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

Just opened my Microserver after having it a month or so and now wondering what OS to install to it.

It will be used as a NAS for the usual music/film/pictures/files.
I want to install squeezebox server when I go down the audio streaming route, later this year.
I will also be using this to stream video from with a yet to be purchased media player.
I will be adding 2x2TB hdd's to start and add more later, with the drives intergating as easily as possible.
I want the OS to run from internal USB stick, allowing the drive bays to all be used for storage.
I want some form of redundancy.
I want the unit to run as low powered as possible, with WoL/drives spinning down when not in use.
I would prefer a free/cheap OS.

Which would be the best OS to cover this? I've never touched any *nix based OS's, however I have no problem with learning these as it would make it a more interesting project!

I've looked at Vortexbox/FreeNAS/Ubuntu as options, but as my understanding of the operating systems is limited, I am unsure if they fit the bill. If someone could recommend an OS that fits the bill, I'm sure I could find most of the information I need from various sites, I just need a starting point.
 
Hey guys.

I've bought one of these microservers to use as a HTPC. My plan is to buy a GT520 or similar.

My question is, since I'll be using it as a HTPC, is it worth me using the Proliant or is it best to just build one using standard PC parts? Also, can anyone point me to a GT520 card that would fit the case? the ones I've seen so far seem to have relatively huge heatsinks on the back.

Thanks!
 
Just managed to get Windows Server 2008 R2 installed into a USB pen but it seems incredibly slow. Is there anything I can do to try and speed it up?
 
gothi said:
Try http://www.howtogeek.com/51873/how-to-setup-software-raid-for-a-simple-file-server-on-ubuntu/

I used that and had it all up and running within minutes :)
Click to expand...

Thanks gothi,

got the raid up and working had to hack some bits from some googling but its all working now.

not sure if I should run a bit client of the server now or off my r3600 revo. need to look at power usage and see which is less.

Anyone got any ideas which would use less power the Micro server (2 drives) or a R3600 Revo for torrenting.
 
Looking like I might end up with two motherboards for this server, any suggestions on anything I can do with the second?

Thanks,

G
 
khrall said:
Just opened my Microserver after having it a month or so and now wondering what OS to install to it.

It will be used as a NAS for the usual music/film/pictures/files.
I want to install squeezebox server when I go down the audio streaming route, later this year.
I will also be using this to stream video from with a yet to be purchased media player.
I will be adding 2x2TB hdd's to start and add more later, with the drives intergating as easily as possible.
I want the OS to run from internal USB stick, allowing the drive bays to all be used for storage.
I want some form of redundancy.
I want the unit to run as low powered as possible, with WoL/drives spinning down when not in use.
I would prefer a free/cheap OS.

Which would be the best OS to cover this? I've never touched any *nix based OS's, however I have no problem with learning these as it would make it a more interesting project!

I've looked at Vortexbox/FreeNAS/Ubuntu as options, but as my understanding of the operating systems is limited, I am unsure if they fit the bill. If someone could recommend an OS that fits the bill, I'm sure I could find most of the information I need from various sites, I just need a starting point.
Click to expand...

Stuck in pretty much the same boat as yourself I can't decide on a OS to install on it either..

I have tried freenas on mine and ended up dumping it about two hours later the performance was horrible.

Still thinking about installing openfiler onto it but getting it to run the from usb is proving painfull.
 
To the not sure HTPC guys, I have just built one.

I went for W7 with an ATI card and it's perfect, I have 2 500gb disks in raid 0 and a 2tb disk.

Installed XBMC and it runs everything.

Also my sabnzb download box and I may introduce other services on it at some point.
 
Going to bite the bullet and install WHS2011 on it and give that a try for a bit.
Just installed the fifth drive into it now up in the top in the optical drive bay connected to the onboard sata connection.

I will use the esata connection for something else later possibly a Sans digital 4 or 8 bay enclosure if I need more storage.

So far 4x 2TB Samsung disks for data only
And 1x 320GB Samsung Disk for the OS.

Installed a HP NC360T Dual port nic in the pci sloth, this will be teamed up using the HP teaming utility connected to a HP procurve 1810-24 port switch again trunk will be setup on it and jumbo frames will be used on the desktops/microserver/switch ports.

Added a extra 4GB of ram into the system, and I will install the starwind isci target software on it and hanging a disk of the esata port to present some storage to my ESX systems, dedicating the broadcom nic to the starwind app for iscsi ( separate vlan is being used )

The generic data disk will be used for storing movies and games iso collection and various regular docs ect, accessed by 4 laptops and 2x desktops and one acer revo running xbmc live, and a PS3.
( Did some testing the other day using the HP teamed nics and on each device I had VLC/Windows Media Player/Nero/Quicktime open playing back several films seems the max before it started to stutter & rebuffer was around 12 films playing at once in my case not that I will ever be playing 12 at once at least I know bandwidth wise I'm covered, iPerf stats look good)

Any ram that isn't being used will be used via Ramdisk and will be used for Readyboost at startups ( Testing this in a couple of VMs at the mo flaky under x64 )
http://www.win2008workstation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2114#p2114

Think thats pretty much everything for the moment will post back once I have it running.

Gen
 
Last edited:
CentOS on MicroServer

I'm running CentOS-5.6 on my MicroServer (in fact on two of them)
and it runs perfectly.
I installed it from a USB stick.
I run both as home servers (in different countries).

I'd like to add a second ethernet port, but I'm not sure what card will fit.
I know it needs a half-height PCIe card, but these seem rather rare.
 
gayleard said:
I'm running CentOS-5.6 on my MicroServer (in fact on two of them)
and it runs perfectly.
I installed it from a USB stick.
I run both as home servers (in different countries).

I'd like to add a second ethernet port, but I'm not sure what card will fit.
I know it needs a half-height PCIe card, but these seem rather rare.
Click to expand...

I'm using Intel Gigabit PRO/ 1000CT PCIe Desktop Adapters in mine, manufacturer number: EXPI9301CTBLK
 
HarryPainful said:
To the not sure HTPC guys, I have just built one.

I went for W7 with an ATI card and it's perfect, I have 2 500gb disks in raid 0 and a 2tb disk.

Installed XBMC and it runs everything.

Also my sabnzb download box and I may introduce other services on it at some point.
Click to expand...

Which ATI card did you go for mate? Also, do you know which nVidia cards would work in it? Hoping the GT520 or one of the HDMI 1.4 cards would work. Just trying to find out my options before making a choice.
 
I'm buying one of these soon but not sure what to run on it, freeness seems to most of the things I need, but I'f I could do the same things But also use it for other purposes, web server (simple site) and other things. What cab I put on this to do everything freenas does but more room for other things, I'm a Linux newbie.
 
Guru said:
Looking like I might end up with two motherboards for this server, any suggestions on anything I can do with the second?

Thanks,

G
Click to expand...

Got my new mobo, turns out it came with the CPU installed already so I've effectively got a Microserver without a case or PSU.... must be something cool I can do with this!
 
Guru said:
Got my new mobo, turns out it came with the CPU installed already so I've effectively got a Microserver without a case or PSU.... must be something cool I can do with this!
Click to expand...

Router with an additional Nic, pico-psu and USB stick. What happened to it that it needed replacement?

That's what I'd use it for as my current router is a playing up.
 
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