March 2, 201412 yr How would I test the speed of the array after the changes have been made, would a normal non correcting parity check be a good indicator even though the array will have no data on it? That would be the way I would test it. There are the performance scripts in another post/thread on the forums that might be even better but I've never used them. Ah ok, forgot about that one, used at a few times on my main machine, will probably run that in 6hrs lol when the sync finishes and I've enable the BIOS options.
March 2, 201412 yr That's slow. I have an N36L with similar drives (WD 2TB Green are the slowest I have, I think). That did a parity check at 91.94 MByte/s. I think I'm running stock disk settings. I have 3GB of RAM in that box. Disk Settings Enable auto start: Default spin down delay: Force NCQ disabled: Enable spinup groups: Default partition format: Tunable (md_num_stripes): default Tunable (md_write_limit): default Tunable (md_sync_window): default Done The speed for a parity sync will be low if you haven't switched on the write cache in the BIOS and/or you are using any SATA ports other than the standard 4 and haven't upgraded the BIOS. I imagine it's because you haven't switched on the write cache, as detailed in the first post in this thread. How can i check the parity write speed? I have write cache and bios (thebay) enabled just wondering how to measure it when parity check is actually running. Is it only available from command line after i've invoke a parity check (still learning, apologies!)
March 3, 201412 yr Author How can i check the parity write speed? I have write cache and bios (thebay) enabled just wondering how to measure it when parity check is actually running. Is it only available from command line after i've invoke a parity check (still learning, apologies!) It will be displayed in the syslog after the parity check. It'll show the number of seconds. I took that and divided (in my case) 2TB / #seconds = overall speed. You can also see the speed in realtime from unmenu mymain and maybe even the default web interface?
March 4, 201412 yr Do you recommend using the BIOS made my TheBay, are there any major improvements over stock? If you are using the ODD or eSata ports it is a requirement if you want full speed parity checks. I don't think write caching matters in terms of write security because unRAID writes, then writes parity, then reads it back, I think -- otherwise it doesn't count as a write. Something like that. Others may know better. OK thanks guys for replies once the initial parity sync is done I'll make the changes in the BIOS listed above. How would I test the speed of the array after the changes have been made, would a normal non correcting parity check be a good indicator even though the array will have no data on it? OK the parity sync finished last night so i made the changes below and created a user share for my TV Shows. Write caching turned on in the BIOS VGA set to 32MB in the BIOS I used Teracopy to copy over 106GB of data and was surprised to see a max speed of 12MB/s, this seems a little slow. The network is gigabit and ifconfig seem to confirm this. What am I missing here guys? ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr c8:cb:b8:c5:2e:bb inet addr:192.168.1.69 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:3896136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:2818524 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4977588902 (4.6 GiB) TX bytes:1869594635 (1.7 GiB) Interrupt:18 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1 RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:560 (560.0 B) TX bytes:560 (560.0 B)
March 4, 201412 yr Have you tried replacing the network cable, switch or port? I ask only because that has worked for me when I was getting bad transfer speeds. I had a bad switch. It was reduced to 100 instead of 1000. I usually get 30MBs when I write to my array on my N54L. Faster when using a cache drive.
March 4, 201412 yr Author 12MB/sec suggests one part is operating at 100mbps. Sent from Moto G using Tapatalk
March 4, 201412 yr 12MB/sec suggests one part is operating at 100mbps. Sent from Moto G using Tapatalk The server is now at my brothers so I'm getting him to get some new cables. If the speed still remains the same I'll get home to get separate switch as at the moment his main machine and server are both plugged into his new BT home hub. I agree it certainly seems to be a cable or hub problem. I experienced a similar problem which turned out to be a switch going bad slowly, would work at full speed once I restarted it for few hours then the speed would drop off. Are there any settings in the BIOS I could get him to look for? Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
March 13, 201412 yr I have a N36L with 16GB of ECC Memory and am installing win7 64bit The TOP bay will not see a 2TB disk. I tried to update the BIOS, but HP has introduced a lot of control levels like support agreements etc which I am unable to complete 3 years after purchasing the server I would like to update the bios with the 'O41072911.rar' version. I tried to read the whole thread from start to figure out what to do and where to find instructions, but gave up on page 20. Pardon me if I am asking a question that have been asked a thousand times, but since I cannot get hold of the official bios flash file what steps do O have to take: I have the following files: Online ROM Flash Component for Microserver.exe O41072911.rar socflash_v10205.zip HP Bios Modified AHCI SATA 4-5 Enable v10192011.zip : linking to this url from 'Download the latest BIOS file from HP.' http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4248009&swItem=MTX-5f1ea852aba841bc8a9b03e298&prodNameId=4310887&swEnvOID=4064&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=3 ----- giving me the runaround for HP registration again Could someone perhaps pass me the file: "Latest BIOS file from HP." PLEASE a DROPBOX link will be fine
March 27, 201412 yr I tried to update the BIOS, but HP has introduced a lot of control levels like support agreements etc which I am unable to complete 3 years after purchasing the server I would like to update the bios with the 'O41072911.rar' version. I tried to read the whole thread from start to figure out what to do and where to find instructions, but gave up on page 20. Pardon me if I am asking a question that have been asked a thousand times, but since I cannot get hold of the official bios flash file what steps do O have to take: I have the following files: Online ROM Flash Component for Microserver.exe O41072911.rar socflash_v10205.zip HP Bios Modified AHCI SATA 4-5 Enable v10192011.zip : linking to this url from 'Download the latest BIOS file from HP.' http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4248009&swItem=MTX-5f1ea852aba841bc8a9b03e298&prodNameId=4310887&swEnvOID=4064&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=3 ----- giving me the runaround for HP registration again Could someone perhaps pass me the file: "Latest BIOS file from HP." PLEASE a DROPBOX link will be fine I think many people will be having this problem. Here is a post talking about hp limiting support for the proliant, http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7099-hps-new-rules-to-access-firmware-driver-downloads/ Think just a matter of time before forums where this microserver are popular start putting download links up.
March 27, 201412 yr Author Well, that's just idiotic. Restricting access to BIOS files when the BIOS update fixes issues like not being able to boot an OS? My N54L has a warranty to June 2014, so I signed up and gave them my serial number. I then had to login about 5 times before they'd give up the bloody BIOS, but I have it now. If you need access to the official BIOS, PM me. I won't send it to you, of course. That would be crazy. I don't even use the official BIOS -- I use the hacked version that enables full SATA speed on all ports, but you may need the official BIOS installer to install it.
April 1, 201412 yr Well, that's just idiotic. Restricting access to BIOS files when the BIOS update fixes issues like not being able to boot an OS? My N54L has a warranty to June 2014, so I signed up and gave them my serial number. I then had to login about 5 times before they'd give up the bloody BIOS, but I have it now. Probably hurt more than help HP I think. Pretty much every tech site had an article about how bad an idea it was. Certainly make folks think twice about buying the items affected by the change. Bios updates should be free, especially if they fix bugs/issues in the original bios. Gonna hurt the used equipment market too for sure. Though I imagine unofficial sources for the bios updates will end up all over the place. Using the hacked bios as well.
August 28, 201411 yr I just added a cache drive (Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB) to my N40L server and while the reads speeds are what I expected, maxing out my gigabit lan, write speed to the cache drive is only about 50MB/s. I can write to the array at close to 40Mb/s, so was expecting more. Write cache in ON in the bios, tried the tweak below from another post and it's the same, anything more I can try? echo 50 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold & logger Go Script - ondemand up_threshold set to 50 echo 50 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/ondemand/sampling_down_factor & logger Go Script - ondemand sampling_down_factor set to 50 Thanks
September 6, 201411 yr Hi, I have just purchased the N54L (I think, documentation is a bit vague) I found a note about updating the BIOS. I am a bit puzzled as to whether I need to update if I am going to use UnRaid and where I get it if I haven't purchased a support package. btw I have no experience of upgrading BIOS and would have assumed a new product comes with the latest version . How can I tell if I have the latest already? Thanks
September 6, 201411 yr Author The custom BIOS allows you to run SATA ports 5 and 6 at full speed. They are the internal SATA port and the e-SATA port at the back. If you plan on using more than 4 drives, you should upgrade the BIOS: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hp+n54l+custom+bios&oq=hp+n54l+custom+bios&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.11676j0j4&client=ms-android-motorola&sourceid=chrome-mobile&espv=1&ie=UTF-8
September 8, 201411 yr So if I plan to use it with 4 HDDs and a BD-ROM with Unraid I don't need to update the BIOS. Is this correct? Thanks
September 8, 201411 yr Thank you, you have convinced me. But now I'm struggling to find the correct BIOS. I followed the first link that your search gave and was just about to pull the trigger when I noticed that it's over a year old. Will it be based on the HP BIOS? Should I get a newer one? My 2 day old Microserver came with BIOS dated 07/29/2011 Thanks again.
September 8, 201411 yr Author I can't recommend anyone to flash a BIOS if they don't know what they're doing... But, having said that, the wikia is a good resource. The Microserver is not a new design and has actually been replaced with a new model for a while. My (latest model) N54L is running the custom BIOS.
September 9, 201411 yr As Ebuyer just sent out about 300 of these (last batch?), there might be others with the same questions as me, so hopefully this post will help. After a bit of searching around I came to the conclusion that the most recent modded BIOS was 041100113 and I needed to use SP64420 to create a bootable flash, then replace the HP 041100113 file with the modded one. I got these files from this Dutch site http://www.xpenology.nl/hp-n40ln54l-bios-modificatie-2013-10-01/ but followed the English one below (They are very similar). So I followed this English guide: http://terfmop.co.uk/blog/2013/07/31/hp-proliant-n54l-bios-modification-guide-allow-hot-plug-sata-and-5th-sata-port/ and used the files above instead. My Microserver now tells me the BIOS is dated 10/01/2013 which is as up to date as I'd expect. Hopefully this post either helps someone or encourages someone to offer better advice! Cheers
September 9, 201411 yr Author I don't think the official HP BIOS runs all the SATA ports at full speed: http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/Bios That's the main reason why people upgrade the BIOS. But, if you never use ports 5 and 6 for hard drives, it won't matter.
November 5, 201411 yr Weird question. I just bought one of these used and it turns out that it didnt come with a key. It looks like all n36,40,54L servers have the same key, a W-23 from southco. If I paid for postage would someone perhaps be able to cut me a copy and mail it to me or send me their spare if they dont need it? I gotta mail the thing back if not and aye yi yi. Thanks!
November 6, 201411 yr Weird question. I just bought one of these used and it turns out that it didnt come with a key. It looks like all n36,40,54L servers have the same key, a W-23 from southco. If I paid for postage would someone perhaps be able to cut me a copy and mail it to me or send me their spare if they dont need it? I gotta mail the thing back if not and aye yi yi. Thanks! In the u.s. ? I can see if I can get a key made, if the store carries the blank.
November 6, 201411 yr No worries thanks for the response. I ended up just taking a screwdriver to it and it gave in easily.
November 6, 201411 yr No worries thanks for the response. I ended up just taking a screwdriver to it and it gave in easily. That seems to be the universal key. Also paperclips work well.
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