HP ProLiant ml310e gen8 ... will it freeNAS?

[nicko3.0i]

Hi everyone!
I could acquire a HP ProLiant ml310e gen8, Xeon e3-1240v2 4x3.4ghz 32gb ddr3 ECC for 200 bucks.
The price difference between this and building one is way beyond compare.
I'm thinking of picking it for my first freeNAS...

The only thing that I'm unsure of is:
Storage Controller

• Interface Type
  Serial ATA-600
• Storage Controller Name
  HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i
• Channel Qty
  6

Is the B120i suitable? I read you can put it in AHCI mode and just go.. but I'd like some advice from experienced people like you before pulling the trigger :)
thank you!

Nicolo' "Nicko", Verona Italy

 

[dolphinit]

Strangely I tried this yesterday as been toying with the same idea. Did a test with 2 1TB drives installed and seemed to work ok

Thinking of filling it with 8TB drives and adding extra drives by using 5.25 to 3.5 multi converter in the 5.25 bays, and adding a pci-e SATA card

It also has a USB connection inside the case that I used for a boot memory stick

 

[nicko3.0i]

Ok, you convinced me. Bought it, shipping from Germany, it should arrive in a week or less!

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

@nicko3.0i - Check the forums for any information the B210i. It may be able to flashed to IT mode - or not. Setting up each individual drive as a "RAID-0" is not provide FreeNAS direct access to the drives. As well, some adaptors look like they are in IT mode, but really are not. I'd stick with the known-good LSI models mentioned in the forums. You can pick them up on eBay for under $25.

 

[nicko3.0i]

@nicko3.0i - Check the forums for any information the B210i. It may be able to flashed to IT mode - or not. Setting up each individual drive as a "RAID-0" is not provide FreeNAS direct access to the drives. As well, some adaptors look like they are in IT mode, but really are not. I'd stick with the known-good LSI models mentioned in the forums. You can pick them up on eBay for under $25.

I thought B120i was the motherboard sata integrated ports... well, as I get the item I'll check it out!
Good to know that we can realy on the good old models, proven working!

 

[dolphinit]

Yes it can be turned off and be used as a 4 port standard AHCI controller

B120i is just software RAID

In bios setup
System Options, SATA Controller Options, Embedded SATA Configuration, Enable SATA AHCI support

 

[nicko3.0i]

Yes it can be turned off and be used as a 4 port standard AHCI controller

B120i is just software RAID

In bios setup
System Options, SATA Controller Options, Embedded SATA Configuration, Enable SATA AHCI support

Excellent!
So as far as I can see the motherboard has just 2 sata ports, and the B120i has four. I began doing some research on the model while waiting for it to arrive.

 

[dolphinit]

Yeah when you change to AHCI you have the 2 ports on the board as 1 controller and the 4 ports that are in the backplane as a 2nd controller. Ive attached a screenshot of post on mine

 

[SteveN]

I could acquire a HP ProLiant ml310e gen8, Xeon e3-1240v2 4x3.4ghz 32gb ddr3 ECC for 200 bucks.

Can you please provide a link? I'm looking for a second hand server for the same purpose but have not found one so cheap. Also, what was your shipping costs?

 

[nicko3.0i]

Can you please provide a link? I'm looking for a second hand server for the same purpose but have not found one so cheap. Also, what was your shipping costs?

HP ProLiant ML310e Gen8 1x Xeon E3-1240V2 4x3.4GHz 32GB DDR3 1TB PSU 350watt | eBay

Le migliori offerte per HP ProLiant ML310e Gen8 1x Xeon E3-1240V2 4x3.4GHz 32GB DDR3 1TB PSU 350watt sono su eBay ✓ Confronta prezzi e caratteristiche di prodotti nuovi e usati ✓ Molti articoli con consegna gratis!

www.ebay.it

You can configure how much ram, if you want a hard drive, and which processor
22€ shipping costs to Italy

 

[nicko3.0i]

Got the server, replaced a dead fan preventing it to work... burnt freenas ISO to a dvd, tomorrow I'm into installation!
yay!

 

[Suwarna]

Got the server, replaced a dead fan preventing it to work... burnt freenas ISO to a dvd, tomorrow I'm into installation!
yay! :)

Hi, am in the midst to get myself an ML310e Gen 8 v2, e3-1220v3, 16GB, no HDD and include 4 caddies for HDD, for 433 usd (not really cheap but very difficult to get server motherboard here (only Intel and Asus available and very expensive if going to build one).
so looking on above discussion from Dolphinit, it seems this machine can accept 6 SATA ? if yes, then will be great as i thought it only limit to 4 SATA HDD.

did you already installed your machine ? how it goes ? any problem and how is the performance on your setup ? thank you

Stay safe !

brgds,
Suwarna

 

[nicko3.0i]

Hi, am in the midst to get myself an ML310e Gen 8 v2, e3-1220v3, 16GB, no HDD and include 4 caddies for HDD, for 433 usd (not really cheap but very difficult to get server motherboard here (only Intel and Asus available and very expensive if going to build one).
so looking on above discussion from Dolphinit, it seems this machine can accept 6 SATA ? if yes, then will be great as i thought it only limit to 4 SATA HDD.

did you already installed your machine ? how it goes ? any problem and how is the performance on your setup ? thank you

Stay safe !

brgds,
Suwarna

Hi! I built the NAS and the system is up & running flawlessly!
If you get the standard B120i controller, you get 4 SATA ports via the backplane cable and 2 SATA onboard.. useful for cdrom or for another two drives!
You're gonna boot from USB thumbdrive?

I'm currently running 4 x 4TB seagate Ironwolf, and the power consumption is 51W idle.
Beware! The two system fans are custom, and cannot be replaced with standard ones. A dead fan will prevent your system from even booting! So as you get it, better take a couple spares on the ebay/aliexpress ecc

Stay super safe, and enjoy building!
Nicko

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Nice thread find. :)

I'm waiting for delivery of a ML310e at the moment and trying to work out the best configuration.

Downside is that it has 4 * 2GB RAM which is a bit small by all accounts, so I will be investigating larger memory.

I have 4 * 3TB WD Red (not the latest shingled stuff) which I plain to RAIDZ1 for my main storage.

It comes with an optical drive so I have one spare SATA port, and am considering using that for an SSD for the OS.

I note that some people run the OS off memory sticks - is that just to free off more SATA ports for HDD?

I also note that there is a micro SD card slot.
Does anyone use this for the OS?
[Shades of Raspberry Pi!]

Oh, and the User Guide shows 2 * Ethernet ports in the back; does anyone use both on the same LAN?
Or even run two separate LANs into the box?

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Nice thread find. :)

I'm waiting for delivery of a ML310e at the moment and trying to work out the best configuration.

Downside is that it has 4 * 2GB RAM which is a bit small by all accounts, so I will be investigating larger memory.

I have 4 * 3TB WD Red (not the latest shingled stuff) which I plain to RAIDZ1 for my main storage.

It comes with an optical drive so I have one spare SATA port, and am considering using that for an SSD for the OS.

I note that some people run the OS off memory sticks - is that just to free off more SATA ports for HDD?

I also note that there is a micro SD card slot.
Does anyone use this for the OS?
[Shades of Raspberry Pi!]

Oh, and the User Guide shows 2 * Ethernet ports in the back; does anyone use both on the same LAN?
Or even run two separate LANs into the box?

Ummmm.....

Just went to the Crucial site to price some extra memory and it reported that they didn't have any.
Can anyone recommend a supplier?

 

[Dan Tudora]

hello
is recommended to make a RAIDZ2 pool with the 6 HDD/SATA port on your server
no, you can't use 2 LAN port on same LAN network
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/multiple-network-interfaces-on-a-single-subnet.45/
or
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/lacp-friend-or-foe.43/

for the OS can use usb to sata adapter, and work great and save a sata port for HDD

succes

 

[LittleGreyCat]

hello
is recommended to make a RAIDZ2 pool with the 6 HDD/SATA port on your server
no, you can't use 2 LAN port on same LAN network
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/multiple-network-interfaces-on-a-single-subnet.45/
or
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/lacp-friend-or-foe.43/

for the OS can use usb to sata adapter, and work great and save a sata port for HDD

succes

Thanks.

At the moment I am trying to mainly populate the box from what I have in the parts bin (including 3 * unused 3 TB WD Red).
So my array will only be four HDDs, with one WD 3 TB Red reclaimed from another system, and eventually my last WD retired to be a spare should any of the 4 fail.
Buying two more 3 TB HDDs would stretch my budget.
I do have an SSD or two in the parts bin as well, along with quite a few 2.5" HDDs which were replaced by SSDs in various laptops.

Good info on the network.

I assume that you would use a USB to SATA adaptor for the OS to provide more functionality than using a USB stick?
Noting that some people seem to boot off a USB stick.

Come to think of it I might have a PCIe SATA card in stock as well.

I suspect that my main issue is going to be how much disc storage I can handle with 8 GB of memory.

 

[Alecmascot]

Use one of these to mount a small (32,64GB) SSD to a PCI-E slot.
I have three running for a number of years. Stay away from USB

New SATA3 III & mSATA3 III SSD HDD PCI-e Expansion Converter Card Adapter Board | eBay

Ports : SATA3.0 + mSATA. Support Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. Extend SATA + mSATA data interfaces, and support more storage devices. Support IDC/AHCI Model. Hot-plug capability.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Use one of these to mount a small (32,64GB) SSD to a PCI-E slot.
I have three running for a number of years. Stay away from USB

New SATA3 III & mSATA3 III SSD HDD PCI-e Expansion Converter Card Adapter Board | eBay

Ports : SATA3.0 + mSATA. Support Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista. Extend SATA + mSATA data interfaces, and support more storage devices. Support IDC/AHCI Model. Hot-plug capability.

www.ebay.co.uk

Thanks - interesting budget way to get an extra drive.

I was contemplating an M.2 NVME PCIe adapter and SSD which is more expensive but way faster.
However I'm not sure that I would need that extra speed.

Interesting that entry level mSATA drives seem to be a lot smaller than entry level M.2 NVME.

 

[Dan Tudora]

I assume that you would use a USB to SATA adaptor for the OS to provide more functionality than using a USB stick?
Noting that some people seem to boot off a USB stick.

hello
USB2SATA not for functionality just for reliability (I use that on USB internal and a small 2.5" SSD/HDD stay cool to)

Buying two more 3 TB HDDs would stretch my budget.

but if you have 2 old HDD of 1TB + your 4x3TB can start with 6 HDD RAIZ2 pool and replace the 2x1TB HDD later
succes