bearcat Posted October 9, 2013 Share #1 Posted October 9, 2013 Re: XPEnology DS3612xs DSM 4.2 build 3211++ (repack v1.2) As a new member of this forum, and as a XPEnology "virgin", I would like to say many thanks to Trantor, and the community, for providing this excellent piece of work I just recently got myself a HP Proliant Microserver N54L, and after realizing that MS Server 2012 R2 will not work with the original NIC, I tried this nice build, which "just worked" right out of the box, on a "stock" server, with original BIOS, at least all the things I have tried yet. But as a newbie, I have 1 question that I have not been able to answer myself by reading the forum. - What can I gain, by flashing my BIOS to one of the modifed "floating" around ? (and if I can gain something, what is it, and what BIOS should I use ?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansel Posted October 9, 2013 Share #2 Posted October 9, 2013 Not sure if N40L bios hack has similar advantages than N54L, but here is some information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fonix232 Posted October 9, 2013 Share #3 Posted October 9, 2013 Re: XPEnology DS3612xs DSM 4.2 build 3211++ (repack v1.2)As a new member of this forum, and as a XPEnology "virgin", I would like to say many thanks to Trantor, and the community, for providing this excellent piece of work I just recently got myself a HP Proliant Microserver N54L, and after realizing that MS Server 2012 R2 will not work with the original NIC, I tried this nice build, which "just worked" right out of the box, on a "stock" server, with original BIOS, at least all the things I have tried yet. I have no idea what you're talking about. Seriously, it WORKS PERFECTLY. I had MSS 2012 installed, and it worked really nice, just needed the drivers downloaded from HPs website. Also, welcome to the group of ProLiant MicroServer owners But as a newbie, I have 1 question that I have not been able to answer myself by reading the forum. - What can I gain, by flashing my BIOS to one of the modifed "floating" around ? (and if I can gain something, what is it, and what BIOS should I use ?) Many things. These modified BIOS releases usually "just" unlock hidden feature switches. Some of them are useful, e.g. enabling full speed on the ODD/eSATA ports, enabling hotswap, etc. You decide if you need it (I do, so I enabled them). There was a really good assessment in the main Microserver thread somewhere, you should look it up. It has the link for the new BIOS, and all useful information too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearcat Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share #4 Posted October 9, 2013 @ hansel: Since the "only" difference between the 40 and the 54 supposedly is the CPU, I guess the same advantages applies, thanks. fonix232 wrote: Seriously, it WORKS PERFECTLY. I had MSS 2012 installed, and it worked really nice.. Seriously ... as I was saying, there is problem with the NIC, when using the soon to be public released R2 version of the Server 2012 family Even if I installed 2102 (or 2008), that is working very well, and trying to update the firmware for the NIC, I was told by the setup that I already had the most up-to-date version. When updating from 2012 to R2, same problem with the NIC not working. More info of this known problem can be found over there ---> http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/forum/67-hp-microserver/ Have you tried R2 on your 54 yet ? The good thing with that problem, was that I was heading over here to try out what I really wanted to play with But thanks for the feedback, I will try to read some more in regards to the BIOS, to see what I might be missing out with stock. It's fun to be part of the Microserver "family", and I might be getting some more of them if I get a good offer again. I made a friend buy one at the same time that I was getting mine, so I will have to supply him with all the needed support... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearcat Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share #5 Posted October 9, 2013 I see a possible problem here: http://xpenology.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6&p=6073&hilit=HP+N54L+BIOS#p6081 the BIOS reset issue. Is this a well known problem with the hacked BIOS's ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fonix232 Posted October 9, 2013 Share #6 Posted October 9, 2013 @ hansel: Since the "only" difference between the 40 and the 54 supposedly is the CPU, I guess the same advantages applies, thanks. Same advantage as it uses the exact same BIOS. So actually you have to flash the N40L patched BIOS. fonix232 wrote: Seriously, it WORKS PERFECTLY. I had MSS 2012 installed, and it worked really nice.. Seriously ... as I was saying, there is problem with the NIC, when using the soon to be public released R2 version of the Server 2012 family Even if I installed 2102 (or 2008), that is working very well, and trying to update the firmware for the NIC, I was told by the setup that I already had the most up-to-date version. When updating from 2012 to R2, same problem with the NIC not working. More info of this known problem can be found over there ---> http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/forum/67-hp-microserver/ Have you tried R2 on your 54 yet ? The good thing with that problem, was that I was heading over here to try out what I really wanted to play with But thanks for the feedback, I will try to read some more in regards to the BIOS, to see what I might be missing out with stock. It's fun to be part of the Microserver "family", and I might be getting some more of them if I get a good offer again. I made a friend buy one at the same time that I was getting mine, so I will have to supply him with all the needed support... Ah yes, sorry. I was using the R2 release (it is the one released on DreamSpark), and it worked fine. Did not test it for long though, as setting up a domain server with RADIUS took two hours, four reboots, and with Synology it is about 15 minutes. But do you actually need MS stuff for a server? I mean, it is fine for desktop, but Linux beats Windows Servers ass back and forth, twice. Flexibility is higher, updates are more frequent, easier to apply, etc. The BIOS changes can come really handy. I completely finetuned mine, and works perfectly now. The reset issue does not affect us. This motherboard does not let Synology touch the BIOS settings, and such, it won't be any problem. At least for me, it was never, and it was always my settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearcat Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share #7 Posted October 9, 2013 @ fonix232 : So, you where actually able to install and run 2012 R2, using the original NIC, (HP NC107i Integrated PCI Express Gigabit Server Adapter) ? I was trying, using the drivers and firmware for 2112 Essentials, posted here (My R2 is coming from my Technet account, did not know DreamSpark was offering it yet) But I ended up like everyone else in this thread with a no-go. Why would I use Windows ? Because I have used it for so many years, and would like to play around with the new R2, and to see if I could migrate my old server into new and smaller HW. Is *nix a better choice for servers ? Yes, I believe so, but the transition is a pain in the b*tt since I have many services running today, that I would like to transfer with as little effort as possible. There is a time for computers, and a time for family life..... Besides, at work we are *"forced" to use Windows, and if this hobby project was turning out OK, I might be able to buy and install some Micro's at work. So, with Trantors build, there should be no BIOS reset problems with our N54L's ? That sounds good. I have been looking into TheBay_Microserver_Bios_041 that seems to be a good candidate, is this the one you are using ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fonix232 Posted October 9, 2013 Share #8 Posted October 9, 2013 @ fonix232 :So, you where actually able to install and run 2012 R2, using the original NIC, (HP NC107i Integrated PCI Express Gigabit Server Adapter) ? I was trying, using the drivers and firmware for 2112 Essentials, posted here (My R2 is coming from my Technet account, did not know DreamSpark was offering it yet) But I ended up like everyone else in this thread with a no-go. Why would I use Windows ? Because I have used it for so many years, and would like to play around with the new R2, and to see if I could migrate my old server into new and smaller HW. Is *nix a better choice for servers ? Yes, I believe so, but the transition is a pain in the b*tt since I have many services running today, that I would like to transfer with as little effort as possible. There is a time for computers, and a time for family life..... Besides, at work we are *"forced" to use Windows, and if this hobby project was turning out OK, I might be able to buy and install some Micro's at work. So, with Trantors build, there should be no BIOS reset problems with our N54L's ? That sounds good. I have been looking into TheBay_Microserver_Bios_041 that seems to be a good candidate, is this the one you are using ? Yes I've been using the R2 Essentials package (I believe - have to check my downloads tomorrow). Ethernet did not work out of the box, but after I forced the installation of the card (enable test mode, disable integrity check, and manually force-install it), two reboots later it worked. Trantor's build is good. And yes, I'm using TheBay's 041 release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shteve Posted October 10, 2013 Share #9 Posted October 10, 2013 My BIOS get's reset on my N54L with TheBay's BIOS and Trantor's build. It's less of a problem than with the Chinese 3211 build as Trantor's does include the IDE drivers meaning that any drives attached to the additional ports are still visible, albeit running in "slow" mode. They're still plenty fast enough for NAS use though. *EDIT* The BIOS issue only affects people running Xpenology native, not those running it under a VM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trantor Posted October 10, 2013 Share #10 Posted October 10, 2013 Topic closed (duplicate thread) Use this one : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1316 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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