HP N36L/N40L/N54L Microserver Updated AHCI BIOS Support.

Does anyone know how to update the firmware on the integrated (embedded) RAID controller on N40L?
The current one keeps loosing RAID config if I am adding additional HDD to the internal slot (without touching RAID config)
 
I believe the embedded raid is provided via the AMD southbridge (SB820M)? Even if it's a separate chip, 99% of the time any update is part of the main BIOS update...
Does anyone know how to update the firmware on the integrated (embedded) RAID controller on N40L?
The current one keeps loosing RAID config if I am adding additional HDD to the internal slot (without touching RAID config)
 
Hi all, I have Ubuntu Server running on my Microservers and have a couple of questions on using it with Ubuntu/Linux.....

Is it possible to set the Microservers up so that the power button makes it sleep/hibernate when on and turn back on when sleeping?

And is there a way to have Ubuntu sleep/hibernate after a period of unuse? So it automatically sleeps after a period of time?

Thanks
 
I recently picked up two of the N40L Microservers to go with my N54L. They are all working great with my three unRAID setups.
 
Hello I too have this server "Microserver G7 N40L 8GB of RAM" I plan to install Windows Server 2019 or 2016. |I just want to use it as a file server nothing fancy proably with RAID1. My only real requirement is that i want it to be silent (or very quite). I plan to replace the two 3.5 1TB SATA hard drives with 2 X SSD drives. I am assuming I just need to get a 3.5 SATA to SSD enclourse on ebay?

Also what Fan would you recomend replacing it with?

Cheers
 
Hello I too have this server "Microserver G7 N40L 8GB of RAM" I plan to install Windows Server 2019 or 2016. |I just want to use it as a file server nothing fancy proably with RAID1. My only real requirement is that i want it to be silent (or very quite). I plan to replace the two 3.5 1TB SATA hard drives with 2 X SSD drives. I am assuming I just need to get a 3.5 SATA to SSD enclourse on ebay?

Also what Fan would you recomend replacing it with?

Cheers

I wouldn't install either of them it wont be a nice experience the N36L and N40L really do struggle on 2016/2019, the cpu only just mas the minimum requirements and it really shows.

I have done testing on multi units and even few work places that have different microservers they are so slow stick to older Server OS they are fine.

Never seen a quit one of those the fans are fairly loud.

Why bother with the SSD not great deal of benefit again I have done tests on these units with them also if you are going to be spending money on large capacity ssd think about using that for a better server.
 
I have Ubuntu Server running well on both my N36l and N54l (headless with plex server and realvnc), would make a good file server
 
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I have an n36L running windows home server 2011. I want to change it up, put freenas in it (i needed to run a windows app in vm, but I recently learnt that freenas supports vm.

Ok main issue is I want to put 16GB ram into my n36L box, can someone tell me if the box supports it or do I need to flash with this bios to unlock it?
 
Pretty sure I had 16 in both my N36l and N54l. I did have that modified bios in it (TheBay I think) because I wanted to use the esata port as a fifth sata drive, but think it takes 16GB without needing the bios update
 
Never had issues with 16GB, but as said on another forum, before you buy 16GB for this, consider if you’ll get better results from putting the money towards something else. If you do go down this route, consider if you can avoid running a full win VM just for a single app, it’ll likely make life a little easier if you can move to Docker or something lighter.
 
Never had issues with 16GB, but as said on another forum, before you buy 16GB for this, consider if you’ll get better results from putting the money towards something else. If you do go down this route, consider if you can avoid running a full win VM just for a single app, it’ll likely make life a little easier if you can move to Docker or something lighter.

do you know if it's possible to run a windows app in a docker in freenas? I would have thought it needs to be in VM for that.

I think running in freenas should free up more ram over windows home server 2011. I'll give it a shot in my 8 gig and see how it fares before commiting to buying mroe ram.
 
Pretty sure I had 16 in both my N36l and N54l. I did have that modified bios in it (TheBay I think) because I wanted to use the esata port as a fifth sata drive, but think it takes 16GB without needing the bios update

Thanks, the 16gb server ram is so expensive now, tempted to go for the hynix modules sold on ebay, direct from china. But it's a risk if it doesn't work. no RMA
 
This works if you are using Windows 10. I've done it.

UPDATE: WIN10 & NETWORK PORT ISSUE
I have followed this N40L BIOS MOD Guide.
Remove all drives/extra boards
Installed HP stock BIOS.
Installed MOD BIOS
From the BIOS MAIN Screen Go to
-> Chipset Menu
-> Southbridge Configuration
-> SB SATA Configuration =>
and set the following:
OnChip SATA Channel [Enabled]
OnChip IDE Type [IDE or Legacy IDE]
SATA IDE Combined Mode [Disabled] -- sets Ports 4 & 5 to use AHCI
SATA EPS on all PORT [Enabled] -- sets all Ports to be external SATA Ports
SATA Power on all PORT [Enabled]
Install Fresh Copy Of Windows 10

THIS is also a good help guide

It Works. Hope this helps people who want to go this route.

Hello I've got the NL54 been having some connection issues and it's making remote access difficult. Will these instructions work for that model? is the BIOS the same?

First post here - cheers :)
 
Hello I've got the NL54 been having some connection issues and it's making remote access difficult. Will these instructions work for that model? is the BIOS the same?

The N36L, N40L, and N54L are all the same board / bios, just slightly different CPU speeds.
 
The N36L, N40L, and N54L are all the same board / bios, just slightly different CPU speeds.

Thanks updated this in the end (long story had to boot to freedos in the end). My device seems to be running hot (I had a temp violation message) It's got an aftermarket fan fitted. Could that be the issue?
 
i know this thread is basically dead but....when im installing it i get invalid system disk or it just doesn't boot spent ages trying different files ect any help appreciated
 
For those interested, the port multiplier on the e-sata port runs flawlessly on TrueNAS Core TrueNAS-12.0-U8, with the kamzata BIOS mod available here: HP Proliant Microserver AMI BIOS MOD

Log from my TrueNAS instance:

Mar 17 20:40:38 truenas pmp0 at ahcich4 bus 0 scbus4 target 15 lun 0
Mar 17 20:40:38 truenas pmp0: <Port Multiplier 575f197b 000e> ATA device
Mar 17 20:40:38 truenas pmp0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, NONE, PIO 8192bytes)
Mar 17 20:40:38 truenas pmp0: 15 fan-out ports

This was tested with a FANTEC QB-35US3-6G with 1x SDD and 2x HDD. All disks are available and individually addressable.
 
For those interested, the port multiplier on the e-sata port runs flawlessly on TrueNAS Core TrueNAS-12.0-U8, with the kamzata BIOS mod available here: HP Proliant Microserver AMI BIOS MOD

Log from my TrueNAS instance:



This was tested with a FANTEC QB-35US3-6G with 1x SDD and 2x HDD. All disks are available and individually addressable.
Its a same that it only has Sata 2, not so much the speed but disk size limitation. You could always plug in a low profile server RAID card, just watch the cooling required.
 
Its a same that it only has Sata 2, not so much the speed but disk size limitation. You could always plug in a low profile server RAID card, just watch the cooling required.
SATA2 doesn't limit drives to 2TB.

On an Intel X79 board for example, they usually have 2 x SATA3 ports and 4 x SATA2 ports. And you can use large drives on the SATA2 ports without issue - in Windows you'll need to format them as GPT not MBR obviously.
 
SATA2 doesn't limit drives to 2TB.

On an Intel X79 board for example, they usually have 2 x SATA3 ports and 4 x SATA2 ports. And you can use large drives on the SATA2 ports without issue - in Windows you'll need to format them as GPT not MBR obviously.
Maybe not a SATA 2 issue but I thought there was some sort of drive size limit. Maybe it was a cost thing at the time rather then technical limit
 
Hi guys
I have an old N36L and want to install an OS that will run Plex (no transcoding obviously!) but also allow me to remote in to manage it, via Teamviewer or VNC or something. It's for my sister so not local access, so I'll need to be able to manage it over the internet.
I previously had WHS2011 on it, but not sure if something lighter might be better, a flavour of Linux maybe? Any suggestions? Remote access is essential as it'll be headless as well.
Thanks
 
Hi guys
I have an old N36L and want to install an OS that will run Plex (no transcoding obviously!) but also allow me to remote in to manage it, via Teamviewer or VNC or something. It's for my sister so not local access, so I'll need to be able to manage it over the internet.
I previously had WHS2011 on it, but not sure if something lighter might be better, a flavour of Linux maybe? Any suggestions? Remote access is essential as it'll be headless as well.
Thanks
Unraid is a good option for that hardware. Unfortunately I am not up to date on the remote access side of things, but the forums and Reddit are very useful. Note that it's not free.
 
Unraid looks really good, but I don't think I can justify $60 on it when I don't know how long this N36L will last, it's had a very good innings already!
 
You might want to take a look at this vid

The guy creates a unraid equivalent on a Linux platform with a couple of plugins/scripts

 
Thanks, but that's more for building a server, I already have this N36l and just want to rebuild it as a cheap Plex server for my sister that I can remote in occasionally to manage/troubleshoot. I guess I could put Linux on it. I've been rebuilding it with WHS 2011, which was on it before the SSD in it died, but now it's running on a normal sata hard drive it's sooooo slow! Might still be fine. I have Ubuntu on the N54l I gave to my mum and that's very stable, I just have recollections of issue when I tried to install Ubuntu on the N36l years ago and wondered if there was a better option.
 

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