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HP ProLiant MicroServer owners' thread
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howamidifferent
n00b
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- Feb 21, 2011
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Well, its cheaper than buying an additional server with an additional HP raid card, more ram, another OS license (if using MS) , etc...Plus who really wants 2 servers if you can accomplish the same with 1. I know I would prefer to have one server to manage all storage....
What benefits are there to having two servers rather than an esata enclosure?
What benefits are there to having two servers rather than an esata enclosure?
I bought my microserver last week and joined the forum to say thanks to all of you guys for all the advice above.
I was planning on going for the ESXi route with Windows2k8 server,2x debian clients and a windows 7 client. But after reading some reviews i've decided that may be a bit too slow on file transfers. i've now decided to use windows 2k8 r2 as the main os and then use hyperV for 2x debian clients (vpn and torrent client).
What RAID card are most people using? from what i can see most people seem to going for the HP SMART Array p410? (which is about £130?). I'm looking for something simple just to fileserve 4x 2tb drives. (I have the readynas for backups)
I was planning on going for the ESXi route with Windows2k8 server,2x debian clients and a windows 7 client. But after reading some reviews i've decided that may be a bit too slow on file transfers. i've now decided to use windows 2k8 r2 as the main os and then use hyperV for 2x debian clients (vpn and torrent client).
What RAID card are most people using? from what i can see most people seem to going for the HP SMART Array p410? (which is about £130?). I'm looking for something simple just to fileserve 4x 2tb drives. (I have the readynas for backups)
212 is cheaper does 4 internal...
Thanks for that patriot..ill look into that..what OS are most people using on their microserver?
I'm torn between windows 2k8 as the host (also acting as the domain controller) with VMWare server installed or Linux/freebsd as the host with VMWare win 2k8 as domain controller
I'm torn between windows 2k8 as the host (also acting as the domain controller) with VMWare server installed or Linux/freebsd as the host with VMWare win 2k8 as domain controller
I am curious to what others here are using....
If you don't buy a SA or other controller ... the onboard only has windows drivers...
If you're not paying a Windows Server tax because you're running FreeNAS or Linux, and you don't need an additional RAID card for external drives, then I figure the cost of the eRAID enclosure, and RAID card come pretty close to the cost of a 2nd uServer with added RAM.
I think having separate boxes is easier because you don't need cross-chassis cabling. Each box stands alone.
I'd be OK with 2 servers. I can use one as primary day-to-day, for high speed streaming etc, and the other for onsite backup. Different functions, different usage. Greater data redundancy.
I picked up one of these Addonics enclosure with an CX4 multilane port. Connect it to my HBA with a CS4 <-> SFF8088 cable. Way more bandwidth than an extra computer. (and, running ZFS, better performance with more drives in the pool). Also cheaper than another computer.
Yeah, but HP has Linux drivers you can d/l.
I'm using an eBayed LSI2008 pciE HBA - 75 bucks (running solaris/ZFS). (but the cable was 30 bucks to be honest
). It has 8 ports though, a new microserver would only add an additional 4-5 ports. Then there is also how your drives are organized. I don't want 2 storage pools (2 Raid arrays) each with X amount of storage. I want 1 storage pool with all available storage in there. The array itself is also going to be faster, and have more IOPS with 10 spindles in one pool instead of a 5 spindle pool and a 5 spindle pool.
Finally one server + external enclosure is, imo, less points of failure. I want to set this up and just have it work.
IF you have to buy a card that supports raid-5/6 then the equation tilts a bit. But heck, I could have bought one of the 25 buck Br10i LSI 1068e cards floating around for even more cost savings.
Where the two servers shine is if you want more redundancy or some sort of high availability cluster - but I want a large fast storage pool (one), a reduced cost, and improved reliability (less parts in the chain). Why would you get a second server?
Where the two servers shine is if you want more redundancy or some sort of high availability cluster - but I want a large fast storage pool (one), a reduced cost, and improved reliability (less parts in the chain). Why would you get a second server?
I could actually use 3 of them:
uServer 1: NAS storage
+ 1 HDD w/ OS & critical files
+ 2x2 RAID 1 data mirrors
This would consolidate all of our "regular" online data storage, which is currently spread across various PCs & external HDDs. We eliminate 3 or 4 boxes with NAS backup.
uServer 2: NAS backup
+ 1 HDD1 w/ OS & critical backups
+ 4x HDDs of backup data
This would be nearline redundant storage, in lieu of onsite tape backup to provide data backup & recovery. Get rid of the CD / DVD / tape units.
uServer 3: HTPC
+ 1 HDD w/ OS & core content
+ 4 HDDs of various media
Farther down the road, when HTPC is less painful, this replaces a video box that's driving 2 external HDDs. We go from 3 boxes to 1.
Redshirt #24
2[H]4U
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Figure out a way to use it as a coffee or end table, and hey...
MrGuvernment
Fully [H]
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- Aug 3, 2004
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- 21,823
would this work for somethingto run ps3media server from it? i need to replace my giant Lian-Li case with a smaller box, but i need to stream dvd/720/1080 content to my PS3, but i doubt the cpu could do the work....
That's pretty clever, but I suspect my wife's powers of observation are sufficient - she notices little things like the position of the toilet seat and amount of toilet paper remaining.
we need to know your tuning values!
i'm dying with an average max of 400mbit/s of samba write speed...
(3x wd20ears, raidz1, freenas 0.7.2)
uServer arrived yesterday, so are the parts 2x4GB Kingston ECC(KTH-PL313E/4G) + IBM ServeRAID BR10i + Intel PRO/1000 Pt server NIC.
It took some effort to fit all of these stuff together. Some modifications were mandatory (uServer was not modified though). The only outstanding item is mini-SAS8087 to mini-SAS8088 adapter (will require a small cuts on the back of the uServer case), 2x8087 cables (BR10i) are in place already (behind original 250GB HDD mounted in optical bay). I have replaced front ODD cover with spare 5.25 panel (fine black mesh w/filter -> minimal effort) from Centurion case to allow some air circulation in ODD bay.
Before you started to read: I am only provided network based SMB speed measurement. It may be important to know the storage speed, but it is going to be accessed over network, so this is the only thing that matters.
So far I am testing Solaris 11 Express. I am glad I added Intel NIC. uServer does not beat my Windows 7 (i3) HP RAID50 storage (109MB/s), but it is on the respectful level (65-69MB/s). I also tested embedded Broadcom based NIC, unfortunately - it barely pulls (24-29MB/s). It seems anything above 50MB/s is a good news on any non-Windows OS. Windows is fast with cheap NICs, but it seriously lacks flexibility in affordable redundant storage area (ZFS) and many others. Really want to test flashed BR10i, but it may take some time to grow out of the internal 4 bays. Filled bays with spare Seagate 2TB 5900 RPM and 3 x warranty replaced WD Green 2TB EADS drives with TLER-ON and idle3 /d, for some reason all original 4 x WD drives slowed to crawl after 3-6 month of 24/7 very very light duty in WHS).
Can someone recommend on external mini-SAS8088 enclosure? I looked at SANS DIGITAL TR8X-B. It looks good, but pricey. I also noticed HDDRACK5 as a potential project, but would take a lot of work. Maybe something exists in between?
I would appreciate any input...
It took some effort to fit all of these stuff together. Some modifications were mandatory (uServer was not modified though). The only outstanding item is mini-SAS8087 to mini-SAS8088 adapter (will require a small cuts on the back of the uServer case), 2x8087 cables (BR10i) are in place already (behind original 250GB HDD mounted in optical bay). I have replaced front ODD cover with spare 5.25 panel (fine black mesh w/filter -> minimal effort) from Centurion case to allow some air circulation in ODD bay.
Before you started to read: I am only provided network based SMB speed measurement. It may be important to know the storage speed, but it is going to be accessed over network, so this is the only thing that matters.
So far I am testing Solaris 11 Express. I am glad I added Intel NIC. uServer does not beat my Windows 7 (i3) HP RAID50 storage (109MB/s), but it is on the respectful level (65-69MB/s). I also tested embedded Broadcom based NIC, unfortunately - it barely pulls (24-29MB/s). It seems anything above 50MB/s is a good news on any non-Windows OS. Windows is fast with cheap NICs, but it seriously lacks flexibility in affordable redundant storage area (ZFS) and many others. Really want to test flashed BR10i, but it may take some time to grow out of the internal 4 bays. Filled bays with spare Seagate 2TB 5900 RPM and 3 x warranty replaced WD Green 2TB EADS drives with TLER-ON and idle3 /d, for some reason all original 4 x WD drives slowed to crawl after 3-6 month of 24/7 very very light duty in WHS).
Can someone recommend on external mini-SAS8088 enclosure? I looked at SANS DIGITAL TR8X-B. It looks good, but pricey. I also noticed HDDRACK5 as a potential project, but would take a lot of work. Maybe something exists in between?
I would appreciate any input...
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I am running opensolaris b134 with 8hdd raidz2, samsung HD204 2T. the buildin cifs server can perform about 90M R/W with internal ethernet card. I also add an ibm br10i. 4 hdd connect to mb, and 4 connect to br10i.
and a hint. your pool must create with ashift=12, otherwise the 4k 2T hdd will perform bad. (I create the pool in freebsd with nop trick. then upgrade the pool later in opensolaris, google it and you will get the answer.).
and , I also test solaris express11, with solaris express11, the cifs smbautohome will disppear after one night. I have to restart smb/server to make it appear again. I think it is a bug in solaris express11, while it is ok in opensolairs b134.
Big thanks!!! I loaded NexentaStor Community Edition 3.0.4 and built-in Broadcom runs at full GB speed and at the same speed as Windows 7: ~100MB/s for SMB. This is great news for me. I did not tested Intel yet, but it would be even better...
Do you use any UPS to protect the data?
I have a few APC and Cyber Power and tried to use NUT ups monitoring tool, but it would error out on all of them even the ones on the support list. It aways "device id does not match error"
No. I didn't using any UPS. since my power is stable enough.
and thanks to ZFS with COW, the filesystem will stay safe even after power loss.
But power loss can cause disk failure. you have to consider this situation.
Anyway, I keep another copy of data in other place. in case the pool is damaged.
using zfs send/recv.
Good point,
I tried FreeBSD 8.2, but it refused to install from my USB CD-ROM drive. I used OpenIndiana LiveDVD to boot, download updated zpool and re-created my pool with "block-size 4096 -o version=26" overrides. then I rebooted back to NexentaStor and was able to import new raidz1 pool with ashift=12, although NexentaStor requested a new machine license re-registration.
Absolutely - I've been looking for these for days!
Who did you get them from, and how much did they cost?
thanks
Would you be able to let me know what distribution of opensolaris b134 you are running?
I am looking for a opensolaris release with support for lunix BrandZ zone (to run TwonkyServer on solaris machine).
Nexenta for some reason does not include support for linux brandz zone type.
Never mind, Oracle dropped suppor for lx since solaris version 11...
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b134 is OpenSolaris 2010.03, but never release officially. you can get it from here
http://genunix.org/dist/indiana/
filename is osol-dev-134-x86.iso
I also run CentOS 3.9 in lx zone, but never try kernel 2.6 distribution.
I think b134 is a perfect OS for HP microserver. fits all my needs.
oh, another thing, you have to disable fastreboot in opensolaris.
otherwise, when you reboot the HP microserver, the network interface(bge0) will sucks.
here is the way to do that.
http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=492897
Hi hope somebody here can help me im quite a noob in the Raid world.
Ijust bought a microserver with extra ram and 4*3TB harddisks
just found out that the onboard raid controller only runs raid 0-1
I want it to run raid 5 for my WHS 2011 system
so here is my noob question.
I need a raid controller that runs raid 5 wich fits in the micro server AND it must bee cheap becuse spent most of my money on the other hardware.
And if possible have an external port "think its called an extender port" so i can add an external raid chassis to expand the harddisk pool if needed since my data volume is allways expanding.
Hope somebody here can help me
Would an LSI Logit 8344ELP SATA SAS raid controller work for my setup?
Ijust bought a microserver with extra ram and 4*3TB harddisks
just found out that the onboard raid controller only runs raid 0-1
I want it to run raid 5 for my WHS 2011 system
so here is my noob question.
I need a raid controller that runs raid 5 wich fits in the micro server AND it must bee cheap becuse spent most of my money on the other hardware.
And if possible have an external port "think its called an extender port" so i can add an external raid chassis to expand the harddisk pool if needed since my data volume is allways expanding.
Hope somebody here can help me
Would an LSI Logit 8344ELP SATA SAS raid controller work for my setup?
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What do you use to admin smb shares/users/permissions/ACLs?
My primary goal - opensolaris for storage, secondary one - host DLNA server for media streaming.
Thanks for your help.
Never mind. NexentaStor 3.0.4 supports linux zone, it is just not installed by default. Everything is up and running. Was not it is much of fun ?!...
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Centauri_dk
n00b
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2011
- Messages
- 1
Hi
I want to extending my HP Micro Server with RAID 5, and can see that most people here suggest a HP SA P212 or P410 but can see that are a bit expensive.
So was looking for alternatives and came across this one Promise FastTrak TX4660
http://firstweb.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=212
http://www.pcuniverse.com/Promise-F...D-4-Channel-SATA-300-SAS/FTTX4660/pd/p4906041
This is cheaper and has the connector at the back so i thing it should be easier to connect to the existing cabling to the drives.
Has anyone experience with this controller ?
Ore would I be better of paying a little more for the HP SA P212 ?
My Plans was to install 4 X 2 TB Disks I an RAID 5 get more security/protection of my data storage since the data is the most important for me. Then I would just install a extra dive where the DVD Should be planes and run the OS on that drive since I dont need and security/protection on that.
Can anyone se anything wrong in this setup.
I want to extending my HP Micro Server with RAID 5, and can see that most people here suggest a HP SA P212 or P410 but can see that are a bit expensive.
So was looking for alternatives and came across this one Promise FastTrak TX4660
http://firstweb.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=212
http://www.pcuniverse.com/Promise-F...D-4-Channel-SATA-300-SAS/FTTX4660/pd/p4906041
This is cheaper and has the connector at the back so i thing it should be easier to connect to the existing cabling to the drives.
Has anyone experience with this controller ?
Ore would I be better of paying a little more for the HP SA P212 ?
My Plans was to install 4 X 2 TB Disks I an RAID 5 get more security/protection of my data storage since the data is the most important for me. Then I would just install a extra dive where the DVD Should be planes and run the OS on that drive since I dont need and security/protection on that.
Can anyone se anything wrong in this setup.
@checksix & cenaturi:
If you buy a "good" RAID 5 controller card, that's basically the same cost as the drive you give up by RAID 1 mirroring the drives, but with slightly better fault isolation - it only affects the one pair, whereas a fault in RAID 5 affects all 4 drives.
If you guys were talking 2 or 3 arrays of 4 to 6 drives each, then RAID 5 would start to make a lot more sense. But even then, I'd consider RAID 6 or RAID 5 with a hot-spare pool.
If you buy a "good" RAID 5 controller card, that's basically the same cost as the drive you give up by RAID 1 mirroring the drives, but with slightly better fault isolation - it only affects the one pair, whereas a fault in RAID 5 affects all 4 drives.
If you guys were talking 2 or 3 arrays of 4 to 6 drives each, then RAID 5 would start to make a lot more sense. But even then, I'd consider RAID 6 or RAID 5 with a hot-spare pool.
Hi folks
I've ordered a couple of HP400 RAID controllers, one of which I'm going to put in my Microserver. I'd really rather not replace the existing hard disk wiring, which is really quite neat. But that means getting a custom cable made up with a female SFF-8087 on the target/chassis end, and a normal SFF-8484 on the host/controller end for the P400.
Given how cheap the P400s are, this would make a really econonic full hardware raid (0, 1, 5, etc. etc.) solution.
@Pedigree hasn't replied to my message above (#228) about where he got his cables made up - so I'm hunting round for somewhere myself.
My question is... would anyone be interested in joining me in a bulk order?
No commitment just yet, just a show of potential interest.
thanks
I've ordered a couple of HP400 RAID controllers, one of which I'm going to put in my Microserver. I'd really rather not replace the existing hard disk wiring, which is really quite neat. But that means getting a custom cable made up with a female SFF-8087 on the target/chassis end, and a normal SFF-8484 on the host/controller end for the P400.
Given how cheap the P400s are, this would make a really econonic full hardware raid (0, 1, 5, etc. etc.) solution.
@Pedigree hasn't replied to my message above (#228) about where he got his cables made up - so I'm hunting round for somewhere myself.
My question is... would anyone be interested in joining me in a bulk order?
No commitment just yet, just a show of potential interest.
thanks
Grimham
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2004
- Messages
- 1,613
Since you say you're new to the RAID world, here's a thought for you. If your system happens to die - with mirroring you can attach one of the HDDs to a Windows or Linux pc and get your data back rather easily. With RAID 5 it's much more difficult for a novice and could be a real problem if your RAID controller happened to die. I'm not saying you can't do it, and to a lot of guys here it's not a big deal. I use Mirroring for that simple reason and because all my data will fit on my (two) 2TB Mirrored arrays on my server (and also because I'm not as [H]ardcore as some of the people here). Anyway, just a thought. I'm sure people will have other opinions. Oh, and most people will say "that's what backups are for" - and they are absolutely right...but I have to admit, I'm kinda lazy and forgetful when it comes to them.
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Re: Cables
I've picked up some wierd custom cables form this place before
http://www.computercablesource.com/sas-cables-and-adapters.aspx
the service was pretty good, and the cables were as expected. Alternatively you might try emailing some of the big cable listers on ebay out of HK/China and seeing if they have something available.
I've picked up some wierd custom cables form this place before
http://www.computercablesource.com/sas-cables-and-adapters.aspx
the service was pretty good, and the cables were as expected. Alternatively you might try emailing some of the big cable listers on ebay out of HK/China and seeing if they have something available.
Thanks Chris.
I've emailed quite a few cable makers, but not this one yet I think. I'll send a request to them now.
I've looked through 100's of ebay shops internationally incl. China for something even remotely similar. The problem seems to be that nobody stocks any kind of cable at all with a female SFF-8087 connector. Or even a female SFF-8087 connector by itself, from which I could make up my own cable.
If I can't identify someone who can make up the cable, my best bet is to grab one of these http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/AD8788-1C.asp which will connect target-side (HDD) to the Microserver's male 8087, and then buy something like this: http://www.computercablesource.com/...arget-to-internal-32-multilane-host-1869.html to connect it all to the P400.
It starts getting expensive though.
Any other ideas gratefully received.
Hello,
This is a question to all the uServer owners regarding RAM upgrades.
I'm gonna play with ESXi for a bit and so will be upgrading to 8GB of RAM and have the following two options in my sights:
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz - ValueRAM
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz - HyperX Blu RAM with HeatSync
Now its £4 to get slightly better performance with the HyperX Blu RAM... but obviously it comes with a heatsync. I've measured the gap between the top of the RAM and the HDD casing and reckon its about 6mm. I've calculated the heatsync to add between 2-3mm to the height of the RAM from these reviews: LINK1 LINK2.
Questions are:
Has anyone upgraded with the HyperX Blu RAM or has any access to it?
What are people thoughts to potentially halving the free space above the RAM? The fan does pull the air the best direction...
Hows the Kingston ValueRAM working out for people?
Thanks
Sam
This is a question to all the uServer owners regarding RAM upgrades.
I'm gonna play with ESXi for a bit and so will be upgrading to 8GB of RAM and have the following two options in my sights:
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz - ValueRAM
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz - HyperX Blu RAM with HeatSync
Now its £4 to get slightly better performance with the HyperX Blu RAM... but obviously it comes with a heatsync. I've measured the gap between the top of the RAM and the HDD casing and reckon its about 6mm. I've calculated the heatsync to add between 2-3mm to the height of the RAM from these reviews: LINK1 LINK2.
Questions are:
Has anyone upgraded with the HyperX Blu RAM or has any access to it?
What are people thoughts to potentially halving the free space above the RAM? The fan does pull the air the best direction...
Hows the Kingston ValueRAM working out for people?
Thanks
Sam
Thanks Chris.
I've emailed quite a few cable makers, but not this one yet I think. I'll send a request to them now.
I've looked through 100's of ebay shops internationally incl. China for something even remotely similar. The problem seems to be that nobody stocks any kind of cable at all with a female SFF-8087 connector. Or even a female SFF-8087 connector by itself, from which I could make up my own cable.
If I can't identify someone who can make up the cable, my best bet is to grab one of these http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/AD8788-1C.asp which will connect target-side (HDD) to the Microserver's male 8087, and then buy something like this: http://www.computercablesource.com/...arget-to-internal-32-multilane-host-1869.html to connect it all to the P400.
It starts getting expensive though.
Any other ideas gratefully received.
I was looking at something like
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-32-Pin-SAS-...ltDomain_0&hash=item3a64e18de4#ht_2454wt_1139
To attach the cage directly to the P400 card. I don't have one of these servers yet but wanted to do RAID 5 when I get one.
I don't know about that cable, I'm not sure if anyone has taken the cables out of the back of the hdd cage in one of these yet. If they're just sata cables I don't know why that wouldn't work.
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