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

m1979 · 22 Jun 2011 at 15:45

A few comments from my side:

Bought it 2 days ago. I added:

- LiteOn DVD
- 8GB RAM (non-ecc: KVR1333D3N9/4G)
- second HDD

Works great, very quiet, fast.

A few tips:

- to remove the motherboard, loose two screws on both sides
- when installing a sata cable for a dvd drive, use a flat cable (L-shape), as there is not enough room and u can crash the port (I broke one cable

)
- RAID1 works great, but the menu to configure it is a little weird, read all information at the bottom
- SBS 2008 installs without any issues, it asks for RAID drivers and later on for a NIC driver

Hope it helps. Will update u when I get a key for my SBS and configure Exchange and put in in a full load

pioneer2000 · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:59

What's the point in adding 8GB of RAM to these? Surely the performance is bottlenecked by the rest of it? What are you running on it that will use anywhere near 8GB?

tbz_ck · 22 Jun 2011 at 19:07

pioneer2000 said:
What's the point in adding 8GB of RAM to these? Surely the performance is bottlenecked by the rest of it? What are you running on it that will use anywhere near 8GB?

Several virtual machines

pioneer2000 · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:04

What are you using virtual machines for?

tbz_ck · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:33

pioneer2000 said:
What are you using virtual machines for?

At the moment, 2 x Windows 2008 servers, 1 x WHS v1 and 1 Elastix linux telephone server

m1979 · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:36

pioneer2000 said:
What's the point in adding 8GB of RAM to these? Surely the performance is bottlenecked by the rest of it? What are you running on it that will use anywhere near 8GB?

1. I want to try SBS 2011

2. I will run Exchange so it will use this additional memory
3. It is cheap and is always good to have more memory than minimum requirements

Banzai_Joe · 22 Jun 2011 at 21:43

m1979 said:
1. I want to try SBS 2011
2. I will run Exchange so it will use this additional memory
3. It is cheap and is always good to have more memory than minimum requirements

Exchange!!???

I'll put money on it killing it. Of course it's worth trying, what version of Exchange and how many users?
I have a dedicated ML360 running 2 x cpu's, 6Gb ram, loaded with server 2008 and Exchange 2007, and it struggles with approx. 90 users.....

I'm about to virtualise it and put into a ML370 and give it 16Gb ram.

Let us know how you get on it that, i'd be genuinely interested to see how it fares.

m1979 · 22 Jun 2011 at 21:58

Relax Banzai_Joe

This is a home server, 2 users, 1-2 mailboxes

I got a job where I will touch servers from time to time only, will work with routers/switches/firewalls a lot and want to have a server at home to play with and setup one domain on it...

I think Microserver will handle several emails per week and a few shared folders with 2-3 GPO rules

Banzai_Joe · 23 Jun 2011 at 08:10

Lol....i iz relaxxxxxed.

Keep us posted please, intrigued by this, as i was trying to free up ours at work to test it at home.

conuk · 23 Jun 2011 at 18:24

is there any reason why an SSD in this thing will be stoopid?

Im running Windows 7 - obviously it will be in the 5th ODD space - I gather I have to change the firmware - any other worries ?
As a 40gb is pretty cheap .... why not in place of the 250gb included drive ?

b0rn2sk8 · 23 Jun 2011 at 22:58

It would be pointless other than making the machine boot faster, but it's likely to be switched on 24/7 anyway. CPU will bottle neck anything remotely intensive.

Magic_x_uk · 23 Jun 2011 at 23:04

I have a question about this as was thinking of buying a NAS but some people have pointed me to this topic, saying it could be better for me.

Can this server thing run XBMC and squeezebox music server?
anyway to be able to find out?

Basically looking for something for storage of files. Was thinking of a NAS onto my Home network, but like I said, ive posted on some other topics within OCUK and they have said to have a look here.

Bit all new to me this server thing.

RoyMi6 · 24 Jun 2011 at 10:56

Replied in your other thread regarding this Magix_x_uk but to answer your questions here specifically:

Sqeezebox server can run on pretty much anything http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_Server#Server_Hardware_and_Plugins

Install Linux, Microsoft Windows or FreeNAS on this server and it will work a treat. It's also possible to run it on most NAS devices.

This server is not meant as a home theatre PC. It does not have a overly powerful graphics card or built in sound card but it can run it. I had it installed on mine just for testing purposes. If you got a PCI sound card then it would work a treat. Can't garuntree handling hi def stuff though.

If however you install XBMC on another computer connected to your TV then yes, it will happily connect to this server running with any OS as long as the drives are "shared" on the network.

The Asgard · 24 Jun 2011 at 13:13

Just swapped the Fan out with a Akasa Apache which made a big difference to noise over stock.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-061-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4

The pin mod I made

Stock

BLK, YEL, GRN , BLU

Modded

BLU, BLK, YEL, GRN

Enjoy.

RoyMi6 · 24 Jun 2011 at 15:21

The Asgard said:
Just swapped the Fan out with a Akasa Apache which made a big difference to noise over stock.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-061-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4

The pin mod I made

Stock

BLK, YEL, GRN , BLU

Modded

BLU, BLK, YEL, GRN

Enjoy.

What? It made it louder?

Joking aside I don't see how having a silent fan can make a "big" difference to the sound as I find the stock almost inaudible even with everything else off in the room...

mofi · 24 Jun 2011 at 15:49

spanglemaker said:
My WOL works intermittently too. I have no idea why though.

When Hibernating, WOL does not work if the power has been switched off since the computer was hibernated.

/MF

DIABLO · 24 Jun 2011 at 15:49

RoyMi6 said:
Replied in your other thread regarding this Magix_x_uk but to answer your questions here specifically:

Sqeezebox server can run on pretty much anything http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_Server#Server_Hardware_and_Plugins

Install Linux, Microsoft Windows or FreeNAS on this server and it will work a treat. It's also possible to run it on most NAS devices.

This server is not meant as a home theatre PC. It does not have a overly powerful graphics card or built in sound card but it can run it. I had it installed on mine just for testing purposes. If you got a PCI sound card then it would work a treat. Can't garuntree handling hi def stuff though.

If however you install XBMC on another computer connected to your TV then yes, it will happily connect to this server running with any OS as long as the drives are "shared" on the network.

Just to expand on thwe HTPC point there are a few people who have converted the microserver into a HTPC by adding a better graphics card and using a USB sound card and i'd heard that it works a treat for them playing HD content.

DIABLO · 24 Jun 2011 at 15:59

added a status lcd to mine

_SBradley_ · 24 Jun 2011 at 16:37

Did anyone manage to get wake-on-LAN working with FreeNAS/FreeBSD? That's the one thing missing for me at the moment...

TigerUK · 24 Jun 2011 at 17:02

DIABLO said:
added a status lcd to mine

nice