Questions about my brand new HP ML310e Gen8 v2

[Sergiu Niculas]

Hello everyone, i've just purchased a ML310e Gen8 v2 with xeon processor (Haswell generation), 8 GB ram, 2x1TB Hp SATA drives running on raid 1. First of all it serves about 15 computers and it has these purposes: web server (apache), mailserver (postfix/dovecot) and provides local backup for the important documents on the workstations using samba. It runs centos 6.5.

1. There is no hdd led activity or am i missing something ? On the front i have power led, nic activity led and identification led. Doing some research i saw that the SAS caddy has leds on every hdd cage but mine being sata has none.

2. iLo - i understand this service can be run using a subscription but doesn't it have some sort of restricted/included functionality for local lan access that is free ?. The server is located under my desk and doesn't have a monitor connected...would be nice to be able to access it. The iLo lan connector IS present.

3. I get this error in /var/log/messages and can't figure out a solution:

Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Error: SMBus or IPMI write requires Buffer of length 42, found length 20 (20090903/exfield-286)
Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PMI0._PMM] (Node ffff8802448f2b78), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Evaluating _PMM (20090903/power_meter-341)

I am using original/official HP memory

4. How do i access HP System Management Homepage ? i installed HPSSA but can't figure out how to actually access System Management Homepage locally.

5. It's my first server and i've noticed that from the point when i press the powerbutton until it starts to actually load the os it takes more than a minute checking stuff out...is this normal behaviour on servers ?

6. Where can i see all the statistics (warnings, temperatures, etc.) ? is there an utility for this or should i rely on linux tools ?

Thank you all !

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

---

@Sergiu Niculas wrote:

Hello everyone, i've just purchased a ML310e Gen8 v2 with xeon processor (Haswell generation), 8 GB ram, 2x1TB Hp SATA drives running on raid 1. First of all it serves about 15 computers and it has these purposes: web server (apache), mailserver (postfix/dovecot) and provides local backup for the important documents on the workstations using samba. It runs centos 6.5.

1. There is no hdd led activity or am i missing something ? On the front i have power led, nic activity led and identification led. Doing some research i saw that the SAS caddy has leds on every hdd cage but mine being sata has none.

Drive activity lights are on the drive caddy. Shouldn't matter is the drive is SAS or SATA. Can you post a picture, I can't recall if the ML310e has a non hotplug option, if so non-hotplug don't have lights

2. iLo - i understand this service can be run using a subscription but doesn't it have some sort of restricted/included functionality for local lan access that is free ?. The server is located under my desk and doesn't have a monitor connected...would be nice to be able to access it. The iLo lan connector IS present.

Server health is a standard feature of iLO, features like remote console  require the essentails or advanced pack license. You can install the trial license to try the advanced features. More information here: http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/management/ilo/index.aspx#tab=TAB3

3. I get this error in /var/log/messages and can't figure out a solution:

Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Error: SMBus or IPMI write requires Buffer of length 42, found length 20 (20090903/exfield-286)
Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PMI0._PMM] (Node ffff8802448f2b78), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
Jun 25 12:19:38 epox kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Evaluating _PMM (20090903/power_meter-341)

I am using original/official HP memory

 Haven't seen this error, maybe someone else will chime in

4. How do i access HP System Management Homepage ? i installed HPSSA but can't figure out how to actually access System Management Homepage locally.

hpssa is for managing the storage controller, hpsmh is the health page, but with Gen8 you really don't need smh as you can see the info in iLO 

5. It's my first server and i've noticed that from the point when i press the powerbutton until it starts to actually load the os it takes more than a minute checking stuff out...is this normal behaviour on servers ?

 This is normal, the POST process takes a few minutes

6. Where can i see all the statistics (warnings, temperatures, etc.) ? is there an utility for this or should i rely on linux tools ?

 You can access all the health information in iLO

Thank you all !

You're welcome

---

[Sergiu Niculas]

Thanks for the answers !

1. I attached caddys with and without leds. Mine is the one with the whole server in the picture...as you can see...no hdd leds. And yes you are right...no hotplug for this server. But to make a server without hdd drive activity at all ... i mean really HP ? Very dissapointed with this :(

2. Since it's not financially viable to me to buy a iLO license...then the only way to check my system health is to actually put a monitor on and access iLO locally ? ... since i can't do it remotely without a license. I'm sorry i insist with this but i keep looking at the documentation and it's not clear at all for me.

[Jimmy Vance]

That is correct for the non- hotplug systems.  This is a very entry level server, but the hotplug version disks have lights to show health and activity.

You can monitor the heath of the server using the web interface (or the CLI over ssh) using iLO standard. If you need to have remote console access using iLO you need the essentials license. 

Page 6 of this document compares the features of the various licenses (was inside the link I posted earlier) http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-5167ENW&cc=us&lc=en

Since you're running  Linux, you can set the OS to use the serial port as the console and access everything over the iLO VSP (Virtual Serial Port) which is a standard feature.

[Sergiu Niculas]

Thank you very much for the answers but i'm still amazed that in 2014 (no matter how entry lvl this server is) there is no hdd led activity. I should have researched better but it didn't cross my mind something as trivial as this was not included ... i mean every computer on the planet has one :)