Microserver Gen 10 Plus and SSD's

[Seb3]

Hi everyone! 

It looks as though the new HP microserver Gen 10 plus is not compatible with some SSD's and I am very curious if anyone knows why. 

I have two HP Microserver 10+ units and two Intel Pro 180G SSD's (Model: SSDSC2BF180A4L). The two Intel SSD's are not reconized in either machine. They work in every other machine I have, just not the HP's. So it seems that the SSD's are incompatible but I am very curious as to why, so I can make sure to purchase the correct SSD in the future. 

Interesting tid-bits: 

1)Upgraded BIOS on both machines to V2.16

2)Used Intel Toolbox on both SSD's to verify no new firmware. 

3)Used Intel Toolbox Full Diagnostic on both SSD's to verify both drives have no issues. 

Any info would be super helpful. I did contact HPE support and after two hours of troubleshooting he gave up and told me I would have to buy the HP brand. 

[sudhirsingh]

Hi @Seb3 

"Intel Pro 180G SSD's (Model: SSDSC2BF180A4L)" appears to be SFF(2.5") drive.

Drive support options for Microserver Gen10

SFF non-hot-plug drives =>drive configuration requires the SFF-to-LFF drive converter option

Addition options:

HPE Solid State Drives supported on Microserver Gen10:
HPE 240GB SATA 6G Read Intensive SFF (2.5in) RW 3yr Wty Digitally Signed Firmware SSD P09685-B21
NOTE: HPE MicroServer Gen10 Slim SFF SATA Enablement Kit (870212-B21) to accommodate this SFF SSD
into the media bay.

HPE Unique Options
HPE MicroServer Gen10 SFF NHP SATA Converter Kit 870213-B21
NOTE: This kit works to accommodate your SFF NHP HDD into the LFF NHP drive cage.

HPE MicroServer Gen10 Slim SFF SATA Enablement Kit 870212-B21
NOTE: This kit works to accommodate your SFF NHP SSD into the media bay.
MicroServer Gen10 is now qualified with HPE 240GB SATA RI SFF RW DS SSD (875507-B21).

Solid state drive cabling

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-a00017638en_us#N10096

Additional reference:

870212-B21 HPE MicroServer Gen10 Slim SFF SATA Enablement Kit

https://internet-lab.ru/870212-b21

Regards,

Sudhir

[Seb3]

Hi There! 

I have the Drive enablement kit. That would be the only way a 2.5 inch could fit in the space. The sled is working because I was able to test a 2.5 inch HDD from Toshiba that is showing just fine. Still no intel SSD's. Its very clear that the Intel SSD's are not compatible with the BIOS and I am trying to figure out why. SATA drives should all be standard. Really seems HP is trying to do something fishy here. 

[parnassus]

---

@Seb3 wrote: Really seems HP is trying to do something fishy here. 

It's not. HPE is not doing anything strange IMHO. Gen10, differently by previous generations, included specific requirements about supported drives (as example, there is the HPE Digitally Signed Firmware (DS) on supported drives) so after reading the HPE ProLiant Microserver Gen10 Plus 's QuickSpecs it becomes quite clear that supported drives are only the ones listed under "HPE Hard Drives" and "HPE Solid State Drives" paragraphs.

[subsix]

@parnassus, what section in the QuickSpecs are you referring to? I couldn't find anything that states that only certain SSDs are supported. In fact, our Gen 10 Plus took all the HDDs (HPE, Seagate, WD,...) I threw at it. But none of the SSDs...

Although I agree that this is not necessarily "something fishy" on HPE's end, it severely limits our ability to replace our current Gen 8 Microservers with Gen 10 Plus models as we do run a mixed set of SSDs and HDDs in our "old" machines.

[dtp]

Mix of Gen8, Gen10 and Gen10+ here using about half and half SSD from Intel and Crucial with a few WD Red 8TB as well.

Have found when trying out a Gen10+ with two Intel SSD in the Bent Metal Tray HP adapters (BMT) that one could not be detected. After a lot of swapping between Slots 1 and 2, BMTs 1 and 2 and testing via an external usb3.0 docking station, that one of the BMT was the culprit but only with the initial two Intel SSD. The Crucial SSD's did not mind which BMT and of course the WD Red do not need them.

Cannot see any visual differences between the two BMT but did not call them BMT prior to this discovery. Right now feel it could stand for something else....

So if you have some more adapters try them and if you have different make SSD try them as well, you may get lucky.

Perhaps not a "fishy" smell but the air is definitely "Stale" around this 10+

[DeryaSea]

HPE Microserver Gen10 Plus documentation says Windows 10 is not supported and supports 240GB SSD.
But I installed Hpe Microserver Gen10 Plus 2x480GB SSD Windows 10 Pro and it worked amazingly. :)))
What do you think of this job HPE Support

[JohnR3]

Windows Server 2019 and 500GB drives  not seen by SW Raid.  Come on HP,  Microserver with SSD would be a desent performer.

[Kryptov8]

I have just discovered that I also cannot use 4 x 1TB Crucial MX500 drives. Like everyone else, I find it surprising that it does not support standard SATA SSDs. You mention that you used 480GB drives. Can you specify the make and model? Using 240GB drives will limit me to a measly 500GB usable RAID 10 (striped and mirrored for redundancy - can't use RAID5 as SQL doesn't like it). 1TB would be much better - or I go back to spinning disks and take the performance hit.

[dtp]

The SSD drives I used were Micron 5300 @480GB. It was a little while ago but after a second BMT and a replacemnt Microserver, I came to the conclusion that drives other than the HP list do work but it's not worth the effort and lack of HP support means no warranty probably. Was set to buy several more but have not bothered. Will eventually  buy elsewhere

Regards

DTP

[DeryaSea]

I used Kioxia 480 GB SSD, but it works on Windows 10 operating system and I did not install Raid. 480GB SSD does not support Windows Server OS. I installed windows 10 because my customer insisted. I wouldn't have thought to install windows 10 and it still works, no problems so far.