Posts by Spy Alelo

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    I agree that your old server may have reached the point that is no longer a good option to keep feeding new drives to.


    As far as transitioning, I’d recommend a fresh install so you can take advantage of UEFI, and you will need UEFI anyway if you need to boot off a NVMe SSD which I strongly recommend.


    As of right now, Microservers only exist on Gen7 (yours), Gen8, Gen10 and Gen10+. Gen8 has been discontinued for a while and Gen10 was not a great replacement in my opinion since it lacks a lot of what made the Gen8 a great server.


    Gen10+ brings it all back, has more options and it is smaller. Definitely avoid a discontinued model if you can help it since UEFI is a big deal and this only started on Gen9 hardware. Gen10 as far as the Microservers are concerned.

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    You have a couple of options. I would have to either convert towers to rack servers or use a shelf for towers in our racks. These shelves are not exactly cheap, but you may be able to find it used on eBay. Since the ML10 v2 is fairly lightweight, you can use 417705-B2 as long as your rack is deep enough for it.


    Or use a generic rack shelf and pad it with some packing foam, secure the tower to the shelve with a Velcro strap around it so that it won't move around (that's what I had to do sometimes).


    Buying a used server is not a bad idea at all, it all depends on what you want to do. If it is just for storage, I'd recommend the MicroServer Gen10+ which is relatively inexpensive even when new. It has x4 LFF bays, x4 Ethernet ports, and a PCIe slot. You can easily get that, add four very large SATA hard drives and get an inexpensive PCIe to M.2 NVMe adapter with a cheap M.2 NVMe for the OMV OS. Although it does have the iLO5 chip, you do have to purchase the iLO5 network adapter which if you shop around, you can get for less than $50.


    I got that server for myself and I have x4 10TB drives, for a total of 30TB of storage. Honestly, the small size, lower power consumption, low noise and low heat that comes out of it really made it totally worth it for me. Plus, it looks pretty!

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    Hi there.


    Normally, when RBSU cannot communicate with iLO is due to a misconfiguration or a corrupt iLO firmware. There are a few things you can try out:


    1. Enter RBSU (F9) during post, and reset RBSU to manufacturing defaults.
    2. If that doesn't work, and you already have OMV installed, install hponcfg and attempt a factory reset from the CLI with hponcfg /r
    3. If that also fails, completely turn off your server and remove the power. Then remove the CMOS battery and leave it out for an hour.
    4. Re-install the battery and power up your server again.

    Removing the CMOS battery will erase all the RBSU and iLO4 settings from the server. If this doesn't resolve the issue, is probable that iLO has a corrupted firmware EEPROM. This may require the motherboard to be replaced.

  • OMV 5 new behavior

    I know right? Is so bizarre, I don't even know where to start on trying to figure this out.


    As you said, I don't see where it would generate this or even why.


    I did see an impact that this would have for me, and that's when using WOL. The app I use wouldn't be able to determine if the server is up since it has use the the physical MAC to power it up. I got scripts on another server that checks those things and powers it up to RSYNC files from one to the other, this will be a challenge.

  • OMV 5 new behavior

    Hi all!


    I'm doing an early test of OMV 5.2.3-2 through an upgrade from version 4. I've been able to see a few issues along the upgrade and was able to fix them all, but something caught my attention.


    When creating my bond (I use 802.3ad LACP) I noticed that the MAC address gets auto-generated, instead of deriving it from the 1st NIC. Here's a snapshot I grabbed from iLO:



    The newly generated MAC is highlighted. I don't actually see any ill side-effect with this, other than the IP changing for those that use DHCP and maybe those that prefer to use the physical MAC (like me).


    Does anyone knows if this is by design and expected?

  • The HPE resource thread

    Hello everyone!


    iLO4 2.70 has been released. Among the bug fixes, this new version has HTML5 support for the KVM console and works with any modern browser. Java or .NET are no longer required.


    To update iLO from its own interface, simply open the cp038075.exe with the 7-zip utility and extract the ilo_270.bin file. Then go to "Administration" and "Firmware". You can now upload the .bin file from there, is self-explanatory at this point.


    Updating your iLO will not cause any downtime on your server, it can be done live. This iLO4 update applies to all Gen8 and Gen9 servers.


    Gen10 servers already had HTML5 console support on iLO5 since version 1.20.

  • The HPE resource thread

    So here's how you can make the SSD on the Microserver Gen8 OOD port bootable:

    • First, make sure that the Dynamic Smart Array option is turned on. You can enable it in the BIOS/RBSU settings (F9)
    • Start up the server, then press F10 during POST.
    • After POST, you should get three options to boot. Select "Smart Storage Administrator" (or SSA for short)
    • Select the storage controller, should be labeled as "Dynamic Smart Array B120i RAID"
    • Click "Configure"
    • Click "Create Arrays with RAID 0"
    • Select ONLY the drive that contains or that will contain OMV, then click OK and confirm YES. You do not need to create any more arrays/volumes.
    • On the list to the right, click on "Set Bootable Logical Drive/Volume"
    • Select the new logical drive you just created as the "Primary Boot Logical Drive/Volume", then click OK
    • You can exit the program, and restart your server

    And that's it! The server can now boot your SSD regardless of where is connected.


    For those that already had OMV in the drive and had GRUB elsewhere, you have to install GRUB back into your SSD for this to work.


    Although I've been able to add/remove the volume from being an array with RAID 0 and didn't lose any data, I recommend that you at least make a backup in the event something does happen. Is unlikely, but you never know.


    Also, make sure that "Hard Disk Drive" is the first one under the boot order. You can change this either with iLO under Virtual Media, or the BIOS/RBSU settings (F9).

  • The HPE resource thread

    It's been a long time since I've posted anything new, so I'd like to share some tidbits with you guys.


    This thread will be a HPE resource thread. That means links to utilities, repos, drivers, and how-to guides with some of the hardware. I'd rather not do any troubleshooting here, so please open a new thread for that.


    Let me begin with some handy links:



    Management Component Pack Repo
    This repo is a must-have for OMV users. You can install utilities such as AMS that will report to iLO stats from the server, and the iLO hponcfg to re-configure or recover an iLO without access to itself.
    It makes managing the server through iLO a lot better and far more informational.


    HPE Support Center
    Handy site to look for any publicly available software or firmware.


    HPE Custom Image for ESXi
    Like using ESXi freebies? I do too! :)
    I ABSOLUTELY insist that you use our custom images if you use ESXi. They come with all of our drivers and agents to integrate on your HPE server. A must-have, and won't cost you anything.


    HPE ProLiant SPP
    This includes firmware update packages and full drivers for all of our servers. This can run with the server offline (boot the ISO with iLO), or with the server online. To do online updates, only Windows Server and RHEL are supported :thumbdown:
    You do NOT require a maintenance contract for this, but you are required to make an HPE site account and register the serial number of your server to qualify for the download. I'm not sure if this works with out of warranty servers though, sorry. Worth trying anyway.


    I'll be writing a little guide for the Microserver Gen8 on how to boot from the ODD port with an SSD without an SD card or USB drive for the boot loader.

  • HP microserver Gen10

    Just like Batman and his batsignal lol.


    That Marvell chipset has been supported on Debian since 2013, but the RAID management is for Windows only.


    I'll be honest though, we don't have any of those servers in the lab since they are pretty much standard and off-the-shelf components, so we have little to do with the engineering of them and I don't know much about this particular model.

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    Quote from Krisbee

    Many thanks for answer my questions.


    But now I'm really confused - Celeron G1610T is in the Intel ARK as supporting ECC memory -are you saying it doesn't?


    What is the position with the officially supported i3-3240 variant? HPE sell this variant of the gen8 microserver with ECC RAM. So have they tweaked the BIOS to support/recognise the i3-3240 and work with ECC RAM in a system that is not actually activating ECC function?

    Yeah there are some exceptions from Intel where some CPUs do support ECC and we support it, but don't let that confuse you. This is very limited on what CPUs we can support on it, so the logical choice was to at least have one low end CPU with ECC built-in.


    The i3-3240 indeed does not support ECC, we can't help it. We are at the mercy of what Intel has available.


    You have to understand that unless this is a mission-critical server, ECC won't do much for you. If you truly want this feature and good performance, then as I said before, just get the supported Xeon E3-1220Lv2.


    If you want the higher clock speed, then go for the i3-3240. You will not have ECC enabled but the system will be faster. ECC being enabled is slower than having it disabled anyway.


    Here's the quickspec sheet in case you need it:
    https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04128132.pdf

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    Hey there! Let's go over your questions:


    • I personally recommend leaving it to our Dynamic Power Saving profile since the server's firmware is already calibrated for this.
    • ECC is only supported with Xeon E3 CPUs. As you said, being able to boot with the presence of ECC doesn't mean is working.
    • Nope. Is just for the images over iLO.

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    Man this got a lot of threads as of late. I'll answer a few things for everyone:


    The dreaded "BIOS BUG" with Linux and HPE servers. This has absolutely zero impact on our systems and the message is purely informational, not an indication of a problem. The reason is simple; our iLO computer keeps track of the system's counters while it also handles power & cooling. We do not hand these off to the OS and I do NOT recommend changing anything in the BIOS to get around this. Just let iLO do its job. By "fixing" this, you will have issues such as fans running too loud or at full speeds.


    Many times a lot of us mods advise against using USB drives or SD cards for OMV. Ultimately, it is your choice but the reality is that there's no reason to do this anymore when SSD prices have dropped DRAMATICALLY. Especially for the smaller sized ones.


    Do NOT do fan or cooling mods!! We calibrate and thermally design our systems with high performance & heavy duty fans while keeping the system as silent and cool as possible. This is especially true with the ML line of servers. If your fan is too loud, there's a reason for it. Here are some hints:


    • On small ML servers, the 2nd fan (intake) is optional. The system is designed to make up for the absence or failure of other fans and will double the duty cycle. This is especially true when you add a bunch of drives and PCIe cards! The exhaust fan will then ramp up at 50% by default if is running by itself. In other words, if your server can take a 2nd fan and you want it to be quieter, purchase the fan kit for it.
    • Some so-called silent fans will run slower than our fans, fooling iLO into thinking that there's an issue. If you manage to splice one up to your HPE server it will cause the fan to ramp up and down continuously trying to correct the problem. If you are on a budget and can't afford the kit, simply try to at least match the brand, size and power rating. We always use PWM fans (hint hint) and we mostly use Delta.
    • We never recommend swapping our thermal compound with anything else, you will not improve anything by doing it. But if you need to replace the compound, is not a secret that we use Shin Etsu X-23-7783D and you can buy it in small quantities here.
    • DL series servers are inherently noisy, especially if they are smaller than 2U. Don't use these servers if you don't have a rack and if you want a quiet system. The smaller the fans, the faster they need to spin. If you do insist on using a DL server, make sure it has all the fan kits installed to keep the noise down.

  • HPE Proliant Servers

    I was reading through your post, and honestly although I see some SMART issues this should not have any effect on the disk itself. My only advise is to try and zero out at least the first few hundred megabytes across the disk, and try formatting it again on EXT4 using the web GUI. I've seen my own share of odd behaviors when there was data already present on the drive.

  • How to spotlight-index an AFP share - best methods?

    What do you mean by prefer? If you named both services the same, that can be a bit troublesome when browsing the network shares. Make sure you are using a different name for the AFP service, for example: 'MyNAS' for CIFS and 'MyNAS-AFP'. You can call them whatever you want as long as they are different, so you can see both services individually listed.