My boss bought two of these because the hp site has misleading info on them saying these machines are linux compatible (by my own investigation, not really). So I am going to install linux on two of these "servers".
Yesterday, I had a big run around with their technical support and the horrible layout of that site. They were not helpful in any way in trying to install Linux on these machines. They didn't even suggest any of the supposedly supported Linux operating systems. So I spent a lot of time on that site, and noticed all kinds of bios updates and drivers for Redhat Linux.
Today, I am going to try one machine with trying to install fedora with Redhat drivers and bios updates, the other computer, I am going to try a real hard drive controller (since I think that is reason why the drives drop out on installation) and install Ubuntu server. I think the hard drive controller that is built into this machine is a windows software based instead of a real controller plus co-processor which is standard to use on a server environment. Its dual 4K video suggests to me that they re purposed this motherboard because most server setups don't use a graphic user interfaces (just a terminal prompt) The base chip set seemed like its supported in some fashion because it boots, but the hard drive controller behaves like its uncompilable. I get video during usb boot so some modes are supported there, so I may have to pass a directive in grub for the correct video mode if the video stops working after installation.
1st machine. this one was bought at CDW that has a hard drive, but no os. I noticed someone installed a password in the MEBx section, so, I opened her up, and removed the bios battery for a few minutes and reinstalled it. I went into MEBx setup and disabled AMT manageability and remote management. Inside bios, I disabled the network stack too, in the drives I disabled all software raid settings (raid5 selected even though there is one drive installed) ACHI is the controller setting. I usb booted with Ubuntu 16.04 64bit server (latest download from ubuntu) and installed. While it was setting up the drive. I got warnings about the boot partition not getting updated, but I ignored them and continued. This computer system boots Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
I installed xubuntu-desktop just to see if a GUI works, and it does. Be sure that you click the default menu or else you'll have to set that up (if you want to use it) It ran xfce in VGA mode (I imagine graphics drivers needed to be downloaded-installed for SVGA, but its there!)
I have to stop and go into php programming land, but I wanted to give you an update on machine #1
Will be adding more info when I get to machine two: The one bought from hp with no drives installed.
Machine#2:
The raid section is configurable. I tried both fedora and ubuntu, but the hard drive performance is about as equivalent as my 1990 i486 with ata33 dives. It seems the windows reporting error setting and the secure key device boot are the features you have to disable. Needless to say, the raid is a software raid and the current linux software raid solution for the os works better than their driver. But to compare and contrast, this machine cost less than a really nice sas raid card that would be installed on a real server. I've worked with driver based raids over the past two decades, and this one is the poorest performing one by my observation.