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

Ash2097 said:
Hoping someone can help. I am running Win 7 Home 64bit, I have the standard 250GB drive running the OS and then 4x 3TB WD Red drives. At the moment I am manually cloning 2 of the 3TB drives to the other 2 3TB drives using Bvckup. Is there a way I could have this setup in raid to do this automatically or do I need to have Windows 7 Pro?
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You can't set up windows raid through win 7 home :p
 
Not as far as i'm aware, it would need to be built in to OS i'd imagine to boot up with the RAID enabled (other than hardware raid).

Never used software raid myself though, so there may be a way.
 
Anyone with UNraid I have a question.

I pre-cleared my disks when setting up the server but I now need to upgrade a disk.

I do not have a license and as such do not have any spare slots so my question is this.

If I unplug all my disks and my USB with current set up on it, can I add the new disk and use a new USB to boot a blank unraid server and pre clear. then plug the old disks and old USB in boot up as if nothing has happened?
 
DiCe! said:
Anyone with UNraid I have a question.

I pre-cleared my disks when setting up the server but I now need to upgrade a disk.

I do not have a license and as such do not have any spare slots so my question is this.

If I unplug all my disks and my USB with current set up on it, can I add the new disk and use a new USB to boot a blank unraid server and pre clear. then plug the old disks and old USB in boot up as if nothing has happened?
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Disclaimer: I run unraid, but if you lose data it's not my fault!

Sounds like you are booting unraid off a USB drive? If so, when I upgraded a couple drives in my system, I did it one by one. Note: the parity drive always needs to be the largest or tie-largest drive. So, I originally had a 1.5tb/1.5tb/1.5tb setup, I wanted to upgrade the storage space. Therefore, I purchased 2 x 2tb drives and did the following:

1) Shutdown the server, replaced the parity drive (1.5tb) with the 2tb.
2) Started the server, pre-cleared the new drive
3) Rebuilt the array
4) Once completed, shutdown again
5) Replace the 1.5tb drive with a 2tb
6) Started the server, pre-cleared the new drive
7) Rebuilt the array

Note that while you're pre-clearing and rebuilding, a drive failure would cause the array to be lost!

Hope that helps!

*edited* if you're worried about your array while pre-clearing, yes, I don't see why you can't boot a new unraid off a new USB pre-clear, and then perform the steps above (obviously leaving out the pre-clearing steps)
 
Can I get an honest opinion on whether to get one of these little servers or just buy an off the shelf NAS?

I am moving into a new home and having the house network ready. All the media is going on a central location and will feed various things like PCs, audio receivers, Rasp PIs, and a Smart TV. So video of various size and rates, music and pics.

I need to have access restrictions to some locations so the kids can access their DVDs but not the adult stuff. And folders for each of our music albums etc. I guess both server and NAS can do this.

Is it just a question of whether I want off the shelf simplicity or a server that needs setting up and tweaking. Don't mind the tweaking, happy to do so, if it means I can fine tune the network to our needs.
 
You can run "off the shelf" free NAS software on these boxes too.

You basically answered your own question at the end though.

I'd go for this, good way to learn a bit more, its not that hard.
 
edGfaCTor said:
Does anybody know an alternative to Nexus Double Twin HDD decoupling I can't find it instock unless some one knows a place.
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I got myself an OWC multimount last week and it works fine. Think it was OWCMM35A52CMB. 2x3.5" hdds in the 5.25" bay (and a 2.5" boot drive gaffer taped on top) :)
 
EddScott said:
Can I get an honest opinion on whether to get one of these little servers or just buy an off the shelf NAS?
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Having used 'off the shelf' Thecus, WD, Drobo, StarTech, and a few others, my little N36L is the mutts nutts in comparison:
It's cheaper off the bat. The bare box can be got for half the price of the dedicated NAS boxes if you wait for the rebates.
It's faster. A lot of the problems I saw years ago was that the sticker might say 100Meg connectivity, or even 1Gig, but the on-board CPU wasn't fast enough to deal with that much traffic so you'd still be limited to 8MB/sec, or slower. My slower, older N36L will give me 40MB/sec+ without breaking a sweat, and sometimes 60MB+ if I'm not messing around.
It's more flexible. Brand X NAS box ties you to Brand Xs implementation of RAID5/6. When the box dies, off you go to buy another one, or find recovery software that will do the job (ignoring the obvious backup that you should have there). With the Proliant, if you want FreeNAS, drop it on a stick and off you go. If you want software RAID, get yourself MS Server for cheap/free or whatever version of Linux floats your boat and off you go. If you want exotic, but wonderful software RAID, get yourself anything that supports ZFS. If you want big, brutal, ballsy full hardware RAID, get yourself the controller of your choice and drop it in. Whatever variety of RAID you want, you are covered.
It's bigger. A 2-drive NAS will always be a 2-drive NAS, same for 4. These puppies have 4x bays at front. But then you can get a sled or bracket and fit another two in the 5.25" bay. And then if you're a bit McGuyverish about it, you can slip at least one 2.5" drive in above those, possibly two if you find a slightly longer cable! (The clearance is there, I've just not done two). Now that's expandability.

In short, other than your own technical limitations or the need to save as many inches on the box itself as possible, I can't think of a decent reason to stick with a NAS.
Of course, YMMV ;)
 
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How long does it usually take to get the cashback email?

I sent it off last Friday and it says if you don't receive word within 7 days to email them, but still heard nothing.
 
Is anybody using Server 2012 Essentials on this, was thinking about trying it but heard the Spaces implementation using Parity wasn't working too well..Anybody know anything about this as this would be a good feature for me to allow Drive Expanding
 
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Anyone have any opinion on what is the SATA3 card du jour for these boxes? I'm looking for an extra 4 ports as my card has died. Hardware RAID is not essential as all the drives are running software RAID, so that should keep the costs down a bit. Native SATA or cheap SAS OK as I have the cabling for both. Only problems are; the Startech cards seem horribly expensive for what they do, and some of the Marvell-based cards seem incredibly slow to boot. Any real-world home experiences or recommends welcome.
 
Guys, I have have just recieved an N40L, not even opened it up yet s im at work, and the server is at home.

Can someone confirm however, the n40l should have 2Gb Ram? Im guessing this is on one stick meaning that I can easily (and cheaply) upgrade to 4Gb ram by using up the one remaining slot ?
 
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