HP Microserver Gen8 discussion

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freitasm

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#130728 25-Sep-2013 19:26

I just got one of these HP Microserver Gen8 delivered here today plus an 8-port HP PS1810-8G switch.

four USB 2.0 ports
two USB 3.0 ports
two ethernet ports
four 3.5” bays
ILO

No idea of RAM as I haven't powered it yet - just got it here today and I am off to Auckland tomorrow!

I will be posting a review - and we will have a second unit to giveaway later.

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#902640 25-Sep-2013 19:28

what do they retail for?

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freitasm

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#902659 25-Sep-2013 19:40

It depends on model:

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#902682 25-Sep-2013 19:53

These are awesome - I have a couple of the Gen7s. The 7s came with 2GB RAM stock, but the 8s seem to be either 2 or 4 depending on package. Judging by the iLO port, you seem to have the G2020T.

I'm glad to see they've put some USB3.0 ports on them, though I'd have liked to see a 2.5" bay for SSDs, even at the expense of the 5.25" bay.

Also a little confused why 2 of the HDD bays are SATA6g and 2 are SATA3g, seems bizarre why not just use a 4-channel 6g controller - would've liked to see some hardware Raid5 support, too.

A little confused on the pricing here, too - the 1610 is 2.3Ghz Celeron-based, where the 2020 is 2.5Ghz Pentium-based (both Ivy Bridge architecture), and the 2020 also has an iLO4 controller onboard. Overseas, the G2020 is the premium priced model - why is it seemingly reversed here?

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#902698 25-Sep-2013 20:21

there is probably a promo on the G2020, either that or the 1610 comes as a bundle maybe. I read that there was also an i3 model - is that the 2020, or is there a yet to arrive 3rd SKU around?

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mmlakeman

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#902717 25-Sep-2013 21:37

Handy little boxes, just be aware the standard warranty is a bit crap - its a 1 yr return to base - so either upgrade the warranty or don't use for anything that needs next day support..

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#902724 25-Sep-2013 21:56

Regs: there is probably a promo on the G2020, either that or the 1610 comes as a bundle maybe. I read that there was also an i3 model - is that the 2020, or is there a yet to arrive 3rd SKU around?

As far as I'm aware there is no Core i-based Microserver in the current generation. Possibly a Haswell i3 based model in the next gen.

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#902732 25-Sep-2013 22:15

I'd love to see how performance of this stacks up against the older generation HP Microserver, Mauricio, want to do some testing whilst we drink port and smoke cigars?

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Mark

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#902896 26-Sep-2013 09:30

I'm quite looking forward to the review of this, be interested to see how noisy it is or is not and what protocols it will support.

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#902904 26-Sep-2013 09:43

Mark: and what protocols it will support.

Whatever you like... I believe they ship without an OS.

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#902905 26-Sep-2013 09:44

michaelmurfy: I'd love to see how performance of this stacks up against the older generation HP Microserver, Mauricio, want to do some testing whilst we drink port and smoke cigars?

Based on deploying a couple of Gen8s for a customer recently, and having a couple of Gen7s myself, there's a noticable but not massive performance improvement from the N40L, but that's to be expected - things like management snapins etc loading faster on Windows Server. Also seems to give slightly improved transfer rates, but that may be the new controller as much as CPU. Would be quite keen to see some full benchmarking on a range of activities.

Also, something I forgot to check on those Gen8s before sending them out - do the Gen8s still have a 4-pin molex power connector for the opitcal drive bay, like the Gen7s? Seems stupid, considering it requires a SATA drive, to not provide SATA power. I'm sure the 8s fixed this, but we didn't put an ODD in either of them yet so I never thought to look.

Mark: I'm quite looking forward to the review of this, be interested to see how noisy it is or is not and what protocols it will support.

How do you mean "what protocols it will support"? It's just a small form factor server, you can install any OS you want and do whatever you want, really. This isn't a NAS appliance or such. It's a Pentium G2020T, with DDR3 RAM, a SATA controller, etc. You can do whatever you like with it, really.

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#902965 26-Sep-2013 11:16

Inphinity:
Mark: I'm quite looking forward to the review of this, be interested to see how noisy it is or is not and what protocols it will support.

How do you mean "what protocols it will support"? It's just a small form factor server, you can install any OS you want and do whatever you want, really. This isn't a NAS appliance or such. It's a Pentium G2020T, with DDR3 RAM, a SATA controller, etc. You can do whatever you like with it, really.

Kraven:
Whatever you like... I believe they ship without an OS.

Oh! I thought it being HP it would run some sort of Windows based OS ... might make a nice home ESXi server, but maybe not such a good FreeNAS server (RAID controller might be a hinderence to ZFS)
More keen to see the review now! :-)

Frietasm : Any chance you could test it with ESXi and FreeNAS ? :-)

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#902979 26-Sep-2013 11:23

HP is not supplying the Start DVD with Gen8 (Microserver and other models) anymore. All the required drivers are now built-in to the system. You only need to insert a DVD or USB key with a supported OS and it will automatically install the OS and install the required drivers.

The instructions are clearly geared towards Windows Server 2012 Essentials, a 25 user (no CALs required) operating system, mainly because this is the kind of OS a small business would use with this box. You can certainly install whatever you want though - look at the links in the OP to find out which OS support is available.

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#902994 26-Sep-2013 11:37

Mark:
but maybe not such a good FreeNAS server (RAID controller might be a hinderence to ZFS)

I have used FreeNAS on the Gen7s, and it performs fairly well - I get about 80MB/sec transfer speeds out of it. 4x 1TB Seagate 7200RPM drives for the ZFS storage pool, with a 250GB as the boot drive. I would imagine the Gen8s to be about the same, if not a little better. For comparison, my Seagate BlackArmor 400 with 4x 2TB Barracudas in RAID5 only gets about 25MB/sec write and 45MB/sec read.

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#903009 26-Sep-2013 11:59

Inphinity:
Mark:
but maybe not such a good FreeNAS server (RAID controller might be a hinderence to ZFS)

I have used FreeNAS on the Gen7s, and it performs fairly well - I get about 80MB/sec transfer speeds out of it. 4x 1TB Seagate 7200RPM drives for the ZFS storage pool, with a 250GB as the boot drive. I would imagine the Gen8s to be about the same, if not a little better. For comparison, my Seagate BlackArmor 400 with 4x 2TB Barracudas in RAID5 only gets about 25MB/sec write and 45MB/sec read.

Hmmm ... does the RAID controller give the option to pass through the drives with no RAID wrapper ? One of the features of ZFS I'm keen to implement is the bitrot detection which it can't do when the storage is in a volume handled by a RAID controller.

I'm surpirised the Gen7 is not faster, my current NAS is an Atom D525 based unit (not as good as the AMD ?) and with 4 * 2TB in software RAID-5 I can pull 200Mbytes/second+ off of it over the LAN (LACP trunk with 2 * 1Gbit ports), I havn't benchmarked the LVM performance on the unit directly just over my LAN... I know ZFS is quite heavy but wouldn't think it would impact so much ?

alexx

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#903038 26-Sep-2013 12:33

Looks nice. We have the BL460c Gen8 and DL380 Gen8... does the Microserver Gen8 have the pretty SmartDrive LED indicators like the BL460 Gen8 and DL380 Gen8 models?

Like these:

Edit: update link.

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