HP ProLiant MicroServer Build

menthel said:
Anyone using one of these in a mac household? We currently work off a time capsule but quite frankly it is rubbish.
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I guess it would vary on os used but I can't see any drawbacks of using macs with one. You can use smb protocol on windows shares etc
 
neil_g said:
I guess it would vary on os used but I can't see any drawbacks of using macs with one. You can use smb protocol on windows shares etc
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Thanks. I will have a little dig around.
 
menthel said:
Thanks. I will have a little dig around.
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I mean technically they're the same as any other server we've got at work and while the main server serving mac clients uses a (pricey) afp package they can also access other non afp windows servers fine with smb.
 
Enjoyed the story, Neil, until I found out your OS was well over £400!

A lot to be said for external HDD's.
 
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Yes 2008 isn't for an average user, most would be happy with WHS 2011 @ £40.

Or like Andy said, FreeBSD, or standard Windows desktop OS with shared workgroup drives.. 2008 is my personal preference for what I have planned, and I had access to a licenced copy.
 
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£24.99 for USB3 dock from Maplin's this afternoon seems a real bargain though;)
 
not quite as versatile though ;)

like i said in the OP, this will cost me the same if not less than a 4 bay USB RAID which will have had to be the next step up for my storage so i'm happy. Plus I can serve out more network, data and media options than I can currently think of :D
 
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Yes, will probably need to reorganise my network one day.

At present, all 3 computers have virtually the same data on each, maybe too much backup that way.

However, I always feel a bit paranoid about my data:(
 
What is the reasoning for raid0 neil?

Is it just so you have a drive big enough for a single huge folder of films etc? I know raid 0 is fast but as its all over a network does that matter? I'd also have thought the server will have to spin up all drives just to access a small amount of data which will use more power but may also take longer for initial access?
 
RobertP said:
What is the reasoning for raid0 neil?

Is it just so you have a drive big enough for a single huge folder of films etc? I know raid 0 is fast but as its all over a network does that matter? I'd also have thought the server will have to spin up all drives just to access a small amount of data which will use more power but may also take longer for initial access?
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basically a bit of spanning and a bit of local performance (if I decide to do DNLA transcoding etc, but like you say for over network it probably doesn't make that much difference). mirroring wouldn't have given me anywhere near enough disk space without spending another £80 on an extra drive.

initial spin up shouldn't be that bad, the NAS had to spin up coming out of power save anyway.
 
menthel said:
Anyone using one of these in a mac household? We currently work off a time capsule but quite frankly it is rubbish.
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Yes, I do. My main machine is a mac and the rest of the family use IOS/Android and of course Windows.

Works fine. Occasionally the mac seems to lose the ability to see the server but i'm talking once every few months and nothing a reboot of the mac doesn't solve.

I've now got the homeserver to wake up at 6am and copy any changed files to a spare disk and also to my Time Capsule which is hidden at the other side of the house. Sort of a backup of a backup. I'm kind of paranoid like that. I like how the TC just works without any fuss but dislike the idea of storing all my documents & photos on a single disk.
 
neil_g said:
check the ebuyer product page, theres a PDF to print and send off :)
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Would if but I spat my dummy out with them kind out my own fault but they could of rectified the issue very simply but didn't want to so got a full refund and went to amazon but didn't come with the details spoke to hp and now sorted it out
 
Amazon are ok for cashback as long as it is Amazon and not one of their marketplace traders - some of which sell from Germany etc.

I used the ebuyer PDF for the cashback claim but bought my N40L from CCL when they were £204 :)
 
right well after my little episode the server was back up and running that same evening after a reinstall. hadn't imaged it yet but the install didn't take too long and had SP1 already downloaded.

settled on a normal workgroup rather than a domain, have to admit that was going to be a bit overkill. so ive now got the users set up, shares set up, allway sycn running between the microserver and the nas using UNC paths, drives mapped on all client machines.

just need to reconfigure the paths on the WDTV and see what the streaming is like, but having no bother listening to FLAC on my laptop (just using standard mapped drive) at the moment.

going to have a look at some of the free DNLA server programs tomorrow for the iPad.
 
got a email this morning confirming i will recive the £100 cash back which im now happy
p.s anyone buying one please be carefull where you buy it from
ebay will not be honoured
amazon is ok aslong as it is amazon them selfs not the german company who have it listed at £200 as it will not be honoured
 
Neil, when you say server program for ipad do you mean server or controller or player app?

You get DLNA apps that do all 3 really badly, controllers that work some of the time and players that are much more reliable in my experience.

Just to clarify the way I think things should work...A server offers up whatever is stored on the ipad. a controller will direct say music from a network server to play on a DLNA amp or TV and a player will play stuff to watch/listen to on the ipad.

If you get a controller program working properly on the ipad I love to know about it! The free Kinsky was perfect back on ios4 something for music but was useless on ios5 and works sometimes on ios6. plugplayer I bought but is rubbish at finding the server.
 
Great thread Neil - 2 questions..

What do you store at home that takes up this amount of space? photos? music? I have approx 190Gb of data and consider that alot!


How much does this lot cost to run in electricity? since having my CCTV DVR on full time for the last 6 months or so I can see a definite increase in the usage on EONs helpful online tracker stats. I dread to think how much more I would be paying if I were to run a NAS/Homeserver too.
 
bl0at3r said:
Great thread Neil - 2 questions..

What do you store at home that takes up this amount of space? photos? music? I have approx 190Gb of data and consider that alot!

How much does this lot cost to run in electricity? since having my CCTV DVR on full time for the last 6 months or so I can see a definite increase in the usage on EONs helpful online tracker stats. I dread to think how much more I would be paying if I were to run a NAS/Homeserver too.
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Music, hd movies and tv shows (bluray rips), tonnes of raw files (1tb and counting if I recall).

As for power usage I've never really checked but I wouldn't consider our bill high. Give me 10 mins to get into work and I'll dig out the power ratings.
 
We have used a qnap nas, it's the dogs dangly bits, very professional kit.
 
right sorry, more than 10 mins (walk in the office and forget youve got 2 new starters that you havent done PCs for..)..

the manufacturer quoted power for the Synology DS1010+:

Power Consumption: 68W(Access); 30W(HDD Hibernation)*
* Measured with 5 Seagate 750GB ST3750640NS hard drive. The figures could vary on different environments.

seems to be about the same as a sky HD+ box between standby and powered on (a lot of varying info on google but seems about right).

the HP cant be far off those figures too, yeah its a 150w PSU but unless youre maxing out the box youll never use all of that. the AMD Turion II is very low power consumption but i guess itll scale up as you add hard drives.

Studi0488 said:
We have used a qnap nas, it's the dogs dangly bits, very professional kit.
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ive never used one but they seem very similarly spec'd to synology boxes. i wonder if the core parts come out the same factory.
 
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I plugged my microserver into a power monitor whilst I was setting it up. It only had 2 drives in it at the time but green drives are only rated at 2.5W so adding more will not push up the power much.

The most I ever saw it draw was 39 watts. Sitting there doing nothing it takes 26 - 28W.
 
oh a couple of other things to note, if you use a server OS watch out that a fair bit of free software wont work as youre deemed to be a commercial user.

i.e. - avast (went for clamav) and teamviewer free (enabled remote desktop and firewall ports/forwarding).
 
ClamAV is what I have at the moment, but Spybot will run as an anti spyware. Microsoft's Security Essentials will install and run on Server 2008R2 as well (even though it may say it doesn't!)

HP Microservers rock!
 
My server is only accessed by PC's on my network so I'm running it with no AV software. can't see how it would get infected but if it did it is all stuff that is backed up elsewhere anyway.
 
RobertP said:
My server is only accessed by PC's on my network so I'm running it with no AV software. can't see how it would get infected but if it did it is all stuff that is backed up elsewhere anyway.
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If your pcs access the internet and then access your server they can pass on malware. Unless it's a totally isolated system, it's best to have some sort of AV at all points.
 
Jeff Spangle said:
If your pcs access the internet and then access your server they can pass on malware. Unless it's a totally isolated system, it's best to have some sort of AV at all points.
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Hmmmmmm.. I'd say "it depends".
 
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