neilt0 Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 I put together a couple of nice Gen7 MicroServers (per my sig): http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11585.0 That thread has had 305,978 Views (the highest view count of any thread in the "unRAID Compulsive Design" forum). The Gen7 HP MicroServers were really popular -- HP said they have sold "hundreds of thousands" of them. I'm now looking to put together a Gen8 setup, but this time the setup will be quite different. My plan is to (eventually) build the server up to be VM-based (in some way -- more on that later) and I'd run unRAID, but also use it as a Windows 8 workstation for audio and video editing. My initial plan is to buy the 712317-421 SKU (http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/ups/product-detail.html?oid=5384977) and upgrade it by adding a Xeon CPU, 16GB of ECC RAM, an SSD and a GPU. Then migrate hard drives from my older MicroServer in to a new unRAID array. My original thread was all answers, with few questions from me! This time, as things are more complex, I'm adding posts in this thread containing questions and answers. There is plenty of information out there and Weebotech has posted some good information here, too, but there are still quite a few questions I have. Hopefully people here will have some of those answers, but if not, I will also go over to other forums etc. to find out and post the answers here. Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Answers post 2a. Do I need qualified hardware to be able to pass through? Does the RAM matter? Can I pass through this GPU with no issues? Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon HD 5450 650Mhz 1GB DDR3 PCI-Express DVI (Low Profile) A: I did buy the 5450 GPU, albeit I'm not using it in a VM. 2b. Does the onboard (crappy) Matrox G200 GPU support 1280x768? I may hold off the GPU upgrade initially and do have a monitor that I can use with that for a while. A: It does not! However, it's pretty useful for providing the graphics support for iLO4 (Remote Console). Remote Console is very nice. 3. This is the higher speed RAM that I'm looking at: http://www.ebuyer.com/393263-kingston-8gb-1600mhz-ddr3-ecc-hp-server-kth-pl316e-8g Is there a benefit to buying a "matched" pair, or will 2 separate 8GB DIMMs work as quickly in that machine? I read somewhere about dual reads or somesuch! A: I used one of the 2GB ECC DIMMs from a Gen7 Microserver and that works, getting me 4GB for now. 4. There was an issue with the initial firmware such that if the onboard "Smart Array B120i" storage controller was set to AHCI instead of RAID, the iLO fan management would kick in the fan to high speed because it couldn't read the drive temperatures. Apparently, that has been fixed in later BIOS versions. Has this been confirmed? A: This has been fixed with the latest BIOS. I used the "Full ISO" to upgrade the iLO BIOS and the motherboard BIOS and there's no issue with the fan running at high speed. It runs at 14% pretty much all the time, even at high CPU load and is very quiet. I haven't tried maxing out the CPU for long period yet. 4a. When using (for example) a setup with 1x SSD dedicated to Win7 and 4x drives dedicated to unRAID, should AHCI or a "RAID0" (it's not RAID0) setup be used? Does it make an difference? A: I used AHCI and can't think of a good reason to use the RAID modes with unRAID and a Windows VM. Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Questions post 1. What are the pros and cons of going with an ESXi build vs. a KVM (unraid-based VM)? I'm leaning towards ESXi, but is KVM "better"? If so, how? Most of my drives will be unRAID-dedicated, so that may help. 2. Assuming I upgrade from a Celeron to a Xeon CPU, can I pass through "everything" I want to in to a Windows 7 VM (ESXi or KVM) with no penalty and thus giving the Win7 machine "direct" access the hardware? e.g. LAN port, GPU, USB ports etc 2a. Do I need qualified hardware to be able to pass through? Does the RAM matter? Can I pass through this GPU with no issues? Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon HD 5450 650Mhz 1GB DDR3 PCI-Express DVI (Low Profile) 2b. Does the onboard (crappy) Matrox G200 GPU support 1280x768? I may hold off the GPU upgrade initially and do have a monitor that I can use with that for a while. 3. This is the higher speed RAM that I'm looking at: http://www.ebuyer.com/393263-kingston-8gb-1600mhz-ddr3-ecc-hp-server-kth-pl316e-8g Is there a benefit to buying a "matched" pair, or will 2 separate 8GB DIMMs work as quickly in that machine? I read somewhere about dual reads or somesuch! 4. There was an issue with the initial firmware such that if the onboard "Smart Array B120i" storage controller was set to AHCI instead of RAID, the iLO fan management would kick in the fan to high speed because it couldn't read the drive temperatures. Apparently, that has been fixed in later BIOS versions. Has this been confirmed? 4a. When using (for example) a setup with 1x SSD dedicated to Win7 and 4x drives dedicated to unRAID, should AHCI or a "RAID0" (it's not RAID0) setup be used? Does it make an difference? Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Build post I added a low-profile Sapphire Radeon HD5450 for Windows 7. The onboard VGA is pretty awful: 2.5" drive at the top, using the SATA port on the motherboard and "hidden" Molex. Link to comment
garycase Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 I'm sure you'll get multiple opinions on your questions, but I'll toss out a few thoughts on some of them ... 1. What are the pros and cons of going with an ESXi build vs. a KVM (unraid-based VM)? I'm leaning towards ESXi, but is KVM "better"? If so, how? Most of my drives will be unRAID-dedicated, so that may help. I think "different" is a better descriptor rather than trying to claim one is "better" than the other. I do know that UnRAID works very nicely in ESXi, and there's one fairly nice advantage of that approach vs. using UnRAID's KVM => your other VM's don't depend on UnRAID running. You can shut down UnRAID (to do an upgrade; to add/remove disks; etc.) without any impact on your other VMs. Note also that Dockers work just fine in UnRAID running under ESXi. I tend to lean towards the ESXi approach, but am not currently virtualizing UnRAID, so you should read some of the threads where folks are using ESXi to get their opinions. 2. Assuming I upgrade from a Celeron to a Xeon CPU, can I pass through "everything" I want to in to a Windows 7 VM (ESXi or KVM) with no penalty and thus giving the Win7 machine "direct" access the hardware? e.g. LAN port, GPU, USB ports etc There shouldn't be any issue with this as long as both the motherboard and CPU have vt-d support. But "everything" is a pretty inclusive term ... and there are certainly some devices that folks have had problems passing through. I'd basically say the answer to this question is "Probably." As for the specific video card you asked about => same answer ... I'd expect it to pass through with no problem, but based on experiences that have been documented in other threads the only way to know for certain is to try it with your specific hardware configuration. 3. This is the higher speed RAM that I'm looking at: http://www.ebuyer.com/393263-kingston-8gb-1600mhz-ddr3-ecc-hp-server-kth-pl316e-8g Is there a benefit to buying a "matched" pair, or will 2 separate 8GB DIMMs work as quickly in that machine? I read somewhere about dual reads or somesuch! There's NO benefit to buying "matched pairs". There's no such thing as "dual channel memory", "triple channel memory", or "quad channel memory". Those are simply marketing terms used when they box up 2, 3, or 4 modules in a single package. The # of channels your memory controller supports determines how many modules you should install together for optimal performance. Those modules DO need to have matching specifications (speed, organization, & latency) ... but it doesn't matter if you buy them all at once; or even if they're from the same manufacturer. Clearly if you buy the packaged sets you can be certain those conditions are met; but the same thing would be true if you simply bought several of the same modules. 4a. When using (for example) a setup with 1x SSD dedicated to Win7 and 4x drives dedicated to unRAID, should AHCI or a "RAID0" (it's not RAID0) setup be used? Does it make an difference? Use AHCI. Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Thanks, gc. That last point RE: AHCI was specifically about the Gen8 HP. It has all sorts of provisioning and iLo and ACUs and all sorts, so it's not your average Pee Cee.... Link to comment
neilt0 Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 So, I bought the Gen8 and updated the Answers post: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=40559.msg382643#msg382643 If you're in the UK and can find one, the Gen8 is on a very good deal right now -- around £180 with £80 cashback until the end of June (2 or 3 days left). The Gen7 had a similar deal, but that went on for years. This might be different, as Dabs is showing as EOL and ServerPlus's site crashed, so I don't know if they have any. If you can find one, I highly recommend it. Even though I'll end up replacing the CPU and RAM, it's still a great deal IMO. More on the deal: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-gen8-microserver-179-94-now-99-after-80-cashback-4-95-delivery-184-89-delivered-2217762 Link to comment
Lacehim Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I just bought a G1610T off shopping express here in Australia. $269AU which is a good price for us in Australia. http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/hp-proliant-g1610t-microserver-nas-712317-371/712317-371 Comes with stock 2Gb ram, not sure if that needs upgraded. From what I read the G8 units ODD has a SATAII port, and the 4 drives have 2 on SATAIII and 2 on SATAII. I want to run a cache drive on this new V6 system which is something new to learn. I have a N40L which is stock, but uses the ODD Sata to run an apps drive. I was thinking of putting V6 on my new machine and playing about with it, then replacing my N40L or ditching my Synology DS414 which seemed like a good idea at the time but just isn't as customisable as unraid and support is damn slow and half the time just reply with another question! lol. It's on it's way anyway, so can't wait to get my hands on it. I have a spare plus licence which is nice ready to go! Link to comment
neilt0 Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 I just bought a G1610T off shopping express here in Australia. $269AU which is a good price for us in Australia. http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/hp-proliant-g1610t-microserver-nas-712317-371/712317-371 Comes with stock 2Gb ram, not sure if that needs upgraded. From what I read the G8 units ODD has a SATAII port, and the 4 drives have 2 on SATAIII and 2 on SATAII. I want to run a cache drive on this new V6 system which is something new to learn. I have a N40L which is stock, but uses the ODD Sata to run an apps drive. I was thinking of putting V6 on my new machine and playing about with it, then replacing my N40L or ditching my Synology DS414 which seemed like a good idea at the time but just isn't as customisable as unraid and support is damn slow and half the time just reply with another question! lol. It's on it's way anyway, so can't wait to get my hands on it. I have a spare plus licence which is nice ready to go! I missed your post until now, for some reason. I put another 2GB in mine because I'm currently running Windows 7 on it. Eventually, mine will go up to 16GB as it will be a VM machine. If you use stock unRAID, 2GB will be enough. More RAM can be useful for Dockers and plugins. I have a 2.5" boot drive in the ODD space, connected to the Molex hidden below using a splitter and the SATA connection on the motherboard. That is due to be replaced later this month with an SSD. The chipset on the motherboard only has SATAIII on 2 ports, so that's bays 1 and 2 of the coldswap bays. I may buy a caddy to use my SSD in bay 1. I have some photos of what I've added which I'll post in the build post above. ETA: Build post updated: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=40559.msg382645#msg382645 Link to comment
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