Upgrading or replacing 2012 HP Microserver

mattie

mattie

mattie

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9 Nov 2005
Posts
89
Location
Bath, UK
Hi all

I've been using a HP Proliant microserver for a long while, running WHS 2011 - this has never been the quickest (it's an old Turion-based box of about 2012 vintage) and although I've upgraded RAM to 6Gb it's still pretty ponderous. I use it as a document vault and simply to serve files, mainly photos for Lightroom which will be between 16Mb and 24Mb each, camera depending, and it's excruciating waiting for files to load. I'm also having all sorts of bother getting WHS accessible externally after latest move. In short, it needs sorting out. I don't really serve any media through it so have no need at moment for transcoding etc, but if any new approach works better I may start using it as media server.

The operating system is still on the original drive small HDD, with two WD Red 2TB in for files. I set these up as RAID, I embarrassingly can't recall how I did this - it was 8 years ago and I have trouble remembering what I did last week - but one mirrors the other to provide some protection against drive failure, and I use a separate portable USB drive for periodic (although very infrequent) backup. It's plugged via ethernet into home router and everything else connects via wifi.

Would I be best off keeping the server and ditching WHS for some other OS, looking again at how the server or other devices are connected, or taking the large drives out and placing in a NAS caddy?

The server is so dated I'm not sure it would be worth changing, and I of course worry about the life left in old kit. I would only want to access outside of home network infrequently, but it would definitely be useful to do so, but main aim is to get the photo files available on desktop and laptop on home network much more speedily. I would expect to connect via Ethernet to router, but I note some devices can connect via USB 3.0 - is it possible to connect a NAS to my desktop via USB to speed photo file loading, but use as a network NAS for other devices?

Any recommendations for approach and for suitable kit appreciated - it seems there's a few offerings aimed at home users and some at more small business, not sure where best to go. Happy to go a few hundred on this as a rough budget.

All advice greatly appreciated
 
I have a very similar set up to you, even down to the OS and the hard drives. I've been thinking about a replacement for when it dies (although its still plugging away fine at the moment). Mine is used as file and printer server, runs a cloud backup to BackBlaze and the occasional rip of a film from DVD to it to be served up over plex (no on-the-fly transcoding required).

I reckon the options I have are:

- New HP Gen 10 microserver, around £450, I can just put WHS 2011 on it and continue as I was with the same software on better hardware.
- As above but put Windows 10 on it for an extra licence fee cost. I use some Windows only software on mine and the learning curve will be zero rather than trying to get something like Ubuntu or ESXi working on it. Low / zero learning curve is important to me, but you might vary.

- Buy components second hand for a cheap desktop and use that with WHS2011 or Win 10 (as above). For £400 I could get something that works fine (older AMD Ryzen processor for example) and again sits within my existing knowledge of how to build a PC. Power consumption likely to be higher than a Microserver however for 24/7 use as it won't be optimised like a Microserver will be for not sucking electricity all the time!
 
I just built a Ryzen 7 2700 (8c/16t), 16gb ddr4-2400 hyper-v box from a mix of new and used parts for a bit over £450 if that helps.

(I had spare OS licence, a small 100gb SSD kicking around already for OS and most of my storage is in another box via iscsi so no costs for those)

Ryzen 7 2700 (65w) - used
Crucial 16Gb DDR4-2400 (2x 8gb) - new
ASrock B450M Pro4-F - new
2u budget rackmount case + Rails - new
Seasonic 400ES 400W - new
Nvidia Quadro NVS310 - used
HP NC364T/Intel Pro 1000 PT quad nic - used
Noctua NH-L9a AM4 - new
2x 80mm Noctua NF-A8 PWM - new
 
WHS support/security updates stopped months ago, ongoing use isn’t a great idea, exposing it to the internet really isn’t a good idea. For basic file serving duties, your biggest issue is likely the WiFi connection - if you want fast, use a wired connection. If you want to upgrade, don’t buy a new microserver, the cost just doesn’t make sense anymore For this sort of usage, build instead. My first suggestion is to ditch WHS, at this point it’s a liability, something like FreNAS or UnRAID will run nicely in your Microserver, but it’s still not going to be quick until you deal with how you connect to your server.
 
Thanks all for comments.

I think WHS is for the bin, I'll look into the NAS drives as I don't think I need a full server and don't really want the hassle of build and admin. Assume I can just drag and drop the main drives out of the server, without need to format etc? WHS is on the original drive (250GB, from memory) and I've not used any hardware RAID. I'll drag copy of files onto caddy drive anyway, just in case.

Anything I'd need to consider for NAS boxes? Would I be OK with relatively low spec home NAS or would a few quid on more powerful versions offer anything useful for my relatively simple uses? Assume all require ethernet which would mean I'd need NAS by router, is there any option to connect via USB 3.0 or similar to photo editing PC and then use wifi for network connectivity? I'm not that fused if it's slow for other devices as they'd only be pulling small files, but the photo editing definitely has bandwidth issue.
 
Your existing set-up is capable of faster than gigabit speeds, replacing it with another NAS that’s capable of the same won’t fix your speed issue. If you don’t believe me run a cable and test. What you have will likely perform as well as any budget NAS with a decent OS on it, if you are going down that route, look at the support lifecycle, while Synology have improved it in recent years, it used to really suck to be told your hardware was unsupported but you could buy the same underlying hardware with a new model number and have support for another x years (cross flashing firmwares used to be a thing). Also consider that if you have a hardware failure out of warranty, you have to buy an identical used NAS to get back up and running. In terms of admin time, FreeNAS/UnRAID are going to be near enough identical to Synology/QNAP over the years.
 
I don't understand why the OP is getting these issues. I have a base hp n40l running win server that's basically a file server for 4k remux files over the network and works flawlessly.
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Your loading of lightroom files is either linked to lightroom itself or your network. The server hardware has nothing to do with it if files are just being pulled directly.

I get the appeal of upgrading but this honestly sounds like a waste of money.
 
I've got a pair of Lenovo TS140's that I was thinking of putting on the Member's Market if there's any interest. I've had 3 of them since new running ESXi and they've been fantastic. Can barely hear them and 2 have been running as ESXi 6.7 U3 hosts most recently with the 3rd running unRAID with 4xHDD and an SSD for NAS/media stuff.

One of the ones I'm no longer using has an E3-1225 v3 (3.40Ghz) and the other an E3-1226 V3 (3.50Ghz). Both have 32GB RAM and a 500GB Samunsug EVO 860 SSD. If there's any interest I'll make a post there.
 
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