Upgrading the HP Microserver N54L or migrating ZFS pools to Microserver Gen8?

[fierarul]

Hello,

My backups are on a HP Microserver N54L with FreeNAS 9.1.1. It only has 2GB of RAM, which seems to be highly frowned upon but has worked so far well.

I only use the system for periodic, offline, Time Machine backups, I have no other jails or apps running on it. So I mount an AFP share then send over ethernet data. Sometimes I open the http UI and perhaps start a scrub or create a dataset. It's basically mostly powered down, like an external hard drive of sorts.

Since I've been doing some reading on FreeNAS again I re-learned that I need 8GB of RAM, which seems to be quite hard to find for my now 'old' N54L microserver. I mean, officially, HP expects ECC DDR3 at max 800Mhz (!) which is impossible to find here.

First question to you folks: is 1333MHz RAM bad for the N54L? I see people using it online. How does it work? I could buy 'Integral ECC UDIMM DDR3 4GB 1333MHz CL9 1.5v Dual Rank x8'...

My other option would be to try and upgrade a 'newer' Microserver Gen8 I have (which also has only 2GB of ECC RAM) and move all the hard drives in there. Does this seem like a wise choice? Ideally I would just move the drives and the FreeNAS stick and it works out of the box, but perhaps it won't?

Upgrading to a newer FreeNAS version might be required for the Gen8 perhaps, but then... would the pools and everything be safe?

I mostly forgot about the hardware aspect of my FreeNAS machine since it's almost like an appliance. But as I'm getting close to needing bigger drives I (re)discover new things.

 

[KrisBee]

PC3-10600E UDIMMs are compatible with your N54L, 2 x 4Gb , or one 8GB is the recommended minimum for FreeNAS and sufficient to use the N54L just as a backup target.

It's shouldn't be hard to find 10600E RAM on ebay, just stick to known good brands (e.g: hynix,micron,crucial, samsung, kingston). There will be fewer 8GB modules on sale .

The same memory will work in your Gen8 too, as would PC3-12800E UDIMMS. A 12800E UDIMM ought to and work in a N54L, just at the lower speed. So 12800E is potentially, a better buy, if the N54L BIOS recognises it. Check what other N54L owners on this forum are using.

The Gen8 has greater potential, as both the memory and CPU can be upgraded, it also has iLo. And yes, you should be able to just move your hard drives across and boot from the same USB stick. Obviously, you would need to re-configure the FreeNAS network settings, either by iLo or temporary use of attached screen & keyboard.

 

[fierarul]

So, 'Integral ECC UDIMM DDR3 4GB 1333MHz CL9 1.5v Dual Rank x8' is PC3-10600 but I need PC3-10600E? It says in the RAM description it's unbuffered ECC https://www.integralmemory.com/sites/default/files/uploads/dpdf/IN3T4GEZBIX.pdf Thus making it a perfect match, correct? That is, assuming the E comes from ECC.

 

[Dan Tudora]

hello
https://www.pcgarage.ro/memorii-server/integral/ecc-udimm-ddr3-8gb-1600mhz-cl11-15v-dual-rank/
I use one of this UDIMM in Hp Microserver gen 8
and a configuration with grub chainloading from SD internal card to ODD port when I put a smoll SSD
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/11-2-who-has-installed.71696/page-6#post-498219

 

[Holt Andrei Tiberiu]

Hello, the memory's from PC GARAGE will do fine for G8.
If you have Freenas installe'd on USB Drive, you can move the usb boot drive and hdd drives to the microserver and boot up.
99% it will boot and work fine, you will have to set the IP address again, since you have diffrent lan card's and mac adresse's.

If all start's well on the G8, you can start doing update to freenas after that.

Before you start anything, do a config backup on the older NL Microserver. If anything happend's you can go back to that.

Please take time, and do a firmware upgrade on the microserver before you move to it.
Ilo + Bios.

 

[fierarul]

> Please take time, and do a firmware upgrade on the microserver before you move to it.

I believe HP made the firmare updates commercial so there's no way to get them.

 

[Dan Tudora]

> Please take time, and do a firmware upgrade on the microserver before you move to it.

I believe HP made the firmare updates commercial so there's no way to get them.

hello
all firmware

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/publi...out=table&f:@kmswsoftwaretypekey=[swt8000029]

iLo
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_4192683772f04075b13e1009bd#tab1
extract the exe file with 7zip and upload the bin file in web interface of iLo

bios

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_6b1c2c169d8a46c79eb87027ce#tab1

 

[fierarul]

Thank you. I assume I need to boot into Linux in order to apply those. I only have BSDs.

 

[fierarul]

PS: Well, bought a whole bunch of RAM. New drives next month...

 

[Dan Tudora]

PS: Well, bought a whole bunch of RAM. New drives next month...

I think is more easy to do bios update from this instruction
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_c9a347de9ded465088b735c472#tab2
I have 4 Hp Microserver Gen 8 in use, and (is old I know and no so powerfull but is working for the job what is put to do)
if you want, you can do a little customization and use all SATA port for 5 HDD with RAIDZ2 (I know is not "IDEAL" but working)
for boot drive can use a little SSD with USB=>SATA adapter. I use that configuration on a 1 that server

 

[fierarul]

@Dan Tudora: Thanks! The 8GB sticks worked on my gen8. Installed them, ran memtest and they are OK.

 

[Dan Tudora]

OK
now go to the next step, firmware update
if you need some help I can help you