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

Avalon said:
Xpenology is just bodged pirated software by another name. It’s slightly tragic when free or inexpensive options exist and people still insist on openly stealing commercial software, especially when major updates have a nasty habit of breaking. One of the many *NAS derivatives or UnRAID is generally a better choice depending on exactly what you need IO wise (UnRAID is potentially less suited to heavy IO).
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Mine has been solid for 5 years :p and the other's might be free\small fee but they are not as slick as the synology os.
 
Avalon said:
Xpenology is just bodged pirated software by another name.
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Avalon said:
people still insist on openly stealing commercial software, especially when major updates have a nasty habit of breaking.
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100% agree with this. Although can also see why people do - DSM is still without a doubt the most flexible and easy to use NAS OS out there.

Avalon said:
It’s slightly tragic when free or inexpensive options exist .
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Avalon said:
One of the many *NAS derivatives or UnRAID is generally a better choice depending on exactly what you need IO wise (UnRAID is potentially less suited to heavy IO).
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However don't agree with this:
- As you've already said Unraid is performance limited,
- The Free/TrueNAS community is absolutely toxic, with the elitest "ZFS is best" mentality (despite still not being able to do basic things like add drives to expand arrays).
- XigmaNAS just appears to be a poor cousin of FreeNAS
- OpenMediaVault was promising, but is written by a single Dev, who now appears to have lost the plot (completely dropping support for anything other than BTRFS in the next planned version?)
- Windows Storage Spaces? Does anyone trust this?


I looked at most of the options and then bought a Synology DS1520+ :)
 
I am having some real issues with mine.

I upgraded from W7 to server 2016 but the graphics drivers would not work.
I then upgraded that to W10. Some remains of Server 2016 must still be on there as the Nvidia driver still says no. My 1030 runs at 4k but only 30hz (anything higher flickers).

So....I try to install windows as a clean start, as I know it will work that way.

I cannot get it to boot into IP since I want to change my SSD. It does not boot and skips it.
I cannot upgrade IP either from USB stick. It just skips it.
It does not want to boot from USB stick for a clean windows install either. It just says it needs to restart.

I am really stuck. I am pretty good when it comes to computers but this has me stumped!
All I want is a clean in install of Windows on a new SSD!

Any help is much appreciated. I spent many hours on this already and am totally stumped.
 
There isn't a setup program in the ISO. The USB key is literally the same as the ISO i.e. same files. I can get the USB to load but the IP update says BMC unresponsive. If I use the Windows iLo config utility to reset the iLo firmware and/or do a factory reset then try the IP update it says NVRAM error. The Windows iLo config utility says that the iLo IP is 0.0.0.0.

I still cannot access the B120i raid controller (F5) or intelligent provisioning (F10) in any way.

On a positive note I now have Windows 10 installed and fully working.
 
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Hi all,

Just after a quick bit of advice with a CPU upgrade. Currently running an i3-3220 which, now I'm sharing my Plex library with a few family members who usually require transcoding of 1080p/4k, is starting to struggle so looking to upgrade to a Xeon.

I know the 1265L V2 is the one to go for but considering bang for buck and the fact the 1265L v2 is going for about £75-80 currently compared to a 1220L v2 for £20 or a 1260L (not v2) for £25 I think I'm better off stumping for one of the latter two.

So just asking if people would go for the 1220L v2 or 1260L? Or a completely different recommendation? Again considering bang-for-buck and use case of max 2 1080/4k transcodes.

Thanks!
 
dbailey10 said:
Hi all,

Just after a quick bit of advice with a CPU upgrade. Currently running an i3-3220 which, now I'm sharing my Plex library with a few family members who usually require transcoding of 1080p/4k, is starting to struggle so looking to upgrade to a Xeon.

I know the 1265L V2 is the one to go for but considering bang for buck and the fact the 1265L v2 is going for about £75-80 currently compared to a 1220L v2 for £20 or a 1260L (not v2) for £25 I think I'm better off stumping for one of the latter two.

So just asking if people would go for the 1220L v2 or 1260L? Or a completely different recommendation? Again considering bang-for-buck and use case of max 2 1080/4k transcodes.

Thanks!
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You absolutely are not transcoding 4K video on a 3220. Plex publish CPU Mark metrics for transcoding, it’s roughly 2K of CPU mark for a 1080 H264, your 3220 comes in at 2189, or roughly enough for 1x1080 H264 transcode and you can’t use the iGPU to do HW transcodes as it’s not available to the OS in a micro server.

As to CPU upgrade advice, with that usage requirement, if you just want to transcode a low number of concurrent 1080p H264 streams, then a 1260L v2 has a CPU mark of 3862, depending on the bit-rate, you may get two concurrent streams, exactly what a low end single slot GPU can do and leave your CPU idle.

What I would personally consider is using something more suited to to the task to do the transcoding, a used Dell/Lenovo box based on a 5th/6th gen Intel iGPU combined with PlexPass is pretty much the default option and aren’t much more than your proposed CPU upgrade to a less capable chip. Let the micro server do what it’s good at, being a cheap low powered file server that can run ‘light’ VM’s/services.
 
To go back many years, I installed Windows 7 on my gen 8 microserver and there it has sat, storing a backup copy of my photographic images on one of 3 hdds, operated in ACHI mode. The OS drive is in slot 1 as it is not possible to boot from "Slot 5" in ACHI mode. But that's ok - I have sufficient space on the large drives in slots 2, 3 and 4. So it sits there. I turn it on when I want to back photos up I copy the folders across and then turn it off. Every month I make a second back up on an external HDD. I have made a clone of the OS drive so that I can swap the drive if a Windows issue arises. So all hunkydory. However win 7 is not now being updated. Can I just run the win 10 update process? Or are there drivers (Lan, graphics, sound) that are not available or that I need to find. The BIOS is still the original 2014 version. Any guidance please. At present. my current choice is to leave "as is" (leave well alone? The time at risk is short)
 
Mel_P said:
To go back many years, I installed Windows 7 on my gen 8 microserver and there it has sat, storing a backup copy of my photographic images on one of 3 hdds, operated in ACHI mode. The OS drive is in slot 1 as it is not possible to boot from "Slot 5" in ACHI mode. But that's ok - I have sufficient space on the large drives in slots 2, 3 and 4. So it sits there. I turn it on when I want to back photos up I copy the folders across and then turn it off. Every month I make a second back up on an external HDD. I have made a clone of the OS drive so that I can swap the drive if a Windows issue arises. So all hunkydory. However win 7 is not now being updated. Can I just run the win 10 update process? Or are there drivers (Lan, graphics, sound) that are not available or that I need to find. The BIOS is still the original 2014 version. Any guidance please. At present. my current choice is to leave "as is" (leave well alone? The time at risk is short)
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I run Windows 10 on one of mine, works fine
 
Well, I made a spare clone and set it going. All seemed OK so I left it churning away. Cut the lawn (last of the year?) and cam back - Hmmmm.

Cannot install Windows 10 - "the installation failed in the safe_os phase with an error during replicate_oc operation".

Looked that up - mostly anything / everything possibly out of date - e.g. intel microcode, BIOS, any hardware item for which there is no driver, etc.

If I had updated it a long time ago it probably would have updated - but is gen 8 compatible with Version 2004? SO it looks like it's windows 7 for me on my Microserver. Unless anybody has an idea?

Mel
 
I've upgraded an inplace from earlier versions to 2004, but haven't directly installed 2004 on the Gen8, I have seen that error though on an HP laptop..
 
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