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

Mujja · 3 Feb 2012 at 19:58

B3AU said:
Which model didn't work for you?

I'm ordering some next week and would rather avoid any chances.

I ordered these

Or do you need some specific model or manufacture date?

Are there problems with certain models?

The ones from OCUK have a date of 10 2011
The ones from local retailer have a date of 03 2011

HEADRAT · 4 Feb 2012 at 10:24

Mujja said:
I'm sure I read you do. SATA ports 4 (ODD) and 5 (ESATA) both need the modded BIOS to enable AHCI.

What BIOS should I be using for a N40L?

challengedavid said:
310171220040 ebay that number it apparently works
320616468235 that deffo works, i use that one

Thanks for that.

RedTen · 4 Feb 2012 at 11:04

Mujja said:
I ordered these

Or do you need some specific model or manufacture date?

Are there problems with certain models?

The ones from OCUK have a date of 10 2011
The ones from local retailer have a date of 03 2011

That's worried me - I was going to order these next week.

Anyone using these without issue?

gizmoy2k · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:57

For the guys buying the drives. Its best practise to buy drives form 2 or 3 different retailers and even a different brand for your 2 drives

For example, OCUK get a dodgy batch of samsungs, you buy 2 with sequential serial numbers and the same batch, in a year BAM both drives break within a week of each other and you've lost all your data, depending on your setup of course

Chance are minimal but even less if you mix it up a bit more than drives from the same batch

Mujja · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:31

B3AU said:
That's worried me - I was going to order these next week.

Anyone using these without issue?

I checked all over the web yesterday to see if anyone else had any issues using the Samsung F4s or any other HDDs on the Microsevers and didn't find a single post.

I'll test teh HDDs out tomorrow in a mates PC before shipping them back to OCuK as I want to know myself if the HDDs were DOA or if there is some compatability issue.

I'll post back here after I've tested, won't be until late evening.

Mujja · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:34

HEADRAT said:
What BIOS should I be using for a N40L?

Thanks for that.

I used the one from AVF, O41072911.ROM. The thread is titled for the N36 but it works fine on the N40.

If you need links or a flash guide let me know.

HEADRAT · 4 Feb 2012 at 18:29

Yeah post link

Beans on toast Dave · 4 Feb 2012 at 18:42

jamesfreddie said:
Do you have 6 HDD's in your server.

no, i only have 5 and a cdrom, but the esata is the boot drive

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 20:29

challengedavid said:
no, i only have 5 and a cdrom, but the esata is the boot drive

Do you need the modded bios to use the esata as a boot drive?

Do you void warrenty by putting the modded bios on it?

Beans on toast Dave · 4 Feb 2012 at 22:02

jamesfreddie said:
Do you need the modded bios to use the esata as a boot drive?

Do you void warrenty by putting the modded bios on it?

still using the standard bios whist using the esata as a boot drive

not sure about the bios, but i would have thought you could flash it back to stock if you needed to (depending of the severity the problem)

RedTen · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:11

Guys I'm having real issues getting nice playback whilst trying to stream 720/1080p MKV's to the Xbox.

They work perfectly through my Samsung TV but choppy and pretty awful on the xbox. (both over 100mb cable)

I'm using Serviio and I've also tried PS3 Media Server but both have the same issue - any suggestions? I've upgraded to 8gb RAM.

Also as a side note what's a decent front end for streaming content from Serviio to a little atom based Acer N260g?

bigredshark · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:53

gizmoy2k said:
For the guys buying the drives. Its best practise to buy drives form 2 or 3 different retailers and even a different brand for your 2 drives

For example, OCUK get a dodgy batch of samsungs, you buy 2 with sequential serial numbers and the same batch, in a year BAM both drives break within a week of each other and you've lost all your data, depending on your setup of course

Chance are minimal but even less if you mix it up a bit more than drives from the same batch

It's best practice to but, well, it's fairly paranoid. We get out Dell to do it for us at work (that is, specifically ensure the disks in our servers are from different batches). I wouldn't bother at home though, you'd have to be really unlucky to get a faulty batch full stop and if you do, well that's what backups are for...

Mujja · 6 Feb 2012 at 21:24

Mujja said:
I checked all over the web yesterday to see if anyone else had any issues using the Samsung F4s or any other HDDs on the Microsevers and didn't find a single post.

I'll test the HDDs out tomorrow in a mates PC before shipping them back to OCuK as I want to know myself if the HDDs were DOA or if there is some compatability issue.

I'll post back here after I've tested, won't be until late evening.

I tested the Samsung F4s in my HTPC yesterday and both were dead. So it seems it's not a compatibility issue with the Microserver, just dead HDDs.

I've had HDDs delivered with just the plastic shell inside a cardboard sleeve and survive. The HDDs from OCUK were wrapped in plenty of bubble wrap.

decmatt · 6 Feb 2012 at 23:50

I am 'umming and arring' over going from the standard 2gb to 8gb with the OCUK Value offer. Will I see much difference?

I am mainly it as a NAS and Media Streamer running 2008R2, it is a bit laggy streaming 1080p and over a RC.

bremen1874 · 7 Feb 2012 at 01:29

decmatt said:
I am 'umming and arring' over going from the standard 2gb to 8gb with the OCUK Value offer. Will I see much difference?

I am mainly it as a NAS and Media Streamer running 2008R2, it is a bit laggy streaming 1080p and over a RC.

2GB is probably a bit tight. Use the Windows Task Manager (and the Resource Monitor) to see what's going on. You should be able to see if you'd benefit based on the current memory usage.

You'd normally see the biggest difference going from 2GB to 4GB, but with the current pricing it's not really worth messing about.

My Microserver is now about 14 months old, the 8GB I installed at the time cost £87!

decmatt · 7 Feb 2012 at 01:43

bremen1874 said:
2GB is probably a bit tight. Use the Windows Task Manager (and the Resource Monitor) to see what's going on. You should be able to see if you'd benefit based on the current memory usage.

You'd normally see the biggest difference going from 2GB to 4GB, but with the current pricing it's not really worth messing about.

My Microserver is now about 14 months old, the 8GB I installed at the time cost £87!

That is what I am thinking, with the price between 4gb and 8gb being about £10, I might as well go all out.

whitecrook · 7 Feb 2012 at 14:27

Has anyone setup one if in a configuration similar to the below :

N40L + 4x1.5TB / 8GB

Server 2008 with hyper-V

Use the hyper v hosted systems for a freenas box + ZFS
share out disk to hosted systems + the win2k8 host box

run approx 5-6 small debian vms hosting the usual network services , mail sftp, http, squid, web apps

use the win2l8 to run xbmc or similar to playback media @ 1080p on my screen and server up windows specific tasks, like. e.g. airplay for my idevices

How does it work, it at bad to run hyperv as a htpc and as a vm host?

tbz_ck · 7 Feb 2012 at 16:24

Not run it with HyperV but have with ESXi 5. I presume you want HyperV so you can use the native W2K8R2 host with full video acceleration features?

whitecrook · 7 Feb 2012 at 18:19

tbz_ck said:
Not run it with HyperV but have with ESXi 5. I presume you want HyperV so you can use the native W2K8R2 host with full video acceleration features?

exactly.

also hyper -v will pass through the usb to the vm as I have 4+TB of USB storage I use for backups etc dont think esxi can do that ? (or just not on this hardware?)

whitecrook · 7 Feb 2012 at 18:24

Or, can I run a Linux based system with XBMC + pump Xen ontop of that, for my little linux servers, e.g. freenas, downloads, http etc? And still get nice video out for my screen?