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

[pejay]

Can anyone recommend me a bay that will fit the 160gb perfectly in the ODD bay? Got some cheap metal brackets and they are rubbish! Don't fit at all. Thanks.

I'd like to know too.

Bought these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....117265&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_2953wt_989

But the bay doesn't seem to have anywhere to screw into on the left hand side - just some sort of slot for sliding rails.

 

[nikzGfx]

I'd like to know too.

Bought these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....117265&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_2953wt_989

But the bay doesn't seem to have anywhere to screw into on the left hand side - just some sort of slot for sliding rails.

Hah exactly what I bought as well! Too small only by a few mms though! I think we need a proper ODD style enclosure maybe?

 

[tsinc80697]

Finally got the server, HDD and USB stick. City Link decided to deliver something to the wrong address so I've had a right faff this morning!

Installed FreeNAS onto the USB stick via VM booting from a mounted FreeNAS ISO. Just need to find a VGA cable to plug the server in then get FreeNAS running on that!

Hopefully sorting out RAID is as straight forward as this!

 

[nikzGfx]

Maybe something like this:

http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=106

 

[pejay]

Looks good but I think it would annoy me, knowing that the OS HDD is hotswap while all the rest (the ones you'd actually want hotswap on!) are not

 

[jung]

Has anyone tried to get another hard drive in the 3.5" bay underneath the 5 1.2" bay where the molex connectors are sitting?

See piccy

 

[Zarf]

Has anyone tried to get another hard drive in the 3.5" bay underneath the 5 1.2" bay where the molex connectors are sitting?

See piccy

I'm not sure why you'd want to, still only got one SATA cable so you can't put in a DVD drive on top. A 5.25" adaptor is cheaper than the time spent faffing about anyway.

 

[cottoneye]

Just a quick question I've added 2 x 2TB drives in RAID 0, I have two more on the way, do I just add them to the array or would I need to rebuild anything?

 

[Zarf]

Hah exactly what I bought as well! Too small only by a few mms though! I think we need a proper ODD style enclosure maybe?

I'm using a plastic mount I had lying around, think it came with my Antec 900.
Those metal mounts should work anyway, you need to use some of the screws that came with the microserver (there are some screwed into the back of the door). The screw heads should slide into the slots on the 5.25" bay and can be quick released.

 

[Zarf]

Anyone got WD caviar greens in theirs and finding it slow?

I read somewhere about a WD Align program that is supposed to speed things up but it was just for XP. Is there anything for 2008?

Cheers,

G

You don't need it on 2008, The default alignment is fine.

What 2Tb drives are people using?

Kimbie

Samsung f4 Ecogreens. (HD204UI)

 

[DIABLO]

Just a quick question I've added 2 x 2TB drives in RAID 0, I have two more on the way, do I just add them to the array or would I need to rebuild anything?

If you wanted to add the 2 new drives to the same array as the 2 that are already installed then you would have to rebuilt the array and lose all the data on the drives. I would create 2 separate arrays anyway as there is half the chance of losing your data and 4 drives in raid 0 in a NAS is is a waste as the network connection won't even keep up with 2. That is if this device supports more then one array that is.

 

[tsinc80697]

Are there any neccessary BIOS updates I need to do before getting FreeNAS up and running properly?

 

[pumpman]

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/embedded/Pages/embedded_windows_all.aspx

thanks for that ive tried the xp one and for the graphics and it didnt work did you use the win7 one ?

 

[nikzGfx]

thanks for that ive tried the xp one and for the graphics and it didnt work did you use the win7 one ?

Read through this, might be some other alternatives in there as well.

http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/16427-whs-on-hp-proliant-microserver/

I'm sure I used the XP ones and I they did work, however still I had slow AHCI speeds so just went back to IDE!

 

[AtomicBanana]

Installed FreeNAS onto the USB stick via VM booting from a mounted FreeNAS ISO. Just need to find a VGA cable to plug the server in then get FreeNAS running on that!

Why didn't I think of that? Luckily it led me to my solution which is working pretty well atm.

 

[tsinc80697]

Got the SMB service up and running and copying over a 2GB file. Besides the graph within FreeNAS what's good for checking transfer speeds? That graph is indicating 10MB/s over a wired network. Is that standard as I thought it would be a lot quicker than that?

It's going through a standard crappy router via cat5.

edit:

Sounds about right. 10MB/s = 85Mbps. Might have to invest in the network then as 10mb/s will take ages to transfer things over.

 

[jung]

Got the SMB service up and running and copying over a 2GB file. Besides the graph within FreeNAS what's good for checking transfer speeds? That graph is indicating 10MB/s over a wired network. Is that standard as I thought it would be a lot quicker than that?

It's going through a standard crappy router via cat5.

Gigabit or 100mbit network?

 

[jung]

Well i've shot myself in the foot.

Created a raid5 array in freenas (3x2tb), copied across about 150gb of stuff, added another disk in the server today and it turns out you can't expand it.

Looking at moving everything off, rebuilding with ZFS and starting again!

 

[tsinc80697]

Gigabit or 100mbit network?

100mbit I assume if it's a standard free crappy router. Will check later to make sure though!

 

[jung]

100mbit I assume if it's a standard free crappy router. Will check later to make sure though!

I thought I too was getting slow transfers until I realised my laptop only had 100mbit