Associate
- Joined
- 26 Jan 2005
- Posts
- 1,586
- Location
- Newcastle, UK
Hey all,
So a little while ago my ancient computer I used to store files on gave up the ghost. After some research I went and bought the cashback offer HP Microserver N40L, a 2TB hard drive and WHS 2011 to replace it.
I thought that was the end of that, but no. After reading some of the other awesome stuff other people have done with their Microservers, I fancy doing something a bit more exciting with it.
I was thinking about buying another HP Microserver since the cashback offer has been extended again and turn this into a NAS box. I'm thinking about giving FreeNAS a shot, but open to suggestions.
I would then turn the other Microserver into a ESXi host, installing WHS 2011 and Ubuntu Server (web development environment). Mainly to play around with virtualization and linux.
With this set up I'm hoping to use the NAS box to store my media/htdocs files and have WHS backup client machines to this box as well.
The only real stumbling block that I'm not sure about is RAID options. Worth considering? Hardware or software? Any suggestions welcome.
Ultimately I'd like to learn more about RAID, building a NAS and virtualization and hopefully end up with a decent storage solution, which is easy to maintain & recover if anything fails.
Don't want to spend any more than an additional £500-£600 if required.
What are your thoughts? Any suggestions, recommendations welcome. What would you do? I'd be interested to find out what other people have done with their microservers.
Cheers,
Scott.
So a little while ago my ancient computer I used to store files on gave up the ghost. After some research I went and bought the cashback offer HP Microserver N40L, a 2TB hard drive and WHS 2011 to replace it.
I thought that was the end of that, but no. After reading some of the other awesome stuff other people have done with their Microservers, I fancy doing something a bit more exciting with it.
I was thinking about buying another HP Microserver since the cashback offer has been extended again and turn this into a NAS box. I'm thinking about giving FreeNAS a shot, but open to suggestions.
I would then turn the other Microserver into a ESXi host, installing WHS 2011 and Ubuntu Server (web development environment). Mainly to play around with virtualization and linux.
With this set up I'm hoping to use the NAS box to store my media/htdocs files and have WHS backup client machines to this box as well.
The only real stumbling block that I'm not sure about is RAID options. Worth considering? Hardware or software? Any suggestions welcome.
Ultimately I'd like to learn more about RAID, building a NAS and virtualization and hopefully end up with a decent storage solution, which is easy to maintain & recover if anything fails.
Don't want to spend any more than an additional £500-£600 if required.
What are your thoughts? Any suggestions, recommendations welcome. What would you do? I'd be interested to find out what other people have done with their microservers.
Cheers,
Scott.