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

Gman · 22 Jun 2013 at 16:29

Anyone managed to get WOL lan working on the N54L version? i've got a N36L version and managed to get that working but the 54 isn't having any of it.

ubern00b · 22 Jun 2013 at 17:46

GSXRMovistar said:
Couple of questions, anything special required to hook up an additional hard drive in the optical bay (e.g. bios update)?

Yes modified BIOS is required to enable full speed/AHCI on SATA ports 4/5 (ODD & eSATA ports).

I have been running a 6 x 2TB unRAID server in my Microserver for about 2 years now and have had 0 downtime. It really is an awesome little box.

Engram · 22 Jun 2013 at 18:12

Gman said:
Anyone managed to get WOL lan working on the N54L version? i've got a N36L version and managed to get that working but the 54 isn't having any of it.

Yeah, it works fine on mine with Windows Server 2012 Essentials. Don't forget to do ALL of the following:

Enable WOL in BIOS
Install correct network driver
Enable WOL in network card settings (I set to Magic Packet only)
Enable "allow this device to wake computer" option for the network card (if using Windows)

I usually forget the last step!

paintguy · 22 Jun 2013 at 18:23

GSXRMovistar said:
Couple of questions, anything special required to hook up an additional hard drive in the optical bay (e.g. bios update)?

Also has everyone kept the bundled 250Gb drive for their O/S? I have a couple of spare 1.5/2Tb drives and leaving this smaller drive in server seems a little wasteful.

You'll need a Molex to sata power lead converter and a sata lead of course. As mentioned, if you want full speed from the inboard sata port (i.e. for an SSD) you'll need to use the hacked BIOS but it'll work just fine without.

I'm using the supplied 250Gb drive in mine as I haven't bought any big ones yet

SaltandSauce · 23 Jun 2013 at 01:02

enigmo said:
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.

Has anyone got any pics of the two additional drives sitting in the 5.25" bay using the bracket? I'm fnding it hard to picture two drives in there.

I've just placed an order for my fifth (and possibly final) drive and thought that I had ran out of anymore available slots. If it's true that I can can squeeze in another one at a later date, it would certainly do me nicely!

MagicBoy · 23 Jun 2013 at 02:42

Check back in the thread, I've seen one previously.

Darryn · 23 Jun 2013 at 08:20

Microserver + X-Swing tidy way to get 2 drives in the 5.25" bay.

paintguy · 23 Jun 2013 at 11:10

And if you want to go crazy with 2.5" drives:

Various Icy Dock solutions for the Microserver

DIABLO · 23 Jun 2013 at 13:36

SaltandSauce said:
Has anyone got any pics of the two additional drives sitting in the 5.25" bay using the bracket? I'm fnding it hard to picture two drives in there.

I've just placed an order for my fifth (and possibly final) drive and thought that I had ran out of anymore available slots. If it's true that I can can squeeze in another one at a later date, it would certainly do me nicely!

Darryn said:
Microserver + X-Swing tidy way to get 2 drives in the 5.25" bay.

Thats my picture and been like that for 2 years but with Samsung drives though.

Prophet · 23 Jun 2013 at 14:02

DIABLO said:
Just seen a site offering it for £75 now after cashback.

I'm buying mine now

Dandle · 23 Jun 2013 at 15:13

Just bought one of these for £71delivered after cash back and also bought 2x4gb 10600 ECC ram with lifetime warranty for just under £30.

Ive never used a server before so this is going to be a learning curve for me. Thinking off using Win 7 on it with freeNAS. Would also like to be able to access the files away from home, whats the best secure way to do this. Or should I just try WHS2011 and learn that?

durbs · 23 Jun 2013 at 15:19

Just got round to modding the BIOS on my new one as I'd used an SSD as a boot drive, seemed to get significant gains:

http://www.d2computing.co.uk/index....hp-microserver-benchmarks-when-enabling-ahci/

Going to have a play around to see if I can get it faster but not sure what an 840 should be showing under SATA2. Deffo worth doing though!

Marky · 23 Jun 2013 at 15:33

I have the N40L at home right now, and I plan on moving out to Canada for a year later this year...

Is there any possibility of being able to have access to my server while I am out there? I.e. Could I watch videos on the server from Canada?

GSXRMovistar · 23 Jun 2013 at 15:56

Marky said:
I have the N40L at home right now, and I plan on moving out to Canada for a year later this year...

Is there any possibility of being able to have access to my server while I am out there? I.e. Could I watch videos on the server from Canada?

All dependant on network connectivity but if your home connection has suitable enough upload speed then yes very easy to setup.

Marky · 23 Jun 2013 at 16:11

GSXRMovistar said:
All dependant on network connectivity but if your home connection has suitable enough upload speed then yes very easy to setup.

Interesting... I may have to look into this

zpos · 23 Jun 2013 at 16:50

Just ordered a N54L to use primarily as a NAS. Scanning through this thread, I can see I have lots of research to do

Nick1881 · 23 Jun 2013 at 16:56

I have bought a new N54L and moved my server across from my N40L.

Now I want to use the N40L as a NAS, I want to start it with 1 x 3TB drive and install the OS onto a 16GB SanDisk Extreme USB pen.

What's the best raid software to use on it? I only need basic file sharing, nothing extreme, just so I can stream media from it, also I need to be able to expand it easily by adding a second drive once the 3TB is full.

Any recommendations would be great.
Thanks

DIABLO · 23 Jun 2013 at 17:45

Nick1881 said:
I have bought a new N54L and moved my server across from my N40L.

Now I want to use the N40L as a NAS, I want to start it with 1 x 3TB drive and install the OS onto a 16GB SanDisk Extreme USB pen.

What's the best raid software to use on it? I only need basic file sharing, nothing extreme, just so I can stream media from it, also I need to be able to expand it easily by adding a second drive once the 3TB is full.

Any recommendations would be great.
Thanks

I guess you just meant the best software to add some redundancy? I use Stablebit Drivepool myself.

A free solution would be Freenas which i beleive supports drivepooling.

MagicBoy · 23 Jun 2013 at 18:07

I'm using FreeNAS with ZFS for the RAID. It's a headless box that's just serving files nothing else.

ZFS needs 8GB RAM, but it's clever voodoo magic is worth it in my opinion.

GSXRMovistar · 23 Jun 2013 at 18:35

Nick1881 said:
I have bought a new N54L and moved my server across from my N40L.

Now I want to use the N40L as a NAS, I want to start it with 1 x 3TB drive and install the OS onto a 16GB SanDisk Extreme USB pen.

What's the best raid software to use on it? I only need basic file sharing, nothing extreme, just so I can stream media from it, also I need to be able to expand it easily by adding a second drive once the 3TB is full.

Any recommendations would be great.
Thanks

I've just opted for DriveBender, so far all seems good. Can pick and choose which shares/folders are duplicated, easy enough to add extra drives (of any size), and in the event of total system failure the disks can be read from another system without the need of a RAID set being complete.