2008 Enterprise
Good Cheap Server - HP Proliant Microserver 4 BAY - OWNERS THREAD
- Thread starter dragonuk
- Start date
2008 Enterprise
Associate
I will be using the same OS, so if you find a solution please do post.
There is a BIOS option for WOL. I have two MicroServers and both do WOL perfectly - one has ESXi, the other 2008 R2.
Other things to note:
- In case anyone missed or skipped over it on the TechHead site: ESX doesn't support RAID on this chipset. All disks will appear individually.
- If you want to, say, use an SSD on the one "ODD" SATA port, you can't turn off write caching in Windows. If you do, Windows freezes, crashes and BSODs on startup. This means that you can't run it as a domain controller from the ODD SATA port, because the DC role forces the disabling of the write cache during the dcpromo (freeze+crash) and on every bootup. A dedicated SATA controller can work around this. I haven't found a software- or registry-based workaround for it.
- SATA controllers with the ports pointing upwards is a pain in the ass for cable management - there's not much room. The 2-port Startech PEXSAT32 has one port which can *just* fit a regular SATA cable (not 90deg) past the PSU & metal case bits, for fitting the drive(s) into the top 5.25" bay. I would suggest trying to find a card with the SATA ports pointing towards the front of the case to make life easier.
- Sometimes just one drive in the bay can appear as two disks. Weird. This is probably my fault though - I've been fiddling with RAID 1 and switching around disks. When one of the disks is intialised and the OS is rebooted, everything appears normal again.
- In total, with 8GB + x1 SSD + x2 HDDs, it hovers around 30 watts idle, and not much more during load. Maybe my watt-meter is a bit broken - it seems a bit too low.
- It's quite nippy. Much much faster than the single-core Atom N270-based D945GSEJT it's replacing.
Other things to note:
- In case anyone missed or skipped over it on the TechHead site: ESX doesn't support RAID on this chipset. All disks will appear individually.
- If you want to, say, use an SSD on the one "ODD" SATA port, you can't turn off write caching in Windows. If you do, Windows freezes, crashes and BSODs on startup. This means that you can't run it as a domain controller from the ODD SATA port, because the DC role forces the disabling of the write cache during the dcpromo (freeze+crash) and on every bootup. A dedicated SATA controller can work around this. I haven't found a software- or registry-based workaround for it.
- SATA controllers with the ports pointing upwards is a pain in the ass for cable management - there's not much room. The 2-port Startech PEXSAT32 has one port which can *just* fit a regular SATA cable (not 90deg) past the PSU & metal case bits, for fitting the drive(s) into the top 5.25" bay. I would suggest trying to find a card with the SATA ports pointing towards the front of the case to make life easier.
- Sometimes just one drive in the bay can appear as two disks. Weird. This is probably my fault though - I've been fiddling with RAID 1 and switching around disks. When one of the disks is intialised and the OS is rebooted, everything appears normal again.
- In total, with 8GB + x1 SSD + x2 HDDs, it hovers around 30 watts idle, and not much more during load. Maybe my watt-meter is a bit broken - it seems a bit too low.
- It's quite nippy. Much much faster than the single-core Atom N270-based D945GSEJT it's replacing.
![[timko]](/styles/overclockers/avatars/5.png){kind=avatar}
I have one with stock 1Gb RAM and stock 160Gb HDD running FreeNAS. With the drive powered on but idle it pulls 30watts. With the drive powered down it's 24watts so I'd say your numbers are right
Anyone running WHS Windows Home Server V1 ? or Server 20003 r2 and been able to install the onboard graphics driver and got it working.
It says its only for server 2008 r2 on the hp website in drivers.
Does everyones graphics in WHS or server 2003 come up in device manager as "Standard vga adpater" and says device can't start.
It says its only for server 2008 r2 on the hp website in drivers.
Does everyones graphics in WHS or server 2003 come up in device manager as "Standard vga adpater" and says device can't start.
Soldato
The ethernet adapter seems to be picked up as 100mbit here...when I changed it to a gigabit I had connectivity issues.
Chaps after some advice.
I primarily bought the server as a redundant central storage point, I’ve got about 10-15 old hdds kicking about which range in size from 20gb to 250gb which I’d like to store somewhere and then dispose of. These are literally just sitting on top of a cabinet and haven’t been plugged in for years so god knows what’s on them but I’m sure there is all kinds of weird and wonderful files that I might *need*.
Anyway, since reading this thread and some others I’m now interested in playing with the latest and greatest OS. Don’t want to keep reinstalling and mucking about multibooting so vmware is the obvious choice, however I’m struggling to visualise how this would work. I left the IT game about 6 years ago so unfortunately I don’t get much chance to play with this stuff anymore.
I’m thinking I could have my vm’s on the 160gb hdd running all the stuff including freenas.
My question is will the freenas vm be able to address all of the 3 disks directly or will I have to create some vmwared disk for it to see them?
If the 160gb hdd dies and I choose to boot up a freenas from a usb stick, is it a simple recovery exercise?
I primarily bought the server as a redundant central storage point, I’ve got about 10-15 old hdds kicking about which range in size from 20gb to 250gb which I’d like to store somewhere and then dispose of. These are literally just sitting on top of a cabinet and haven’t been plugged in for years so god knows what’s on them but I’m sure there is all kinds of weird and wonderful files that I might *need*.
Anyway, since reading this thread and some others I’m now interested in playing with the latest and greatest OS. Don’t want to keep reinstalling and mucking about multibooting so vmware is the obvious choice, however I’m struggling to visualise how this would work. I left the IT game about 6 years ago so unfortunately I don’t get much chance to play with this stuff anymore.
I’m thinking I could have my vm’s on the 160gb hdd running all the stuff including freenas.
My question is will the freenas vm be able to address all of the 3 disks directly or will I have to create some vmwared disk for it to see them?
If the 160gb hdd dies and I choose to boot up a freenas from a usb stick, is it a simple recovery exercise?
Soldato
Has anyone got jDownloader on Freenas working on this server? It's my main downloading app and if it works and downloads on it's own then I'll be going for Freenas, don't really want to install Windows!
Also looking how to do this. FreeNAS is exactly what I am looking for bar the missing HTTP download manager.
I already did
I've got this working now, you have to go into the advanced properties of the NIC and change the Wake on Lan capabilities to just "Magic Packet" instead of "Both".
This sorted it for me
On a completely seperate note, I've just got my two 2TB HDD's and installed them today, but it's stuck in a boot loop. I don't know if it relates to:
I'm not using the ODD sata port I've got the 160 GB drive in Bay 1 and two 2tb's in bays 3 and 4, the 2tb's are in raid 1.
Any help would be great.
Thanks and happy new year!
G
/edit argh gayness! I thought it might be an idea to wipe the drives and start again, I chose to do it from the raid setup interface and it's doing a proper secure wipe of the 2tb drive LOL I think it is probably going to be 2012 by the time it's finished but I daren't cancel it!
Been going for HOURS and only on 2%
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Yes you can as Windows Home Sever is just Windows Server 2003 with a tacked on ui and features you just use remote desktop.
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Soldato
My FreeNAS install seems to have defaulted to 100mbit 
On another note how to I enter the bios? I'm trying to set WOL as that would be fairly handy. I've tried the usual keys but nothing seems to work!
On another note how to I enter the bios? I'm trying to set WOL as that would be fairly handy. I've tried the usual keys but nothing seems to work!
Soldato
Finally ordered and grabbed a pair of 2TB drives to get me started!
Any recommendations for a USB stick to run Freenas from? Or will literally any old USB stick do regardless of read/writes?
When I get the server are there any updates that need doing?
Any recommendations for a USB stick to run Freenas from? Or will literally any old USB stick do regardless of read/writes?
When I get the server are there any updates that need doing?
anyone know why ubuntu 10.10 desktop or server cant see my 8tb raid array? its showing up as 1.2tb? im not much good on ubuntu tbh.
Im reading its something to do with fdisk not being able to see past 2tb, but i dont know how this helps me got past this issue.
Im reading its something to do with fdisk not being able to see past 2tb, but i dont know how this helps me got past this issue.
I'd say it was a MFT/GPT issue but normally (in Windows) this would limit you to 2TB per partition, rather than 1.2TB.
What does it look like in gparted (think ubuntu renames it Partition Editor in the menus)
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Old school but off the installation CD provided with the unit?