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

Does anyone use Plex to transcode HD content to other devices on the N40L?

I believe the minimum spec is just shy of the N40L. I know that my old i3 box was 100% fine at 1080 transcoding in Plex....but I do wonder if the N40L can cope?
 
ok guys am struggling with the OS on this thing, not just the OS but the Macs on my network finding and working with the server i put WHS 2011 this morning and i just couldnt get my macs to connect with it, tried Freenas and openmediavault no luck either
 
Can anyone advise of adding a cheap DVB-T2 recorder to the HP 40L. I want something just to record shows and then access them with a Revo (with XBMC) on my network.
 
steveo said:
ok guys am struggling with the OS on this thing, not just the OS but the Macs on my network finding and working with the server i put WHS 2011 this morning and i just couldnt get my macs to connect with it, tried Freenas and openmediavault no luck either
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Ive got a pair of N36Ls one running WHS2011 and the other FreeNAS 8.0, ive had no problems connecting to either of them, so here is how i did it, there may well be better or easier ways, it it works and transfers are damn quick so it works well.

With WHS 2011 I assume you setup filesharing for the drives/directories you want to share and then on the Mac you can "Connect to Server" within the Finder/Go/ drop down menu, and connect to "smb://winhs11" or whatever you call the share. That works fine for me.

With FreeNas it even easier, once FreeNAS is up and running, within the Web-based GUI setup the drives and then setup an Apple Share with "Disk Discovery" enabled, that way the drives should just pop up in the OSX Finder Shared network list.
 
Terminel said:
I will have a go at this when I get back from Afghan in a few weeks, cheers. My drive has been running for quite a while without this fix, where do I stand if it fails - RMA I presume.
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Yea would look in to it as well, my Earx hard drives are not mentioned but when i looked in wdidle3 the setting was at 8 secs :eek:

ok update on the OS front, gone back to WHS and i am able to connect to the drives and read and write on them after changing the permissions on them, the problem i have is that i cant connect to the drive via a browser to maintain it, i am able to log on to it so far but it requires IE to maintain it as my goal is to turn the server headless
 
Question time.

Currently have my N40L setup with 120GB SSD as the boot drive.

1 x 2 TB drive for storage
2 x 1 TB in software RAID (windows 7)

Now is there a simple & easy way to change the software RAID drives to a hardware RAID drives using the built in hardware of the N40L or does it require a wipe?
Not used RAID much before and the software version in W7 seemed easy enough, but worried that OS corruption could bugger the data.

If I can switch, how easy is it to do without the need for a re-install.
 
Gazanimal said:
Question time.

Currently have my N40L setup with 120GB SSD as the boot drive.

1 x 2 TB drive for storage
2 x 1 TB in software RAID (windows 7)

Now is there a simple & easy way to change the software RAID drives to a hardware RAID drives using the built in hardware of the N40L or does it require a wipe?
Not used RAID much before and the software version in W7 seemed easy enough, but worried that OS corruption could bugger the data.

If I can switch, how easy is it to do without the need for a re-install.
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Its a wipe job I'm afraid. You can't go from software to hardware RAID without a wipe and the array being set up with the controller that manages it.

You can't even easily do hardware RAID -> Hardware RAID on different controllers without a wipe....
 
Ah thanks.

I thought it might be even with running AHCI for the SSD.

So I can create a new Hardware RAID 1 when re-formatting easily enough.

Then once that's created, I can install W7 to the SSD and it'll detect the hardware raid fine.
 
If you have your OS on a non-raided drive then you don't need to re-install the OS to detect the raid array. The disks in the current software raid array will be wiped when a hardware raid array is made from them.

When you boot up from the non-raided disks it should see the array as an uninitialised disk and ask you to format it.

hope this helps clarify

Oh, and you create the hardware raid array from the RAID BIOS area not from within the OS. You should see it during the boot up process ask you for an F key or something to enter the raid bios/tool (or whatever its called on the Microserver) Once you create it there you format the raided disk within the OS.
 
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Ah, so if I get this right.

With the OS being on my SSD, which is non-raided I don't need to re-install. I just need to use CTRL+F (or whatever the command is at server boot) then set up the RAID1 array with the 2 x 1TB drives & then format the drives in Windows once it's booted up?

Or have I misread your last answer :D

(Cheers for the help btw)
 
Gazanimal said:
Ah, so if I get this right.

With the OS being on my SSD, which is non-raided I don't need to re-install. I just need to use CTRL+F (or whatever the command is at server boot) then set up the RAID1 array with the 2 x 1TB drives & then format the drives in Windows once it's booted up?

Or have I misread your last answer :D

(Cheers for the help btw)
Click to expand...

Yep you got it :)
 
Think I hit a problem that I thought might crop up.

All the drives have been in AHCI mode from install. Changing to RAID mode means it changes the controller for the SSD too.

This then causes a BSOD at windows boot. Hmmm... does it mean a re-install to get round it?

Also, can I image my W7 install and then use that on the SSD when it's in RAID mode?
 
You need to edit the registry to load the correct driver at boot, if you google you should find a solution. I had to do the same thing when i changed from RAID to AHCI.
 
Very happy with my N40L, especially after HP approved my cashback yesterday. Just waiting for some WD Reds to come in stock so I can finalise my storage, but one thing is really bothering me...

The fan, it's loud enough to wake the dead! :p Okay, perhaps an exaggeration, but my main rig is watercooled and near silent, so it's a night and day difference.

[FONT=&quot]I've got a selection of Noctua, Enermax and Scythe GT's from different rigs I'm going to try instead, but I'm curious what else people have used and would recommend? :)
[/FONT]
 
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