HPE ProLiant MicroServer brings a small “cloud” to my home

[ComputeExperts]

Get a look at the compact yet powerful HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus and learn how to set it up as your own hybrid cloud. HPE VDI Product Manager Denis Khanykov gives a firsthand report. 

I’ve been working with HPE servers in an enterprise environment for the last 15 years and have always wanted to have similar technologies available in my home lab.

Yes, you read that right. Dealing with computers all day at work isn’t enough for me… I love to work with them in my free time too! And it turns out dreams can come true. I recently got my wish for my very own HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus.   

I’m excited to show you around this compact yet powerful entry-level server and how you can set it up to serve as your own hybrid cloud.

Let’s first take a look at the specs on mine. It has 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD installed with an adapter in one of the 3.5 LFF slots. The server can be equipped with different CPUs, and mine came with an Intel® Xeon® E-2224 4-core processor @ 3.4GHz. It’s cooled with a single 100 mm fan installed in the back of the chassis, as the CPU doesn’t need a dedicated fan, just a heatsink. The server is very quiet, and only a bit noisier during POST (power-on self-test) when it is first switched on. There is also an external 180W power supply, which is about 2x bigger than a regular laptop power brick.

More than just a desktop

So, what makes this computer a server, not just a desktop?

One big difference is remote management. You don’t want to have to connect a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to your server when you need to use it from the console. Nor do you want to have to go to a different building (or even a different city) to press a power button or insert a CD.

My server solves the remote management problem with an iLO Enablement Kit. iLO is HPE Integrated Lights-Out, our embedded server management system that enables you to securely configure, monitor, and update your HPE servers seamlessly, from anywhere in the world.

Basically, it’s another small computer running its own OS (HPE iLO) integrated on the system board that allows remote management of the system.

The iLO enablement kit is a small PCIe card installed into a dedicated port that makes the iLO function. While the actual iLO chip is on the system board of the server it’s not going to function until you have installed that additional card with network port.

Once I connected a network drop to the iLO port and plugged in the power supply, I could see the IP address assigned to the iLO on my home router before even powering the server up by looking for a system named ILO. Since I could see the system on my network, I decided to start using the server completely headless — without connecting a keyboard and/or a monitor.

I simply typed the IP address into a browser and saw this iLO prompt:

The default username is Administrator and the initial password is printed on the label located on the bottom of the server. Once logged in I could see some basic information about my new server:

On the bottom left corner of the screen is the virtual screen. Once the server is powered on, it will display what would be seen on an attached monitor.

Assuming you have one of the embedded non-iLO network ports (the server has four of them) connected to your local network, you can install the operating system.

When dealing with a home lab or small office environment, it’s always interesting and beneficial to share the resources of one physical server among several operating systems, e.g., using a hypervisor OS, instead of installing just regular Windows Server or Linux and having to perform several functions.

Here’s how I set up the cloud on my ProLiant MicroServer at home

One of the popular virtualization options is VMware ESXi, but I decided to challenge myself and install one I didn’t have previous experience with — Microsoft Azure Stack HCI.

You can sign up for a free trial version and use it for 60 days. If you decide to continue using it, you’ll have to register it with your Microsoft Azure Account and your credit card will be billed per core, per month. But now you know the reason for my article’s title — I’ve set up a small cloud in my home data center! One more comment, if you decide to follow my lead and learn more about Azure Stack HCI, I recommend you also download Windows Admin Center.

Azure Stack HCI is based on the Windows Server Core edition, but it’s slightly less convenient (and presumably thus more resource efficient) because it doesn’t have some of the usual utilities such as the Start button, Task Bar, Desktop, or even File Explorer.

The main interface to configure and manage it is the command prompt, or rather Microsoft PowerShell prompt. But the tradeoff is that it’s a very lightweight OS install to the point that by default it doesn’t even have hypervisor role installed — we’ll have to do that later.

What we have at this stage is the bare minimum to boot up the server, connect to the network, and prepare to configure it for the role we plan to assign.

That may sound a bit extreme, but it’s exciting to dig in and find out how good it actually is.

Step-by-step configuration

I downloaded the bootable ISO with Azure Stack HCI OS, and there are multiple ways to go around the install steps. Burning the ISO file into a blank DVD disk is not an option as my server doesn’t have CD/DVD drive. It’s possible to convert the ISO file into a bootable USB thumb drive using open-source Rufus software.

But wait! We have an enterprise-grade server with integrated control management board iLO. With iLO we can power on the server, access its console, and boot from an ISO file that’s located on another computer as long as the iLO and computer are on the same network.

Click on the black rectangle in the bottom left corner of the iLO screen and select type of console (I prefer HTML5). A new window then opens inside the iLO web page.

In the title bar of that screen click on CD icon, select CD/DVD -> local *.iso file:

 In the opened window find the downloaded ISO file and click Upload:

Side note: you probably noticed I’m using Mac to install Windows OS on an HPE x86 server. That’s not a mistake. This crazy mix of vendors and hardware platforms works just fine, no hiccups.

Now back to the main event. Even though we clicked Upload, I realize nobody is going to upload a 3 GB ISO file. Instead, we will have confirmation that the media was successfully inserted.

Next, it’s time to power on the server. Click on the Web icon in the title bar, select Power, then Momentary Press:

Now the magic happens! We have the server POST screen in our browser. Give it several seconds, and then at the bottom of the screen you’ll see a list of function keys you can press to choose a particular boot option.

Since we need to boot from an ISO file, press F11. It will highlight the options as selected:

Once you see the one-time boot menu on the screen, select iLO virtual CD-ROM to boot from the ISO file:

Then just wait to press any key on the prompt to do so from the CD:

 

Choose Windows Setup on the next screen, confirm language selection, and then click Install now:

Accept the EULA agreement on the next screen, select bottom option for custom install as we’re installing OS on a new server and disk, select Drive 0 (where we want to install Azure Stack HCI OS) and click Ok:

Windows Installer now warns us that more than one partition will be created. Keep the auto-highlighted partition selected and click Next.

Now it’s time to relax and wait for the Windows installation to complete. Once the server is ready for the next step you’ll see this:

Click on the Keyboard icon in the title bar and select Ctrl+Alt+Del:

Next it prompts you to set up a secure password for the administrator account. Once complete, you’ll see a terminal-based interface for basic server configuration:

As I don’t have Active directory domain controller yet, I decided to change the computer name by changing the server name to the oh-so-creative HPEMicro1 (yes, I’m already hoping to buy another one sometime soon) and change the network address to a static one.

I’m going to finish the first part of this blog series on this point… with the OS installed, the server on the network, and ready for further configuration.

Thanks for coming on my home lab journey and keep checking this space. Next up we’ll explore Windows Admin Center and how to use it for remote configuration.

Ready to put the cloud in your home lab? Get your own HPE ProLiant MicroServer now.

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Meet Denis Khanykov, HPE VDI Product Manager 

Denis Khanykov is VDI Product Manager at HPE. He has firsthand experience supporting and designing production enterprise IT infrastructure for 20+ years, including UNIX and Windows environments, working on virtualization and VDI technologies for the last 15 years. He also teaches algebra and calculus at a private math school in his spare time. This is his first blogging experience with the intent to keep it going further.

Compute Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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