Guide to Building an HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 FreeNAS Server

[StrikeByte]

My ML10 gen9 came with 8GB of ram and upgraded it with kingston memory KTH-PL421E/16G it works like a charm and saves you some money.
For the sata upgrade you can also consider a Dell PERC H310 PCI-e SAS Controller 0HV52W (it-mode flashed) or similar (cheap on ebay)

For the powerbutton you can also just take it out of the front panel and place it into the new case (if the wires are long enough)

 

[keniemoses]

Does anyone know if I can put a higher end Xenon processor other than the E3-1225 v5 in this motherboard and if so what models?

Yeah, I just put a Xeon e3 1275v5 in mine today. Works great! Going to install 4x4TB WD Gold.

 

[LIGISTX]

For the powerbutton you can also just take it out of the front panel and place it into the new case (if the wires are long enough)

I actually just plugged my cases power button into the header on the motherboard. It was not exactly like normal (can’t recall why) but it did work just fine. It may have been a little DIY, I can’t remember even though it was only a month ago lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[r-p]

Hi, thanks for the great thread. I have the G4400 ML10 Gen9 with an extra 4GB (8GB total), with no HD's yet.

I am about to add them but I just wanted to make absolutely sure it accepts HD's bigger than 4TB without issue. It detected your 8TB HD's without any additional acts from your side?

Thinking of adding a 10TB HGST Ultrastar for non-critical data (no raid) so I can then use a few new and my existing (and thanks to the 10TB, now empty) 3&4TB drives to build a raidZ or raidZ2.

(Edit: found the 10TB Ultrastar for 211euro instead of 300+, so ordered two and will run raid1. So I will soon be able to answer above question myself if the ML10 accepts 10TB Ultrastars...)

(Edit2: and I'll be able to answer a second question I cannot find the answer to: if the ML10 gen9 has the powerdisable function for harddrives build in or if I have to use a SATA=>Molex and then a Molex=>SATA connector to get rid of that option. By the looks of it, the powerconnector only has 4 wires, (12V/5V and 2x GND), so shouldn't be an issue).

 

[DJABE]

This is so far the worst computer case I have ever encountered. Power supply have set world record for shortest power cables. Thumbs up HPE, for saving $$$ even on cables.
Also it does not have RS232 serial port, not even a header on the mainboard, I had to order PCI-e x1 serial card. Simply unbelievable to see server w/o serial port.
In order to add front case fan I had to tear apart HDD metal bridge. Gotcha: no additional 4/3 fan connector on the mobo too, so I had to use Y splitter. Also I had to use Y SATA power splitters.
So absolute maximum number of drives I could fit inside is 4x 3.5" HDD (2x in 3.5" factory cage and 2x in 5.25" slots using 3.5" caddy adapter or so) and 1x 2.5" SSD mounted on the bottom of the case. Absolute maximum in this case 5 drives - with additional front fan mounted.

Apart from the worst tower case - it works for it's purpose - Intel AMT works on my Xeon 1225 V5 CPU, sadly it has Intel 0day exploits too - which HPE apparently will fix some time in the future, but not ASAP due to shitload of problems they already have with Intel (Meltdown etc.).

My configuration was "Performance model" - Xeon E3-1225 V5, 1x 8GB ECC RAM, 2x 1 TB Seagate 7200rp drives. Of course it comes at price... but since it's almost impossible to get Supermicro mobo of interest in my area - this seemed like a good purchase, with possibility of 4x 16 GB ECC RAM. Sadly RAM is overpriced these days - but the funny part is that this is first time I remember when non-ECC and ECC UDIMMs are equal at price!

P.S. I have flashed it to the latest BIOS (dated November 2017), still waiting for Intel ME firmware patch and probably new BIOS from HPE in order to resolve Intel AMT security hole.