Has anyone been able to install FreeNAS on HP MicroServer Gen8 with B120i RAID?

[PeterB]

Just wondering, my install (2GB, x86) crashes each time.

Was hoping to use this low-end, fakeraid controller.

 

[jgreco]

Not expected to work. Minimum 8GB RAM. Use X64 not x86. Do not use fakeraid, just put it in standard SATA mode.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

You need to set the RAID controller to AHCI mode in the BIOS.

If recommend 8GB of RAM as well.

 

[gpsguy]

There are some folks on the forum using them. Do a forum search for quicker answers.

That being said, don't use the embedded RAID - use AHCI instead.

Be warned, with only 2Gb you'll be limited to using UFS and support for it will be dropped in future versions of FreeNAS.

Consider putting a minimum of 8Gb of ECC RAM in it. Or to to 16Gb. I'm using 16 in my Gen7 Microserver.


Sent from my phone

 

[Dennis.kulmosen]

I am running FreeNas on a HP microserver N36L with only 8gb of ram. 16gb is on my wishlist when money is available for more IT stuff. ;-)
But dont expect huge speeds on it, I am getting 100MB/s write and 60MB/s read with AFP with 5 drives in RAIDZ1 and i am happy with that.
As already said put it ahci mode. And if you want to use the optical drive sata port you need to flash the bios with a hacked one to get ahci on that port as well. Use google for that part.


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[PeterB]

Thanks for all the information, people.

I thought it may be a stretch as most FakeRaid controllers (including the like S300 controllers from Dell) aren't typically usable in Linux boxes, and FreeBSD even less... I expect.

I ordered 8GB from Crucial for this box - my intention with it was to make it into a file dump for seeding of offsite backups, and would typically need CIFS, possibly NFS and possibly iSCSI support. If I can or can't get it going I'll post back.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

With 8GB you can definitely setup FreeNAS on the MS Gen8. It will boot fine in ahci and you will have full access to the hard drives. Any mode other than ahci will fail to boot.

I've run it on the bare metal of both of my HP servers for a backup if something happens to ESXi.

 

[PeterB]

I'm still having some trouble; I was able to install FreeNAS on a thumb drive, after I'd allocated the disc space, and setup CIFS sharing, etc.

The issue I'm having with my Gen8 is that the network will 'die' when transferring large files. For a while, with say a smaller ISO, 600MB or so, the transfer works. If I throw a larger file (2GB+) it will begin to transfer normally, and then the NAS device will be come 'unavailable'. I do not see that FreeNAS has crashed, I can still use the web console, but the file transfers look like they're complete when I browse the NAS, but I know that they've not completed successfully.

Is it a network card driver issue? 8GB of ram in these boxes. I have two of them, same install, same result.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

Did you update the firmware on your Gen8? If not, run the build in updated (option F8 or F9 I think at boot) and update the firmware. That would be my first step.

I have not had any issues with large transfers on my Gen8. I've used CIFS, AFP and replication of multiple TB worth of data.

 

[PeterB]

I'm running through a boot of the ISO:

HP_Service_Pack_for_Proliant_2014.02.0-0_761723-001_spp_2014.02.0-SPP2014020.2014_0128.5.iso

And running a thorough 'automatic' update. I have updated the BIOS to the latest J06 code via USB key earlier, successfully.

I will retry after a flash and see what goes.

Did you install FreeNAS onto a MicroSD card? If so, I was thinking about that and wonder what brand/make/nnGB size to use. Don't want to break off a USB key.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

No, I had no luck with microSD (when I first started with FreeNAS) then as I read more on the forums, I was glad I went with USB in the end. It is not recommended that you use any SD media for FreeNAS.

I will say that I have no windows clients. All of my clients are OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. I will give it a try copying a couple large ISOs over SMB with a Windows VM tonight if I have time. Does it happen both ways? Or just writing to the FreeNAS box?

EDIT: Also, use the built in updater over the ISO. It will go online and download the very latest firmware for everything.

 

[PeterB]

I can't really tell if the transfer fails both ways; I'm not able to transfer a large enough file to the NAS to then turn around and copy it to a windows box.

I did run the update from the ISO, and it seemed to connect to the web and pull down a service pack or two - what built-in updater are you referring to? I'm not sure I understand.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

Intelligent Provisioning, F10

Apparently I can't attach a photo with tapatalk without one of their dumbass accounts or I'd attach an example showing it.

 

[PeterB]

Ah. I will try this. I wasn't sure if you were talking about the iLO software or one of the many many many HP tools. Thanks for the clarification.