Hp Proliant Microserver OS

jaybee said:
Is that 100MB/s using ZFS on Solaris do you mean? What build are you using? Can you tell me more? I want to set up a server to perform various duties including:

Backups
PS3 Media server
File storage
Ability to run XBMC
Torrents/downloads

I have been looking at using Ubuntu with FlexRaidLive when it comes out in a few weeks. I don't like the look of unraid since it ties you into a licence restricted to putting your faith into a USB device lasting for as long as your server is required, plus limits you to 20 HDDs. Oh and it's not free.
I refuse to use Windows anything. I have looked at freenas but it looks a bit limiting in terms of the OS, a bit like unraid.

ZFS on Solaris looks good. I have some experience of it, but mainly as a corporate unix server and I have not trialed any of the ZFS benefits.

For me, I find 50MB/s unacceptable. 75+ is my target, preferably 100.
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Using Solaris Express 11. I was on OpenIndiana, but switched over to the dark side to see if it made any difference (which it didn't). Now its working I cba to go back.
I sorted things out, still not exactly sure what did it but I get 101MB/s sustained reads and writes over SMB now. There's a great web configuration interface for ZFS called napp-it if you are interested. It's easily installed via perl script from the internet.

Among the things I did were upgrading to 4GB RAM, disabling sync on the smb shared zfs folder, playing around with network settings on my windows clients, and putting an smb.conf file in /etc/samba with the following code:

Code: 
[global]
        max xmit = 65535
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535
        block size = 4096
Normally I'd say that it was the smb.conf file that did it, but I don't even know if solaris uses SAMBA, smb sharing is supposed to be built into the kernel.
 
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I did some setup on my microserver over the holiday period, and thought i'd share for everyone elses benefit.

Hardware purchased and all working fine:-

2 x Corsair Value 2GB PC10666
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-296-CS

4 x Samsung Spinpoint F4 Ecogreen 2tb disks
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-097-SA

1 x Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVDRW
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-075-PO&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951
(Dont forget you need a molex>sata power adapter and a 45cm SATA cable. Anything less than 45cm wont fit)

I've been messing about ubuntu desktop/server 10.10 and couldnt get either of them working as I wanted with software RAID (mdRAID/LVM arrrrrgghhh) etc so ended up running to mamma and installing win7 home premium 64bit which works like a charm.

I've got the following partitions, which seems to be OK for now.

Disk0 - 100mb System
Disk0 - 500Gb OS
Disk0 - 1.2tb BACKUP with compresion ON

Disk 1 - 2tb DATA in Stripe set
Disk 2 - 2tb DATA in Stripe set
Disk 3 - 2tb DATA in Stripe set

I've got my folders arranged as follows on the DATA volume (5.7tb IIRC)

/Music (shared)
/Photos (shared)
/Movies (shared)
/Kids Movies (shared)
/Recently Downloaded (shared)
/Torrents/WIP
/Torrents/Complete

In terms of software i'm using the following:

AirVideo - For Ipad/Iphone streaming on LAN and Internet. It is configured against all those folders above.

AnyDVD - For making DVD backups from my collection.

TwonkyServer - For streaming music to my Pure Avanti Flow radio downstairs

MS SyncToy - For doing backups between the data drive and the backup volume. Also intend using this to do the same to an external HDD for critical stuff (photos/music)

Logmein/utorrent etc

In terms of TV streaming I use Zotac Zbox running XBMC Live which works great on the latest revision.

Pretty happy so far.
 
I tried on the fly transcoding with AirVideo to the iPad (adjusting settings) and it would stutter. I just convert them from within AV first, streaming is fine.
 
Sorry you couldn't get md going, it should be fairly easy to do what you want to do. Not sure how sophisticated the Ubuntu installed is but Debian could take care of it.

8TB of warez in RAID0? :o
 
fluff said:
Sorry you couldn't get md going, it should be fairly easy to do what you want to do. Not sure how sophisticated the Ubuntu installed is but Debian could take care of it.

8TB of warez in RAID0? :o
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warez;whats that????

Regarding ubuntu, then the problem was that I couldnt get it to recognise more than 2tb on any of the partitions it was creating. I think it was due to GPT/MBR type problems but I couldnt sort it. To be honest the only benefit was being able to run RAID5 across the whole array, but seens as I couldnt sort it out I just set it up as above.
 
Another change of heart, after spending what seemed like ages get WHS onto the box and then waiting for 3 trillion 2003 updates and 2 power packs to be installed, none of the WHS services now no longer run.

Had a look around google and it seems that the general advice is to do a re-install as 1 of the updates has screwed something up. Re-install, no thanks, I'm going to go back to W7 x64 Pro and leave it at that.

Also the Drive Extender tech supposedly slows your access to the disks anyway and you have to mess around with services to stop some services kicking in else they'll hog CPU time and cause stuttering on any media being served. That's all a summary, there are various suggestions but I in all honesty can't be arsed. :)
 
IAmATeaf said:
Another change of heart, after spending what seemed like ages get WHS onto the box and then waiting for 3 trillion 2003 updates and 2 power packs to be installed, none of the WHS services now no longer run.

Had a look around google and it seems that the general advice is to do a re-install as 1 of the updates has screwed something up. Re-install, no thanks, I'm going to go back to W7 x64 Pro and leave it at that.

Also the Drive Extender tech supposedly slows your access to the disks anyway and you have to mess around with services to stop some services kicking in else they'll hog CPU time and cause stuttering on any media being served. That's all a summary, there are various suggestions but I in all honesty can't be arsed. :)
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My WHS installed perfectly, no issues at all when upgrading to PP3. All working flawlessly, but I will be interested to move onto Amahi one greyhole goes stable as this looks like an interesting project as an alternative to WHS!
 
Ive had a maddening issue installing 2008 R2 onto this specifically when it comes to the DNS configuration after DCPromo.

Whereas the identical process takes about 5 minutes on my ML115, it takes over an hour on the Microserver applying the DNS configuration, upon restarting it takes about 45 mins on the windows loading screen, eventually just goes to a black screen with a cursor and no further.

I am still awaiting 4GB of RAM and hope that its a memory issue, or Ill be stumped. Dont suppose any of you have installed the Microserver as a Domain Controller successfully?
 
marcus2704 said:
Ive had a maddening issue installing 2008 R2 onto this specifically when it comes to the DNS configuration after DCPromo.

Whereas the identical process takes about 5 minutes on my ML115, it takes over an hour on the Microserver applying the DNS configuration, upon restarting it takes about 45 mins on the windows loading screen, eventually just goes to a black screen with a cursor and no further.

I am still awaiting 4GB of RAM and hope that its a memory issue, or Ill be stumped. Dont suppose any of you have installed the Microserver as a Domain Controller successfully?
Click to expand...

Will be doing so soon, but on 2k3 when we get our shipment in for branch servers.
 
marcus2704 said:
I am still awaiting 4GB of RAM and hope that its a memory issue, or Ill be stumped. Dont suppose any of you have installed the Microserver as a Domain Controller successfully?
Click to expand...

I have Win2K10 r2 as a VM with 2GB and it takes about 1 minute to reach login, 4GB should be ample.
 
I'm running SBS 2011 on mine now, no problems at all, using 5Gb of RAM, takes about 3 minutes from power on to the login to come up.
 
Ive tried everything I can think of to set the Microserver up as a Server 2008 DC in a new forest, every time the DCPromo takes best part of an hour to complete, the server will then reboot and after another 30 min wait to load will go to a black screen and cursor. Ive tried the exact same process on a ML115 (which takes about 3 minutes to complete) and it works perfectly. Ive got all of the HP and windows updates, Ive really no idea why this does not work..! Id stick with my ML115 but its too noisy, the beauty of the Microserver is that its so quiet.
 
Has anyone tried to stream media to ps3 with 2008r2 i, have no idea how to do it.

i would recommend WS2008r2 to anyone only if you know what you are doing or can pick thinks up fast(read forums on google), hard to do backups but keeps data protected easy access but i am too think and still cant work it
 
Ubuntu Server 10.10 on the included 160GB HDD and 4 2TB in a Linux Raid 10. using the default 1GB ram the server idles at 300MB used and CPU ticking over gently hosting the following:

Transmission
miniDLNA (amazing lightweight DLNA server)
forked-DAAPD (iTunes server)
Squeezecenter
webmin (for times when I don't care to use the shell)
FTP
samba/cifs
NFS

It serves all my media and barely breaks a sweat. I'd recommend Ubuntu Server for anyone who isn't afraid to spend 10 minutes with the command line, after that you can do most things via the web interface
 
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I see many of you were planning to run PS3 Media Server on your Proliants.

How is the performance at transcoding standard def or 720p for the PS3? I used to do this via an old P4 3.06 box I had hidden away, but that thing used so much power.

If this is up to the job I'd want to get one before the cashback offer runs out in about a week, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The PMS forums aren't very helpful because I'm a bit out of touch and am not sure how this CPU measures up compared to the ones they suggest.
 
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