MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition


Recommended Posts

I've been considering a few externals for my N54L's and GEN8.

I'm probably going to settle on using SAS cards and SAS boxes.

i.e. the LSI 9207-8e

 

While I wont have the density of 4-5 PMP boxes, I'll have 2 4 drive boxes that run at full speed.

Yielding a total of 12 drives + 1 external trayless removable for foreign mount or preclear, + SSD for esx.

 

I had looked into a larger box capable of SAS expanders.

From what I read I can have 1 chassis hooked up to two machines.

 

That started putting me into 15-30 drive territory and I don't want to own that many spindles anymore.

 

My mission over the past 6 weeks was to consolidate all the 1TB drives onto 6TB's and keep the spindle count down.

I think there are diminishing returns to so many spindles vs consolidating and selling off the smaller ones.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

So I am looking to replace my 4224 with a smaller setup and less drives... snagged a N54L off Ebay for a decent price.  I know it only holds 4 drives out of the box, I really want those 8TB drives to come out ;)  I wanted expansibility (albeit with external boxes) and the ability to try 6.0 and move all my old stuff off :)

Link to comment

So I am looking to replace my 4224 with a smaller setup and less drives... snagged a N54L off Ebay for a decent price.  I know it only holds 4 drives out of the box, I really want those 8TB drives to come out ;)  I wanted expansibility (albeit with external boxes) and the ability to try 6.0 and move all my old stuff off :)

 

Remember to apply the bios mod to it so the drive in the top bay will run at full speed. You can add one more drive there easily enough.

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

 

Apologies if this has already been covered, but can an N36L use 4TB drives without needing a custom BIOS etc? I'm currently running 5x2TB drives with unraid 4.7, and would like to upgrade the storage. But before I start down that road I'd like to check it will work.

 

 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I have two MicroServers running unRAID. Both have been extended to run 6 drives. A third system is currently in use as ESXi server and may become another unRAID next year. Here is some information that maybe useful for other MicroServer owners.

 

A. BIOS Update: This is required for adding a 5th and 6th hard drive. I have been using the 'Russian' BIOS mod for a while, but all my systems run a version supplied by TheBay now. I have documented the process and required settings in a PDF document [1]

 

B. Hardware mods: I have been using the Nexus DoubleTwin [2] to mount 2 drives in the Optical Drive Bay (ODB) [3] [4]. Cables required are (i) a power splitter / Y cable from Molex to 2x SATA power; (ii) an internal SATA cable, approx 50cm long; and (iii) an external eSATA to internal SATA cable, approx. 50cm long. The 5th drive is connected using (ii), routing the cable from the motherboard to the ODB. See the silver cable in pictures [4] [5] [6]. For the 6th drive, cable (iii) is routed from the back of the case through an opening above the PCI extensions slots [7]. You can easily bend the metal on the clamp that holds down extension cards with a pair of pliers. Temps can go up a bit during parity checks, but are OK otherwise. Replacing the ODB cover with a perforated cover might be a good idea.

 

C. Wake-On LAN: This has to be enabled in the BIOS (see [1]). The current unRAID releases have a bug in their shutdown scripts causing the network interface to be in the "up" state on powerdown. However, at least on the HP, this prevents WOL to work when the system is powered off (as compared to a WOL from S3/Sleep, which is not supported by the MicroServer BIOS). To fix, this I have added the lines below to my go file:

 

# Fix Wake on LAN
mv /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.bak
sed 's/|| \/sbin\/ifconfig/\&\& \/sbin\/ifconfig/' < /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.bak > /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1

 

For reference, a copy of my go file can be found here [8]. There's some additional stuff in there that requires extra packages, so please adapt before use.

 

D. Auto Poweroff: I have been using a modified version of the auto_s3_sleep.sh script from this forum, with an added powerDownInsteadOfSleep option [9]. Assuming that this script is located in the bin folder of your unRAID flash share, the following lines in the go script [8] will activate it:

 

# Wait for disks to spindown and no network activity
/boot/bin/auto_s3_sleep.sh &

 

E. Misc enhancements: I have added very thin patches of felt to the drive holders to reduce vibrations and noise.

 

F. Experience: The system is stable with the latest unRAID beta (b14), except that NFS on user shares (NOT disk shares) is totally buggy.

 

Hope this helps some of you guys!

 

[1] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/HP%20Proliant%20Microserver%20-%20Flash%20Modified%20BIOS.pdf

[2] http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_info.php/info/p6594_Nexus-Double-Twin-HDD-decoupling.html

[3] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/IMAG0127.jpg

[4] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/IMAG0126.jpg

[5] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/IMAG0133.jpg

[6] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/IMAG0134.jpg

[7] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/IMAG0135.jpg

[8] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/go.txt

[9] http://www.jens-thiel.de/static/HP/auto_s3_sleep.sh.txt

 

Really need some assistance here, I wanted to setup WOL for my unraid build (hp n40l). So I followed the instructions above and executed point C. I power downed from the Web GUI and tried to Wake from LAN and it worked great. However I found I could not get to the Web GUI or evening ping the server (tower). I connected my monitor and keyboard to the server and after some fishing found that the eth0 interface had no IP information (see attached picture), before this hand IP address, subnet, etc. I thought I kept a backup of the rc.inet1 file but it was gone after the reboot. Im not a linux expert so I dont want to start experimenting in case I break something and lose all my data. Really hoping someone can help me out, right now I am not so bothered about the WOL and just want my server online gain.

20150202_1956381.jpg.d526e1137193c54e9ae0709b9b11e049.jpg

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Just want to personally thank everyone - and especially Jens - for their posts here.

I just followed his pdf, downloaded the latest "TheBay" Bios, flashed it, followed some other guides on installing a drive in the optical drive bay - and boom, went off without a hitch!

9% pre-cleared already.

 

Thankyou SO much!

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

I've just added a 6th drive using the Feser Silent Arrow - However I cant seem to get the cover back on the microserver (N54L) as it all seems rather tight up top - Are any mods required to the case? I have already trimmed off the middle fins of the feser so its sits flush at the bottom...  As the cover is only on loosely and hasnt clicked into place (about 1.5cm short)

the temps on all drives has risen which I would obviously like to avoid so any help or feedback would be appreciated.

fc1w8.png

Link to comment

I've just added a 6th drive using the Feser Silent Arrow - However I cant seem to get the cover back on the microserver (N54L) as it all seems rather tight up top - Are any mods required to the case? I have already trimmed off the middle fins of the feser so its sits flush at the bottom...  As the cover is only on loosely and hasnt clicked into place (about 1.5cm short)

the temps on all drives has risen which I would obviously like to avoid so any help or feedback would be appreciated.

fc1w8.png

With the DoubleTwin I bought the drives would mount closer together and allowed the top back on.  I would look at your mounting bracket and see if there is a position that puts the drives closer together.  You don't need much especially if you add small fans to push air past them from the front.
Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

What is the largest HDs the HP 40nl can handle running?  3tb, 4tb, etc

128,000TB.

 

I believe that's the current 48-bit LBA BIOS limit.

 

Is this also true for the N36L? I'm thinking of upgrading my 1.5TB drives to 4-6TB WD Red depending on what deal I can get.

Link to comment

What is the largest HDs the HP 40nl can handle running?  3tb, 4tb, etc

128,000TB.

 

I believe that's the current 48-bit LBA BIOS limit.

 

Is this also true for the N36L? I'm thinking of upgrading my 1.5TB drives to 4-6TB WD Red depending on what deal I can get.

 

N36L, N40L and N54L are all the same basic model. I have 2TB drives in my N36L and 4TB drives in my N54L. The 8TB Seagate Archive drive is a better deal than most 6TB NAS drives out there from what I can tell.

Link to comment
  • 9 months later...

I did look at those but they seemed expensive-ish?

 

My N54L has 8 drives, one is external.

My N36L has 7 drives, all internal.

 

Hi neilt0,

 

Please would you mind to explain where you have added the seventh drive inside the case?

 

Thank you.

 

I've got 7 drives in my N36L too

 

4 x 3.5" in the main drive bays

2 x 3.5" in the ODD bay

1 x 2.5" (750Gb cache) slimline hiding in the space underneath the ODD

 

6 of the 3.5" are 4TB, 1 still is a 2TB.

 

 

Link to comment
  • 9 months later...

@WeeboTech

 

Did you confirm the Sil3124 works fine with unRAID? Or do you still have it to test and confirm now?

 

Thanks

 

 

I cannot remember the outcome in regards to reliability. If I remember correctly I retired it. There seemed to be weird issues with devices randomly dropping. I went with the 2 port Startech card ASMedia chipset.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Does a bracket exist that will allow you to securely mount a 3.5" hard drive in the ODD bay with a 2.5" hard drive underneath it?

 

Edit: I guess this would do the trick? https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Hard-Drive-Accessories/ORICO-Aluminum-Internal-Mounting-Screws-Absorption-AC52535/B01C6X31ZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486738286&sr=8-1&keywords=2.5%2Band%2B3.5%2Bto%2B5.25&th=1

 

Yes, that will do what you want  :)

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.