HP ProLiant MicroServer Owners Club! (Attempting to sell here will result in bans)

[michaeljf]

Windows SBS 2008 for me running Exchange, file and print server, etc (replacing an existing ML110 G5).

Going with 8GB of ECC RAM and will transfer my 2 x 300GB Velociraptors over. Already have an 8TB NAS but will probably throw in 2 x 2TB drives for extra storage.

[dav3]

Originally Posted by Ekliptix

Still waiting to find out for sure if I'll be getting mine. I plan on running WHS 2011 with 4 x 2 TB drives with 4 - 8 GB RAM to use mainly as a media server.

Just a n00b question, how are you fitting in 5 drives? I'm assuming you're using the top slot instead of the optical drive, but do you need to purchase an extra drive caddy or something to do this?

Yeah you just buy a removable tray and shove the drive in there. To get it going full speed you need to run a custom BIOS (for the internal port), or loop a cable out and around to the eSATA port.

[^catalyst]

Originally Posted by Igneous

Same here, but I'm looking at setting up an unRAID NAS, much like this one.

Don't you have to pay for unRAID? What are the advantages over any ZFS OS?

[Igneous]

Originally Posted by Ekliptix

Just a n00b question, how are you fitting in 5 drives? I'm assuming you're using the top slot instead of the optical drive, but do you need to purchase an extra drive caddy or something to do this?

Something like this will do the job, but the 5th SATA port is limited to IDE/PIO speeds unless you use a replacement BIOS to convert it to full SATA. I'll be using it as a parity drive for the 4 unRAID drives, with around 8TB storage.

I'm no Linux guru, so I'll be starting with unRAID as a simpler alternative to ZFS, but still a step up from FreeNAS.

EDIT - Ninja'd.

[[KEi]SoVeReIgN]

Originally Posted by oli

I don't know any reason why you couldn't under FreeNAS if I can with Linux. Where'd you put the SSD btw?

Sorry, I meant freenas with ZFS.

SSD is in the top bay with estata cable running from the back :-)

molex -> 2 sata power plugs also

[Stanza]

Well I guess since I started this whole mess.....

Put me down for an owner

Ram = 2 x 1gig ram

Drives will be
1 x 2tb
3 x 1tb
4 x 500g in CDrom bay
1 x 250g under CDrom bay

IBM BR10i sas card

Will probably put WHS v1 on it, then later if I get 8gig ram will change that to SE11

[Ekliptix]

Originally Posted by Igneous

Something like this will do the job, but the 5th SATA port is limited to IDE/PIO speeds unless you use a replacement BIOS to convert it to full SATA. I'll be using it as a parity drive for the 4 unRAID drives, with around 8TB storage.

I'm no Linux guru, so I'll be starting with unRAID as a simpler alternative to ZFS, but still a step up from FreeNAS.

EDIT - Ninja'd.

That looks great, thanks for the info guys!

[Jenx]

I have 1 that I'll be using as a storage box, most likely FreeNAS.
Using the extra RAM stick out of my workmates box (he upgraded to 2x 4GB non-ECC for VM usage) to get me up to 2GB.

Anyone have thoughts on a good bang for buck RAID-5 capable drive controller? I have a few 2TB HDDs that I'd like to use as a basis for now (thinking 3x in RAID-5 to start with). Something that has potential to link up to an external drive cage in the future would be good, so around 8 drives in total.

Otherwise I will get some extra 2TB drives for a ZFS array and expansion can be a problem for (future)Jenx.

[cuahtemoc]

My first box arrived - with 8gb of ram, be using this one for a VMWare ESXi testbed.
Second one is due tomorrow or Thursday, fitting that one out with 8gb of ECC, a BR10i, and 5 2tb Hitachi's. This will be setup with Solaris Express 11 running ZFS, with the 5 drives in a RaidZ pool.

Third one incoming is for GF's dad, setting that up as a basic Windows 2008R2 file server running SickBeard, SABNZD+ and uTorrent.

[MetalPhreak]

Box 1:

Windows Home Server 2011 - Build for my Dad
2x2GB Ram
250GB HDD is going into the 5.25" bay
2x2TB Samsung F4EGs for now. He has disks already he'll probably add.

Box 2:

ESXi / Citrix / Etc Devbox
2x2GB Ram
4x1TB WD Greens

Box 3/4:

??? Not sure if these will even be coming

[Dropbear]

I'll probably leave these running 24x7 but has anyone worked out how to do a timed start?

[imek]

Got mine today, probably either going to do a FreeNAS setup or WHS 2011, not 100% sure as to which right now though, but will have probably the following when I bother to build it properly:

2x2TB Samsung F4
2x1.5TB WDEADS

[Reginald85]

Got mine yesterday

8GB RAM now running ESXi with 3x500GB and the Stock 250GB

[rugger]

Going to load 4x1tb drives I have spare into it ... load slackware linux on it. Will probably leave it at 1gig memory for now.

I will:

a) Configure 4 drives into raid 5 array with 128kb stripes.
b) Install slackware onto the raid 5 array.
c) Install an old 256meg USB flash chip into the internal USB port.
d) Put /boot onto the USB flash and install lilo on it.

That way, linux kernel will boot from the flash chip, assemble the raid 5 array, and then boot normally into linux. This nicely works around the fact that you can't load the linux kernel from a raid 5 array.

I may at a later stage make it a 2 stage boot, with initrd being loaded from the flash for a recovery style console, but I don't think it really is needed.

Edit: I will be using it as a backup array for my primary NAS/server unit. Samba is pretty awesome and stuff

[Bthree]

Originally Posted by Stanza

Well I guess since I started this whole mess.....

Put me down for an owner

Ram = 2 x 1gig ram

Drives will be
1 x 2tb
3 x 1tb
4 x 500g in CDrom bay
1 x 250g under CDrom bay

IBM BR10i sas card

Will probably put WHS v1 on it, then later if I get 8gig ram will change that to SE11

Thats a VERY full house, 9 drives.... and a sas card
I wonder how the little 200watt power supply will handle the startup load, hope they are not all Seagate Hdd !