Proliant G8 Servers - Revision history

Adj: /* Parts! */

2017-06-23T15:17:06Z

Parts!

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:17, 23 June 2017
Line 39:		Line 39:
	* Power supplies are the HP "Common Slot" models used in G7 and G8 Proliant servers		* Power supplies are the HP "Common Slot" models used in G7 and G8 Proliant servers
	* 684896-001 is a PCIe riser board with an LSI SAS controller and two (SFF 8087, I think) connectors located toward the front of the chassis		* 684896-001 is a PCIe riser board with an LSI SAS controller and two (SFF 8087, I think) connectors located toward the front of the chassis

			== Firmware Updates ==
			HP(E) provides these all bundled up together in a package called "Support Pack for Proliant" or "SPP". Annoyingly, these are only available to organizations with a support contract, but intrepid individuals can find them with some Googling.

			SPP comes as an ISO that can be put on a USB flash drive (it's too big for a DVD). But it also includes handy instructions inside the ISO filesystem for deploying it via PXE.

			Several pieces need doing to get SPP PXE booting:
			* DHCP server running on subnet the server sits in
			* DHCP server configured to tell the client server "Go PXE boot from here"
			* TFTP server configured to serve files to the PXE client
			* NFS to serve files to the PXE-booted Proliant

			=== DHCP setup for PXE clients ===

			* Find MAC address for Ethernet 1 in ProLiant server.
			** Does not appear to be available from the ILO command line session. :(
			** So instead, connect to ILO SSH session and do this:

			</>hpiLO-> '''start /system1'''

			status=0
			status_tag=COMMAND COMPLETED
			Wed Jun 21 18:15:43 2017



			Server powering on .......



			</>hpiLO-> '''start /system1/oemhp_vsp1'''

			Virtual Serial Port Active: COM2

			Starting virtual serial port.
			Press 'ESC (' to return to the CLI Session.

			[... ''many things about server booting will scroll by'' ...]

			Press "F9" key for ROM-Based Setup Utility
			Press "F10" key for Intelligent Provisioning
			Press "F11" key for Default Boot Override Options
			Press "F12" key for Network Boot
			For access via BIOS Serial Console
			Press "ESC+9" for ROM-Based Setup Utility
			Press "ESC+0" for Intelligent Provisioning
			Press "ESC+!" for Default Boot Override Options
			Press "ESC+@" for Network Boot

			'''Esc @''' (to get the PXE client running)

			Wait for

			CLIENT MAC ADDR: 14 58 D0 5B 12 64 GUID: 32393636 3735 584D 5135 313330335353

			or something very like it. The ProLiant's Ethernet 1 interface MAC address is shown. Power server off like so:

			'''Esc ('''
			</>hpiLO-> '''stop /system1'''

			status=0
			status_tag=COMMAND COMPLETED
			Wed Jun 21 18:28:21 2017



			Server powering off .......



			</>hpiLO->

			And a server definition to the DHCP server's config file for it. Something like:

			host proliant-380e-g8-MXQ51303SS {
			# HP ProLiant DL380e Gen 8 s/n MXQ51303SS
			hardware ethernet 14:58:d0:5b:12:64;
			fixed-address 10.20.199.33;
			option host-name "proliant-380e-g8-mxQ51303ss";
			# un-comment the next two lines to PXEboot this system
			next-server 10.20.199.4;
			filename "pxelinux.0";
			# comment the previous two lines disable PXEboot of this system
			}

			which pretty much says "You should request pxelinux.0 from 10.20.199.4 and then run it." The EFI PXE boot image file has a different name "bootnext64.efi" or something like that. But ProLiants aren't EFI until Gen 9.

			Make sure there's a TFTP server installed on the machine listed in the DHCP "next-server" option. And then, if the TFTP server happens to be atftpd as packed in Debian 8, make sure the daemon command line options are correct: <code>--verbose 5</code> does not do what one might think. Use <code>--verbose=5</code> instead.

			Some fiddling will be needed to get the PXElinux binary files where the TFTP server can get them:

			$ '''sudo apt-get install pxelinux'''
			$ '''sudo ln -s /usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0 /srv/tftp/'''
			$ '''sudo ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/ldlinux.c32 /srv/tftp/'''
			$ '''sudo ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/libutil.c32 /srv/tftp/'''
			$ '''sudo ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/menu.c32 /srv/tftp/'''

Adj: /* Parts! */

2017-06-21T16:27:36Z

Parts!

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:27, 21 June 2017
Line 38:		Line 38:
	* 684900-001 is a kit for putting 2x 2.5inch (SFF) hot swap drives in the back of the chassis		* 684900-001 is a kit for putting 2x 2.5inch (SFF) hot swap drives in the back of the chassis
	* Power supplies are the HP "Common Slot" models used in G7 and G8 Proliant servers		* Power supplies are the HP "Common Slot" models used in G7 and G8 Proliant servers
			* 684896-001 is a PCIe riser board with an LSI SAS controller and two (SFF 8087, I think) connectors located toward the front of the chassis

Adj at 15:36, 21 June 2017

2017-06-21T15:36:41Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:36, 21 June 2017
Line 33:		Line 33:
	* Encrypt all the bits (on the wires)		* Encrypt all the bits (on the wires)
	* One Ceph OSD per spindle		* One Ceph OSD per spindle

			== Parts! ==
			* 3.5 inch HDD tray is HP(E) part number 651314-001 or 651320-001. Available from many eBay sellers for < $10, shipped
			* 684900-001 is a kit for putting 2x 2.5inch (SFF) hot swap drives in the back of the chassis
			* Power supplies are the HP "Common Slot" models used in G7 and G8 Proliant servers

Adj: Created page with "June 2017, acquired a pair of HP Proliant DL380e G8 LFF servers. The plan for these is turn them into Ceph + hypervisor systems. == hardware overview == * 2U rackmount serve..."

2017-06-21T05:24:54Z

Created page with "June 2017, acquired a pair of HP Proliant DL380e G8 LFF servers. The plan for these is turn them into Ceph + hypervisor systems. == hardware overview == * 2U rackmount serve..."

New page

June 2017, acquired a pair of HP Proliant DL380e G8 LFF servers.

The plan for these is turn them into Ceph + hypervisor systems.

== hardware overview ==
* 2U rackmount server
* 12x 3.5inch HDD slots in the front
* 2 sockets for Intel Xeon E5-24''xx'' processors (original or v2)
* 6 DDR3 DIMM sockets per processor (12 total, so 96 Gbytes of RAM if fully populated with 8Gbyte DIMMs)
* 4x Intel chipset GigE ports on the back
* ILO 4 system management

== cool things ==
* Can be found cheaper than Dell R510s now
* Faster CPUs than an R510 takes (one or 2 generations newer)
* 8 core, 16 thread, 1.8 GHz E5 CPUs can be had for under $35
* heat sinks included in the ~ $200 price

== uncool things ==
* It's not UEFI based
* Not sure on-motherboard SATA adapter will drive all 12 disk slots in front
* Gen 8 3.5inch disk trays are hard to come by
* Only 12 DIMM slots -- these are not the thing for half Tbyte in memory databases
* E5-24''xx'' CPUs are a little harder to find than E5-26''xx''

== Goals for these ==
* After it's racked and cabled, touchless firmware updates
* Touchless OS install
** There is no optical drive, so PXE booting and [[Fully Automated Install]] to be done.
** To include cfengine or salt or chef or puppet or similar
* Encrypt all the bits
* Encrypt all the bits (on the disks)
* Encrypt all the bits (on the wires)
* One Ceph OSD per spindle