Home Server (3) – First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8

Third post of the Home Server series in which I explain how I built my own server.
Visit the first post for details about the objectives of the project.

Maybe you have decided to have your own server and already you are owner of any model as HP Microserver Gen8. Surely there are many more to be done, but these are the configurations that I perform as first steps.

If your are not a Gen8 owner (and for example purchased a Gen10 or any other hardware), although this is not applicable, for sure the next posts will.

BIOS – Date Time and SATA controller

Press <F9> at boot time to open the BIOS menu

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - Enter BIOS setup

Set hardware Date/Time

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - BIOS date time

System Options -> SATA Controller Options —– show –>

Enable Dynamic HP Smart Array B120i RAID support

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - Enable Dynamic HP Smart Array B120i RAID

Viene por defecto habilitado pero mejor asegurarse.

The server comes with ILO DHCP enabled by default. That allows you to connect the iLO port to one of your router ports and it will be assigned one of your local network IPs

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - Connect iLO port

I logged in my router to check the assigned IPs so I discovered the one assigned to iLO (it was 192.168.0.104)

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO DHCP assigned IP

Now you can use a browser to connect to iLO: https://<IP>
For this example: https://192.168.0.104

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO first login

The server comes with a default user whose credentials are written in the paper outside the server…

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO default credentials

As you maybe know, one of the best iLO feature is the integrated remote console:

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO integrated remote console

I suggest using Internet Explorer to use the .NET integrated remote console. It works flawless

iLO – set static IP

To enable easy access to iLO, I prefer to set static IP assignment.
To do so, you have two ways:

From the previously showed iLO web GUI (for the first time, this way is easier)

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - set static IP

Don’t forget to reserve the IP in your router DHCP settings or using an IP outside the scope of the DHCP pool.

If you boot the server while having the console open (integrated remote console), you can open the iLo configuration menu by pressing <F8>

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO menu F8

Then you can disable DHCP…

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO configuration menu

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO disable DHCP

And set the static IP

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO set static IP

iLO – licensing

Im not going to tell how I got a iLO advanced license but I suggest to get one and enter it to enable feautires like remote console…

iLO – Default ports and services

This is a more common and known best practice for the servers themselves, but I have also applied it on iLO. iLO offers connection via WEB and SSH, SNMP, …

Disabling the services you don’t need and changing the default ports is easy and useful.

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO change default ports

After applying this example changes, to connect via web…

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO changed web default port

or SSH

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO changed ssh default port

iLO – add a new user

I don’t think this step really necessary. Anyway, if you want to create a new user instead of using the default administrator password, granting the permissions you want

First steps configuring HP Microserver Gen8 - iLO create new user

BIOS – Date Time and SATA controller

ILO – First login

iLO – set static IP

iLO – licensing

iLO – Default ports and services

iLO – add a new user