HP ProLiant MicroServer owners' thread

blinky_ocau said:
So did anyone else try 2 x 8GB sticks in the microserver ?
Surely it's not just one guy with this config on the whole of the internet.
Click to expand...

Don't think he is either. He said he had them from a different order but didn't say he is using them. Don't think anyone is using them due to the price. You won't get non-ECC sticks with 8Gb so you'd have to buy ECC ram where one stick is almost as much as a Microserver.
 
I've got 2x8GB ECC sticks coming in for another project (whenever they show up, backordered). I can throw them in one of my MicroServers when they arrive, see what happens, post results.
 
And now it begins... Has anyone tried 2x8 non ecc? Did that post? The dilemma there is then: 2x4 ecc for a bit less than 2x8 non ecc... Size vs security. Insert your own euphemism joke.

But 2x8 ecc... That is a lot of money, but opens up wild zfs configs since people have now fit 4 x3.5" in the ODD bay...
 
Tozmo said:
And now it begins... Has anyone tried 2x8 non ecc? Did that post? The dilemma there is then: 2x4 ecc for a bit less than 2x8 non ecc... Size vs security. Insert your own euphemism joke.

But 2x8 ecc... That is a lot of money, but opens up wild zfs configs since people have now fit 4 x3.5" in the ODD bay...
Click to expand...

Who's put 4x 3.5in in the ODD bay?
 
Check the wikia, someone posted a link to a forum where the guy was setting 3.5s all over the place
 
Gomjaba said:
Don't think he is either. He said he had them from a different order but didn't say he is using them. Don't think anyone is using them due to the price. You won't get non-ECC sticks with 8Gb so you'd have to buy ECC ram where one stick is almost as much as a Microserver.
Click to expand...

you are correct. That ram went into my ESXi box to bring it up to 32GB.

My microserver is running on the 2x 4GB sticks i pulled from the EXSI box after my upgrade was complete.
 
Tozmo said:
And now it begins... Has anyone tried 2x8 non ecc? Did that post? The dilemma there is then: 2x4 ecc for a bit less than 2x8 non ecc... Size vs security. Insert your own euphemism joke.

But 2x8 ecc... That is a lot of money, but opens up wild zfs configs since people have now fit 4 x3.5" in the ODD bay...
Click to expand...

I purchased 2 x 8GB of Patriot G2 non-ECC RAM (http://patriotmemory.com/products/detailp.jsp?prodline=5&catid=34&prodgroupid=196&id=1127&type=1) and it is working fine in my 40L. Ran a quick mem check using Windows Memory Diags, one pass no errors.

Cost me AU$119 at my local IT shop.
 
Here's my MicroServer config

  • N36L
  • stock BIOS
  • 8G non ECC RAM
  • 2GB USB boot stick running FreeNAS 0.7.2
  • 4 2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4 running 2 separate RAID 1 ZFS (ie 2 ZFS volume, each running mirror. Effectively I have 4TB usable storage)

What I would like to do is add more storage
I am using it to store files: media, pictures, etc
It doesn't have to be super fast. However, I do like/want more space, and I value safety, so I will likely go RAID 1 for my new space as well

I think my options are
Option A
  1. Run hack BIOS
  2. get one of those 5.25 enclosure for 4 2.5 1TB drive
  3. put 5.25 enclosure into ODD drive bay
  4. plug enclosure to internal ODD SATA port
This does not require additional card. Just need to find the right enclosure, plus molex adapter if required, but max storage I could gain is 4TB

Option B
  1. get eSATA port multiplier card
  2. buy eSATA drive cage
  3. add drive to cage
  4. connect cage to multiplier card
  5. profit?
How exactly does the multiplier card connect to the MicroServer?
Is there some internal port in the multiplier card that I need to connect to N36L's internal ODD SATA port?
Does this option also require a hacked BIOS (for AHCI speed?)
and is this the right place for hacked N36L BIOS http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpost.php?p=13179181&postcount=77
Any specific multiplier card recommendation? Or search google for any eSATA multiplier card? I see mentioned Silicon Image SIL31xx/3132 based chipset

Option C
Get a real deal RAID card (this means disable the onboard fakeRAID?)
  • HP P212
  • HP P410
  • IBM ServeRAID M1015
  • Dell H200
  • LSI 9240-4i/8i
  • LSI 9211-8i
  • Adaptec 5805
  • Other?

What I need is internal 4 x 2TB
I prefer to have eSATA external cage
Ideally, I would like to use 3TB drive
I don't really need hardware RAID. I just need to connect lots of SATA disks
Other than P212, it doesn't seem like any other HW RAID card have eSATA

Appreciate any input on this topic!
 
animefans said:
Here's my MicroServer config

<snip>

What I would like to do is add more storage
I am using it to store files: media, pictures, etc
It doesn't have to be super fast. However, I do like/want more space, and I value safety, so I will likely go RAID 1 for my new space as well

<snip>

Option C
Get a real deal RAID card (this means disable the onboard fakeRAID?)
  • HP P212
  • HP P410
  • IBM ServeRAID M1015
  • Dell H200
  • LSI 9240-4i/8i
  • LSI 9211-8i
  • Adaptec 5805
  • Other?

<snip>

Appreciate any input on this topic!
Click to expand...

You can get the HP SC44Ge card (LSI 3442R Clone) Does Raid 0 + Raid 1

It has a SFF-8484 internal connection, plus an external SFF-8480

Motherboard SATA port goes to OS drive (Pop a 2.5inch drive under the ODD Bay)
Motherboard MiniSAS SFF-8087 goes to drive cage (4 x 3.5inch drives)
SC44Ge internal SFF-8484 goes to 4 x 2.5inch drive cage (4 x 2.5inch drives)
SC44Ge External SFF-8470 is FREE for future expansion (leaves you with 5 free ports, including the E-SATA)

.
 
Can anyone here confirm that the Kingston KVR1333D3E9S/8G modules will work as a pair?

I have a pair of N40L's and would upgrade them to 16GB but want to keep ECC RAM in them.
 
animefans said:
Here's my MicroServer config
*****
What I would like to do is add more storage
I am using it to store files: media, pictures, etc
It doesn't have to be super fast. However, I do like/want more space, and I value safety, so I will likely go RAID 1 for my new space as well

Option C
Get a real deal RAID card (this means disable the onboard fakeRAID?)
  • HP P212
  • HP P410
  • IBM ServeRAID M1015
  • Dell H200
  • LSI 9240-4i/8i
  • LSI 9211-8i
  • Adaptec 5805
  • Other?
Click to expand...

If you have ZFS, you should NEVER use hardware RAID controller. That's why you have ZFS:) I hope you don't use the onboard RAID currently.

From the above, I would use IBM ServeRAID M1015 and flash it with IT firmware, so it becomes a standard SATA/SAS HBA controller. On ServeRAID you can plug up to 8 hard drives. It doesn't have an external port, but you could by a little longer cables and just put them out on the back of the server. It wont look good, but it will work:) Then just add an external case with MultilaneSAS connector and you are good to go:)

If you want it to look nice, buy sumething like this: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/

There may also be some cheap HBAs with external port.

Matej
 
I have the HP SC44Ge card set to LSI 3442E-R IT Mode

I think this card only supports 2tb and below as it's a LSI 3Gb/s card.

To get above 2.2tb support with LSI you need a 6Gb/s like the IBM M1015

I also have the IBM BR10i that I believe only supports 2.2tb

My current plan is to add an IBM M1015's cards to add 3tb drives and use long cables out the back as suggested.

You can even get cheap adapters on the popular auction site that convert the internal SAS connectors to the external (which may be needed depending on your external drive cage)
 
EMM386 said:
I have the HP SC44Ge card set to LSI 3442E-R IT Mode

I think this card only supports 2tb and below as it's a LSI 3Gb/s card.

To get above 2.2tb support with LSI you need a 6Gb/s like the IBM M1015
Click to expand...

Have you tried with the 6Gb/s firmware?

Firmware P20 says
SAS3442ER_P20_Supports_SAS_1-5G_3G_6G_and_SATA_3G_6G_HDD

I have no 3TB drive to test with

;)
 
Thank you all for the recommendation
I am not using the fakeRAID for any RAID setup, probably never will

HP SC44Ge
I like the concept (pretty much use it for new storage)
It has the external port
Can flash LSI firmware (including 3TB?)
use infiniband/SFF-8484 connector

IBM ServeRAID M1015
Seems to support 3TB drive natively
does not have external port
Can flash LSI firmware
use minisas connector

What's the performance difference between these 2 card?
 
animefans said:
Thank you all for the recommendation
I am not using the fakeRAID for any RAID setup, probably never will

HP SC44Ge
I like the concept (pretty much use it for new storage)
It has the external port
Can flash LSI firmware (including 3TB?)
use infiniband/SFF-8484 connector

IBM ServeRAID M1015
Seems to support 3TB drive natively
does not have external port
Can flash LSI firmware
use minisas connector

What's the performance difference between these 2 card?
Click to expand...

I haven't tested these two specifically but quite a lot of cards (settled with an Adaptec 3805 myself). The result was always the same: The bottle neck was the disk itself as large disks only come in slow speeds. The other difference will be in rebuild speeds upon a drive replacement but you will have a hard time to find someone who trailed that. With slow and large disks it will take a long time one way or another. Whether a rebuild takes 2 days and four hours or two days and 6 - it's still bloody long :) (just am example obviously).
 
When I was rebuilding my small raidz(raid5) with 3x2TB hard drives, rebuild speed was about 250MB/s.

Matej
 
Hey guys thought some might be interested.

As others have confirmed I too can confirm that 16gb works on the microserver.

I bought patriot g2 non ecc and it boots no problems.

I quickly installed esxi and its definitely usable.

So for those wanting to put 16gb non ecc, go for gold! :)

 
Some background
NAS server
Code: 
N36L with hacked firmware
8G non ECC RAM
4x Samsung SpinPoint F4 (2GB) using onboard controller
NAS4Free build 83, running ZFS RAID 1 mirror (so 2 2GB pool)
Here's my SMB tuning (under Services -> SMB -> Settings -> Auxiliary Parameters)
Code: 
max xmit = 65535
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535

Client machine
Code: 
IBM Thinkpad T60p connected to LAN via buildin gigabit port

Both are connected via gigabit switch
and I didn't change MTU (no jumbo frame setup)

Test 1
"small files copy", where small file is about 3-5MB each
Code: 
Copying a bunch of pictures from client machine to NAS server
source is client machine internal HD, so should be at least SATA1 speed
destination is NAS SMB share
Here's windows copy dialog box
http://imgur.com/k9xod

Test 2
"large files copy" where large file is 2GB+ each
Code: 
Copying a bunch of movies from client machine to NAS server
source is client machine external USB 2.0 drive
destination is NAS SMB share
Here's windows copy dialog box
http://imgur.com/NSK5J

My questions are
  1. I have heard SMB is not efficient on small files, so is 15MB/sec an acceptable throughput given my setup?
  2. Is 30MB/sec the best throughput given my setup?
  3. If my speed is considered slow given my setup, what are some of the ways to troubleshoot my slow throughput?
In addition, I am planning to put in a Intel gigabit NIC and a RAID card to help improve performance a bit

From what I read, the buildin NIC uses bge driver, and it is a known problem on FreeBSD 7. Not sure if problem still persist in FreeBSD 9
For now, I am considering IBM ServeRAID M1015, and cross flash with IT mode firmware, as I have seen a lot of good report with this setup

I am not looking for "I have the fastest copy, and you don't"
However, I do want to get the best performance given my hardware configuration

Thanks for any input anyone can shed on this topic
And if there's another appropriate forum for this question, please let me know which one
 
animefans said:
Some background
NAS server
Code: 
N36L with hacked firmware
8G non ECC RAM
4x Samsung SpinPoint F4 (2GB) using onboard controller
 ...
...
For now, I am considering IBM ServeRAID M1015, and cross flash with IT mode firmware, as I have seen a lot of good report with this setup
Click to expand...
You're barking up the wrong tree here. I can't tell you where your throughput bottleneck IS -- but it isn't in the Proliant's SATA subsystem (unless the Southbridge for the N36L is different/inferior compared to the SB820M in the N40L).

Look/spend$$ elsewhere.
 
HP N40L
8 Gig of ram
Server 2008 R2
HP P410 with 512 BBWC
4X 2tb Hitachi Drives

So far I'm pretty happy with the results. Friend of mine wanted a stone simple storage box to act as a media server. I think we found a winner.

raid.jpg
 
Holy shit! How did you hit writes that high?

I'm getting max 100MB/s on OpenIndiana+Nappit+ZFS+RAIDz over 5tb (5x1tb)
 
DlStreamnet said:
Holy shit! How did you hit writes that high?

I'm getting max 100MB/s on OpenIndiana+Nappit+ZFS+RAIDz over 5tb (5x1tb)
Click to expand...

HP P410 is a hardware raid card. You'd need a lot more processor than the MicroServer brings to the table for a RAIDz to compete on speed.


@DeChache:

What stripe size are you using there? I'd like to try it on my MicroServer, because I'm having a heck of a time getting constant benchmarks out of my P212 RAID-6. I'm not sure if it's the card being slow (compared to the P41x), an unavoidable consequence of the RAID-6 parity calculations, the 8 Samsung HD204UI's being flakey, or if I've borked my config. Figure trying a tried-and-true stripe size might remove one variable from this mess.

Not that I'm really bitching about 200+mb/s r/w on a home server limited to gigabit LAN, but it's the principal of the thing. ^^
 
Last edited:
I'm sure CPU is not the limiting factor in microserver + RAIDz. I think mine was using about 20% CPU on read/write test... I think 512MB cache is what is raising the transfer speed? read/write drops a bit when writing 4GB data...

Try bonnie++ in openindiana with file size 2x the memory size. It will also give you the data how much CPU is using...
 
Maybe the someone can ask for the 1st page to be updated with the following info??
As it seems OP ahmhardforumahm has been banned??
Not online since Last Activity: 03-23-2011 12:59 AM

???

=======

It seems to be confirmed, that these wonderfull little boxen can actually support 16Gb Memory, not the 8Gb HP Says they are limited to.

Standard or Hacked BIOS doesn't seem to matter

Here are some known working 8Gb Memory Modules are

ECC modules
Super Talent DDR3-1333 8GB/512Mx8 ECC Samsung Chip Server Memory - W1333EB8GS

NON ECC Modules
Corsair 8GB DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 CMX8GX3M1A1333C9
GSkill Ares F3-1333C9D-16GAO
G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 <Note Heatspreaders are too high>
Patriot Gamer2 PGD316G1333ELK

And here is a known NON WORKING Modules
Corsair CMV16GX3M2A1333C9 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3 <Tho it shows 8Gb with One Stick Inserted>

Post back other memory modules if you have some confirmed as working:)

.
 
animefans said:
My questions are
  1. I have heard SMB is not efficient on small files, so is 15MB/sec an acceptable throughput given my setup?
  2. Is 30MB/sec the best throughput given my setup?
  3. If my speed is considered slow given my setup, what are some of the ways to troubleshoot my slow throughput?
In addition, I am planning to put in a Intel gigabit NIC and a RAID card to help improve performance a bit

From what I read, the buildin NIC uses bge driver, and it is a known problem on FreeBSD 7. Not sure if problem still persist in FreeBSD 9
For now, I am considering IBM ServeRAID M1015, and cross flash with IT mode firmware, as I have seen a lot of good report with this setup

I am not looking for "I have the fastest copy, and you don't"
However, I do want to get the best performance given my hardware configuration

Thanks for any input anyone can shed on this topic
And if there's another appropriate forum for this question, please let me know which one
Click to expand...


You really need to benchmark your laptop first - unless you know how fast it can supply data, you may be wasting your time looking at the server (your bottleneck may not be the server).

As for the server and laptop testing, you may be better off benchmarking with a "live" DVD - eg OpenIndiana, as that will have probably have a better set of standard tools for basic benchmarking!
 
I would create a Ramdrive on laptop and benchmark with it, since ram speed is a lot faster than hard drive...
 
XenIneX said:
HP P410 is a hardware raid card. You'd need a lot more processor than the MicroServer brings to the table for a RAIDz to compete on speed.


@DeChache:

What stripe size are you using there? I'd like to try it on my MicroServer, because I'm having a heck of a time getting constant benchmarks out of my P212 RAID-6. I'm not sure if it's the card being slow (compared to the P41x), an unavoidable consequence of the RAID-6 parity calculations, the 8 Samsung HD204UI's being flakey, or if I've borked my config. Figure trying a tried-and-true stripe size might remove one variable from this mess.

Not that I'm really bitching about 200+mb/s r/w on a home server limited to gigabit LAN, but it's the principal of the thing. ^^
Click to expand...

I think those tests where done with the default stripe size 128k (I think) The true telling numbers are in file sizes about 500mb when the cache is exhausted.

levak said:
I think 512MB cache is what is raising the transfer speed? read/write drops a bit when writing 4GB data...
Click to expand...

Correct beneath 500mb its just reading and writing from cache so its fast above that is the true speed of the array.
 
animefans said:
Billy_nnn and levak, thanks for the tips
I don't really have any idea on benchmarking
Click to expand...


Well, what I meant is that you shouldn't really start off looking at a performance "problem" when transferring data between two systems by just throwing money at the "server".

There's a good chance that the "issue" could be the system sending the data - no matter how fast the server is, it can only accept data at the speed it's being sent.


Windows is pretty limited on useful tools here (though you can download some free ones).
Iperf/Jperf can be handy for network testing - though you need to ensure that your server has this tool too - I'm not familiar with the NAS4Free OS.
Intel do a NAS performance benchmarking kit (though I'm not too familiar with that either tbh).
Full unix OSes (eg OpenIndiana) have a better set of standard tools available for investigating issues, even basic tools such as "dd" (you can boot these OSes off a live DVD so you don't touch your current setup's hard drives - apart from creating a few test files once you are ready - OI should be able to import your data pool for testing)
 
My N36L running ESXi and Ubuntu Server 11.04 as a VM maxes out one core @ 85-90MB/s over SMB. Seems that smbd isn't multithreaded?

With Jumbo Frames I can squeeze out a few more MB/s.
 
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