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

GSXRMovistar said:
Just had a N54L delivered to replace my aging ex470, now need to decide what O/S to go with. WHS2011 sounds ideal if only it had a drive extender equivalent.
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Looking at my options WHS2011 plus drive bender seems to be the simplier and cheaper option over Server2012e based on my needs:-

Host all media (Tv/Movies/Music) on the duplicated shared folders (accessed by main TV running WMCE).
Run Metabrowser to update all media content.
Run AirVideo for iDevice streaming and iSedora to serve my daughters TV.
Hosting several other folders used for various backups.

Although before I go down this route any reasons why I should reconsider 2012 over 2011?
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Looking at my options WHS2011 plus drive bender seems to be the simplier and cheaper option over Server2012e based on my needs:-

Host all media (Tv/Movies/Music) on the duplicated shared folders (accessed by main TV running WMCE).
Run Metabrowser to update all media content.
Run AirVideo for iDevice streaming and iSedora to serve my daughters TV.
Hosting several other folders used for various backups.

Although before I go down this route any reasons why I should reconsider 2012 over 2011?
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Funny you should mention WHS & Drivebender - literally just discovered it this morning!

I'd be more interested in how drivebender actually stores / replicates / creates pools etc. Is it RAID 5 or simply mirroring or something more complicated? Ideally i need a solution which can allow the loss of one HD and replacement would allow pool recovery
 
TheDean said:
Funny you should mention WHS & Drivebender - literally just discovered it this morning!

I'd be more interested in how drivebender actually stores / replicates / creates pools etc. Is it RAID 5 or simply mirroring or something more complicated? Ideally i need a solution which can allow the loss of one HD and replacement would allow pool recovery
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Another option is Stablebit DrivePool, I've not tried it myself yet but it seems to be well regarded. From what I've read it spreads files over the multiple drives it's pooling, you can select folders to have redundancy in which case it will keep copies on multiple drives so if you select everything with redundancy it will be similar to RAID 1. One advantage over RAID is that there is no special drive formating used, so a drive from the pool can be read by any pc without needing the software installed.
I've not looked into Drivebender so I can't say for sure but I would presume it works in a similar way.
 
nails666 said:
Another option is Stablebit DrivePool, I've not tried it myself yet but it seems to be well regarded. From what I've read it spreads files over the multiple drives it's pooling, you can select folders to have redundancy in which case it will keep copies on multiple drives so if you select everything with redundancy it will be similar to RAID 1. One advantage over RAID is that there is no special drive formating used, so a drive from the pool can be read by any pc without needing the software installed.
I've not looked into Drivebender so I can't say for sure but I would presume it works in a similar way.
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Yep as I understand both DrivePool and DriveBender are pretty much the same and operate like the Drive Extender that was available in WHSv1.
 
That's correct.
They both create a hidden folder on each drive, and store your files within them. This means you can take a drive out of the machine, plug it into another, and just look inside the hidden folder to access all your files.

During Drive Bender's beta testing, I had a couple of software failures, but their approach meant that the data was still intact even though drive bender itself needed to be removed and reinstalled.

Server 2012 on the other hand formats the drives in such a way that you can't do that. During that program's beta phase, I had a glitch with the software, and all data was lost. Fortunately it was just a test server.

Both Drive Bender and DrivePool support duplication like Drive Extender did, and if a drive fails you can replace it and get your files rebuilt.

Drive Bender supports multiple pools. You could for instance create a media pool on drives 1,2,3 (your fast drives), and a data backup on drives 4, and 5), and in each case, have duplication turned on so you could lose one drive from each pool and still recover all your data.

Last I checked, Stablebit Drive Pool had plans to introduce this feature, so they may have it now too.

One of the two also works on any recent windows OS - you can use it with Windows 7, you dont have to be using WHS. I cant remember which of the two it is though.

I'd go WHSv1, or WHSv2011 with drive Bender or Stablebit DrivePool, over Server 2012, for data portability. If the server itself fails, you cant move the drives in a Server2012 to another machine easily (and maybe not at all); with the other options you can, easily.
 
Well i was heading down the custom build route for my server, but on seeing the £100 cashback offer i could not resist a N54L

I have now been reading up on the best configuration / build for what i want and so far i am thinking about the following :-

  • 16 Gig Ram
  • RocketRaid 2720
  • 128 Gig M4 SSD Drive (OS)
  • 4 x 3TB (Data)

I am planning to run this headless, located in he loft out of the way, my home network includes, iMac x 3, MBP, iPad x 3, PS3, Apple Tv, and a Synology DS411J NAS (8TB)

The reason for the purchase was all my data was residing on the Synology NAS in Raid 5, with the back-up's scattered across several 1TB USB drives - not ideal and filling fast.

I would like to set the N54L in the following software configuration :-

  • Backup - backing up all my Computers
  • Central File Server - Music, Movies, Photos, Documents
  • Virtual Manchine's - Something new for me to play with

I also plan to fully back up this new machine to the Synology NAS over the network

Thoughts on the config and usage please before i purchase the additional bits

Thanks in advance

Phil G
 
Phil Gr said:
Well i was heading down the custom build route for my server, but on seeing the £100 cashback offer i could not resist a N54L

I have now been reading up on the best configuration / build for what i want and so far i am thinking about the following :-

  • 16 Gig Ram
  • RocketRaid 2720
  • 128 Gig M4 SSD Drive (OS)
  • 4 x 3TB (Data)
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The N54L officially only supports 8GB, but I've read a few links while setting mine up saying people have managed to get it working with more. Might be worth researching that first before you fork out the extra cash :)

I'm running mine (mostly) headless with Ubuntu Server. Still setting it up at the moment (which is why I say *mostly*), but I've got Plex running on it, which seems to work OK for DNLA (albeit with far too many ways of viewing the same info ;)).
 
I have already looked into this and 16gig of mem is said to work with the correct sticks - I'm prepared to take the risk on this
 
enigmo said:
Anyone have any idea how much N36Ls are going for 2nd hand? I'm tempted by a 54, or even waiting for a Gen.8, but I'm thinking with cashback driving prices down so far I'd be lucky to get £40 for my n36.
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You can def get £40 for it but unlikely to top £70 for it... unless you have a pile of extras.... Try a PriceCheck thread in MM ?
 
LOL sorry, I was on the business site so it was excluding VAT.

Anyway, they've got them in stock this morning ... get one quick! £109 after cashback!

Edit - those went quick! (Got one myself) ... ETA back to 10th
 
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Terrier_Jimlad said:
LOL sorry, I was on the business site so it was excluding VAT.

Anyway, they've got them in stock this morning ... get one quick! £109 after cashback!

Edit - those went quick! (Got one myself) ... ETA back to 10th
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If we're looking at the same place they ended up delivering quicker than expected. I ordered on Thursday when expected stock was 10th of June and it turned up at my door on Saturday morning :)

Now just got to start getting it all set up.
 
Guys, sure it was in this thread, but can't see it now. It was a drive caddy that allowed you to put two drives back to back and they would take the place of the DVD Drive. The disks sat in a weird offset cradle thingy

EDIT: Found it, x-swing thingy
 
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My current N40L struggles to transcode HD content with Plex. Annoyingly it feels like it's only just struggling!

Any ideas if the small performance bump of the N54L will sort this? Does anyone use Plex on an N54L?
 
cokecan said:
My current N40L struggles to transcode HD content with Plex. Annoyingly it feels like it's only just struggling!

Any ideas if the small performance bump of the N54L will sort this? Does anyone use Plex on an N54L?
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Ah that's interesting, I'd assumed even the N54L wouldn't be capable of any transcoding let alone HD stuff. What sort of formats are you doing and does it do SD fine? How do you find Plex in general for serving and transcoding?
Sorry for all the questions Cokecan, the reason I'm interested is I have a load of DVD rips in MKV format that my PS3 can't play so would like to transcode to a format it can.
 
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