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

paintguy said:
I don't suppose you know if WHS 2011 can back itself up over a network, or even the internet do you, without a 3rd party app? I know the idea of backing up to an external is that you'd probably have a couple and rotate them to a safe off site location, but being able to send it to my main PC or over to my mums would be good. I know I could probably do the former with robocopy, synctoy and the like, and the latter with something like crashplan, but can WHS be tricked into doing the job itself?
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WHS has Windows Server Backup which allows you to backup to network share's right?
 
I don't seem to be able to, unless I'm doing it wrong :o

Using the dashboard I go to set up server backup but there are no drives listed in there and I don't know how to go about it "manually"

If I remote desktop to the server I can get back to the shared folders on my PC so Homegroup and shares must be set up okay, I just don't know how to point the server backup to them.

EDIT: Sorted :)

Rather than using the wizard in the dashboard I went straight to Windows Server Backup. Seems so simple now!
 
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Yeah that's the ticket. Not the dashboard but the actual Windows Server Backup GUI :)

The annoying thing about using the Windows Server Backup is having to backup every day. Doesn't give you a choice of every week or month.

EDIT: I was able to solve the issue by editing the task that was created by WSB (Task Scheduler > Task Schedule Library > Microsoft > Windows > Backup) and changing the trigger from daily to weekly.
 
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Evilpaul said:
I've ordered a microserver to replace my 5 year old Qnap TS-109 Pro, and I've been playing around with options as to how to configure it when it arrives:

  • Windows Home Server costs money (I'm a cheapskate :p)
  • I can't get FreeNAS to work correctly under VirtualBox, so I've no confidance in it (FreeBSD...nightmares)
  • NAS4Free is too limited (and FreeBSD still gives me nightmares)
  • unRaid only supports 3 hard drives for the free option (cheapskate)
  • Amahi requires payment for some of the plugins I'd want (still a cheapskate)
  • XPEnology looks like it has USB issues with HP microservers

So, it looks like I'll fall back to my default server OS choice and just throw Debian on it. I'll use the included HD for the OS and then configure all my other HDs as one btrfs file system.
That is unless anyone has any suggestions I've not looked at?
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I went for freenas on one n54l
then a second n54l for htpc.

yes i could do it all in one box, but i use my freenas as a backup. If i add it as a vm it not easy to move to another box and limits zfs usage. unless you know how to configure it correctly which is not 2 second job.

I use the second N54L for everything else. HTPC & NUC roles etc.

With reguards to RAM i think its can be abit of a guess..... my freenas has 4x3tb (drives green WD) (useing zfs) Now they say as a min 1GB or ram for every TB. now its works with 4 but a lot better with 8. and since i got the n54l i through 16 in it, more is better, or use a cache drive. (may want to hold off until freenas ver 9 is out of beta and in to release 2 as they are going to include trim support for ssd)

I think the best thing to do would cheap copy of windows home server or windows 8. I put win 7 on mine cos i'm to tight to buy 8 yet. could use crash plan to do basic backups and share the drives and map them on other machines etc.

(crash plan is free to use over a LAN)
 
I think ive finally finished setting up my microserver, its taken about 2 weeks to get to a point where I can sit back and not have to tinker with it :)

So far ive updated the BIOS to the hacked version, installed the 250gb harddrive into the 5.25 bay, put 2x4gb generic ram in and replaced both fans.

I replaced the main fan with a Antec TrueQuiet 120 I had knocking about which is giving good enough airflow and is quieter than the original one.

The PSU fan I replaced with a Noctua 40mm fan, the header in the PSU wouldn't power the Noctua up so I ended up connecting the fan directly to one of the molex connectors.

The Nocuta is running at full speed 12v so isn't as quiet as I would have hoped but is still quite a bit quieter than the original 40mm fan and has a much nicer noise signature.

Im running Windows 8, I tried other options but it was easy to set up and I had a spare key, Im also using drive bender as a storage pool for the 2x2gb drives Ive got installed at the moment.

Ive also got it to boot directly into XBMC shell using XBMC launcher, set to power on via my tablet using PC Auto waker, Yatse for XBMC remote, akRDC for PC remote desktop (if I should need it) and uTorrent remote for well UTorrent :).

The Idea was to replace my Synology NAS but its more to compliment it at the moment but we will see :)

Ohh I forgot Ive also added a HD5450 as its connected to my home cinema system via a 7M HDMI cable allowing me to have the server in another room.
 
Prophet said:
I'm thinking of visualizing my server but don't know if I should install Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 and then install the NAS software and anything else I want to play with as VM's or install ESXi and virtualize everything.

Opinions please.
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The great thing about using a Hypervisor is if you can play with all of these configurations at the same time to see which suits best.
 
ubern00b said:
Installed it last week. The only real thing to be aware of is that it doesn't spin down disks when not in use. Other than that its completely unsupported (arguably illegal) so if you are going to trust it with your data just be aware of this fact.
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Are you sure? Is the HD issue a bug, or is it not a setting which needs to be activated?
 
TheDean said:
Are you sure? Is the HD issue a bug, or is it not a setting which needs to be activated?
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Your guess is as good as mine. Read the XPEnology thread and everyone has the same issue. Could be a bug or its been suggested that the method for invoking HDD spin-down is different and thus not working.
 
Guys I have a question, if you have 4 drives in, can you run them in raid 10 (1+0)

So basically 4 x 3tb will give 6tb space mirrored / striped? Can this be done from the unit itself (hardware) or would I need a dedicated card such as a rocketraid?
 
Officially yep. I've not encountered any problems so far even after three of months of uptime.
It just seems to sort itself out :
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