HP Microserver Gen8 : Most common hardware failures

[nate]

Hello everyone,

 

I am a proud owner of a MicroserverGen8 server for two years now.

It runs with a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1220L V2 @ 2.30GHz with 16GB of DDR3, and a Software Raid5 of three WD Red 3TB disks (B120i in AHCI mode).

 

This servers works like a charm, running my personal production services.

 

I was thinking that the machine is aging and one day, I will have a hardware failure and I will have to replace parts.

 

In order to prepare this moment, would you share the most common hardware failures that you experienced with this machine ?

 

Some information would be useful such as :

- for how long your server has been running before failing,

- were your server running on a UPS (Off-line, In-line, Line interactive type),

- did an oustanding event occured before failure (lightning, power surge),

- how did you solve the failure,

- any useful link to repair the failure (forum link, online seller link to buy spare parts etc.).

 

Thanks and I have a nice day,

 

Nate

[Shonk]

My primary Gen 8 has been running since september 2014 24/7

 

The only thing i have noticed is the blue led is 1/4 of the brightness of my backup gen8 that one is off 99% of the time

and there is a touch of browning on the clear plastic on the 24 pin atx cable on the 12v lines due to the 12v lines running load through them and warming up slightly

 

 

Failure risks will be

 

1) PSU

2) 4GB Nand Chip that ilo uses

Edited May 15, 2020 by Shonk

[binky]

On 5/15/2020 at 7:28 PM, Shonk said:

4GB Nand Chip that ilo uses

 

This killed one of my Gen8 as I hadn't updated that unit to the fixed iLO firmware... other 3 all ok, thankfully

[nate]

18 minutes ago, binky said:

 

This killed one of my Gen8 as I hadn't updated that unit to the fixed iLO firmware... other 3 all ok, thankfully

Thank you for the insight!

What was the problem with ILO firmware and NAND? Which version fixes it?

[binky]

Can't remember exactly, but it was something like this:

 

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04996097

 

This thread discusses the iLO issue on a different variant of the Gen8:

 

https://community.hpe.com/t5/proliant-servers-ml-dl-sl/hpe-dl380p-gen8-ilo4-self-test-error/td-p/6979847

 

iLO 4 Firmware 2.55 is what I'm now running and seems ok so far.  Sadly I didn't bother keeping info about it as I upgraded my remaining 3 boxes and moved on.

 

 

[binky]

 

Just found this post:

 

With iLO 2.70 download, so currently updating 🤞

 

And then a few minutes later, I found this:

 

2.73 here we go... 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by binky

[veskojl]

Yes, that failure of the Embedded Flash (SD-CARD) bugged my server, too. Just a few minutes ago I've updated the iLO to v2.73 in a very last attempt to resurrect the flash storage. A few useful resources for the people that want to try re-formatting the NAND storage:

 

iLO Advisory ver.5
iLO Advisory ver.10