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what to do with a micro server
dipsomaniac
Posts: 6,739 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
hotukdeals made me buy the hp n54l mirco server. i know it is probably over kill but i wanted to replace my old dlink 320 nas. i currently have 200gb of media file and data that i want to store (and backup) on it and access from anywhere. i also want to use plex.
can anyone suggest a good set up, operating system, software, number and size of discs and best raid configuration?
can anyone suggest a good set up, operating system, software, number and size of discs and best raid configuration?
"The Holy Writ of Gloucester Rugby Club demands: first, that the forwards shall win the ball; second, that the forwards shall keep the ball; and third, the backs shall buy the beer." - Doug Ibbotson
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There are firmware updates available that can unlock and upgrade some features.0
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Most people seem to go for FreeNAS.0
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I run Windows 7 Pro on my 54L with 3*3Tb drives for media, booting off a 64Gb SSD
I steer clear of RAID 1 in the home, preferring to copy data between drives with Allway Sync.0 -
dipsomaniac wrote: »hotukdeals made me buy the hp n54l mirco server. i know it is probably over kill but i wanted to replace my old dlink 320 nas. i currently have 200gb of media file and data that i want to store (and backup) on it and access from anywhere. i also want to use plex.
can anyone suggest a good set up, operating system, software, number and size of discs and best raid configuration?
I don't think it's overkill. You can't get a decent NAS for the same price and you're much more flexible. Also the Microservers are very well built.
In most cases a linux distribution without X Window (e.g Ubuntu Server or Centos) is the best choice. No need to add the overhead of a GUI to this. If you need a GUI for configuration, install webmin.
As for the harddisks, it depends on how much data you have. At the moment 3TB have the best price per GB with the 4TB closing in. I also would recomment to spend a few £ more and get WD Red drives.
I just re-read your post. For 200GB I would go maybe for two 750GB or 1TB drives in a RAID1. Have a look yourself what the price difference is.
I have two of those machines running, both with software RAID5 for the data and a small SSD for the OS. One is my media server with mythtv, mpd etc. and the other one is purely a backup of all my data as well as backup for the Microserver itself. Who knows how long they are available...
I wouldn't recommend using the Microserver's (fake)Raid controller without backup of your data. When the RAID controller dies, you'll need another Microserver to access your data.
http://skrypuch.com/raid/0 -
I would recommend unlocking the BIOS before going forward.
The latest firmware from HP is here
Get yourself a USB Flash drive. This one for £3.18 will do.
Follow the instruction here(with one important difference)
The difference is that once the Bootable USB drive has been created, you need to go into it.
The contents will look somewhat like this:
What you are going to do is to swap/replace the .ROM file within, with this one
The benefits: The N54L does not allow 'Hot Swapping'. But this is not a hardware limitation. HP simply does not allow you to select the option. Those options will be unblocked/enabled along with some other useful functions, including the enabling of the unused SATA port on the Motherboard.0 -
"Restricted downloadNiftyDigits wrote: »
The download you requested requires an active warranty, HP Care Pack or support agreement linked to your HP Support Center profile. Please sign-in ..."
Do you have a link for people without a HP Care Pack or can you post the md5sum of the file you have?NiftyDigits wrote: »Get yourself a USB Flash drive. This one for £3.18 will do.
Follow the instruction here(with one important difference)
The difference is that once the Bootable USB drive has been created, you need to go into it.
The contents will look somewhat like this:
What you are going to do is to swap/replace the .ROM file within, with this one
The benefits: The N54L does not allow 'Hot Swapping'. But this is not a hardware limitation. HP simply does not allow you to select the option. Those options will be unblocked/enabled along with some other useful functions, including the enabling of the unused SATA port on the Motherboard.
I always hesitated do this with the Microserver as I can't just swap the motherboard like on any other PC. The hot swap feature is nice, but most people might not need it. Who uses the Microserver as a high availibility system und doesn't have 5 minutes to spare to shut the system down, change the hard disk and switch it back on?
The only real benefit I see is to turn the spare SATA connector into a real SATA port. Without the BIOS update it seems to work as a ATA port only with UDMA/33.0 -
"Restricted download
The download you requested requires an active warranty, HP Care Pack or support agreement linked to your HP Support Center profile. Please sign-in ..."
Do you have a link for people without a HP Care Pack?
I always hesitated do this with the Microserver as I can't just swap the motherboard like on any other PC. The hot swap feature is nice, but most people might not need it. Who uses the Microserver as a high availibility system und doesn't have 5 minutes to spare to shut the system down, change the hard disk and switch it back on?
The only real benefit I see is to turn the spare SATA connector into a real SATA port. Without the BIOS update it seems to work as a ATA port only with UDMA/33.
SP64420.exe
There are other benefits....the post wasn't aimed at you in particular.
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finally got to taking this hp microserver out of the box. i have updated/hacked the bios, installed 2 x wd red 1tb drives and installed freenas on a flash drive.
i can access the server from my win 7 pc via ip address but can't see it in my windows network tree.
must admit to being way out of my depth when reading the freenas manual. i am sure my dlink nas was just plug and play and appeared on my network without me changing any settings.
i just want to be able to store and access my content from anywhere easily.
can anyone help?"The Holy Writ of Gloucester Rugby Club demands: first, that the forwards shall win the ball; second, that the forwards shall keep the ball; and third, the backs shall buy the beer." - Doug Ibbotson0 -
dipsomaniac wrote: »finally got to taking this hp microserver out of the box. i have updated/hacked the bios, installed 2 x wd red 1tb drives and installed freenas on a flash drive.
i can access the server from my win 7 pc via ip address but can't see it in my windows network tree.
must admit to being way out of my depth when reading the freenas manual. i am sure my dlink nas was just plug and play and appeared on my network without me changing any settings.
i just want to be able to store and access my content from anywhere easily.
can anyone help?
Did you use the my BIOS or another? Which OS are you running?0 -
Just use it's IP address.dipsomaniac wrote: »i just want to be able to store and access my content from anywhere easily.
For example, if the IP address is 192.168.0.1 then type \\192.168.0.1 in to (say) the address bar of Windows Explorer, press enter, and away you go.
Similarly, you can also create a shortcut on your desktop using the IP address and all you'll have to do is double click on it to bring up a new window showing the contents of your NAS box.
If you are prompted for a username/password, use the same credentials that you use for the NAS boxUndersteer is when you hit a wall with the front of your car
Oversteer is when you hit a wall with the back of your car
Horsepower is how fast your car hits the wall
Torque is how far your car sends the wall across the field once you've hit it0
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