MicroServer Gen8 is noisy

[NickBv]

Starting February 2014, an active warranty or contract is required to access HP ProLiant Server firmware updates.

IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD FIRMWARE MUST PAY !!!

[karma4u101]

Someone from HP please shim in and explane what we unfortunate costumers using Ubuntu or some other Debian drivatives should do !?!

I also bought 2st 1 TB (over priced) HP hd's for the server to be sure it would work nice toghether, what a bummer.  I have paid a lott of money for this (In the current state) usles hardare setup (yes I am still waiting, unable to proceed with a installation, after a month for a solution to the noice problem).

A working driver for B120i on Ubuntu 13.xx (or debian) for RAID0 or RAID1 setup with instructions on how to "inject/intercept" the driver into the installation process would make me happy as It should solve the noce problem even though I have a hard time accepting HP is forcing me to use the built in B120i controller as iLO can't messure and controll the fan's otherwise.

The only reason I bougth this maskin was couse I beleved in HP as I have a older super silent hp proliant microserver (running ubuntu with no speciall setup needed) and thought I would get a !upgraded version" of "the same" maskin.

[84jr0]

Hi guys! I struggled with my gen8 microserver since I got it. Fan speed were constantly at 50%, even with the last BIOS update that was posted in this thread.

Last day I called HP support for assistance and the tech guy told me that not all disks are compatible with server, some disk models cant send temperature values in correct way and the hw is designed to cool down disks by increasing fan speed.

I knew that I have a pair of old Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 disks so I removed those and the fan speed went down to 6% from 50%.

My current setup is:

Intel 520 series 128GB SSD disk in ODD slot for OS which is Windows 2012 R2.

2 x 4TB Seagate NAS disks B120i controller enabled, standard bios settings. SSD disk is configured as single disk RAID0 and 2 x 4TB disks runs RAID 1.

Windows 2012 R2 Supplement SPP is installed as well: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=mmr_kc-0111920-9

Just a tip and good luck!

Moderator Note: [Updated with new links]

[nicku]

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@Jimmy Vance wrote:

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@nicku wrote:

It is unquestionably noisy running Fedora 20; the noisiest computer in the house, some with many fans and more hard disks.  There is a very clear problem here.  Please let that be clear.  I hoped that the firmware upgrade to "08/24/2013" would fix it, but speed remains at 45%, competing with our quiet air conditioner.

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Oscar recently posted the latest official ROM in this thread which will be included in the next SPP release. This ROM lowers fan speed

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/MicroServer-Gen8-is-noisy/m-p/6345811/highlight/true#M20235

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Thank you, yes, the fan is now showing 29%, and is not so outrageously loud.  Maybe I'll move it back to the sitting room; it's purpose was to be a PVR.  I was hoping it would be much quieter than it currently is.

WIth the previous ROM, a TV repair man came, heard the noise, and of his own initiative said that there is a serious problem with whatever made that noise; he considered it a possible fire hazard.

[MatthiasFoss]

Hi Oscar, Hi all,

recently the version 1.4 of the iLO 4 (Drivers, Software & Firmware for HP Integrated Lights-Out 4 (iLO 4) - HP Support Center) was released. Is your (@Oscar) "fix" already included here? Is this update flashing the ROM as well? I assume so, since the Backup ROM is now dated for 11/09/2013 as well.

Is there any value in applying the also newly released Service Pack (https://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/si...tte.cachetoken) to our search for improvement?

Kind regards,

Matthias

PS: I've updated the iLO to 1.4 - with by configuration of an LSI HW-RAID w/ 4 WD Red 4TB running Ubuntu 13.10, my Gen8 is still running on 25% fan speed. So no change from at my end.

Moderator Note: [Updated with new links]

[paulgear]

Hi all,

I'm having a bad time of trying to upgrade my firmware.  I'm on a standard iLO 4 license with version 1.20 dated 2013-02-01.  I've downloaded the firmware mentioned in this thread, and it fails to upload through the iLO web interface through 3 different browsers.  There are no errors in the event log other than "Firmware upgrade via web page failed."

I figured this version might be too old to accept a direct upgrade so I went looking for the officially-released versions.  This is where my frustration compounded.  When I select Debian as my OS, I get to this page. [link broken] [Alternate link] The only download on that page is HP_ProLiant_Value_Add_Software-9.40-7-6.iso which has to be installed on the server itself.  I've installed a previous version of this package, and it didn't seem to contain any firmware upgrades or firmware upgrade utilities.

When I look at other OSes like ESXi 5 [link broken] [Alternate link] I end up with .EXE files.  I run Debian on both server and desktop, so they're not much use.

Can anyone point me to a path forward that will allow me to download the right firmware files and upload them successfully to the G1610T?

Moderator Note: [Updated with new links]

[subsix]

Paul,

I just upgraded from iLO 1.32 to 1.40 just by downloading the Red Hat Linux iLO 4 installer (CP020341.scexe)

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/km/search#q=CP020341.scexe&t=All&sort=relevancy&numberOfResults=25

This "*.scexe" file is nothing more than a shell script and a tar file concatenated. (On Mac OS X) I deleted the script in front of the tar archive and extracted the firmware *.bin file by untarring the remaining file. I uploaded the extracted firmware via the iLO web UI and it installed without issues.

Reading Oscar's response a couple of messages ago it seems like there were issues with the web UI uploader before version 1.30 (?). So I am not sure whether this would work okay on "your" 1.20.

If it doesn't I believe there's still the option of downloading the full SPP (Service Pack for ProLiant) ISO and booting that (DVD, PXE, maybe also USB). If I recall correctly this is how I got from 1.20 to 1.30 on one of our servers (many months ago...).

Hope this helps.

Peter

Moderator Note: [Updated with new links]

[paulgear]

Thanks Peter. I'll have a shot at it that way.

[Jimmy Vance]

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@subsix wrote:

This "*.scexe" file is nothing more than a shell script and a tar file concatenated. (On Mac OS X) I deleted the script in front of the tar archive and extracted the firmware *.bin file by untarring the remaining file. I uploaded the extracted firmware via the iLO web UI and it installed without issues.

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No need to hack on the file... Just run the .scexe with the "--unpack={path}" option to extract the .bin file.

sh filename.scexe --unpack=/where/you/want/the/.bin

[paulgear]

Thanks for the tips on upgrading guys, once I extracted the .bin file it upgraded flawlessly to 1.40 on my system - first try.

I'm still experiencing the same problem with the newer firmware, though. I looked at the .B69 file from the download Oscar posted (http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/MicroServer-Gen8-is-noisy/m-p/6345811#M20235) and it is significantly smaller than the 1.40 firmware (4 MB vs. 16 MB).  I'm wondering whether I have a corrupt download.  Unfortunately, the credentials to download the firmware no longer work.

Any ideas?