HPE ProLiant Microserver Gen10 Advice/ Suggestions

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Patrick

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It seems like forever ago we did the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 launch piece.

Since then, a friend at AMD asked me to take a look at the unit and give my thoughts. I said yes and ordered one which arrived today.

@pyro_ It looks like you bought one. Any thoughts or ideas on configurations?

I am trying to figure out what the review configuration should be. Any insights would be appreciated.
 
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Patriot

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It seems like forever ago we did the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 launch piece.

Since then, a friend at AMD asked me to take a look at the unit and give my thoughts. I said yes and ordered one which arrived today.

@pyro_ It looks like you bought one. Any thoughts or ideas on configurations?

I am trying to figure out what the review configuration should be. Any insights would be appreciated.
You get the 2c or the 4c?

HPE should do a Zen refresh.

For some reason specs state max 4tb drives... please test that. :)
32GB 2400t, 4x 8tb, sata ssd in optical bay, 10gbit nic.
 
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Patrick

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4C AMD Opteron X3421. Great idea on the 4TB limit. I have a few 10TB that I was going to use elsewhere.
 

Patrick

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Since I know a lot of us are buying the X3216 versions, I wanted to note quickly that there is an onboard 7-pin SATA port but no power. You can use a molex splitter than a Molex -> SATA cable and power a SSD where the

Molex Splitter Pack:
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Molex-Power-Supply-Splitter/dp/B07945ZZ59/
Molex to SATA Pack
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-3-Pack-Molex-Power/dp/B00STNUB04/

I had the extra SATA cable sitting around. Buying both an using Velcro + SATA cables laying around saved me $6 on the first machine and I have enough to do another versus getting the official SSD enablement kit.
 
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Marsh

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This morning, I read some of HP Gen10 with Linux, OMV , FreeeNAS threads and blogs.
Lots of problems during installation.
The problems happened in 2017 and early 2018, I am hoping most of the software problem is resolved now.

I ended up purchased 2 units. Keeping fingers and toes crossed.

Leaving these links here, it also included workarounds and solutions.
HP microserver Gen10 - openmediavault

Installation stops after a few seconds on a Microserver Gen10

BUILD - HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Entry - Opteron X3216 - ECC RAM - FreeNAS compatible?

FreeNAS installation workaround
Fresh Install of FreeNAS-11.1 on HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 X3216
221350 – Unable to boot/install on HPE Proliant MicroServer Gen10 (AMD Opteron X3000): Hangs/Panics

This link is the most comprehensive version of workaround for FreeNAS
Fix for FreeNAS on HPE MicroServer Gen10 X3216 Stuck Console Issue
 
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mmo

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This morning, I read some of HP Gen10 with Linux, OMV , FreeeNAS threads and blogs.
Lots of problems during installation.
The problems happened in 2017 and early 2018, I am hoping most of the software problem is resolved now.

I ended up purchased 2 units. Keeping fingers and toes crossed.

Leaving these links here, it also included workarounds and solutions.
HP microserver Gen10 - openmediavault

Installation stops after a few seconds on a Microserver Gen10

BUILD - HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Entry - Opteron X3216 - ECC RAM - FreeNAS compatible?

FreeNAS installation workaround
Fresh Install of FreeNAS-11.1 on HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 X3216
i was about to pull the trigger for 2 and saw your comments with the issues it's having currently. I might dig it out more before buying it.
 

Marsh

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Good news for Ubuntu 18

FreeNAS
Fix for FreeNAS on HPE MicroServer Gen10 X3216 Stuck Console Issue
looking at comments on Dec 2018

Anonymous December 6, 2018 at 4:15 am

FreeBSD Bug #221350 is still unresolved, and this method is no longer working as of FreeNAS 11.2-RC2. The boot loader has changed from GRUB to the native FreeBSD boot loader.

New work around may be to extract the iso and use a hex editor to change the value of realloc_bars to zero in boot/kernel/kernel and/or add the options to boot/loader.conf. Haven't had success with either.
 
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Patrick

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Good to know on FreeNAS. I hate to say it, but sometimes Linux is just easier with hardware compatibility.

Edit: Docker installed and benchmarks running.
 
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Patriot

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Good news for Ubuntu 18

FreeNAS
Fix for FreeNAS on HPE MicroServer Gen10 X3216 Stuck Console Issue
looking at comments on Dec 2018

Anonymous December 6, 2018 at 4:15 am

FreeBSD Bug #221350 is still unresolved, and this method is no longer working as of FreeNAS 11.2-RC2. The boot loader has changed from GRUB to the native FreeBSD boot loader.

New work around may be to extract the iso and use a hex editor to change the value of realloc_bars to zero in boot/kernel/kernel and/or add the options to boot/loader.conf. Haven't had success with either.
https://www.amazon.com/Port-M-2-PCI-adapter-SI-PEX40115/dp/B01L83Z7Z0
Anyone want to try a pcie 1x sata m.2 for boot?
the first slot is x8 electrical, 2nd is x1 electrical.
 

nthu9280

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@Patrick

I'm thinking of putting a unit for offsite backup. My line of thinking is to install Esxi, either Napp-it VM and pfSense VM with site-site config. So the question is can I do a pass thru' of onboard SATA or should I just drop in a HBA. Either case need to verify the chipset supports equivalent of the VT-d. May be this is a good item to include in the review.

My google-fu is not having much luck today. I know with the default 8GB, I will most likely need more RAM.
 

Patrick

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IOMMU is present, but this is probably not the device that I would pick for pass-through.

At the same time, I do think that you can run Proxmox or Ubuntu as a base OS and run whatever virtualized. The offsite backup was actually my plan at first.

@Patriot Trying these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DCQ958L/ with cheap Optane x2 drives and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079X7K6VP/ to boot. I think on those cards the SATA is wired, so then you do not need to use the Molex's.
 

Marsh

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I ordered 2 Gen10 , 8 x 8 WD disk in a BestBuy shopping bag ( waiting for stress testing first )

Plan for 1 of the Gen10 , since the CPU is a low power 2 core version , don't plan on running VM , may be some dockers.
This looks interesting
Installing ZFS on a New Openmediavault Install Using Proxmox Kernel
 

BlackHole

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Jul 21, 2018
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HPE should do a Zen refresh.
Yes. Pretty please.
I do not know what happened between AMD and HPE when the Microserver Gen10 was designed, but it looks like a total contingency operation. As far as I know there is no other device using a Opteron X3000 series CPUs - and I find that odd.
 

Patrick

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@WANg I think we set it in the BIOS, but not coming up now. Let me re-check when we get another KVM hooked up to it.
 

WANg

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Can anyone post power consumption for network appliance usage?
Probably about the same as the old G7s, they are both 15w chips. My guess is about 45-65w loaded with 4 7200rpm spinners (measured at the outlet and not on the PSU)
 
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