Homelab

HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8

Some time ago I wrote about a home server. This time it is about my home lab. When choosing a server, I looked at size, capacity and power consumption. And I ended up choosing the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8. I did some quick research and it turned out that the best I could choose was the Xeon 1265L-V2 processor (best power to TDP ratio) and 16Gb ECC RAM. To this I added a total of four Seagate ST2000VM003 3.5″ drives, each with a capacity of 2TB.

This HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 is a powerful and reliable option for those who need a microtower server. Featuring an Intel Xeon E3-1265L v2 CPU, 4 cores, 8 threads, 2.5GHz base and 3.5GHz boost and 16GB ECC DDR3 RAM (maximum possible). The operating system is installed on a Kingston A400 SSD 2.5″ SATA 960GB (SA400S37/960G) for agility and performance.

It has been upgraded with the latest BIOS and ILO4 firmware. It has remote management via modern web browsers with an HTML5 interface and supports virtualisation and hardware pass-through. It even has ILO4 advance fully licensed.

What is ILO4 (Integrated Lights-Out)

Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) is a remote server management processor embedded on the system boards of HP ProLiant and Blade servers that allows controlling and monitoring of HP servers from a remote location. HP iLO management is a powerful tool that provides multiple ways to configure, update, monitor, and run servers remotely.

The embedded iLO management card has its own network connection and IP address to which server administrators can connect via Domain Name System (DNS)/Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or through a separate dedicated management network. iLO provides a remote Web-based console, which can be used to administer the server remotely. The iLO port is an Ethernet port, which can be enabled through the ROM-Based Setup Utility (RBSU).

iLO comes preconfigured with proLiant servers of the 300 series and above. A default iLO user account and password is included. iLO can be configured through several ways including:

• Browser-based configuration.
• iLO RBSU accessed using the F8 key during power-on self-test (POST).
• Remote scripted configuration.
• Local on-line and local scripted setup.

The iLO management tool allows a user to perform the following actions on the server remotely:

• Power on and power off the server.
• Restart the server.
• Monitor the server, regardless of the state of the server’s operating system.
• Measure power usage.
• Apply patches, firmware updates, and critical virus updates through virtual media and virtual folders.
• Access system event logs and the HP Integrated Management Log.

In addition, it has a PCI-E x16 which can be used with a low-profile GPU, and then it can be used as a great NAS and media server.

Current Specification:

Summary

All in all, it may not be the most up-to-date piece of equipment, but it works well as a home lab and is cheap to maintain 🙂