HP ProLiant MicroServer owners' thread

I was thinking of adding a raid card, at the moment just using software raid5

dd if=/dev/zero of=zerofile.000 bs=10M count=3200
3200+0 records out
3200+0 records in
33554432000 bytes (34 GB) copied, 200.362 s, 167 MB/s

dd if=zerofile.000 of=/dev/zero bs=10M
3200+0 records in
3200+0 records out
33554432000 bytes (34 GB) copied, 364.289 s, 92.1 MB/s
 
raid 5 is the slowest of the raids btw... still thats pretty shoddy performance...
 
pschlae said:
root@bunnyhouse-srv:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=zerofile.000 bs=10M count=3200
3200+0 Datensätze ein
3200+0 Datensätze aus
33554432000 Bytes (34 GB) kopiert, 1487.99 s, 22.6 MB/s

root@bunnyhouse-srv:~# dd if=zerofile.000 of=/dev/zero bs=10M
3200+0 Datensätze ein
3200+0 Datensätze aus
33554432000 Bytes (34 GB) kopiert, 361.218 s, 92.9 MB/s

not really fast in write I/O.
Click to expand...


Mate,


I got the first dd, it's quite slow indeed.
what's the purpose of running dd the second time with source zerofile and destination /dev/zero ?


Thanks
 
gettons said:
Mate,


I got the first dd, it's quite slow indeed.
what's the purpose of running dd the second time with source zerofile and destination /dev/zero ?


Thanks
Click to expand...

I would say the one with destination /dev/zero is the read IO. But might be wrong. As the if= is the inputfile. /dev/zero is like nothing.
 
mikebuzz said:
I was thinking of adding a raid card, at the moment just using software raid5

dd if=/dev/zero of=zerofile.000 bs=10M count=3200
3200+0 records out
3200+0 records in
33554432000 bytes (34 GB) copied, 200.362 s, 167 MB/s

dd if=zerofile.000 of=/dev/zero bs=10M
3200+0 records in
3200+0 records out
33554432000 bytes (34 GB) copied, 364.289 s, 92.1 MB/s
Click to expand...

That's a good performance, indeed.
Can you share with us OS, filesystem, optimizations if any?
 
gettons said:
That's a good performance, indeed.
Can you share with us OS, filesystem, optimizations if any?
Click to expand...

Just a standard minimal install of ubuntu 10.10 server, using ext4, raid5 across 3 disks, but 1 degraded at the moment so only 2 disks, both HD201UI's

no tweaks as yet, will be looking to making some changes once the second 2x HD204UI's arrive
 
Has anyone tried to run Hyper-V R2 on this little box? My plan was to run 2-3 VMs from it. The main one being a ZFS for storage, but would I be able to pass the 4 1TB hds to the ZFS vm to create a storage pool? Then 1-2 more windows or linux boxes for PS3 media streamer, drop box, torrent machine etc...

I really love the size, the storage amount ( only my person use) power consumption and form factor.
 
I have been testing, and there is no way this little box can pull transcoding duty plus hosting a VM. I am still thinking about using it strictly as a NAS, and then creating a mini-ITX ESXi box :D
 
Ok so firstly hi everyone, I have been saved by these forums many a time of the years and so here I am to 'pass it on'. I am posting this here because it took me weeks to gather all the info together and I figured that others may find it useful.

My long suffering wife gave me an HP Microserver for Xmas and since then I have been working out how the hell best to use it. My intention was to replace my aging synology NAS but in addition I wanted to ditch the frankly pants router firewall I have and also have a 'lab' machine.

I naturally went with ESXi and then started planning the build. I very quickly hit the 'fake RAID' issue where ESX does not see an array but just the basic discs. So I set off to find a RAID controller that a) was cheaper than a Kray b) Was going to work with ESXi 4.1 c) had the same connectors as the Microservers existing drive bays provided. In the end I chose an HP SMART Array p410 with 256MB cache and no Battery backup. This was right on the edge of my budget but I think in hindsight it was worth the extra cash.
With the array controller sorted I now turned to the Disks. I had 4 * 750GB in the Synology and I did need to increase the total size available while also allowing room for the VMDK files from all the virtual machines I would be running. This then presented some issues; firstly that the 3TB drives are lots of money and secondly from what I can see not technically supported by the P410!

After some searching around on these very forums I came across the idea of a 4 * 2.5 disk caddy that fits in a 5.25 bay. Nice! So I ordered an Icy Dock product that does just that along with 4 * 250GB 2.5” WD blues and 4 * 1TB 3.5 WD Greens. I also had to order a mSAS (SFF-8087) to 4 way SATA cable and a few molex power splitters. Oh and 8GB RAM from Crucial :)

The upshot of this is that I have a 8 disk, 2 logical array ESXi server in something the size of a shoebox!


For those interested in the software config, it is as follows:-

ESXi 4.1:
3 vswitch, Internal and management (Added intel NIC) , DMZ(no nic) and Live(Onboard NIC)
3TB array (4 * 3.5” WD Green drives) configured as physical passthough

Firewall: (external nic connected to ADSL modem)
Checkpoint VPN-1 with dynamic IP external interface (Way overkill but I have access to one)

DMZ:
Ubuntu 10 web server in DMZ

Fileserver:
Win2k8 with domain and IP services (DNS DHCP etc)
Nero Media Home for UPnP services (This has not been purchased yes so open to ideas!)
3TB RPD using the 3.5" disk array for main file server storage.


Anyway, there is it, if people are interested / think it’s worth it I can make a new thread with this. I have very high res (over 10MP) pictures of the parts and build stages and also some details on how to mount RAW disks in ESXi


-SciFi
 
You will find the pictures of how to mount a 3.5" drive into the ODD mount here:

My ProLiant Wiki

I want to put all my documents there how to set it up as a debain server.
 
SciFi said:
Ok so firstly hi everyone, I have been saved by these forums many a time of the years and so here I am to 'pass it on'. I am posting this here because it took me weeks to gather all the info together and I figured that others may find it useful.

My long suffering wife gave me an HP Microserver for Xmas and since then I have been working out how the hell best to use it. My intention was to replace my aging synology NAS but in addition I wanted to ditch the frankly pants router firewall I have and also have a 'lab' machine.

I naturally went with ESXi and then started planning the build. I very quickly hit the 'fake RAID' issue where ESX does not see an array but just the basic discs. So I set off to find a RAID controller that a) was cheaper than a Kray b) Was going to work with ESXi 4.1 c) had the same connectors as the Microservers existing drive bays provided. In the end I chose an HP SMART Array p410 with 256MB cache and no Battery backup. This was right on the edge of my budget but I think in hindsight it was worth the extra cash.
With the array controller sorted I now turned to the Disks. I had 4 * 750GB in the Synology and I did need to increase the total size available while also allowing room for the VMDK files from all the virtual machines I would be running. This then presented some issues; firstly that the 3TB drives are lots of money and secondly from what I can see not technically supported by the P410!

After some searching around on these very forums I came across the idea of a 4 * 2.5 disk caddy that fits in a 5.25 bay. Nice! So I ordered an Icy Dock product that does just that along with 4 * 250GB 2.5” WD blues and 4 * 1TB 3.5 WD Greens. I also had to order a mSAS (SFF-8087) to 4 way SATA cable and a few molex power splitters. Oh and 8GB RAM from Crucial :)

The upshot of this is that I have a 8 disk, 2 logical array ESXi server in something the size of a shoebox!


For those interested in the software config, it is as follows:-

ESXi 4.1:
3 vswitch, Internal and management (Added intel NIC) , DMZ(no nic) and Live(Onboard NIC)
3TB array (4 * 3.5” WD Green drives) configured as physical passthough

Firewall: (external nic connected to ADSL modem)
Checkpoint VPN-1 with dynamic IP external interface (Way overkill but I have access to one)

DMZ:
Ubuntu 10 web server in DMZ

Fileserver:
Win2k8 with domain and IP services (DNS DHCP etc)
Nero Media Home for UPnP services (This has not been purchased yes so open to ideas!)
3TB RPD using the 3.5" disk array for main file server storage.


Anyway, there is it, if people are interested / think it’s worth it I can make a new thread with this. I have very high res (over 10MP) pictures of the parts and build stages and also some details on how to mount RAW disks in ESXi


-SciFi
Click to expand...

Hey this sounds like and awesome setup, I'd be interested in seeing the pictures (if not here then flickr maybe?).
Also I don't quite understand about the Checkpoint VPN-1 ;(

Regards
Satpal
 
SciFi said:
Nero Media Home for UPnP services (This has not been purchased yes so open to ideas!)
Click to expand...

Have you had a look to serviio http://www.serviio.org/? It's free, the only thing you need is a Java Runtime installed. I works pretty smooth on my debain system. Even it's able to transcode "on-the-fly" from mp4 to mp2 - as my Bravia TV doesn't know mp4.
 
schander said:
Hey this sounds like and awesome setup, I'd be interested in seeing the pictures (if not here then flickr maybe?).
Also I don't quite understand about the Checkpoint VPN-1 ;(

Regards
Satpal
Click to expand...

What part did you want to understand?

I have to say that as I stand I am considering dropping to win2k8 x64 with VMmare server as the LAB. I am getting awful file transfer speeds, 20 MB/s, over the 1Gb/s links and I thick that it's VMware related. I get about 70% CPU on the win2k8 server when copying into a share over the network.

Moving to win2k as the main os would also allow me to use the RAID drivers for the P410 and give me far more in the way of features from this card.


As for media servers... Anyone know one that let's you add meta data to what is served up to the DNLA players? I want to add age data to the movies so that my kids can watch their films (kids + DVD's = ashtrays) but anything that they should not be watching.

-SciFi
 
I'm very much liking the HP ProLiant MicroServer chassis for a home NAS setup. I've been looking for a 4+ bay unit, and the ability 4-in-1 the ODD is pure gravy.
 
What the hell is glassfish? The website doesn't seem to really explain...

I'm still deciding on:
-which ram to stick in it
-which raid card to stick in it (if any)... i want raid5 and i'm not sure about software raid5
-which o/s (tried freeNAS and didn't perform that well, got win2k8sr2 on there now seems good... next to try WHS2011)
 
Did anyone measure the minimum powerconsumption of this device. I mean with harddrives spun down? I'm interested in this figure.
Is there a difference in (idle) powerconsumption between the 150 and 200 watt psu models?
 
With 5 drives (one is an SSD) spun up I believe I measure it around 60-70w with my Killawatt. The other 4 drives are Hitachi 7K2000's.
 
knireis said:
Did anyone measure the minimum powerconsumption of this device. I mean with harddrives spun down? I'm interested in this figure.
Is there a difference in (idle) powerconsumption between the 150 and 200 watt psu models?
Click to expand...
In my N36L hardware review, I measured 45W at "idle" (hard disks were NOT spun down but the system wasn't doing anything).
 
I'm using 4 x 2TB drives in raid 5 in the backplane connected to a H P410 Raid Controller and I have 4 x 2.5 inch 500GB in raid 5 in the ODD bay.

So I have 5.45TB of storage below and 1.36TB storage on top. I have the OS Win 2008 R2 installed on another 2.5 inch 500GB drive which sits nicely on top of the 4 x 2.5 bay unit.

I used the 250GB drive in my media player.
For file transfers I get 130MB/s from one raid 5 to another and using the esata connector to copy to or from the machine I get speeds of 90MB/s.

I use Mezzmo for UPnP to serve HD movies, and standard SMB shares for standard def movies or music. Reason for Mezzmo is HD movies still stutter over SMB or NFS from Win 2008 R2. Tried Win 7 Pro , WHS 2011 rc and Ububtu 10 server. All stuttered on HD using the onboard nic while Mezzmo handles it fantasticly even while downloading using SABnzbd at the same time.
 
How can reset the bios? I tired to put the jumper J17 to reset, the clock was resetted, but still no Strg-F for the raid.
It's kind of strange - I never get to the Strg-F prompt to configure the RAID.
Do I have to clean the harddisk first? Or how do I get the Strg-F prompt?
 
Have you configured the SATA controller into RAID mode instead of AHCI in the BIOS configuration?
 
howamidifferent said:
I use Mezzmo for UPnP to serve HD movies, and standard SMB shares for standard def movies or music. Reason for Mezzmo is HD movies still stutter over SMB or NFS from Win 2008 R2. Tried Win 7 Pro , WHS 2011 rc and Ububtu 10 server. All stuttered on HD using the onboard nic while Mezzmo handles it fantasticly even while downloading using SABnzbd at the same time.
Click to expand...


Do you think using a intel x1 gigabit card would be better than the internal one ?
 
I use Intel NICs in all my PC's. If your using Realtek your in for a world of hurt.
 
danman said:
I use Intel NICs in all my PC's. If your using Realtek your in for a world of hurt.
Click to expand...

this is an nc07i not a realtek however I bet you could still get a speed up from a intel hardware accelerated card...
 
Patriot said:
this is an nc07i not a realtek however I bet you could still get a speed up from a intel hardware accelerated card...
Click to expand...

I had a dual and quad port intel nic, but unfortunately they're x4 slots.. can't use them.
trade off would be either a raid card or a nic card..

I got my raid 6 advanced pack today also.. thing is sweeet.. now I can get rid of my 1u server that eats 550w
 
does HP Smart Array P411 Controller work on this microserver? would u recommend it?

I see some of you using the p410. whats the difference between the two
 
Finally got this puppy working good on 2008 r2.. have a 4.5 tb partition through GUID partition (allows for >2tb).

This machine does not support UEFI, so you can't make your boot drive a GUID Parititon which allows for >2tb. I carve 64gb of the raid for the boot and the rest in another partition.

I gotta check on the 2.5 drive bay for 5.25, I got a bunch of 2.5 sas drives but it looks like most of those converter are for sata. Might run too hot with 10k sas drives..
 
rsutoratosu said:
This machine does not support UEFI, so you can't make your boot drive a GUID Parititon which allows for >2tb. I carve 64gb of the raid for the boot and the rest in another partition.
Click to expand...
It does not support UEFI, but it does support GPT. I'm using a 40 GB SSD as a system disk (Linux) partitioned with GPT and it works fantastic.

Partition table:
Code: 
$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.6.14

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 78165360 sectors, 37.3 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): D6482B5A-574E-04BF-D56F-6825009EB825
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 78165326
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 6 sectors (3.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40            2047   1004.0 KiB  EF02  EFI System
   2            2048        16779263   8.0 GiB     EF00  EFI System
   3        16779264        57192447   19.3 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data
   4        57192448        78165326   10.0 GiB    0700  Linux/Windows data
 
tamasrepus said:
It does not support UEFI, but it does support GPT. I'm using a 40 GB SSD as a system disk (Linux) partitioned with GPT and it works fantastic.

yeah, which kinda sucks but I didn't want to drop in a seperate boot, I rather have the dvd drive in that 5.25 bay for now, till I get a external esata dvd enclosure. I'll probably end up with 2 of these microserver.. My existing setup is 2 supermicro 1u xeons which chews up 1000w if both are on, loud as hell.

One is the primary file server running emc's replistore and it replicates to the 2nd server which is attached to dual lto3 tape deck. Yeah I still trust tapes.. I do monthly archive since my data doesn't change much. Having pci slots in these guys are a huge plus. On the 2nd microserver, Ill drop in a scsi card for the lto tape drives. So Ill replicate the data across lan and backup into tapes.

Luckily I didn't go buy those netgear nas, i'm sure they're good but i like the microserver better since I can run backup exec off it
Click to expand...
 
Hi everybody, at first I used 5*2T hdd with zfs raidz1. now I upgrade to 8*2T raidz2. I am using a ibm serverraid br10i HBA card. provide 8 port sata. i also put 4*2.5 ssd on ODD bay. 2 as system pool. 2 as zfs l2arc cache. now I have 10T capacity. currently running FreeBSD 8.2 Release.

I put 4*2T hdd outside the server. and the hdd power is from the server. no more power supply. It seems the power supply of this microserver is enough to drive 8*2T hdd.

cheers.!!
 
What are you holding or storing the 4 external drives in, that you can take power from the server and how/where do you get the power connector(s) from? Any pictures? Or a detailed description? And is the 5.25 inch bay powered by just one power connector also for all 4 drives?
 
Just got mine setup using the supplied 250GB drive for the OS (in the 5.25 bay) and two RAID 1 arrays using a pair of WD 2TB drives and two old 500GB Samsungs. Also upgraded the RAM to 8GB.

Really just having a play with it at the moment before I get some more 2TB drives and, more than likely, an ESATA enclosure (which will mean buying a proper PCIE raid card).

I've been impressed so far, high read/write speeds, good performance on PS3Mediaserver transcoding and well, everything just works. Great little unit.
 
does anyone know what the differences are between the two models available from newegg? so far the only difference i can see is the included HDD size is different.

does the ESATA port support port multipliers?
 
coolrunner84 said:
does anyone know what the differences are between the two models available from newegg? so far the only difference i can see is the included HDD size is different.

does the ESATA port support port multipliers?
Click to expand...

The power supply of 250G model is 150w. while 160G model is 200w.

I don't think the esata port support multipilier. if you want to connect more hdd, you have to add a low profile HBA card. such as IBM serveraid br10i. (chip is LSI 1068, it is cheap, supported by any common OS. and easy to get from ebay.), or buy a raid hdd case.(I don't think this is a good solution)
 
Last edited:
howamidifferent said:
What are you holding or storing the 4 external drives in, that you can take power from the server and how/where do you get the power connector(s) from? Any pictures? Or a detailed description? And is the 5.25 inch bay powered by just one power connector also for all 4 drives?
Click to expand...

the external case is this one.
http://www.century.co.jp/products/pc/hdd-acce/crapbk5.html

all the power is from ODD power connector. just buy a P4->sata power cable. and make some modification. I will take some picture later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top