HP ProLiant ML350 G6 with Xeon X5670

[Svenson]

Hello,

I'm new in the forum. Now I wanted to learn some server technology for professional reasons. I bought a used HP ProLiant ML350 G6 and am about to equip it.

So far I have installed six SAS disks in three logical drives (RAID 5 for the system disks).

The device has 64 GByte memory and two Xeon X5670. I installed OpenSuse Leap 42.3 and wanted to configure Xen virtualization.

I wanted to install a Quadro FX1800, but the ProLiant is bitching with it. It doesn't boot with this card anymore. Does anyone have experience with other graphics cards in a ProLiant?

I have a very old firmware in the Array Controller P410i. Does anyone have any experience with the upgrade ? Is that safe ? I didn't want to lose my logical drives.

I also noticed that I can't download a new BIOS. HPE wants a support contract. Strange

[geforceGTX]

I have a very old firmware in the Array Controller P410i. Does anyone have any experience with the upgrade ? Is that safe ? I didn't want to lose my logical drives.

Since the RAID configuration is stored on the disks, there should be no problems.

I also noticed that I can't download a new BIOS. HPE wants a support contract. Strange

Yes, HP 2014 changed that for the Proliant servers. During the warranty period you have access to the updates, after that only with a software contract. Security updates should still be freely available. Here is the Heise article.

[Svenson]

Hello,

Since 2014 HP requires a valid support contract for the BIOS upgrade of a ProLIant server.

This is very expensive - especially if the server has not been in support for a while. HP wanted 1600 € from me for one year to get the server back into support at all (purchase price at eBay 140 € !).

Does anyone have a BIOS upgrade package for the ProLiant (rpm file) ? I need the file for Linux (upgrade via Live USB Key)

[geforceGTX]

I'm pretty sure that the Bios upgrades can't just be distributed, otherwise the whole support package would be hard to sell.