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

Soldato
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Guys,

Currently have a NL40 with 8Gb of Ram and 3 Hard drives (non raid) running Windows 2008 R2 64bit as a home server.

However may have the chance to upgrade free to a NL54. Just wondered if its just a case of swapping everything out from the 40 to the 54, boot her up and done? Or are there any fundamental chipset changes which would not allow me to do this?

Mark
 
Man of Honour
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Guys,

Currently have a NL40 with 8Gb of Ram and 3 Hard drives (non raid) running Windows 2008 R2 64bit as a home server.

However may have the chance to upgrade free to a NL54. Just wondered if its just a case of swapping everything out from the 40 to the 54, boot her up and done? Or are there any fundamental chipset changes which would not allow me to do this?

Mark

You'll be fine throwing everything across. They're findamentally the same, I'm sure the only difference is the CPU
 
Soldato
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For people using Lights-Out.

Once the trial period has ended, is there a need to buy the license or will the free (community) edition be functional enough?

I haven't installed it yet, but basically I'll want to:

Have server (WHS2011) off most of the time, but wake up on access from another device for media streaming (LAN & maybe WAN), plus wake itself up to run the client backups.

Will the freebie version still do that?

Ta :)
 
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For people using Lights-Out.

Once the trial period has ended, is there a need to buy the license or will the free (community) edition be functional enough?

I haven't installed it yet, but basically I'll want to:

Have server (WHS2011) off most of the time, but wake up on access from another device for media streaming (LAN & maybe WAN), plus wake itself up to run the client backups.

Will the freebie version still do that?

Ta :)

^very interested in this!!
 
Associate
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integrated lights out (ilo) for free, allows you to control the server as if you were physically at the server but with the limitation of no keyboard, mouse, or monitor.
So you can power down, power on, or reboot the server, though you won't necessarily know what's wrong if you can't remote to it otherwise.

The advanced version, allows you to control the server as if you were physically there, and with full access to a keyboard, mouse and monitor. So you can diagnose any blue screens etc as if you were actually there.

Dell have a similar system called DRAC, though I've not used it as much as ILO I'm certain it provides the same functionality.

Honestly, the free version is adequate for most home uses, it's only enterprises that would really need to consider licensed iLO.
 
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Associate
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I've had my N36L + ILO card for a few years now; the ILO card does not require a license for the remote KVM ("vKVM") feature.

I do not know whether or not the newer versions of the MicroServer need a license.
 
Soldato
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Just to be clear guys, I'm not talking about integrated lights out by way of the add in card, but the software that is Lights-Out :)

There are plenty of mentions of it further back in this thread so I know it is being used but I can't find a specific answer to my question. I don't mind buying a license if I need to as it's cheap enough but I'm not one for buying stuff I can get for free :D
 
Soldato
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Just to be clear guys, I'm not talking about integrated lights out by way of the add in card, but the software that is Lights-Out :)

There are plenty of mentions of it further back in this thread so I know it is being used but I can't find a specific answer to my question. I don't mind buying a license if I need to as it's cheap enough but I'm not one for buying stuff I can get for free :D


You do not need to use Lights Out, for free or paid to get what you would want, or at least some of it, and thus might be worth trying out.

I use this...

http://getsmartpower.co.uk/

and Smartpower works a treat with the server. You can configure so many options, I have my HTPC with XBMC to use a WOL feature that will keep sending magic packets every so often to keep the server awake. BUT with the Smartpower app you do not need to send the magic packets as you can make sure that it keeps awake when certain machines (I use the IP addresses to recognise them) are online.
As I also use a static IP address for my Pi I then have Smartpower on the server set to recognise its IP address and thus keep awake when the PI (set to run XBMC) is online.

There are lots of options and possibilities when using that small but mightily powerful utility.

I use a magic packet sender to WOL from my main PC to access the server...

http://magicpacket.free.fr/
 
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Soldato
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Swapped my kit over from my NL40 to a brand new NL54. No problems at all. Windows found a couple of bits of hardware but installed them instantly.

One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be slightly more noise from the NL54. I can notice it a little more than I did previously.

Not sure how much quicker the CPU is over the 1.5Ghz NL40 CPU.
 
Soldato
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Got my N54L yesterday and now(with lots of help from a mate) put synology on.
I'm getting from Nas to PC 90-100MB sec Pc-Nas 75-80MB sec. So I'm very happy :)

As it's a port I'm not trusting it fully yet. All the synology Android apps work and streaming video is awesome.

Now to buy some more HDs
 
Soldato
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Got my N54L yesterday and now(with lots of help from a mate) put synology on.
I'm getting from Nas to PC 90-100MB sec Pc-Nas 75-80MB sec. So I'm very happy :)

As it's a port I'm not trusting it fully yet. All the synology Android apps work and streaming video is awesome.

Now to buy some more HDs

Synology is very good (I've been uding it for a few weeks) but only drawback is that it does not spin down the hard drives when not in use
 
Soldato
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Synology is very good (I've been uding it for a few weeks) but only drawback is that it does not spin down the hard drives when not in use

I haven't got that far yet still moving data. My version is microserver-dsm-4.2-02.05.2013 I have also moved over the new modules.

Can you tell me is it ok to leave out the USB stick when I shut it down or does need to boot off that all the time?
 
Soldato
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I haven't got that far yet still moving data. My version is microserver-dsm-4.2-02.05.2013 I have also moved over the new modules.

Can you tell me is it ok to leave out the USB stick when I shut it down or does need to boot off that all the time?

It boots from the USB stick, you can leave it out when shutting down just not booting back up again.
 
Soldato
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It boots from the USB stick, you can leave it out when shutting down just not booting back up again.


Thank you. I will order another USB stick then and leave it in. I hope they get it to boot off a HD.

May as well pick your brain :D

I have installed synology on the 250GB HD but there is plenty of space can I use the rest of it(I know I got to format it)
or is it best left alone? The other HDs will be Jbod as I don't care for raid.
 
Soldato
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Im 99.9% sure you cannot use that hard drive as storage

It is best to have dsm on a usb stick and keep it in the inside usb port, the other 4/5 slots can be used for storage
 
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