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

Soldato
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Hey,

Single original 250GB disk, FreeNAS7 with a simple CIFS share setup (installed onto a USB drive). Server is hooked up directly to my router (GbE), using DHCP, but with a pre-assigned IP. The client is connected via Homeplug which syncs at around 140Mbps.

I'm able to download from the internet at over 1Mbps, so not sure that the internal network is at fault (Homeplugs etc.) - must be something on the server side?!

Cheers,

Su
 
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Hey,

Single original 250GB disk, FreeNAS7 with a simple CIFS share setup (installed onto a USB drive). Server is hooked up directly to my router (GbE), using DHCP, but with a pre-assigned IP. The client is connected via Homeplug which syncs at around 140Mbps.

I'm able to download from the internet at over 1Mbps, so not sure that the internal network is at fault (Homeplugs etc.) - must be something on the server side?!

Cheers,

Su

Um..... you quoted "transfer" rates in your original post. That's a lot different from "download"

:cool:
 
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It's all a bit Reddish...
No, I'm comparing the transfer rates to what I know the Homeplug network is at least capable of to suggest it is not a bottleneck...

My past experience with Freenas tells me this is something that'll be set on the Server.

I had a nightmare with Samba sharing as the performance was woeful until I started tweaking the settings.

Just have a look in the Network settings and force 1000 Mb on the NIC.

Then play with the Samba settings, I think changing the options for 'send file' and the encoding type helped me.

There's also a general option to enable tweaks or Kernel tuning (I forget) so have a look in the system setup.

If I get chance I'll setup a VM and see if I can spot the settings I changed.
 
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Installed WHS 2011 and drive bender, all my data has been transferred across without any problems. The external eSATA connection seems to work fine once I had scanned for new hardware in Device Manager.

The unit is very nice and compact albeit the wires could have been thought through a little better to make access to the motherboard easier, but I suppose its not major issue as you won't be removing it or accessing it that often.

Still no luck getting the whole 8Gb usable though, think it might be the dual channel non-EEC RAM (2x4Gb) I have installed.





Not sure about WHS 2011 at the moment, V1 seems much easier and slicker to use. Will post back when I've had more tiem to play with it.

Jack
 
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Soldato
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What would one of these be like for running a bunch of VMs on (I'm thinking lots of RAM)? Something like Hyper-V or ESXi, perhaps. I've been looking for something to use for this purpose for a while and since the cashback offer still appears to be on, it might be worth it.

Anyone doing this?
 
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What would one of these be like for running a bunch of VMs on (I'm thinking lots of RAM)? Something like Hyper-V or ESXi, perhaps. I've been looking for something to use for this purpose for a while and since the cashback offer still appears to be on, it might be worth it.

Anyone doing this?

Your main restriction is the 8GB RAM limit

A lot of people are using it with esxi. Myself included.


Can you give the poster a idea of how many VM's you run at a time then? :)
 
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Your main restriction is the 8GB RAM limit




Can you give the poster a idea of how many VM's you run at a time then? :)

This is a bit old now (covers an earlier version of microserver) :

http://www.techhead.co.uk/running-vmware-vsphere-on-an-hp-microserver

But it does includes some info on what can be run virtually :

"Though if you want a small factor, super-uber quiet vSphere lab server to run 4-6 VMs with low/moderate CPU workloads then the HP MicroServer is definitely worth a look."

Might be worth a read.
 
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Mine's arriving tomorrow so I thought I'd ask for a bit of advice. I will be installing Ubuntu Server as my background is in Linux and not Windows. It'll be for storing media files, backups and running XMBC until my Rasberry Pi arrives... I'm a bit stuck as how to sort the storage though, up until now I've had 2x500Gb in RAID 1 in a NAS. I also have a 1Tb drive in my desktop which I could swap for the 250Gb contained if needed.

My question is, should I hold on to setup proper storage until I get 3x decent drives or setup with the drives I have now? If so, what sort of arrangement would you recommend on Linux? I'm familiar with all the admin side, just not storage.

EDIT: ZFS is looking a good option, I didn't realise it had a Linux port now. How do the pools work compared to a RAID setup?
 
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Soldato
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Mine's arriving tomorrow so I thought I'd ask for a bit of advice. I will be installing Ubuntu Server as my background is in Linux and not Windows. It'll be for storing media files, backups and running XMBC until my Rasberry Pi arrives... I'm a bit stuck as how to sort the storage though, up until now I've had 2x500Gb in RAID 1 in a NAS. I also have a 1Tb drive in my desktop which I could swap for the 250Gb contained if needed.

My question is, should I hold on to setup proper storage until I get 3x decent drives or setup with the drives I have now? If so, what sort of arrangement would you recommend on Linux? I'm familiar with all the admin side, just not storage.

EDIT: ZFS is looking a good option, I didn't realise it had a Linux port now. How do the pools work compared to a RAID setup?

Pools are collections of storage, and ZFS will "stripe" across all the storage devices within to get you fast transfer speeds. So you can have a pool containing a RAIDZ (ZFS software parity RAID, like RAID5) and then throw in a mirrored array from your hardware RAID and even a USB pen stick and it won't bat an eye, but remember that you'll be as vulnerable as the weakest part of your pool.

The downside is that you can't expand the number of drives in a RAIDZ, so say you had a 3 drive RAIDZ as the only member of a pool, then got a fourth drive. You wouldn't be able to add that fourth drive into the existing RAIDZ, you'd only be able to add it in to the pool as a drive on it's own, which would be risky. If you wanted to maintain the same level of protection you'd have to buy two more drives and create a second three drive RAIDZ which could be added to the pool (creating the equivalent of a RAID50)

I'm pretty sure you can replace disks in a RAIDZ one by one with larger ones and when they are all replaced you'll get the extra space.

sooo, planning is important if you don't want to end up with more drives given over to resiliency than you'd really like.

I've just got a fifth 2TB drive for mine, and I'm going to have to move the existing data off the pool, break it all down and start again to turn it from a 4 drive RAIDZ to a 5 drive RAIDZ.

Apart from that minor annoyance, It's nice, I actually changed OS from Solaris to Ubuntu Server with ZFS (was chasing better SMB speeds) and I was able to import my old pool with all data intact with a simple one line command (something like 'ZFS import')
 
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Soldato
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I don't think that will fit inside the N40L!
I ordered HD6450 - should come today but even that I am having second thought to the clearance!


On another note, I know you can change the stock fan - which is the noisiest part in my N40L - and I have seen a guide on how to do that.
But does it have to be a PWM fan? I have some silent 120mm 3-pin nonPWM fans - but will it work?
Any one tried that?
 
Soldato
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Well I got the HD6450 and installed it!
It was a bit of a pain to get the motherboard tray in after the GPU installation, but after bit of a fiddle with it and bending a small metal part that was obstructing the GPU low profile bracket I managed to finally do it!

But now I have play back issues with XBMC! :(
Tried VLC and MPCHC and they are fine, it is just XBMC that is having an issue with!
When I play any kind of video file with xbmc it just gets stuck after 5 seconds!
ANy body had this issue before?
 
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