HP ProLiant MicroServer: thoughts

I’ve been looking for a new home server for a few months. Recently (the last six years) have been running EPIA Mini-itx motherboards in Cubid cases. They are basically silent and powerful enough to run a small fileserver and webserver.

My EPIA boards were starting to show their age. My longest standing board started to emit a high pitched squeel and sure enough it was a sign of an impending capacitor failure. I swapped it out for an identical replacement and within a few months that motherboard started to show similar problems. I now suspect that the power supply is surging, or in some way, ‘breaking’ my motherboards.

So I looked around and noticed that HP ProLiant Microservers were back on special offer (£100 cash back from HP if you meet their requirements).

The specs looked good but I was dubious about it being quiet enough for my home office. I decided to take the plunge mainly because I could buy the N40L for £209 (with £100 cashback so net cost of £109) from ebuyer.com.

Here are my brief notes on running it as a FreeBSD9.x server:

  1. About 38dB which is quiet enough to have in the next room but too noisy to sleep next to.
  2. Lights on front very bright.
  3. Really well built. It’s not enterprise quality but good enough to sit in the corner of an office.
  4. Excellent access to drives. The four drive caddies are slightly cheap plastic but once they have a drive they are sturdy enough. Since they are not hot swappable they don’t need to be rock solid anyway.
  5. Access to the Motherboard is restrictive due to cabling. You need to unclip a lot of cables from the case and unscrew two thumb screws before you can slide the monthboard out. While this isn’t done too often it’s not for the faint hearted.
  6. Non standard power supply. Might be hard to source a new one.
  7. I wanted to mount a 2.5” SSD drive but it didn’t fit in the caddy. I ended up taping it in to the slot where a DVD drive would go. The motherboard has an extra SATA connector for a DVD drive. This runs at half speed and requires a bios flash to enable full SATA speed.
  8. The motherboard has an exposed USB slot so it can be booted from a USB stick. The case design leaves space for a USB stick to be permenantly mounted in it.
  9. Runs FreeBSD very well. USB, ACPI, temperature sensors (amdtemp module) work. Broadcom network interface works well although only tested on my 100mb network.
  10. Even without the cash back deal this is a very good value server for a small office.
  11. I am running the i386 version of FreeBSD, I really should run the AMD64 but at the moment the box isn’t too loaded and it was easier to just plug in the drive the the previous server, start it up, change a few /etc/rc.conf entries and be done with it.

Basically, when this machine comes back on special offer at ebuyer.com I will be buying another one.

Output from dmesg

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Copyright (c) 1992-2012 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
    The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan  3 07:15:25 UTC 2012
    root@obrian.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
CPU: AMD Turion(tm) II Neo N40L Dual-Core Processor (1497.55-MHz 686-class CPU)
  Origin = "AuthenticAMD"  Id = 0x100f63  Family = 10  Model = 6  Stepping = 3
  Features=0x178bfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,HTT>
  Features2=0x802009<SSE3,MON,CX16,POPCNT>
  AMD Features=0xee500800<SYSCALL,NX,MMX+,FFXSR,Page1GB,RDTSCP,LM,3DNow!+,3DNow!>
  AMD Features2=0x837ff<LAHF,CMP,SVM,ExtAPIC,CR8,ABM,SSE4A,MAS,Prefetch,OSVW,IBS,SKINIT,WDT,NodeId>
  TSC: P-state invariant
real memory  = 2147483648 (2048 MB)
avail memory = 2020139008 (1926 MB)
Event timer "LAPIC" quality 400
ACPI APIC Table: <HP     ProLiant>
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s)
 cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
ioapic0 <Version 2.1> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
kbd1 at kbdmux0
acpi0: <HP ProLiant> on motherboard
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
acpi0: reservation of fee00000, 1000 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of ffb80000, 80000 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of fec10000, 20 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of fed80000, 1000 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of 0, a0000 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of 100000, 7bf00000 (3) failed
Timecounter "ACPI-fast" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 900
acpi_timer0: <32-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x808-0x80b on acpi0
cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0
pcib1: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
pci1: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib1
vgapci0: <VGA-compatible display> port 0xe000-0xe0ff mem 0xf8000000-0xfbffffff,0xfe8f0000-0xfe8fffff,0xfe700000-0xfe7fffff irq 18 at device 5.0 on pci1
pcib2: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 18 at device 6.0 on pci0
pci2: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib2
bge0: <HP NC107i PCIe Gigabit Server Adapter, ASIC rev. 0x5784100> mem 0xfe9f0000-0xfe9fffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci2
bge0: CHIP ID 0x05784100; ASIC REV 0x5784; CHIP REV 0x57841; PCI-E
miibus0: <MII bus> on bge0
brgphy0: <BCM5784 10/100/1000baseT PHY> PHY 1 on miibus0
brgphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, auto, auto-flow
bge0: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
ahci0: <ATI IXP700 AHCI SATA controller> port 0xd000-0xd007,0xc000-0xc003,0xb000-0xb007,0xa000-0xa003,0x9000-0x900f mem 0xfe6ffc00-0xfe6fffff irq 19 at device 17.0 on pci0
ahci0: AHCI v1.20 with 6 3Gbps ports, Port Multiplier supported
ahcich0: <AHCI channel> at channel 0 on ahci0
ahcich1: <AHCI channel> at channel 1 on ahci0
ahcich2: <AHCI channel> at channel 2 on ahci0
ahcich3: <AHCI channel> at channel 3 on ahci0
ahcich4: <AHCI channel> at channel 4 on ahci0
ahcich5: <AHCI channel> at channel 5 on ahci0
ohci0: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> mem 0xfe6fe000-0xfe6fefff irq 18 at device 18.0 on pci0
usbus0: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> on ohci0
ehci0: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xfe6ff800-0xfe6ff8ff irq 17 at device 18.2 on pci0
usbus1: EHCI version 1.0
usbus1: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> on ehci0
ohci1: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> mem 0xfe6fd000-0xfe6fdfff irq 18 at device 19.0 on pci0
usbus2: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> on ohci1
ehci1: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xfe6ff400-0xfe6ff4ff irq 17 at device 19.2 on pci0
usbus3: EHCI version 1.0
usbus3: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> on ehci1
pci0: <serial bus, SMBus> at device 20.0 (no driver attached)
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 20.3 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
pcib3: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 20.4 on pci0
pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib3
ohci2: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> mem 0xfe6fc000-0xfe6fcfff irq 18 at device 22.0 on pci0
usbus4: <OHCI (generic) USB controller> on ohci2
ehci2: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xfe6ff000-0xfe6ff0ff irq 17 at device 22.2 on pci0
usbus5: EHCI version 1.0
usbus5: <EHCI (generic) USB 2.0 controller> on ehci2
acpi_button0: <Power Button> on acpi0
attimer0: <AT timer> port 0x40-0x43 irq 0 on acpi0
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
Event timer "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 100
atrtc0: <AT realtime clock> port 0x70-0x71 irq 8 on acpi0
Event timer "RTC" frequency 32768 Hz quality 0
hpet0: <High Precision Event Timer> iomem 0xfed00000-0xfed003ff on acpi0
Timecounter "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 950
Event timer "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 550
Event timer "HPET1" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 450
pmtimer0 on isa0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
ata0 at port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 irq 14 on isa0
ata1 at port 0x170-0x177,0x376 irq 15 on isa0
ppc0: parallel port not found.
acpi_throttle0: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu0
hwpstate0: <Cool`n'Quiet 2.0> on cpu0
Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec
usbus0: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus1: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
usbus2: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus3: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
usbus4: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus5: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
ugen0.1: <ATI> at usbus0
uhub0: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus0
ugen1.1: <ATI> at usbus1
uhub1: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus1
ugen2.1: <ATI> at usbus2
uhub2: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus2
ugen3.1: <ATI> at usbus3
uhub3: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus3
ugen4.1: <ATI> at usbus4
uhub4: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus4
ugen5.1: <ATI> at usbus5
uhub5: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus5
ada0 at ahcich5 bus 0 scbus5 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <V4-CT032V4SSD2 S5FAMM22> ATA-8 SATA 2.x device
ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: Command Queueing enabled
ada0: 30533MB (62533296 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada0: Previously was known as ad14
SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!
Timecounter "TSC-low" frequency 11699573 Hz quality 800

Output from pciconf -lv

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hostb0@pci0:0:0:0:  class=0x060000 card=0x1609103c chip=0x96011022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'RS880 Host Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
pcib1@pci0:0:1:0:   class=0x060400 card=0x1609103c chip=0x9602103c rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'Hewlett-Packard Company'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
pcib2@pci0:0:6:0:   class=0x060400 card=0x1609103c chip=0x96061022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
ahci0@pci0:0:17:0:  class=0x010601 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43911002 rev=0x40 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = SATA
ohci0@pci0:0:18:0:  class=0x0c0310 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43971002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
ehci0@pci0:0:18:2:  class=0x0c0320 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43961002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
ohci1@pci0:0:19:0:  class=0x0c0310 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43971002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
ehci1@pci0:0:19:2:  class=0x0c0320 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43961002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
none0@pci0:0:20:0:  class=0x0c0500 card=0x00000000 chip=0x43851002 rev=0x42 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SBx00 SMBus Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = SMBus
isab0@pci0:0:20:3:  class=0x060100 card=0x1609103c chip=0x439d1002 rev=0x40 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-ISA
pcib3@pci0:0:20:4:  class=0x060401 card=0x00000000 chip=0x43841002 rev=0x40 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
ohci2@pci0:0:22:0:  class=0x0c0310 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43971002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
ehci2@pci0:0:22:2:  class=0x0c0320 card=0x1609103c chip=0x43961002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
hostb1@pci0:0:24:0: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12001022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb2@pci0:0:24:1: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12011022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'Family 10h Processor Address Map'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb3@pci0:0:24:2: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12021022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb4@pci0:0:24:3: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12031022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb5@pci0:0:24:4: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12041022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'Family 10h Processor Link Control'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
vgapci0@pci0:1:5:0: class=0x030000 card=0x1609103c chip=0x97121002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
    device     = 'M880G [Mobility Radeon HD 4200]'
    class      = display
    subclass   = VGA
bge0@pci0:2:0:0:    class=0x020000 card=0x705d103c chip=0x165b14e4 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Broadcom Corporation'
    device     = 'NetXtreme BCM5723 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

Hope this helps someone,

be seeing you.

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