Good Cheap Server - HP Proliant Microserver 4 BAY - OWNERS THREAD

edwardcasbon1 · 17 Feb 2011 at 13:32

Hi all, I got an email back saying that they've been busy with rebates and taking a little longer. I was told I should receive mine early next week.

gizmoy2k · 17 Feb 2011 at 17:57

Ive just went for one to replace my icybox which is limited to 2 drives

In general what the the best OS for this? I wont be doing regular backups, only storing media and steam backups and the like

Im downloading Freenas for a look now, but amahi and vortex box have caught my eye

Syx · 17 Feb 2011 at 18:42

Syx said:
A bog-standard TP-Link unmanaged switch.
Other devices are connected at 1Gbps with no issues which is confusing - I'll check the port on the switch to confirm it's not an individual fault with the port but that seems unlikely - in fact I'm pretty confused by this and the only reports I can find of similar symptoms are due to faulty NICs

I was thinking the same - I'll get in touch with HP and see what they have to say about it!

Following on from this I had someone trace the physical cable route and it looks like there's been a slight mistake with someone almost bending the patch cable back on itself at the switch end... certainly in a tighter radius than the guidelines suggest! Getting a replacement cable tomorrow and will hopefully be able to put the problem down to that rather than the Microserver!

chenko · 17 Feb 2011 at 22:54

Anyone using the esata port (with success)?

kingofbeans · 18 Feb 2011 at 12:13

Thanks IAmATeaf. Just ordered one. Sorry for the NewB questions but it's probably similar to what others are asking...

Now I have one I want to know what to do with it. I have a spare 1.5Tb Disk and was thinking of doing RAID 5 but I understand this will give a reduction in write speeds (compared with RAID 0) and the software raid controller may work poorly with RAID 5. What speeds have others been getting on RAID 5 with 3 disks?

Also, Im not that familiar with RAID but a google search tells me RAID 1+0 requires 4 disks and you get half the space from them but with both redundency and speed benefits. Is this a possible option over RAID 5? and would it be less CPU intensive?

Finally, is there a consensus on which OS seems to be the fastest?

Thanks

IAmATeaf · 18 Feb 2011 at 12:20

kingofbeans said:
Thanks IAmATeaf. Just ordered one. Sorry for the NewB questions but it's probably similar to what others are asking...

Now I have one I want to know what to do with it. I have a spare 1.5Tb Disk and was thinking of doing RAID 5 but I understand this will give a reduction in write speeds (compared with RAID 0) and the software raid controller may work poorly with RAID 5. What speeds have others been getting on RAID 5 with 3 disks?

Also, Im not that familiar with RAID but a google search tells me RAID 1+0 requires 4 disks and you get half the space from them but with both redundency and speed benefits. Is this a possible option over RAID 5? and would it be less CPU intensive?

Finally, is there a consensus on which OS seems to be the fastest?

Thanks

It all depends on what you want to do with the box. I think the SATA controller on the box only natively supports RAID 0 or 1 so any other RAID config will have to be done via software or emulation.

Me personally, I've just slapped in 4 500gb HDDs, installed W7 and then installed PS3 Media Server. So I use it to serve media to the PS3 and do the odd backups of family docs and pictures. I don't use any form of RAID as the media is all there on my home PC and I have backups of family docs and pics elsewhere as a form of redundancy.

kingofbeans · 18 Feb 2011 at 12:33

Yeh, Raid 10 Just sounds so nice, but funds probably won't allow is right now. Box is being used for all the usual NAS stuff including family backups, but mainly for downloading and storing media so RAID 10 probably overkill. Also I currently have a 1.5Tb drive in an old QNAP NAS. Could I have 1 disk without RAID and then 2 disks in RAID 0? Storing more important things on the single (non RAID) disk.

And could a part of that single disk that has important files on it (say 200gb leftover from the disk that comes with the microserver) be mirrored so as to provide some kind of backup if it fails? Is this what robocopy is all about or is there a better way? Or is this getting too complicated?

spanglemaker · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:32

ought said:
Will you install XBMC live alone, or will it be running another OS?

Either way, do please let me know how you get on.

I've had a little time to install my ASUS GT210. Quite fiddly to get all the cables detached to get the motherboard out and as you said, the low profile bracket is the wrong way round. Might try to cut the "wrong half" off so at least the card will be attached to the case... it's a bit wobbly at the mo.

Installed XBMC live from CD and the card was detected automatically. When playing video or music got an error message about sound output, so just had to change the audio settings to direct audio output to HDMI.

Played a few different files, all stable and working fine.

Jumblejug · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:10

I've got one of these coming tomorrow!

Read through the thread and there's some pretty good info in here, cheers folks

Nikumba · 18 Feb 2011 at 20:01

spanglemaker said:
I've had a little time to install my ASUS GT210. Quite fiddly to get all the cables detached to get the motherboard out and as you said, the low profile bracket is the wrong way round. Might try to cut the "wrong half" off so at least the card will be attached to the case... it's a bit wobbly at the mo.

Installed XBMC live from CD and the card was detected automatically. When playing video or music got an error message about sound output, so just had to change the audio settings to direct audio output to HDMI.

Played a few different files, all stable and working fine.

What files? MKV 1080p? I am interested to see how well it performs with high end movie trailers

Kimbie

kennethsross · 18 Feb 2011 at 22:19

Got my cheque OK, but took the full month from confirmation email.

dan653 · 19 Feb 2011 at 10:51

what the current cheapest these are available for?

Best price I've found is £257.39 delivered using a code. Kinda kicking myself that I didn't pick one up back at christmas

Edit:

Managed to get it for £240 delivered with a £10 & 2% cashback quidco voucher code

kingofbeans · 19 Feb 2011 at 11:31

They are available for 255.60 with free delivery. Also there is a £10 off code and 2% cashback - making it 240.69 I think. This is mentioned at the end of the thread you found your 257.39 price.

theboyfold · 19 Feb 2011 at 11:51

Has anybody been able to add a 5th hard drive to the ODD SATA port? I've been messing around with adding a removable drive ( One of these in fact: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-062-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72 )

However, it seems that WHS doesn't see it.

Any thoughts on alternative options? Will I need a SATA expansion card or just reroute the cable out to the eSATA port?

Zarf · 19 Feb 2011 at 13:01

theboyfold said:
Has anybody been able to add a 5th hard drive to the ODD SATA port? I've been messing around with adding a removable drive ( One of these in fact: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-062-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72 )

However, it seems that WHS doesn't see it.

Any thoughts on alternative options? Will I need a SATA expansion card or just reroute the cable out to the eSATA port?

My solaris install is running fine, SATA OS drive in the ODD slot and four 2TB storage drives in the caddys.

spanglemaker · 19 Feb 2011 at 17:11

Nikumba said:
What files? MKV 1080p? I am interested to see how well it performs with high end movie trailers

Kimbie

Just 720p - I haven't got any 1080p

IAmATeaf · 20 Feb 2011 at 13:34

theboyfold said:
Has anybody been able to add a 5th hard drive to the ODD SATA port? I've been messing around with adding a removable drive ( One of these in fact: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-062-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72 )

However, it seems that WHS doesn't see it.

Any thoughts on alternative options? Will I need a SATA expansion card or just reroute the cable out to the eSATA port?

I've moved the supplied HD to the CD/DVD tray area and connected it to the ODD SATA port no probs, am using it as my boot drive.

chenko · 20 Feb 2011 at 14:30

"ODD" SATA works for me, not hot plugable like the 4 bays.

Strangely for me the eSATA is what doesn't work...

smargh · 20 Feb 2011 at 15:32

chenko said:
"ODD" SATA works for me, not hot plugable like the 4 bays.

I don't think the 3.5" bays are hot-pluggable anyway, even with a proper RAID card.

I've been testing my Adaptec 3405. Sometimes when I plug in one HDD the others drop from the array briefly - I suspect that there is no smoothing of the power being sent to each bay, so the power required for the new drive to spin up causes either too much of a voltage drop, taxes the PSU too much, or something else.

Hot plugging might work lots of times in a row - it does work sometimes, for me - but there only needs to be one instance where it ends up breaking the whole array.

chenko · 20 Feb 2011 at 15:56

Well the onboard chipset is fine with it... as for the power, well seems to work for me, been fiddling around with it to try and get it to fall over but it's all fine here.

Though, even with that I have the drives unmount when not in use with autofs anyway.