not.

---

What are my options for implementing a more secure environment?

I thought about implementing a VPN docker BUT I'm not sure if this will work with the chromecast. I used to have a subscription to 'Private Internet Access' and if I ever connected to that via their app I was no longer able to find the chromecast when using Netflix. I assume Plex will be the same.

I realise some of this is possibly unRAID specific.. but any tips appreciated

have a look at this guys blog - http://www.seandion.info/unraid/

reckon thats one of the better ways of going about it

Danger781

Wossack wrote: »

have a look at this guys blog - http://www.seandion.info/unraid/

reckon thats one of the better ways of going about it

Nice one will give it a read

dunworth1

Danger781 wrote: »

For those of you using unRAID;

What Dockers are you using? I have finished implementing my torrent / media setup (Deluge, Transmission, Plex, Sonarr and Couchpotato). Also set up Teamspeak and DuckDNS last night.

never heard of sonarr before but i have been looking for something to automate
the process.

so i set it up just now wow its amazing thank you for posting it

Danger781

So my desktop died leaving me with only my server to work off for the time being. I have an Ubuntu VM installed on unRAID and I'm wondering if it would be possible to work off that somehow..

The most obvious solution is to use the abandoned laptop running XP and just VGA connect it to one of monitors. I can then access the VM via a Web browser or install Terminals or something.

An ideal solution would be to connect my monitor and keyboard to the server and have the VM open that way but I somehow don't think that's possible.

Danger781

Danger781 wrote: »

So my desktop died leaving me with only my server to work off for the time being. I have an Ubuntu VM installed on unRAID and I'm wondering if it would be possible to work off that somehow..

The most obvious solution is to use the abandoned laptop running XP and just VGA connect it to one of monitors. I can then access the VM via a Web browser or install Terminals or something.

An ideal solution would be to connect my monitor and keyboard to the server and have the VM open that way but I somehow don't think that's possible.

Can u not RDP or VNC to it?

Danger781

NoDrama wrote: »

Can u not RDP or VNC to it?

That would involve getting out the old laptop I assume? I was just hoping I wouldn't need to do that but I guess I don't really have a choice.

From what I can gather I would need another graphics card for VGA pass through to a monitor.

Danger781

Going to try and install Kodi today before 4pm to try and watch the United game.. No Desktop so I'm out of other options!

I don't know if anyone else is having this problem or not so though I'd get it out there.

I installed the latest HP SPP recently (2015.10). This installed a new BIOS update among other things. Since then, I've noticed that my USB external hard disk (which I use for Altaro backups) doesn't spin down when idle. It just runs constantly.

dunworth1

My Motherboard failed two weeks back on a Saturday night

i contacted hp via chat on Saturday night i explained the issue and they shipped out a new board which arrived on the Tuesday

thought the support was fantastic considering the price of the machine

j4vier

I'm having serious issues installing windows 8.1 on the proliant g8

did anyone ever get this error msg during the windows installation?

"we couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one..."

i google this issue, I am not the only one however i tried the solutions mentioned to no avail

i tried what is suggested here

http://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/Installing-Windows-server-W2K12-on-a-Proliant-DL380-G7/td-p/6466114

but that didn't help


The set up that i have consists of 2 arrays each with 1 logical drive, 500 and 320 gb respectively.

I've enabled virtual install disk option.

I have windows in a bootable usb pen drive which is usb2 and I insert in the usb2 port

if anyone has any ideas it would be great

thanks

Do you have any USB drives attached, or a Micro SD card in the slot on the motherboard? These can definitely cause this issue.

EDIT: could even be the flash drive you're installing the OS from.

j4vier

attached i just have the usb key with the OS and usb keyboard/mouse

no microsd

I'll try to boot from another usb in case the issue is with the key

Used another usb2 drive as bootable with 8.1 and still same issue so it's not the key. Must be some setting somewhere. It's driving me nuts!

j4vier

j4vier wrote: »

attached i just have the usb key with the OS and usb keyboard/mouse

no microsd

I'll try to boot from another usb in case the issue is with the key

Used another usb2 drive as bootable with 8.1 and still same issue so it's not the key. Must be some setting somewhere. It's driving me nuts!

You might need to find another way to install the OS rather than a flash drive. I'm almost certain I came across this before and it was the simple reason that I had a flash drive attached when attempting to install.

You could try a trial iLO licence and mount the Windows ISO in the iLO console. That's how I installed Server 2012 R2 on mine.

Cuddlesworth

j4vier wrote: »

I'm having serious issues installing windows 8.1 on the proliant g8

did anyone ever get this error msg during the windows installation?

"we couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one..."

i google this issue, I am not the only one however i tried the solutions mentioned to no avail

i tried what is suggested here

http://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/Installing-Windows-server-W2K12-on-a-Proliant-DL380-G7/td-p/6466114

but that didn't help


The set up that i have consists of 2 arrays each with 1 logical drive, 500 and 320 gb respectively.

I've enabled virtual install disk option.

I have windows in a bootable usb pen drive which is usb2 and I insert in the usb2 port

if anyone has any ideas it would be great

thanks

At that point pull the usb drive out and put it back in.

Windows needs a MBR partition to install, which it seems the script looks at the first boot device before continuing. I'd put money that the first device in the order(one of the harddrives or usb key) has a GPT partition.

j4vier

thanks guys for the inputs provided

i tried removing and re-intalling the usb drive but no luck

in the end i solved it by creating a bootable micro sd card and inserting it in the slot on the motherboard.

Funnily enough, by inserting the same micro sd via a usb adapter, it still would not proceed to install windows so clearly a bug with the whole usb process

laugh

Where are you guys buying your Micro servers?

j4vier

Quick question regarding cash back? I received mine in the post ,I'm pretty sure it said 60 euro. However on my account, it was lodged as 60 GBP so about 70 euro. Is it a mistake from my bank? Can anyone confirm whether they received 60 euro or pounds?

Danger781

j4vier wrote: »

Quick question regarding cash back? I received mine in the post ,I'm pretty sure it said 60 euro. However on my account, it was lodged as 60 GBP so about 70 euro. Is it a mistake from my bank? Can anyone confirm whether they received 60 euro or pounds?

My cheque arrived in GBP - Can't remember the amount exactly.. I got charged to lodge it.

j4vier

Danger781 wrote:

My cheque arrived in GBP - Can't remember the amount exactly.. I got charged to lodge it.

Danger781 wrote:

My cheque arrived in GBP - Can't remember the amount exactly.. I got charged to lodge it.

I used the lodge function at the atm not sure if they charge for that also these days. Are you based in ROI? Mine definitely says euro, I checked the receipt which takes a photocopy of it. I guess the bank will self adjust the balance when they realise the mistake

j4vier

As expect, the bank fixed the error but it seems that I only netted about 55 euro rather than 60!

There's a new SKU of the MicroServer that comes with an i3-3240 processor. As this is a 55W TDP CPU, HP have a new heatsink which can accommodate up to 65W TDP rather than the 35W of the standard heatsink.

I was hoping to get my mits on one so I can use a Xeon in there but they're very hard to find. The best price I can find is €200 for the heatsink alone!

The HP spare part number is 832667-001.

stimpson

Karsini wrote: »

There's a new SKU of the MicroServer that comes with an i3-3240 processor. As this is a 55W TDP CPU, HP have a new heatsink which can accommodate up to 65W TDP rather than the 35W of the standard heatsink.

I was hoping to get my mits on one so I can use a Xeon in there but they're very hard to find. The best price I can find is €200 for the heatsink alone!

The HP spare part number is 832667-001.

Give this a look:

https://b3n.org/installed-xeon-e3-1230v2-in-gen8-hp-microserver/

It seems that it will handle some Xeons without too much trouble...