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

Quick question.

Is there a way to map a network drive so it's available outside of the network?

Also, when saving to a network drive (say downloading an image off of the net) I assume it is actually saving locally then copying over to the mapped drive? Is there a quick way to set it up to save directly to the network drive?

I'm using WHS 2011 btw and have a no-ip account that I have set SABNZBd with to do the above. Thanks.
 
Anyone here use unRAID and SimpleFeatures? The system stats - network monitor shows no activity for me. Also in unMENU the Rx/Tx are swapped around. Just wondered if anyone else had seen this behaviour.
 
I currently have the 250GB hard drive that the N40L came with in one of the drive bays, and it has become a nuisance...

I currently have 2x1TB and 2x2TB drives. The 2x2TB are new, as of today. So I've got the following setup:

Drive Bay 1 - 250GB
2 - 1TB
3 - 2TB
4 - 2TB

Is there some way to mount the 250GB drive in the unused optical drive bay and hook it straight up to the motherboard? I'd like to use drive bay 1 for the other 1TB drive I have.
 
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1. Shall I just plonk the 250GB drive in the optical bay? Or does it need to sit in something?

2. Where on the motherboard do I connect it to?

3. The 250GB drive is my OS drive - So I assume when I connect it to another part of the server, it won't recognise it as the launch drive - Any way to change the boot drive in Windows? I don't have a keyboard to hand so can't access any commands during BIOS/booting.
 
There's a whole thread above full of the answers you seek. Get reading ;)

1. Can do. There are many choices of mount available.
2. There's a SATA port intended for the optional optical drive.
3. Should be OK I expect.
 
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Anyone running Ubuntu 13 on theirs yet? I'm still on the slightly quirky 12.10, which appears to have stabilised following a several hundred meg patch update.

Worth the jump?

If you did, did you clean install or upgrade? I'm tempted to do the upgrade route to save time, but the thought of it makes me feel dirty and cheap.
 
Marky - I flashed the BIOS on mine to a hacked release to get full SATA speed on mine, then installed an SSD in the optical bay and cabled in using extenders/splitters off the disk backplane cabling.

There's only one additional SATA connection, so should be easy to find and yep boot options are in the BIOS. Although I think it'll just boot if it's the only drive. Could be wrong mind!
 
Marky said:
A whole 210+ pages - And half of it goes over my head/isn't relevant to me

EDIT: Thanks for having a change of heart and editing your post with some answers.
Click to expand...

If you haven't updated you BIOS to the hacked version do it first http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n40l-microserver-build-and-bios-modification-revisited.html (same BIOS for all 3 versons ), this will allow the SATA to run at full speed (once you enable it in BIOS)

You will also need a 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch bay converter to mount the hard drive it the top optical bay.

Also needed are a SATA cable, I used a 60cm one but I think a 45cm one would be ok and a lot of people recommend you use one with a 90 deg connector.

Lastly you need a MOLEX to SATA power connector as hardly any harddrives use MOLEX power connectors these days but that's whats in the microserver.

On the left hand side front of the motherboard you will see a SATA connector (close to the fan connector), just plug the cable into there and I routed the cable the same path as the fan cable to the back of the optical bay.

Apart from changing the new setting in the hacked BIOS to 3mbs I didn't do anything special and the server booted from the drive without any problem even though like you id moved it from one of the front bays.
 
randal said:
Marky - I flashed the BIOS on mine to a hacked release to get full SATA speed on mine, then installed an SSD in the optical bay and cabled in using extenders/splitters off the disk backplane cabling.

There's only one additional SATA connection, so should be easy to find and yep boot options are in the BIOS. Although I think it'll just boot if it's the only drive. Could be wrong mind!
Click to expand...

Attu90 said:
If you haven't updated you BIOS to the hacked version do it first http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n40l-microserver-build-and-bios-modification-revisited.html (same BIOS for all 3 versons ), this will allow the SATA to run at full speed (once you enable it in BIOS)

You will also need a 5.25 inch to 3.5 inch bay converter to mount the hard drive it the top optical bay.

Also needed are a SATA cable, I used a 60cm one but I think a 45cm one would be ok and a lot of people recommend you use one with a 90 deg connector.

Lastly you need a MOLEX to SATA power connector as hardly any harddrives use MOLEX power connectors these days but that's whats in the microserver.

On the left hand side front of the motherboard you will see a SATA connector (close to the fan connector), just plug the cable into there and I routed the cable the same path as the fan cable to the back of the optical bay.

Apart from changing the new setting in the hacked BIOS to 3mbs I didn't do anything special and the server booted from the drive without any problem even though like you id moved it from one of the front bays.
Click to expand...

So does that mean the extra SATA port runs slower than the rest?

I managed to find the port, and I've hooked it all up and powered the drive etc. Just turned it on and it won't boot into the drive. I'll just pull out the other drives and see if that knocks it into place, as you said!

EDIT: As you said, it has loaded into the OS once all other drives were disconnected. Re-connected them all and it's all sound :) Thanks a lot :)

Just need to get my head around the BIOS update. How much is the speed difference between the standard pre-installed BIOS and the hacked BIOS?
 
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randal said:
Anyone running Ubuntu 13 on theirs yet? I'm still on the slightly quirky 12.10, which appears to have stabilised following a several hundred meg patch update.

Worth the jump?

If you did, did you clean install or upgrade? I'm tempted to do the upgrade route to save time, but the thought of it makes me feel dirty and cheap.
Click to expand...

Clean install of 13.04 server on mine. Seems to work fine, but I'm far from a linux expert :)
 
Finally got myself a 2TB drive so I'm currently transferring ~100Gb of music across from my main PC.

Boy I wish I'd upgraded to a gigabit network first though :D It's (allegedly) transferring across at 10.8MB/s so browsing is like ploughing through treacle!

I should have done it locally really before bunging the drive in the server but it's too much of a faff now. Hopefully I'll have upgraded by the time I've ripped the rest of my music and need to send the next lot over.
 
Looking to get some 3TB Hard drives to go in one of these HP's, any recommendations please ? Been looking at WD Red and Green ...... from reading around they seem to have bad fail rate :(
 
Marky said:
Just need to get my head around the BIOS update. How much is the speed difference between the standard pre-installed BIOS and the hacked BIOS?
Click to expand...

The BIOS update is easy ...honest, when its installed you have the option to choose 1.5 MB/s or 3 MB/s so id imagine by default its set to 1.5 MB/s without the update.
 
Attu90 said:
The BIOS update is easy ...honest, when its installed you have the option to choose 1.5 MB/s or 3 MB/s so id imagine by default its set to 1.5 MB/s without the update.
Click to expand...

The standard firmware gives you the option of 1.5Gbps, 3.0Gbps or Auto. It defaults to Auto.

With the standard firmware the separate internal SATA port and the eSATA port run in IDE mode without the option. The modified firmware allows you configure them as AHCI.

From a speed point-of-view it probably doesn't matter unless you're using a SSD.
 
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Attu90 said:
The BIOS update is easy ...honest, when its installed you have the option to choose 1.5 MB/s or 3 MB/s so id imagine by default its set to 1.5 MB/s without the update.
Click to expand...

bremen1874 said:
The standard firmware gives you the option of 1.5Gbps, 3.0Gbps or Auto. It defaults to Auto.

With the standard firmware the separate internal SATA port and the SATAe port run in IDE mode without the option. The modified firmware allows you configure them as AHCI.

From a speed point-of-view it probably doesn't matter unless you're using a SSD.
Click to expand...

Hmm... So is there much point in updating the BIOS for me? I'm running the OS on the 250GB hard drive the server came with and don't plan on updating it to an SSD.
 
Marky said:
Hmm... So is there much point in updating the BIOS for me? I'm running the OS on the 250GB hard drive the server came with and don't plan on updating it to an SSD.
Click to expand...

The modified firmware is easy to install, and it's just as easy to revert back to to stock if you want to. For my use of the Microserver there wasn't any benefit from running the modified firmware, so I ended up back at stock once the first HP updates were released.

The one real annoyance that the modified firmware presumably fixes is hotplug (or the lack of) on the eSATA port. It's a long time since I tried it so I'm not sure.

While I'm here has anyone seen any firm pricing and availability information for the Gen8? I've got a job I think one would be perfect for, but time is running out. At the moment it's looking like I'll have to get a ML310e (or similar) instead.
 
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