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

Jakus · 2 Apr 2011 at 13:04

I have an absolutely blinding idea for the Microserver

We have a spare USB and SATA port on the motherboard and we want to run a separate HD and CDROM without addon cards etc

Find one or the USB-sata/ide converters from ebay etc fit that to the CDROM and the USB to the motherboard.
Split the spare molex power to the CDROM and HDD and run the sata connector to the motherboard

Job done

2.5" drives will fit on top of the CDROM (apparently) but with some effort I think You could get a 3.5" below the CD

slewis1972 · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:52

Anyone running esxi 4.1?

Trying to change cpu policy to reduce costs etc and there is not the option.

Any suggestions?

pespro · 4 Apr 2011 at 00:47

What would be the danger of laying this on its side?
The only vents i can see are at the back.

bremen1874 · 4 Apr 2011 at 03:32

pespro said:
What would be the danger of laying this on its side?
The only vents i can see are at the back.

The side panel might get scratched, but that's about it.

chenko · 4 Apr 2011 at 08:44

Harbz said:
What would be the easiest way to fit a ssd into one of these? would the connectors line up if I used a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter in the removable bays? I've already used the top bay with a DVD drive.

If you're not using the internal USB, get a USB to IDE/SATA adaptor for your DVD drive, and put your SSD above the DVD drive (someone else above has done this) on the internal SATA (which seems to run faster as its in IDE mode, than the AHCI on the back plate)

settepunti · 4 Apr 2011 at 12:17

Does anybody know whether there are BIOS options to speedup the booting process?
I know it's not common to have such a need in a server scenario, but I frequently use hibernation, and the microserver takes a lot of time (in relative terms) to recover from it.
Any hint would be very appreciated, many thanks in advance.

Burnsy2023 · 4 Apr 2011 at 15:45

I used a vm to mount the ISO and then install it to the USB pen which I then just plugged in to the server. I'm using 0.8 RC4 btw.

_SBradley_ · 4 Apr 2011 at 20:24

Re: physdiskwrite

Are you using it on Windows 7? Because that doesn't work. I found this out after several wasted hours.

I ended up having to zero the MBR on two USB drives. Tried it on XP, and it worked first time.

Gizmo_Ger · 4 Apr 2011 at 21:06

Might be a stupid question but what are the credentials for the login page of the remote access card? Got it today directly from HP but without a manual just a flyer how to install the hardware. Also couldn´t find anything on the HP website.
Where can I set the User Name and the password?

EDIT: Ok, found it in the documentation for the BMC Firmware update.

pespro · 6 Apr 2011 at 13:10

Has anyone got a HD 5450 in theirs?

Having major problems getting mine to work.

[timko] · 6 Apr 2011 at 13:50

_SBradley_ said:
Re: physdiskwrite

Are you using it on Windows 7? Because that doesn't work. I found this out after several wasted hours. I ended up having to zero the MBR on two USB drives. Tried it on XP, and it worked first time.

I used it on Windows 7 just fine. Right click the shortcut/executable and then select "Run as administrator".

_SBradley_ · 6 Apr 2011 at 14:28

[timko];18842388 said:
I used it on Windows 7 just fine. Right click the shortcut/executable and then select "Run as administrator".

I was running it as Administrator. Is your Windows 32- or 64-bit? I found other people saying it doesn't work on Win7, which is what led to me trying WinXP (where it worked first time). I wonder what the difference is...

[timko] · 6 Apr 2011 at 19:01

_SBradley_ said:
I was running it as Administrator. Is your Windows 32- or 64-bit? I found other people saying it doesn't work on Win7, which is what led to me trying WinXP (where it worked first time). I wonder what the difference is...

I've used it successfully on both the 32Bit and 64Bit versions of Win7. Hopefully you've already seen this but just in case you haven't...

m0n0wall said:
Special considerations for Windows Vista/7

physdiskwrite works with Vista, but you must make sure to run it as administrator (simply having admin rights isn't enough), or it won't find any disks. One way to do this is to create a shortcut to cmd.exe, then right-click it and select "run as administrator". Then you can launch physdiskwrite from the command prompt window that appears, and it should work fine.

http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php

Rather than creating (an extra) shortcut to the command prompt, make the shortcut for physgui.exe and right click and run that as administrator.

_SBradley_ · 6 Apr 2011 at 21:49

[timko];18844841 said:
I've used it successfully on both the 32Bit and 64Bit versions of Win7.

OK, thanks for the info. I doubt I'll have to use it again for a while, but maybe I'll give it another go next time... As I may have installed Win7 on the netbook (the last remaining XP installation in my house!) by then.

(Well, I have a free licence from my Win7 "family pack"...)

Nikumba · 7 Apr 2011 at 07:07

Well finally managed to get round to installing my new 2Tb F4's on Ubuntu 10.10 64bit and was getting writes of 50 - 60 megabyte a second transfer copying from my Windows 7 machine to the HP with my Netgear gig switch and copying from the HP to my Windows 7 machine a rate of 100 megabyte a second.

So overall I am very happy with those speeds, and seems comparable to what others are getting.

Kimbie

AbsenceJam · 7 Apr 2011 at 09:19

I've ordered one of these and an extra 2GB RAM.

What are the thoughts on Windows 7 vs. Server 2008 R2? Any particular reasons to go with one or the other?
Using drives with existing data on them else I'd go opensource with Z-RAID or mdadm.

agent_paul · 7 Apr 2011 at 10:17

Hi, I'm looking to buy one of these too with the promotion but point 5 of the form is a bit discouraging.

It says "The promotion is valid only on new units purchased and invoiced directly from HP or a UK HP authorised reseller."

Does this mean if I purchased from any other online retailers I wont be able to get the rebate?

Nikumba · 7 Apr 2011 at 10:20

agent_paul said:
Hi, I'm looking to buy one of these too with the promotion but point 5 of the form is a bit discouraging.

It says "The promotion is valid only on new units purchased and invoiced directly from HP or a UK HP authorised reseller."

Does this mean if I purchased from any other online retailers I wont be able to get the rebate?

Look on their website to see if they have a logo or text, but most sites who sell HP server hardware *tend* to be HP Resellers

Kimbie

agent_paul · 7 Apr 2011 at 10:26

Nikumba said:
Look on their website to see if they have a logo or text, but most sites who sell HP server hardware *tend* to be HP Resellers

Kimbie

Cheers Kimbie,

I managed to find it for £180 (with 160Gig HD) from a well known retailer but it doesn't mention the cashback offer, while on the same site there's the same product but with a 250Gig HD that does mention it.