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

Tobes said:
Well I love the Microserver. However I think I'm going to be getting rid of WHS 2011.

It just doesn't seem to do anything amazing or tie in well with other computers.

There's no Media Center on it, so while it can store all my media, I can't use my 360 with Media Center but instead the lackluster video player. Setting up a iTunes server seems like a lot of hassle when others make it easy. I'm still setting things up to run as a service or task schedule. The dashboard is a great idea but doesn't really offer much. I'm trying to think of good points but it really hasn't brought anything new to the table. I'm quite bummed out tbh.

So I'm going to try something else and hope it's nice and simple.
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can't really understand your problems with Media center and your X Box 360

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/media-streaming-support-2.aspx

I'm a newbie to WHS 2011 and although I was a little dubious... now that I've had time to fiddle a little more and adjust things... it's not as bad as your making out.

What do you intend to use as the OS next?

FreeNAS, OpenMediaVault, UnRaid or one of the other Linux based OS's. Hope you are ready for a even steeper learning curve?

If not .............buy yourself something dead easy like a Synology if iTunes is the top of your wanted list
 
There's no Media Center in WH2011. So I can't use Media Center on my 360. I have to use the bland Video Player in the dash. Doesn't make for a great media experience. This could be solved by having Windows 7 on my PC and pointing it to the server shares, but then my pc has to be on. So kinda takes away the point in the server when they media might as well just be on my pc. I have kinda gotten over this by realising I would want to use XBMC anyway, so figuring out how I want to get that on my TV.

Basically I was disappointed. It's a home server yet it doesn't have Media Center. Media Center will die off. They charged for it for XP, had it in the wrong version for Vista, sorted it out with Windows 7 and I'm not sure about Windows 8 but meh.

I was bummed about it no longer supporting Time Machine for my macbook but that was Apples fault. Again iTunes Server is Apples fault, I'm just surprised that like you say a Synology product, a HP Media Server product plus others have this feature and I'm having a hard time finding a product to run in windows.

I have no problem messing around with stuff and learning. Linux isn't my home turf but I managed to live with running Ubuntu for a while when my PC was rubbish lol.

I did install FreeNAS yesterday. I was a little worried about my hdds though as I wasn't fully understanding the volumes etc. So I'm going to have another play this weekend with some test drives. Although I think I may hold off running it until the next release as the roadmap looks much better. OpenMediaVault site seems to be down a the moment (hope it's not running on their OS...lol) but will look into that one. UnRaid doesn't interest me really.

I'm really happy with the Microserver. PSU seems a bit noisy (really low frequency hum) but I think I'm going to put it in the garage anyway which is a separate building so I can say "yes I have off site backups"...

But after all this text. I'm still running WHS2011. SABnzbd, sickbeard, couchpotato were all easy to setup. I used Task Scheduler for 2 of them so might as well use that for other programs. Going to try a Mumble Server as well as Minecraft. It took me a long time to figure out why SAB wasn't working though. Firewall rules need to be created and for the home pcs I leave that to the router. Best to leave it on the server as well though.

Had to take the LED out of the logo though. Pretty bright!
 
Tobes said:
There's no Media Center in WH2011. So I can't use Media Center on my 360. I have to use the bland Video Player in the dash. Doesn't make for a great media experience. This could be solved by having Windows 7 on my PC and pointing it to the server shares, but then my pc has to be on. So kinda takes away the point in the server when they media might as well just be on my pc. I have kinda gotten over this by realising I would want to use XBMC anyway, so figuring out how I want to get that on my TV.

Basically I was disappointed. It's a home server yet it doesn't have Media Center. Media Center will die off. They charged for it for XP, had it in the wrong version for Vista, sorted it out with Windows 7 and I'm not sure about Windows 8 but meh.

I was bummed about it no longer supporting Time Machine for my macbook but that was Apples fault. Again iTunes Server is Apples fault, I'm just surprised that like you say a Synology product, a HP Media Server product plus others have this feature and I'm having a hard time finding a product to run in windows.

I have no problem messing around with stuff and learning. Linux isn't my home turf but I managed to live with running Ubuntu for a while when my PC was rubbish lol.

I did install FreeNAS yesterday. I was a little worried about my hdds though as I wasn't fully understanding the volumes etc. So I'm going to have another play this weekend with some test drives. Although I think I may hold off running it until the next release as the roadmap looks much better. OpenMediaVault site seems to be down a the moment (hope it's not running on their OS...lol) but will look into that one. UnRaid doesn't interest me really.

I'm really happy with the Microserver. PSU seems a bit noisy (really low frequency hum) but I think I'm going to put it in the garage anyway which is a separate building so I can say "yes I have off site backups"...

But after all this text. I'm still running WHS2011. SABnzbd, sickbeard, couchpotato were all easy to setup. I used Task Scheduler for 2 of them so might as well use that for other programs. Going to try a Mumble Server as well as Minecraft. It took me a long time to figure out why SAB wasn't working though. Firewall rules need to be created and for the home pcs I leave that to the router. Best to leave it on the server as well though.

Had to take the LED out of the logo though. Pretty bright!
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It doesn't have a Media Center client by design as it is meant to be a media server not used as a desktop client.

In fact WHS can be run totally headless (and is in some respects designed to be run so) so that a myriad of client OS'es and programs can pick up the media that it serves.

I think WHS is an awesome product. Media serving, client backups, PPTP VPN server ;) , network monitoring server (with Spiceworks installed) etc for £37 notes.....!!!
 
tbz_ck said:
It doesn't have a Media Center client by design as it is meant to be a media server not used as a desktop client.

In fact WHS can be run totally headless (and is in some respects designed to be run so) so that a myriad of client OS'es and programs can pick up the media that it serves.
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I get this but it doesn't support a WMC extender. I don't need to run a client on it but rather for it to serve the client to a extender. It's just a feature I would (and others by searching google) expect it to have.
 
new 2TB drive ordered so can start having a play with moving files this weekend, also get rid of a lot of the noise in my case/room!
 
I did install FreeNAS yesterday. I was a little worried about my hdds though as I wasn't fully understanding the volumes etc. So I'm going to have another play this weekend with some test drives. Although I think I may hold off running it until the next release as the roadmap looks much better. OpenMediaVault site seems to be down a the moment (hope it's not running on their OS...lol) but will look into that one. UnRaid doesn't interest me really.
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I would recommend a test setup to start with. It's the route I took initially with just 3 x 250Gb HDD's. It's nimble and the older 7 version is mature and stable. OpenMediaVault is still a newbie on the block. I gave it a hard time over in a thread in the Linux section a little while ago. But now I resolved my initial teething problems, 2 x pooped onboard MB NIC's it seems quite good. :) Again early days so would sugget a test setup again. I'm running it on a beat up socket 939/IDE HDD box and as a newbie I'm getting along fine so far. Shares are seen by Windoze and Linux systems no problem. Streaming - pass ... not had a go yet. Apparently I spend to much time in my man cave on the weekends when I'm home. :(
 
Does FreeNAS need a lot of RAM? Read that it is quite slow unless it has a lot going/better CPU than the MS can give it?

Im still leaning towards unRAID
 
Lorddalron said:
Cashback offer extended again until the end of May on certain sites ;)
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No real suprise there :p

im actually still considering one, currently running a h61 itx and g620t along with a couple of 2tb drives using whs2011 which is great, the only problem is the case Im using is pants, so I reakon i can get nearly 100 for the cpu and mobo on the bay with the cash back offer brings it back to 150, a decent case is going to cost £50+ so im not even sure what im waiting for lol.
 
DiCe! said:
Does FreeNAS need a lot of RAM? Read that it is quite slow unless it has a lot going/better CPU than the MS can give it?

Im still leaning towards unRAID
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FreeNAS 8 - more RAM the better.Same with CPU... better performance off a quad. Some guys here are or have run it on the MS but at a guess ,,,,it was in a virtual lab setup or was not very stable. Have not seen any posts or pics to say otherwise :)

FreeNAS 7 - nope... you'll have a perfectly capable home file server/streaming machine off 32bit version and 4Gb RAM :)

Your best bet ... is to visit the FreeNAS forums and just look at the specs that the guys there are running 7 & 8 on :)
 
Quick question,

is any one using the microserver as a download box (usenet)?

Have had my microserver up and running for a while and has worked perfect with a stable 6MB/s up until a couple of weeks ago, noticing the speeds were not stable.

On VM 50MB my speed seem to be up and down and now i have been upgraded to 100MB it seems to be worse.

I have tried on my main pc and the d/l speeds are a constant 12MB/s, would i be right in saying it is the CPU in the microserver that can not process the files as quick as they are being d/l?
 
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Rensin said:
Quick question,

is any one using the microserver as a download box (usenet)?

Have had my microserver up and running for a while and has worked perfect with a stable 6MB/s up until a couple of weeks ago, noticing the speeds were not stable.

On VM 50MB my speed seem to be up and down and now i have been upgraded to 100MB it seems to be worse.

I have tried on my main pc and the d/l speeds are a constant 12MB/s, would i be right in saying it is the CPU in the microserver that can not process the files as quick as they are being d/l?
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You may have fallen into the same trap as I did a little while ago.... namely upload capping by VM

Worth just giving them a call just to see. They have a fair useage policy and if your downloading and uploading at a constant rate for prolonged periods you'll be flagged up and capped without any direct warning that it's going to happen.

I was uploading my server to cloud storage and I was zapped :(

EDIT
I think I saw mention of a DL cap on the 100MB package between 1030am - 3 pm over in the networking thread... that might be worth checking out as well
 
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Essexraptor said:
You may have fallen into the same trap as I did a little while ago.... namely upload capping by VM

Worth just giving them a call just to see. They have a fair useage policy and if your downloading and uploading at a constant rate for prolonged periods you'll be flagged up and capped without any direct warning that it's going to happen.

I was uploading my server to cloud storage and I was zapped :(
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Wouldn't explain why his other system is working fine.

Are you using a SSL connection?
 
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