Setup HP N40L MicroServer as extension to local machine

masscrazy

masscrazy

masscrazy

Associate
Joined
26 Dec 2009
Posts
689
Location
London
My current rig is in the Fractal Define XL which takes 10 HDDs. I've got 7 3.5 drives in there but now moving into the Corsair Air 540 case which will take only 1 3.5 drive as I will be watercooling it and the only one bay will be available.

This is why I'd like to use my HP N40L micro server to access my HDDs as if they were connected directly to my machine. So I'd like it setup as a JBOD and use my windows 7 machine to access them as network drives. I'd prefer to have a direct ethernet connection between the two instead of using a switch.

Is it the case I just add 5 drives to the server and install windows and share all as network drives? Am I missing something, is this a good idea?
 
Pretty much... it's do-able.

Any reason you don't want to connect to switch or your router? The speed won't really suffer, you should still get gbit speeds and you can hide the server in the basement or under the stairs...
 
Just be careful the raid array config type thing in the server doesn't format the drives... if you use AHCI then you should be safe to just plug them in
 
OK so installed Win7 on the microserver (HP N40L) and I am successfully sharing 2 drives atm, with a direct ethernet connection to one of my NICs on my main machine. I am able to add 5 drives internally to the microserver and use 1 esata (there is USB but its 2.0 so gona be too slow). 1 of those drives unfortunately will have to be used for the OS as I cant get windows working on USB.

Next thing, to move over the other drives and I think i'm done.

Last thing, whats the best way to remotely control the microserver. As in turn off or set to sleep and wake up using my main machine?
 
As far as the extra drives go, if you aren't using the PCIe slot for anything else, you could always add a USB3 card, rig that up to a USB3 hub (powered) then add USB3 hard drives to your hearts content for more space.

As far as the standby/etc goes...

Have a wee look around, I'd be sure there are programs around to throw a "go to sleep" command at the server with very configurable levels for what counts as activity.

As far as waking up, if you have a look in the network connection settings under windows you'll find stuff about "magic packets". You should be able to set your system to wake on magic packet and find something software wise you can put into startup on your main machine so it pokes the server into life as windows loads.

I'll be doing something VERY similar in the near future.

One... tip/idea though...

Under windows 8+ or server 2013+ there's an updated version of the "network shares" protocol (called SMB 3.x). This allows you to properly bind multiple gigabit network connections together to make a fatter pipe. Depending on the card used you can get ones that are very good with CPU, otherwise it can use a few cycles. I say "card used" as there's a good few network cards around with multiple ports. 10gbe network kit is vastly more expensive.

Have a read around on the subjects mentioned and you should fairly quickly find decent, relevant info :)

Alternatively, you could probably build/buy some form of relay that you could sit on a molex connector on your main machine and when it had power would cross the 2 pins for the microserver to fire up. Would get more complicated I feel though (probably more reliable once sorted).
 
Last edited:
Some stuff won't install to a networked drive but I think the local or networked drive bit was something added by the first couple of replies.
 
Thank you Mercutio brilliant suggestions, might just buy a USB3 pcie card, will free up more HDDs from the main machine.

I will look into the sleep/wake thing more as I start the whole migration process in a few days.
 
If anyone is interested.

I've added 6 HDDs to microserver. One 250gb that came with it, this has win7 on it.

5 Drives (4 connected through internal SATA) and one eSata drive.

Hidden away under the alcove in my room, conntected with a normal ethernet cable directly into my computer. And i've simply mapped each drive as a network drive. Works like a charm.

I access the machine via, wakemeonlan which looks at all the ip ranges and detects the microserver, it then uses magic packets (i believe) to turn on the machine as it supports wake on lan network feature.

I then turn off the machine (rarely) using remote desktop. Log in through Remote Desktop connection and alt + f4 (since theres no option in the start menu for shutdown) and dropdown option for shutdown shows up and turn off that way.

Any questions let me know, since this was a short crude update :)
 
masscrazy said:
I then turn off the machine (rarely) using remote desktop. Log in through Remote Desktop connection and alt + f4 (since theres no option in the start menu for shutdown) and dropdown option for shutdown shows up and turn off that way.
Click to expand...

if you want to shutdown you can use the 'shutdown' command. The same result but slightly more elegant. If you have the correct permissions you can even use it against a remote machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom