Finally bought a NAS! Well....Microserver. What to do with it?

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

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Following this thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18662409

I was about to click buy on a Synology NAS....until I noticed that I could get the HP Microserver G1610T for £105 after cashback, so I bought that.
I currently have 2 x 1TB and 1 x 2TB Hard drives, with an intention of a redundant raid.

I have FreeNAS running on it but I am not massively impressed with it.
Random video files will not transfer due to Extended Attributes and generally poor power consumption options.

What else can I do with the Microserver?

My thoughts are:
- Explore other NAS software. Xpenology or something?
- Replace my very old PC I have in the living room with this, then stream to my desktop PC upstairs via network as required. I have a crappy HDMI graphics card which will hopefully cover the no sound issue. I would need another hard drive for an OS (Win 7).
- Leave FreeNAS on it
- Something else I have not considered.
 
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My first tip would be buy the largest NAS drives possible. 6tb red drives.

It's a pain to upgrade down the line. And buy a ups for it. So if you do get a power cut, it can gracefully shut down.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
Thanks for the tip!

Any thoughts on what software to run on it?

Another thought...it has no onbaord sound, but would a low end HDMI graphics card be OK?
Click to expand...

Throw vSphere Hypervisor onto it and then create what you want.

My current setup is vSphere Hypervisor as main OS, then 2 x Nas4Free boxes and a win10 box running as a media server.

Does the job nicely and still room for other machines if I need it.

bledd. said:
I'd never put a hard drive in the living room
Click to expand...

Also this, mines in the corner of my games room.
 
Same. Why not in the living room? Mine's in a small cabinet in the living room. Never had any issues with it being there so far. Although only been a few months (Start of 2015). Is there something I'm not seeing regarding it being in the living room?
 
Purely down to noise I'd imagine, obviously if that doesn't bother you then it's not a problem.
 
I assume he means dont do it because of noise. I used to use mine for HTPC duties. But now it just serves a few Pi2s around the house which is much better IMO. If not using as htpc I would suggest ESXI and run everything in VMs off an SSD if you can. Great to learn and keep things seperated. I just installed openmediavault onto a VM last night, looks like it will be great for myuses.
 
These are too noisy for living room... wouldn't touch it either.

XPEnology is much better than FreeNAS... and you'll get the power saving options you want.
 
xGBHxPegasus said:
Throw vSphere Hypervisor onto it and then create what you want.

My current setup is vSphere Hypervisor as main OS, then 2 x Nas4Free boxes and a win10 box running as a media server.

Does the job nicely and still room for other machines if I need it.



Also this, mines in the corner of my games room.
Click to expand...

Any "for dummies" guides/forum posts on this? I've had a read around and it seems like a good solution but either my Google fu is weak or no one goes in to any detail about it. If it's really dead simple then that might explain it :p?
 
I bought same microserver and plan to use it as a plex/media server, NAS, and possibly FTP server. Maybe set a virtual machine up on it if I install a server OS on it (just to have a play about it with really). Unless you can do this on XPEnology?

I have 4 x 3TB WD Red drives ready to go in when I decide on what OS to use.
 
I have a Synology nas, what would be a good UPS for it? Had it shut down suddenly when I had power outages. :p
 
APC BX700UI (aka APC 700 VA AVR)

Cheapest decent one I could find with a USB interface, you want USB so it can communicate with the NAS.

If you have a total power loss, mine says it has 3980 seconds of power remaining. Once it comes to the end of this remaining battery, it will gracefully shut down the Synology.


I bought these too..

http://cpc.farnell.com/bulgin/px0686/free-plug-rewireable-straight/dp/CN09937
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/9988n-black-1m/4-gang-extension-with-neon-indicator/dp/PL12975, chopped the plug off this and wired on that IEC C14 connector.
Great for adding other low power items to the UPS.


These can be handy too for other routers/switches.
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/pe01107/lead-c5-socket-to-c14-inlet-1m/dp/PL13252
 
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Zefan said:
Any "for dummies" guides/forum posts on this? I've had a read around and it seems like a good solution but either my Google fu is weak or no one goes in to any detail about it. If it's really dead simple then that might explain it :p?
Click to expand...

I would say 90% of it is simple, the only real issue I had was with mounting the disks/figuring out its not as simple as windows makes it (this was a few years ago).

Hypervisor installs just like any OS really. Once its installed you connect to it via Vsphere client (which you get a link from the server for) and configure the server.

It takes a bit of time to configure it and figure out what your doing but if your patient its simple enough.

Nas4free on the other hand, easy until you decide to try add another disc and screw your whole data up :rolleyes:
 
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