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

pioneer2000 said:
I doubt they'll suffer much- their rated operating temperature is 0-60c and studies have shown that warmer running drives actually tend to last longer (obviously within certain limits!)
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45+ with one, two one on top of the other with no air flow, ummm. I certainly wouldn't want to run my disks on the edge.
 
Cheers DIABLO, glad it fits and thanks for the pics. I'll have to get some extra screws then.

Saviola - done

My personal plan was to simply remove the optical bay cover (I understand it takes some er... persuasion) and perhaps stick some mesh to the inside. I will also possibly get my friend to help me ventilate (haha) the roof. I don't need to buy 6 drives straight away anyway, so I'll probably start with 2x2TBs in the main caddys, keep the 250GB for the time being, add another 2x2TB later on, moving the 250GB upstairs, then ditch that for another 2x2TB when needed. Just doing my future-proofing now.
 
Hi to everyone :)

I'm hoping perhaps some kind people here may be able to answer just a few simple questions to avoid me making any mistakes in the next few days?

I've just put together a HP Proliant Microserver with 8GB RAM and Four 2TB Seagate HDD's and a DVD-RW Drive.

I have Windows Home Server being delivered to me early next week which I am going to install onto this totally currently bare machine.

All I have done is flashed the BIOS with the latest official one on the HP
website.

So, my questions :)

I understand there was an issue with the earlier version of WHS and installing due to the AHCI mode the drives are set in by default and people said to change this setting to IDE Mode.
They also said you can get around this problem by having the correct AHCI drivers to hand (perhaps on a USB stick) during the install and pointing to them at the required time.

However, someone has since told me that this is no longer something that I have to worry about, as Windows Home Server 2011 does not have this problem as it has the drivers itself and I can leave the Microserver with it's AHCI mode setting and not have to worry.

Is this correct?


Secondly, I have read that WHS does not find the correct (or very good) video drivers for the built in, on-board graphics chipset.
Again, I'm not sure if this was referring to the original version of WHS only, or it's still true for the new WHS 2011 version also.

If it is still true of WHS 2011. Could someone please put a link to the latest proper graphics drivers that I will need for my microserver. Thanks.

Finally, is there anything else, driver wise, or setting wise I will need to have ready to use?

I would like to be prepared beforehand, rather than trying to solve problems midway through the install when I get my WHS 2011 in the post next week.

Many thanks to anyone who can offer advice on the above. :)
 
Yes WHS 2011 will install fine. WHS 2011 is a tweaked version of Windows Server 2008 so download the driver for that operating system from HP.
 
DIABLO said:
Yes WHS 2011 will install fine. WHS 2011 is a tweaked version of Windows Server 2008 so download the driver for that operating system from HP.
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Thank you for the confirmation that I don't have to worry about the AHCI problem with WHS 2011


Could you clarify which driver we are talking about re your other comment?

I'd like to have anything downloaded and ready to use at the time.

Thanks :)

I understand WHS 2011 is based upon Windows Server 2008 R2, so I guess that means the drivers on this page here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...sId=4248009&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4064

I wonder how many of these individual downloads I need to worry about as opposed to just using what WHS 2001 gives me by default.
 
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hmmm....all set up and I'm doing my first big transfer and its only getting 22MB/s :s From a Samsung F1 internal drive on my win7 x64 pc over the gigabit network to the 2x2tb raid 1 partition on 2008R2.

IS there any tweaking i should be doing? I was expecting 5x that! I'm transferring 9.35gb over 465 files, files between 10 and 30mb.

Cheers

Tom.
 
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A thought...............

As we all know (well, I think it's a commonly help thought) we should not treat something like our Microservers as our safety backup data area.
They are our "Working" devices, not our backup devices which we run to when all goes wrong.

So, this leads us to the question of, well, how to I back up my Microserver then?

I guess, many people (as we do at work) backup onto external USB/eSATA drives, and these are out emergency copies.

This is fine, apart from two obvious issues:

1: You have to keep backing up, perhaps manually.
2: You can't fit all your data from a multi terrabyte microserver onto one USB/eSATA external drive.

So, if we accept we need about as much storage to safely back up our microserver as our microserver has, then we need a way of creating a multi drive backup unit.

Having looked at units that hold, say 4 hard drives, it seems these are just as expensive as a microserver themselves!

I can't help then to be led to the inevitable conclusion that the most cost effective and safe way to back up your microserver, is by buying another microserver, with the same storage, and backing one up to the other.

Perhaps not needing a full server OS on the second machine, just some free NAS software instead.

Any thoughts on this, or other answers to this problem?
 
Tempest said:
A thought...............

As we all know (well, I think it's a commonly help thought) we should not treat something like our Microservers as our safety backup data area.
They are our "Working" devices, not our backup devices which we run to when all goes wrong.

So, this leads us to the question of, well, how to I back up my Microserver then?

I guess, many people (as we do at work) backup onto external USB/eSATA drives, and these are out emergency copies.

This is fine, apart from two obvious issues:

1: You have to keep backing up, perhaps manually.
2: You can't fit all your data from a multi terrabyte microserver onto one USB/eSATA external drive.

So, if we accept we need about as much storage to safely back up our microserver as our microserver has, then we need a way of creating a multi drive backup unit.

Having looked at units that hold, say 4 hard drives, it seems these are just as expensive as a microserver themselves!

I can't help then to be led to the inevitable conclusion that the most cost effective and safe way to back up your microserver, is by buying another microserver, with the same storage, and backing one up to the other.

Perhaps not needing a full server OS on the second machine, just some free NAS software instead.

Any thoughts on this, or other answers to this problem?
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bang on really, microservers are the perfect backup solution or live fileserver solution.........they're good at both roles, so having 2 makes sense!

It depends what you're trying to backup against though.....if you're trying to backup against disk failure then there is nothing wrong with just having RAID-1 arrays in it really, but if you want to back up against virus or accidental deletion then yea you do want a second microserver :) Best get it before the end of july when the cashback stops!
 
Wouldnt think the cashback will actually stop at the end of July, based on the fact it was originally meant to stop at the end of December 10, and keeps on getting extended.

I bought two Microservers initially to be backups (clones) of each other, but, instead ive gone with FreeNAS RaidZ (Raid5) on each box and each being synced to a single Macpro , therefore, ive always got at least 1 backup of everything, and really important stuff i keep 4 copies, 1 on each Macpro and therefore 1 on each Microserver.
 
If you do have two Microservers, I guess the question then is, what OS do you have on both and how do you physically manage it all?

Personally I don't even plan to have my one Microserver on all day. let alone two.

I've only got this for home use, so there is really no point in me leaving one running, even at only 50watts from say Midnight through to around 6pm the following evening.

For weekdays, there really is no point in leaving one running 18 hours a day (90 hours a week - weekdays) when I won't have any reason to access it.
 
im currently running a microserver with freenas and raidz1 with 4 x wd green drives, i have a backup hd ready incase one dies is this safe?? i am thinking about buying another micro server soon how many drives could i get away with installing in it whilst still using freenas?? thanks
 
cellpack said:
im currently running a microserver with freenas and raidz1 with 4 x wd green drives, i have a backup hd ready incase one dies is this safe?? i am thinking about buying another micro server soon how many drives could i get away with installing in it whilst still using freenas?? thanks
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I must admit, this is exactly what I was going to do with mine.

4x Green Drives with FreeNAS and RaidZ1 (so that one drive could die)

May I ask if you know much/anything about networking and command line issues, as I must admit, that was my worry. If I went down the FreeNAS route and something went wrong, then I would be totally lost. And part of the reason I decided I would order a copy of Windows Home Server 2011 as it should be easier to set up, get to work with other devices, and also be easier to get help with.

Part of me still likes the idea of FreeNAS as you have set your's up like.

Might you have any thoughts to share with me about your experience of your setup?
 
to be honest im not having any problems with it so far, i installed to a usb stick which is in the box, and i have backed up the config incase of any issues, i am running 8.0.1 beta 3 at the moment and enabled 4k support on the volume, i have 8gb memory installed and can transfer from my pc to the freenas micro system with a sustained rate of around 80mb/s on a gig network
 
cellpack said:
to be honest im not having any problems with it so far, i installed to a usb stick which is in the box, and i have backed up the config incase of any issues, i am running 8.0.1 beta 3 at the moment and enabled 4k support on the volume, i have 8gb memory installed and can transfer from my pc to the freenas micro system with a sustained rate of around 80mb/s on a gig network
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Thanks, again, that's exactly what I had in mind. I even bought a new USB stick to fit in the case, and I have FreeNAS 8.0 on it, but just not actually used it yet.

The only reasons I was swayed towards Windows, and truth be said, I'd rather have something incredibly lightweight running, than some version of windows, was that out of the Box, Windows will stream easily to things such as a PS3 or an Xbox, I can get iPad apps so I can view files, and probably stream photo's/music/video to it. Also being able to log in (vie some web browser add on) from anywhere in the world to get to my files.

Whilst I will admit, I'm not sure how much of these features I will in reality use once they are set up.

I suppose the fact it also offers to fully back up any PC on the network and it will back itself up also seem nice things to have.

As I see it, FreeNAS is a super lightweight system that just stores your data and that's it.

To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure which system to go with.
 
that is the way I was, but at the end of the day i just wanted to be able to play my media across my network, i have a wd live hub and can stream to it no problem with no stutter e.t.c. the only thing that concerned me was the backup situation but if i have a drive standing by i should be okay hopefully!
 
cellpack said:
that is the way I was, but at the end of the day i just wanted to be able to play my media across my network, i have a wd live hub and can stream to it no problem with no stutter e.t.c. the only thing that concerned me was the backup situation but if i have a drive standing by i should be okay hopefully!
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Ah right I understand.
I must admit, I'm still unsure.

One thing that's putting me a bit off FreeNAS also is the lack of support on two large forums I read.
It's like wading through treacle to get any replies to things.
Could post a simple basic question, getting 30 or 50 views and like 1 reply if you are lucky.
It's not the kind of thing I'm looking for, esp when it might come to needing some quick advice in the future.

I'm still on the fence though :)
 
Tempest said:
If you do have two Microservers, I guess the question then is, what OS do you have on both and how do you physically manage it all?

Personally I don't even plan to have my one Microserver on all day. let alone two.

I've only got this for home use, so there is really no point in me leaving one running, even at only 50watts from say Midnight through to around 6pm the following evening.

For weekdays, there really is no point in leaving one running 18 hours a day (90 hours a week - weekdays) when I won't have any reason to access it.
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I'm wanting to use my Microserver in the same way....

I'm running XBMC live with Samba added to provide basic file sharing to other devices around the house. Like tempest I don't need it running 24/7.

What's the best way of managing this? I'm a bit of a Linux noob but I guess it's easy enough to do a timed shutdown with a cron job, but what about starting up again - is there any way to do this?

Thanks in advance..
 
Is it in the same room as your TV? Just use W7 and run XBMC on it, put in a cheap ATI low profile card and then connect it with HDMI.

Sorted.

I have mine as the above, filesharing, download box, burning DVDs when I need them box, does not break a sweat running a 30GB+ 1080p mkv, this is while downloading at 6.2MB/sec!
 
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