Comments on: HP Proliant ML350 G6 Server Review http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/ the sun, the moon, and everything in between Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:05:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jason http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-354 Jason Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:23:30 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-354 Gechurch: aargh! My company just bought my an ML350 precisely because I'm planning to install ESXi 5 on it (running a bunch of Win7 and XP VMs). I wish I had known about this before! Thanks for the tip about the RAID card though, I'll look into that and if necessary, order the appropriate parts. Can you tell me what part number or item to look for? Is it some special type of module or just generic? Thanks! Gechurch: aargh! My company just bought my an ML350 precisely because I’m planning to install ESXi 5 on it (running a bunch of Win7 and XP VMs). I wish I had known about this before! Thanks for the tip about the RAID card though, I’ll look into that and if necessary, order the appropriate parts. Can you tell me what part number or item to look for? Is it some special type of module or just generic? Thanks!

]]> By: fourfridays http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-344 fourfridays Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:59:18 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-344 I agree with you Gechurch when it comes to small businesses you don't want to be messing around with processors from third party. This was a home grown project for personal use, so costs were a consideration. I am assuming things have changed now since it's going to be almost a year and 4 months since the incident. At that time there weren't any third party heatsinks since the server was launched brand new. Forget about third party, HP didn't have the heatsinks themselves. That was the annoying bit of the whole process. Thanks for all your input. I agree with you Gechurch when it comes to small businesses you don't want to be messing around with processors from third party. This was a home grown project for personal use, so costs were a consideration. I am assuming things have changed now since it's going to be almost a year and 4 months since the incident. At that time there weren't any third party heatsinks since the server was launched brand new. Forget about third party, HP didn't have the heatsinks themselves. That was the annoying bit of the whole process. Thanks for all your input.

]]> By: Gechurch http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-341 Gechurch Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:17:46 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-341 To add to what you said to commenter Umair, the server may or may not come with a drive cage. Generally if you buy the server with drives included it will have a cage, and if you buy without drives it probably won't come with the cage. You can buy the cage separate if you want it - I bought one for this server and it cost about $120AU (about $100US). If you want the cage, you will also need a RAID card. The cage plugs in to the RAID card using a miniSAS cable. The cage has four SAS-8484 connectors - you install your drives in HP caddy's and they slide on to the connectors. These connectors are backwards compatible with SATA - both SATA and SAS drives will plug in (SAS drives can't plug into SATA connectors though). To add to what you said to commenter Umair, the server may or may not come with a drive cage. Generally if you buy the server with drives included it will have a cage, and if you buy without drives it probably won't come with the cage. You can buy the cage separate if you want it – I bought one for this server and it cost about $120AU (about $100US). If you want the cage, you will also need a RAID card. The cage plugs in to the RAID card using a miniSAS cable. The cage has four SAS-8484 connectors – you install your drives in HP caddy's and they slide on to the connectors. These connectors are backwards compatible with SATA – both SATA and SAS drives will plug in (SAS drives can't plug into SATA connectors though).

]]> By: Gechurch http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-343 Gechurch Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:18:15 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-343 My suggestion if you want to save money is to use the drive cage and buy the caddy's. It gives you the best flexibility. The caddy's cost bugger all, but you need a RAID card in this setup. To my mind, every server should have a RAID card though. Personally, after saving money in a bunch of ways, I have basically come to the conclusion that unless you place no value on your time, you should always use genuine HP parts. One other thing to note on the ML350 - there is a knows compatibility problem with the ML350 and Vmware ESXi. You MUST have a cache upgrade on the RAID card (the smallest - 256MB -is fine. I picked one up for $19 on eBay). If you don't, you will see events in the ESXi event log that show a disconnection to the storage. This will be accompanied by extreme slowness in the VMs. They will basically be unusable. This issue is really hard to find info on too - I wasted many, many, many hours to find this out. My suggestion if you want to save money is to use the drive cage and buy the caddy's. It gives you the best flexibility. The caddy's cost bugger all, but you need a RAID card in this setup. To my mind, every server should have a RAID card though. Personally, after saving money in a bunch of ways, I have basically come to the conclusion that unless you place no value on your time, you should always use genuine HP parts.

One other thing to note on the ML350 – there is a knows compatibility problem with the ML350 and Vmware ESXi. You MUST have a cache upgrade on the RAID card (the smallest – 256MB -is fine. I picked one up for $19 on eBay). If you don't, you will see events in the ESXi event log that show a disconnection to the storage. This will be accompanied by extreme slowness in the VMs. They will basically be unusable. This issue is really hard to find info on too – I wasted many, many, many hours to find this out.

]]> By: Gechurch http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-342 Gechurch Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:17:58 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-342 If your server doesn't come with a drive cage, it will have a basic metal enclosure in its place that lets you plug in four drives vertically. You then run four SATA cables to the motherboard. The ML350 has onboard RAID (software I believe). There are plenty of SATA power cables, and they are in the right spot for the drives if you plug them in this way. From memory I think you have to take this metal enclosure out of the server to install or remove any of the drives, so it's not very convenient. If your server doesn't come with a drive cage, it will have a basic metal enclosure in its place that lets you plug in four drives vertically. You then run four SATA cables to the motherboard. The ML350 has onboard RAID (software I believe). There are plenty of SATA power cables, and they are in the right spot for the drives if you plug them in this way. From memory I think you have to take this metal enclosure out of the server to install or remove any of the drives, so it's not very convenient.

]]> By: Gechurch http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-340 Gechurch Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:17:13 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-340 Interesting post. I must say I was surprised reading your post when you said you wanted to replace the included CPU. That's a large part of the cost, and there are many variants of the ML350 with different CPUs. It makes sense to purchase the server with the desired CPU included. That said, I sympathise with your desire to use non-HP parts to save money. I consult for small businesses, so cost is always a large factor. I have bought RAID write-caches and BBWC's from eBay before, and have installed non-HP SATA drives in these servers before (using the drive caddy's off ebay), but when installing second CPUs have always used the genuine parts. It wouldn't occur to me to use a non-HP second CPU though, and I'm not surprised by your results. I'm surprised HP didn't have the parts - they seem to have parts for everything; spare power switches, logic boards for drive cages etc. The end result seems fine to me though - you bought CPUs from a third party, and thanks to a commenter could have also sourced the heatsink from a third party. Interesting post. I must say I was surprised reading your post when you said you wanted to replace the included CPU. That's a large part of the cost, and there are many variants of the ML350 with different CPUs. It makes sense to purchase the server with the desired CPU included.

That said, I sympathise with your desire to use non-HP parts to save money. I consult for small businesses, so cost is always a large factor. I have bought RAID write-caches and BBWC's from eBay before, and have installed non-HP SATA drives in these servers before (using the drive caddy's off ebay), but when installing second CPUs have always used the genuine parts. It wouldn't occur to me to use a non-HP second CPU though, and I'm not surprised by your results.

I'm surprised HP didn't have the parts – they seem to have parts for everything; spare power switches, logic boards for drive cages etc. The end result seems fine to me though – you bought CPUs from a third party, and thanks to a commenter could have also sourced the heatsink from a third party.

]]> By: Solomon http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-336 Solomon Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:45:10 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-336 Hi, . i bought a HP proliant ML 350 G6 and installed two 146GB 2.5" hard drive on it but it can only see one of the harddrive. even though i swarp the two hard drive with each other but cannot see the two. Can somebody help me out Hi, . i bought a HP proliant ML 350 G6 and installed two 146GB 2.5" hard drive on it but it can only see one of the harddrive. even though i swarp the two hard drive with each other but cannot see the two. Can somebody help me out

]]> By: Solomon ade http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-335 Solomon ade Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:16:19 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-335 Hi, this is ade. i bought a HP proliant ML 350 G6 and installed two 146GB 2.5" hard drive on it but it can only see one of the harddrive. even though i swarp the two hard drive with each other but cannot see the two. Can somebody help me out Hi, this is ade. i bought a HP proliant ML 350 G6 and installed two 146GB 2.5" hard drive on it but it can only see one of the harddrive. even though i swarp the two hard drive with each other but cannot see the two. Can somebody help me out

]]> By: fourfridays http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-306 fourfridays Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:33:54 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-306 Hi Jay. Actually I ended up custom building a FreeNas server instead after I returned this server. Finances sort of played a role in my decision to not pursue the branded path. I have more details regarding the custom server in my post: <a href="http://blog.fourfridays.com/2010/02/21/home-media-server/" target="_blank">http://blog.fourfridays.com/2010/02/21/home-media...</a> As for my recommendations I have had my eyes on the servers out there for quite a bit. I guess the preference depends on the needs. If you need it just for storage, then you are basically not overly concerned about processing, but more on the ability of inserting as many hard drives as possible, and maybe rack mountable (if that is a concern). If its processing and serving up virtual machines, I would recommend (if budget allows), two Quad Core Xeon's with 12GB of Ram minimum. Hi Jay. Actually I ended up custom building a FreeNas server instead after I returned this server. Finances sort of played a role in my decision to not pursue the branded path. I have more details regarding the custom server in my post: http://blog.fourfridays.com/2010/02/21/home-media…

As for my recommendations I have had my eyes on the servers out there for quite a bit. I guess the preference depends on the needs. If you need it just for storage, then you are basically not overly concerned about processing, but more on the ability of inserting as many hard drives as possible, and maybe rack mountable (if that is a concern). If its processing and serving up virtual machines, I would recommend (if budget allows), two Quad Core Xeon's with 12GB of Ram minimum.

]]> By: Jay http://blog.fourfridays.com/2009/09/19/hp-proliant-ml350-g6-server-review/#comment-305 Jay Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:08:08 +0000 http://blog.fourfridays.com/?p=71#comment-305 May I know which server you buy after you return this? Do you recommend any product instead of ML350 G6? May I know which server you buy after you return this? Do you recommend any product instead of ML350 G6?

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