HP ProLiant MicroServer

[xrapidx]

I've got one if you want to test.

No bracket but you can secure it in the MS no problem, using one of the DVI connector screws.

Thought I responded to this.. .thanks for the offer Ended up getting the Sapphire 6450 - works perfectly.

 

[SomeoneEls]

Some more feedback:

I've built a few of these HP MS NAS boxes using 5 drives, running unRaid. On all of them I get a problem where the box hangs (needing a power cycle) when doing sustained copies, typically in the tera bytes. Some Googling seems to indicate it's a bug with this box, more specifically with the NiC when you do large copies with the Ethernet port running at 1Gb/s.

- "Smallish" copies work fine, but if you exceed a few hours, it hangs.

- From other forums (WHS); if you run at 100Mb/s, no problem. Busy testing this now. Try and copy 7TB at 8MB/s.

- From same forum, if you run a 1Gb/s card in one of the PCI slots, no problem.

- Streaming apparently no problem. Will still test and revert.

I encountered the same problem (well not a hang, but the machine stops responding to network requests) when copying large amounts of data with Windows Explorer.
Using the onboard NIC at 1gig. Haven't tried 100mbit.

Running Ubuntu and FreeNAS on two separate boxes and I've never had this issue. Copied 5TB's between them at 50MB/s or so... Not utilizing 100% of the Gigabit LAN but fast enough for me! Took about a day to do
I was using rsync to copy though and not windows explorer.

Could be a problem with the windows driver for the NIC... but I dunno have used a windows 7 trial on the MS before but didn't copy more than a few GB's and used teracopy, I install it on pretty much every windows box I use

 

[stroebs]

My HP is running very very well with copying etc. Copied a queue of 1.8TB to the 2tb drive in the server using Teracopy and worked wonderfully at 85MB/s.

I have only ONE itching problem which I have no idea how to solve. Google did not seem resourceful on the matter either.

Using XBMC - During playback of videos, it randomly stops playback, but can't do anything with XBMC. I can minimize XBMC and everything else works and I can bring up title bars etc on XBMC but it appears as if XBMC is paused, but not actually paused. Then it resumes playing again. I have tried a lot of suggestions like turning uPnP off.

It doesn't always happen but when it does, sometimes happens up to 3 or 4 times during a single video playback. Also at random time intervals.

 

[yeti]

And you're running at 1Gb/s?

Have you tried running the port at 100Mb/s?

Also, any specific PCI NIC we know works?

Running the onboard NIC at 1GB/s. Got one or two old 1Gb NIC PCI cards lying around, not sure whether they will work but it most certainly is worth a try.

 

[jannievanzyl]

Running Ubuntu and FreeNAS on two separate boxes and I've never had this issue. Copied 5TB's between them at 50MB/s or so... Not utilizing 100% of the Gigabit LAN but fast enough for me! Took about a day to do
I was using rsync to copy though and not windows explorer.

Could be a problem with the windows driver for the NIC... but I dunno have used a windows 7 trial on the MS before but didn't copy more than a few GB's and used teracopy, I install it on pretty much every windows box I use

unRaid uses Linux 2.6.32 so, for once, we cannot blame Windows.

Someone on the WHS forums mentioned they tweaked the advanced settings of the NIC and that resolved it, so it could be a default setting at chip-level. Maybe a buffer / packet size type of issue. It's bloody annoying.

Did you use Samba or NFS?

 

[Cruelty]

unRaid uses Linux 2.6.32 so, for once, we cannot blame Windows.

Someone on the WHS forums mentioned they tweaked the advanced settings of the NIC and that resolved it, so it could be a default setting at chip-level. Maybe a buffer / packet size type of issue. It's bloody annoying.

Did you use Samba or NFS?

Linky please?

 

[SomeoneEls]

unRaid uses Linux 2.6.32 so, for once, we cannot blame Windows.

Someone on the WHS forums mentioned they tweaked the advanced settings of the NIC and that resolved it, so it could be a default setting at chip-level. Maybe a buffer / packet size type of issue. It's bloody annoying.

Did you use Samba or NFS?

Haha my Bad! Never used unRaid then, think I was thinking of flexRAID which can be used on windows or linux.

Using samba 3.5.10 at the moment. Is unRAID plus worth paying for?

Running the onboard NIC at 1GB/s. Got one or two old 1Gb NIC PCI cards lying around, not sure whether they will work but it most certainly is worth a try.

Needs to be a low profile PCI-E network card.
Answer below in quotes

Isn't there only 2 slots? A PCI-E x1 slot and a PCI-E x16 slot
No PCI slot AFAIK


This would work though

or here D-Link 560T

or one of these in the x16 slot depending on how much you want to spend

There is also this one from them which seems a bit cheaper.

If you can get a Intel EXPI9301CT that also should work and intel says it ships with a low-profile bracket none of the SA online sites mention the low-profile bracket though. FYI It is an intel desktop card though not a server card.


The HP NC112T is also a low-profile card (according to the HP spec sheet, SA online stores don't mention the extra bracket) and even lists the Microserver in it's spec sheet as being compatible and it's a 'Server adapter' not a desktop one

 

[yeti]

Thanks for the informative/summative post SomeoneEls. I've posted an ad on carbonite for one of those puppies, as their retail price is pretty steap (relative to PCI cards).

 

[SomeoneEls]

Thanks for the informative/summative post SomeoneEls..... their retail price is pretty steap (relative to PCI cards).

Not a problem, they are damn expensive!

 

[jannievanzyl]

Is unRAID plus worth paying for?

For a large capacity, media-centric storage? Yes, I believe so.

unRaid does a few things a normal RAID system can't do which makes it better for a home media-NAS system.

- Only disks containing data that need to be read are spun up. This means 99.9% of the time the disks will be shut down. Less power, longer lifespan.
- Can mix and match different disk sizes. Handy if you've got a bunch of disks lying around.
- Swapping a single disk for a bigger one makes the extra capacity immediately available.
- If you drop more than one disk, you only drop the data on those disks, unlike RAID-5 where you lose everything.

Write performance is lower than on RAID-5 which in a write-once, read-occasionally application (storing all your media files on a NAS), is not an issue. You could add a cache-drive to overcome this, but no real reason.

 

[xrapidx]

Jannie - does unraid allow you to extend a fault tolerant setup?

e.g. if I have 5x 2TB drives...can I add a 6th without rebuilding?

 

[Deezil]

FYI ... the Sapphire HD6450 512mb DDR5 version (with active fan) doesn't have the LP bracket included

If anyone has a extra LP bracket (with HDMI opening) please PM me ... I'm willing to buy one (and no I'm not interested in dremmeling one out of the included brackets thanx )

 

[jannievanzyl]

Jannie - does unraid allow you to extend a fault tolerant setup?

e.g. if I have 5x 2TB drives...can I add a 6th without rebuilding?

Yup.

And if you swap out one of your 2TB's with a 3TB, you get the extra TB immediately. Unlike RAID-5 where you have to swap all 5 drives with bigger drives (one at a time) to get the extra capacity.

I'm rebuilding my 8x1TB Ubuntu RAID-5 system as an unRaid system for exactly this reason. By running unRaid, I can replace the 1TB's one at a time and immediately get the extra space available. And, because unRaid only boots of flash, I score the OS drive port/bay as another RAID disk.

So, my current 8x1TB will start it's new life as a 9x1TB and eventually end up as a 10x2TB or even 10x3TB without having to rebuild anything. Once you've tried to backup 7TB because you need to rebuild a NAS, you truely appreciate the ability to grow your RAID without having to move your data somewhere.

 

[jannievanzyl]

FYI ... the Sapphire HD6450 512mb DDR5 version (with active fan) doesn't have the LP bracket included

If anyone has a extra LP bracket (with HDMI opening) please PM me ... I'm willing to buy one (and no I'm not interested in dremmeling one out of the included brackets thanx )

Do what I did. 10 second fix that'll be permanent for sure.

- Remove the bracket and install the card.
- Once installed you'll notice the two screws of the DVI connector are nearly flush with the back of the chassis.
- Remove the top screw and install a small 'bracket' (20mm wide x 8mm high aprox) horisontally across the card slot using the DVI screw. I used a firm piece of plastic to make the braket.

This way the card is firmly secured and you can plug cables in and out without hassles.

 

[Deezil]

Do what I did. 10 second fix that'll be permanent for sure.

- Remove the bracket and install the card.
- Once installed you'll notice the two screws of the DVI connector are nearly flush with the back of the chassis.
- Remove the top screw and install a small 'bracket' (20mm wide x 8mm high aprox) horisontally across the card slot using the DVI screw. I used a firm piece of plastic to make the braket.

This way the card is firmly secured and you can plug cables in and out without hassles.

Thanx for the tip man ... will have a looksee tonight!!!

 

[annesville]

These servers are really appealing for home server applications, and cost effective too!

 

[burn]

Any idea if these servers are due for a refresh any time soon?

 

[shadow_man]

Running Ubuntu and FreeNAS on two separate boxes and I've never had this issue. Copied 5TB's between them at 50MB/s or so... Not utilizing 100% of the Gigabit LAN but fast enough for me! Took about a day to do
I was using rsync to copy though and not windows explorer.

Could be a problem with the windows driver for the NIC... but I dunno have used a windows 7 trial on the MS before but didn't copy more than a few GB's and used teracopy, I install it on pretty much every windows box I use

Got 3 of these boxes running Debian Squeeze. No issue for me, running on the ZFS file system. I get reads of 250 Mb/s and like 80-100Mb/s write's with only a software RAID... Copied over 2TB to the device with nothing like what you mention occuring.

J

 

[stroebs]

My HP is running very very well with copying etc. Copied a queue of 1.8TB to the 2tb drive in the server using Teracopy and worked wonderfully at 85MB/s.

I have only ONE itching problem which I have no idea how to solve. Google did not seem resourceful on the matter either.

Using XBMC - During playback of videos, it randomly stops playback, but can't do anything with XBMC. I can minimize XBMC and everything else works and I can bring up title bars etc on XBMC but it appears as if XBMC is paused, but not actually paused. Then it resumes playing again. I have tried a lot of suggestions like turning uPnP off.

It doesn't always happen but when it does, sometimes happens up to 3 or 4 times during a single video playback. Also at random time intervals.

 

[Broadcom]

Some more feedback:

I've built a few of these HP MS NAS boxes using 5 drives, running unRaid. On all of them I get a problem where the box hangs (needing a power cycle) when doing sustained copies, typically in the tera bytes. Some Googling seems to indicate it's a bug with this box, more specifically with the NiC when you do large copies with the Ethernet port running at 1Gb/s.

- "Smallish" copies work fine, but if you exceed a few hours, it hangs.

- From other forums (WHS); if you run at 100Mb/s, no problem. Busy testing this now. Try and copy 7TB at 8MB/s.

- From same forum, if you run a 1Gb/s card in one of the PCI slots, no problem.

- Streaming apparently no problem. Will still test and revert.

Are you chaps running the lastest drivers for the NIC?

http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_server.php (no affiliation!)

Not sure if they solve the copy problems, but the win7 drivers at least have better WOL options than the one that gets installed by default.