topic Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync in ProLiant Servers - Netservers

Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 20:38:52 GMT

Poured all over the tech documents for this new server, but still cannot find this info, so hoping someone here can answer.

If you install a Xeon CPU with built-in graphics, is Quick Sync enabled on the server and available? This is a critical feature for Plex transcoding, and is why I ask.

I would be coming from a Microserver Gen8, and because there is a Matrox GPU chip on the motherboard, this feature is always off on this old server.

Looking to upgrade a home server that is used heavily for Plex, and this is a must-have feature in the new server I purchase.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

william hawkins — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:06:28 GMT

I cannot tell you directly that this will or won't work because I don't know for sure -- you'll have to contact appropriate sales channels.

However from experience across the product line >10 years: in general ProLiant ML/DL products are intended to be "Servers" not PCs or "Gaming systems" So specifications and design for that market doesn't alway address every possible need or implement every function Intel (or AMD) throws into their chipset and firmware. In Servers, typically the built in Video ports are intended only for use during booting and maintenance, rather than to drive some 4k monitor at 120fps while playing first-person-shooters. Architectually the built-in video ports are thereby typically driven by the iLO chip hardware (aka HPE's built in BMC) rather than any Processor Chipset Video functions. There is an extensive line of ADD-on GPU (PCIe based cards) which are supported to enable accelerated GPU assisted workloads and even drive monitors; sadly though likely not in the Microserver due to physical size, power and cooling -- "real" GPUs pull more power than this whole box. . . .

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:13:20 GMT

That was a pretty worthless reply.

If you knew anything about Plex Media SERVER then you would know transcoding is a critical component to . . . you know . . . SERVE data to the clients. I, nor any one else running a Plex Media SERVER will be putting a monitor on a server like this for anything beyond initial configuration.

HPE is targeting this server to the SOHO/SMB group, and that puts it smack in the middle of the Plex clientelle, hence my question.

Sure, I could toss a GPU in there and transcode on that, but the on-chip Quick Sync is just as good or better at it (it's basically ASIC circuitry designed just for video transcoding), but that would piss away the only PCIe slot in the server, which thanks to the poor design of the motherboard and not having a built-on M.2 NVME slot, will need for a PCIe-based SSD.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

SanjeevGoyal — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 10:12:14 GMT

Hello,

I hope all is well.

I would request you refer to the below MicroServer Gen10 Plus documents for more clarification.

HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus QuickSpecs

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00073554enw

HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/gethtml.aspx?docname=a00073554enw

HPE PROLIANT MICROSERVER GEN10 PLUS

https://dustinweb.azureedge.net/media/541636/microserver-gen-10-plus.pdf

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!

Regards,

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 14:44:47 GMT

Or course I read all the documentation before I asked the question. I could find no reference there to an on-board GPU (my current Gen8 server has a Matrox).

Anyone else have some info? First-hand experience would be fantastic if someone can report on perhaps what Windows Device manager shows.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

KevinSpringPM — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 15:36:41 GMT

Intel Quick Sync is not supported. Intel's SPS firmware doesn't allow it, and SPS is required for the server-y features of the microserver Gen10 Plus. This is used instead of the Intel ME firmware that you may be more familar with, which does support Quick Sync, but doesn't support server features.

Source: I'm the DL380 Product Manager and asked the Microserver Product Manager

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 15:40:14 GMT

Thank you, that's what I needed to know.

I do not see much of a reason to upgrade from my Gen8 at this time. Perhaps if there was more than one usable PCIe slot, or onboard M.2 NVME.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

randman — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 18:23:14 GMT

I had the exact same question. I also have the Microserver Gen8. I was thinking of getting the Microserver Gen10 Plus with the stock Pentium CPU and replacing it with the Intel Xeon E-2246G, which supports Quick Sync. If true, it's unfortunate that the Microserver Gen10 Plus can't take advantage of Quick Sync.

I also have an HPE ML30 Gen9 (Intel Xeon CPU E3-1240 v6 (3.70GHz)). I'm using a Plex ESXi VM on this ML30. Sounds like it won't be able to take advantage of Quick Sync either??

On my ML30 Gen 9, I'm using a PCIe card with an onboard M.2 NVMe. While using a PCIe with onboard M.2 NVMe is much faster than a SATA SSD, for my use, I probably can live with just using a SATA SSD. I guess a separate graphics card is another option that can be used for transcoding Plex. If so, wondering what would be a good graphics card and can be used on the MicroServer Gen10 Plus (or maybe even my old ML30 Gen 9)??

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 18:39:45 GMT

I am strongly considering one of the new Intel NUC 9 Pro's. I would have to move the current RAID array in the Microserver Gen8 into an external SAS enclosure, but it is only 4 x 10TB drives and I can move over the HP P212 array controller that way and not have to rebuild the array.

Downside is that the Intel NUC 9 Pro is in a totally different price category than the Microserver Gen 10.

With a NUC 9 Pro I could have a M.2 SSD (more than one, in fact), a CPU that does Quick Sync (or a dedicated GPU), an internal 500W PSU, a smaller case, and really lose nothing except the internal 3.5" drive bays. I'm also intrigued about future expandability of that new platform.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

randman — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 21:21:04 GMT

Yeah, Intel NUC 9 Pro has very nice specs, but as you said, an entirely different price category. My HPE ML30 Gen9 so far has been doing its Plex duties just fine (I can direct play 4K just fine, and all my 4K videos also have 1080p counterparts for remote use). I use an external NAS for my videos.

If you were to get another server, a possible consideration is to continue to use your Microserver Gen8 to serve as a NAS

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bogwoppit — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:31:16 GMT

@KevinSpringPM Oh that is such a shame , the microserver looked to be a perfect Plex home server.

I am curious about why Intel include QuickSync in the coffee lake Xeons at all (the G models with iGPUs). Xeons are server components so seems a bit misleading to list them as having this feature but with no intention to make it available for those platforms.

Is this also true of other HPE server platforms? I have been pondering whether swapping one of the 22XX or 21XX G processors into an ML30 gen10 would be worth doing for this reason. I know there is a matrox G200 onboard and this will be what is connected to the video out on the backplane, but does this mean that there is no benefit from the iGPU on these CPUs?

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

randman — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 01:26:39 GMT

Yes, I was wondering what would be the advantage of getting the Intel Xeon E-2246G (which supports Quick Sync) versus the Intel Xeon E-2236, which doesn't support Quick Sync. They're more or less similar in performance except the "G" processor supports Quick Sync. So, if the Microserver Gen10+ doesn't support Quick Sync, even though the prices aren't drastically different between the two CPUs, I don't see the advantage of getting the Quick Sync CPU. Unless I'm missing something....

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

KevinSpringPM — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:20:53 GMT

My 2 cents- Xeon Entry (the 2000 series) aren't "Xeons" for "servers" the same way that Xeon Scalable Processors (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) are. That's why it's a totally different product line from Intel, different features, different use cases, not really made for traditional servers, just the very entry level. If someone like qnap wanted to take a Xeon Entry CPU and drop it into a NAS for Plex, they could choose to take the ME firmware and enable Quick Sync, but then lose some server features, because no one really expects a qnap NAS to be a true "server". It's all about what the intended use case for the product is. So while I love that the community wants to use our servers for Plex, that's not really who HPE builds the servers for right? We have to support as many advanced error correction, firmware tweaks, etc as possible for our business customers first, so if we have to choose between advanced server features and Quick Sync, we have to choose in favor of that advanced functionality. 99% sure the ML30 Gen9 is the same, but you can pull up any server on support.hpe.com and see if it has an SPS firmware package available. If it does, then no Quick Sync.

If you still want to use a Microserver or ML30, I'd recommend adding a Quadro P2000 for acceleration w/ a Plex Pass. The Nvidia Shield can also do a decent job as a basic Plex server and doesn't require a Plex Pass to use the included Nvidia GPU for transcoding which is a nice quirk of Plex's licensing rules.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

dahamsta — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:27:26 GMT

Intel Quick Sync is not supported. Intel's SPS firmware doesn't allow it

Would this preclude installing a low-profile video card (assuming one will fit?) with NVENC for hardware accelation too, or is it just Quick Sync? (Sorry if this is a silly question!)

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

KevinSpringPM — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:28:41 GMT

this is specific to Quick Sync. You can absolutely add a dedicated GPU

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

dahamsta — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:29:59 GMT

Excellent, thanks!

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

bkp_duke — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:46:15 GMT

@KevinSpringPM

That's a really stupid way to look at it.

1) While this is my home server, I run datacenter operations for a company with 6 datacenters and purchase lots of gear annually. Your reply doesn't exactly inspire me to even consider HPE equipment for our operations.

2) This server, by all appearances, is TARGETED AT THE SOHO market. Despite that appearance, it has some significantly glarning faults:
- it doesn't have a M.2 NVME slot (seriously? in 2020 that was left off?)
- it only has one PCI-E expansion slot (most of us are not going to buy the iLO expansion card, so that slot is a complete waste)

3) and let's be clear here - most of the "stuff" you say you have to support is built in at the chipset level. HPE just has to follow Intel's guidelines on implementation. ECC has been around for over 20 years, not exactly something hard to implement.

I'll be going with an Intel 9 NUC Pro. It's expensive, but it appears to be built reasonably future proof. The Microserver Gen10 Plus appears to be backwards thinking and lacking many key features, both for the SOHO market, and for those wanting to use it outside of the "intended usage".

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

KevinSpringPM — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:59:56 GMT

we're not talking about features like ECC that we have to choose when implementing SPS. We're talking about things like Intel Node Manager, power monitoring, thermal capping, administrative core power off at boot time, etc that aren't available to implement at all if a vendor chooses not to implement Intel Server Platform Services. Intel is the one who makes this differentiation, there is no option for HPE or any other vendor to enable these features that business customers need, and Quick Sync at the same time.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

dahamsta — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 16:04:31 GMT

I'm just about to buy one based on @KevinSpringPM's feedback, that was the one thing holding me back.

It'll be grand for my home server, there's no way I'd be lashing out twice the price or more for performance that of course would be lovely, but I simply can't afford just like that. I'm sure it'll be grand for many others too, Reddit's r/selfhosting and r/homelab seem keen, for example.

I realise you probably think you're being forthright, or perhaps woke, but your attitude just comes across as rude and ignorant.

Re: Microserver Gen10 Plus and Intel Quick Sync

KevinSpringPM — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 16:11:32 GMT

@dahamsta are you referring to @bkp_duke 's feedback and the NUC Pro, or to my feedback and the Microserver?