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All about HP ProLiant Gen8 Microserver G1610T

HP ProLiant Gen8 Microserver G1610T is a very handy microserver for home or small business use and it's often sold at an affordable price currently. In this post, I list all the resources that I came across regarding this server.



Videos:
  1. Installing 16GB RAM
  2. Installing HDD
Documents:
  1. Gen 8 QuickSpecs
  2. HP ProLiant Microserver for Dummies
Useful web:
  1. FreeNAS Installation
  2. FreeNAS Installation
  3. All about ProLiant G1610T
  4. HPE ESXi Image download for microserver
  5. VMWare ESXi 5.5 installation on a HP ProLiant Microserver Gen8
  6. Solving performance issues with ESXi 6 (Gen8)
  7. Activate your ESXi free license
  8. Installing and configuring VmWare ESXI on HP MicroServer GEN8
  9. FreeNAS 9.3 on VMware ESXi 6.0 Guide (Not written for Gen8)
  10. About ESXi installation and ESXi 6.0 internal RAID issues
  11. Why is my ESXi NFS so slow, and why is iSCSI faster?
  12. Disabling RAID and enabling AHCI
  13. ESXi Memory management
Forum discussions:
  1. Ozbargain 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06,
  2. Whirlpool 01, 02
Buying:
  1. Floppy to SATA adapter
Operating systems/software:
FreePBX - FreePBX is a web-based open source GUI (graphical user interface) that controls and manages Asterisk (PBX), an open source communication server. FreePBX is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), an open source license. FreePBX can be installed manually or as part of the pre-configured FreePBX Distro that includes the system OS, Asterisk, FreePBX GUI and assorted dependencies.                                          

Webmin - Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any modern web browser, you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and much more. Webmin removes the need to manually edit Unix configuration files like /etc/passwd, and lets you manage a system from the console or remotely.

Sophos UTM

pfsense -



Comment from Whirlpool:
Download the HP ESXi ISO. (I'm using ESXi 6.)
Install to a USB flash drive connected to the internal port.
Setup a datastore on your HDD's.
Install any OS you want.
Works like a charm!
I've got 16GB in my G8, running these VM's:
  • Sophos UTM (running 24x7)
  • XPEnology (running 24x7)
  • FreePBX (running 24x7)
  • Windows 7 test machine (running occasionally)
  • Windows 7 downloads machine (running occasionally)
All running happily.

Post on creating FreeNAS on VM RAID:



So, in the end it was far simpler than I had previously thought:


After creating the Datastores (for three separate disks),


Follow instructions in FreeNAS manual to get the VM up and running:


  1. Create a 4GB VM
  2. Edit the VM settings and add 3 virtual disks of 100GB, one on each of the 3 physical disks (datastores).
  3. Boot VM from FreeNAS ISO and install on the 4GB VM (may appear like it's the ESXi flash drive on the server it's found, but it's not)
  4. Once installed and restarted the disks should be available in the FreeNAS GUI.


To create a RAID set in FreeNAS:


  1. Volumes > Volume Manager
  2. Add the three disks and select the ZFS RAIDZ options
  3. Set the permissions: leave at Unix ACL, and tick all the Read/write/Execute options (yes, not good for security, but this is for testing)


Create a Share:


  1. Windows (CIFS) Shares
  2. Add Windows (CIFS) Share
  3. Path: choose the volume created above
  4. Allow guest access


All good. I'm now going to play with pulling a virtual disk and seeing about how to repair the set.


Sorry but this forum does not allow questions regarding FreeNAS in a VM any more. Going to lock this thread.      

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