[OpenIndiana-discuss] OI on HP Gen 10 Microserver

[Michelle]

Hi Rolf,

Thanks for this.

What I find interesting is that looking at the data sheet, etc. there
is no clear indication that two are 6G and 2 are 3G. They aren't
exactly up front about it.

That's what's worrying me about the 10+, I can't find anything that
spells it out what the ports are capable of.

However, it does appear that the 10 is a Marvell controller and doesn't
advertise raid 5, whereas the 10+ is a Smart Array S100i controller and
supports raid 5, so I would have believed that they will all be 6G. If
they advertised RAID 5 and one of the drives was operating at half the
speed, then they'd likely be in for a bit of a backlash I would have
thought.

The only way to find out for sure... if someone doesn't already know...
is to wait until I've got it, put some drives in and see what the BIOS
says that the drives are connected at.

At the moment, given the bug that Carsten mentioned with booting rpool
from USB, I'm thinking of using one bay for SSD (with an SFF LFF
adaptor caddy) and the other three for the spinning rust. Backup drives
will just have to be attached by USB 3 caddy, I guess.

Michelle.

On Thu, 2023-02-16 at 22:21 +0100, Rolf M. Dietze wrote:
> Hi Michelle,
> 
> don't know about the G10+ boxes. I meant:
> https://buy.hpe.com/uk/en/servers/proliant-microserver/proliant-microserver/proliant-microserver/hpe-proliant-microserver-gen10/p/1009955118
> and with that issue of 2 ports 6G and 2 ports 3G I rather looked into
> boxes from other manufacturers than HP to recomend them to customers.
> 
> With the older Gen10 boxes one needs .NET for a console via the build
> in system controler, even if you purchase the advanced license. Since
> there is no windows in the net at all, I set them up on a KVM server
> and never bought any boxes fom HP because of this rather flimsy
> design
> (no console via systemcontroller, 6G/3G sata ports)
> 
> But if I have to choose between OI and FreeBSD and what experiences
> running OI as a server OS on those boxes, I go for OI and that was
> the original discussion
> 
> regs, Rolf
> 
> 
> Quoting Michelle <michelle at msknight.com>:
> 
> > The target server is actually going to be the Gen 10 Plus...
> > https://uk-new.ingrammicro.com/site/productdetail?id=2M2SBG9
> > 
> > The specs are light on the exact specs of the speed, but the manual
> > doesn't help either...
> > https://www.serversdirect.co.uk/PDFs/P16006-421_1_7006250_Original.pdf?v=27
> > 
> > The best they say is... "The embedded HPE Smart Array S100i SR
> > Gen10
> > Controller supports SATA drive installation. This controller
> > supports
> > RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10" ... and it would be a bit odd for them
> > to
> > support RAID levels like that and have two ports down to 3Gbs.
> > 
> > Grateful for any insight.
> > 
> > Michelle.
> > 
> > 
> > On Thu, 2023-02-16 at 19:55 +0100, rmd wrote:
> > > Hi
> > > 
> > > it depends a bit on the BIOS version of the Gen 10. With the
> > > early
> > > version
> > > it works best, pulling all disks out of the bays, do the install,
> > > reboot, halt
> > > again, put the drives back in, repower and boot, then do the disk
> > > configs.
> > > 
> > > With my Gen 10, I put a 4i4o SAS-controler in it, plug the sas-
> > > plug
> > > of the
> > > internal drive bays on the i-cnector of that additional 4i4o sas
> > > card
> > > and
> > > connect SSDs with a fan out cable to the on board sas connector.
> > > With
> > > a bit of soldering an additional power connector for the SSDs is
> > > simply
> > > set up an the OS goes on those SSDs. Hence, the Gen10 supports
> > > only
> > > 2 diskbays with 6G througput and the other two bays only support
> > > 3G.
> > > 
> > > regs, Rolf
> > > 
> > > > On Feb 16, 2023, at 9:34 AM, Michelle <michelle at msknight.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > One of my older servers has died and I'm looking to replace
> > > > with a
> > > > Gen
> > > > 10 microserver.
> > > > 
> > > > On my N54L, there are four bays, but a top CD bay where the
> > > > operating
> > > > system drive sits with OI on it, leaving me with four bays for
> > > > spinning
> > > > rust.
> > > > 
> > > > However, on the Gen 10 I've looked at the motherboard and I
> > > > can't
> > > > see
> > > > anything other than a USB connector and the SATA harness
> > > > connector.
> > > > I
> > > > can't see a DVD/CD drive either.
> > > > 
> > > > Has anyone managed to get OI on another drive, or am I going to
> > > > have to
> > > > take up a bay for the OS drive please?
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks for any hints and advice,
> > > > 
> > > > Michelle.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > > openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > > > https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> > > 
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> 
> 
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