And, perhaps most importantly, is there anything I should install, configure, or tune to keep the fans nice and quiet? Booting the NetBSD 9.0 installer from a USB key, the system was plenty quiet, but I know those fans can move a lot of air if they have to.
I have one myself in the basement. It is a nice machine.
You should install the BIOS updates if you have access to them. The HP
Proliants are a ransomware platform, you you may not have access t
them.
In fact the BIOS, iLO, etc. updates are on the HPE web site, which is something I verified before purchasing. (Which I’d encourage everyone to do if they’re going to do something like this, of course.)
The only update I can’t find is an *offline* update for the P420i storage controller firmware; mine is at version 8.00 and the latest is 8.32(C) and the only updaters are “online” updates for Windows, Windows x64, and VMware ESXi. In the worst case, I have to install one of those, do the firmware update, and then install NetBSD.