Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 Hi Guys i dont know a lot about these so please excuse my ignorance I have seen this basically i want a box i can shove hidden away in the corner (would hopefully be able to remote into it either through teamviewer or ssh) I seen this http://www.ebuyer.com/430446-hp-proliant-g7-n54l-2-2ghz-microserver-ebuyer-704941-421 Now i see it has 4 drive slots what is LFF? I will be looking at putting linux on it. anything you guys suggest? Will be accessed by two linux laptops, a windows laptop (very occasionally) and an ipad will there be any issues with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 LFF = Large Form Factor (3,5"), You will be good to go :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 my god why did they not just say 4 * 3.5" drives lol Sorry this again may be another stupid question can you have two sets of raid 1? so i could have two disks in raid1 and then another set in raid 1 too? also it had 4 usb ports on the front so am i right in saying i could plug my externals into them and also access them across the network? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riahc3 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Hello can you have two sets of raid 1?Well, hardware wise, I cant answer that but software wise, sure, why not? If you are intrested, Im having a related topic here https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1197277-building-a-esxi-box/ except Im looking at the Gen8... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Yes to both questions. I have a memory-stick in one USB drive, that is always shared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulphy Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I recently bought one of the N54L's .... great piece of kit! I used a custom firmware on mine though ... from here : http://terfmop.co.uk/blog/2013/07/31/hp-proliant-n54l-bios-modification-guide-allow-hot-plug-sata-and-5th-sata-port/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted January 22, 2014 MVC Share Posted January 22, 2014 If you are intrested, Im having a related topic here https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1197277-building-a-esxi-box/ except Im looking at the Gen8...But look at the difference in price there riah3.. Do you really need the gen8 for what your doing.. Its less than HALF of what your looking to spend. That buys you what for what your going to use it for.. You do NOT need a rocketship cpu to run pfsense nor a nas.. Oh just noticed ?139.99 after cashback Dude you could get what 3 of them for less than your spending on the gen8, for what not sure.. As I told you in PM and your thread.. When you said you didn't have enough money at the moment, etc.. At OP -- yeah you will love the microserver line, I have the N40L and love the little box.. Very small, very quiet and uses like nothing for power.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 yeah was the ?139 after cashback that caught my eye Budman can you have two sets of raid or do you need two controllers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted January 22, 2014 MVC Share Posted January 22, 2014 I have no reason to run raid on my setup.. I find it of no use in a home setup (0 could be of some use in home for performance - maybe), but if you want to waste drive space.. Then yes you can have more than one array. I have never in my life seen a raid controller that only allowed 1 array. As long as you have enough disks, and the controller supports the raid level you want you can create as many as you have connections and disks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riahc3 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Hello, But look at the difference in price there riah3.. Do you really need the gen8 for what your doing.. Its less than HALF of what your looking to spend. That buys you what for what your going to use it for.. You do NOT need a rocketship cpu to run pfsense nor a nas..I was just pointing out in case he was intrested in discussion about the microservers but I guess in price they have nothing to do with each other. Oh just noticed ?139.99 after cashback Dude you could get what 3 of them for less than your spending on the gen8, for what not sure.. As I told you in PM and your thread.. When you said you didn't have enough money at the moment, etc.. I dont have that cashback option avaliable for me (either that or its impossible to search). I have to call HP and see what they offer me... I wont post here any more just in case we mix up threads and/or steal your thread. Sorry Haggis. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 I have no reason to run raid on my setup.. I find it of no use in a home setup (0 could be of some use in home for performance - maybe), but if you want to waste drive space.. Then yes you can have more than one array. I have never in my life seen a raid controller that only allowed 1 array. As long as you have enough disks, and the controller supports the raid level you want you can create as many as you have connections and disks. Cool thank you Would any of you have recommendations for OS? I thought about Ubuntu Server just for easiness All i want to use it for is storing Photos, movies that i have of the kids (my kids before we get any smart ass answers) I want is accessible from any device and hopefully once i get all my hardware up to 1gig network i can then stream from it too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
]SK[ Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I have two of these. One is turned off at the minute as I need to figure out which HDD is vibrating ;) I have them in an vCentre cluster running a number of 2003 servers, a linux web server and a few 2008 R2 boxes. Mainly use it for testing or writing changes/implementation steps for my work servers. *Edit* Why not shove a hypervisor on it and have multiple Virtual Machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted January 22, 2014 MVC Share Posted January 22, 2014 Sure any linux distro would work.. Maybe look to OS for that purpose - freenas, nas4free, openfiler, openmediavault I run esxi on mine, and then run whatever OSes I want under that, etc. But if all you want to do is store/serve some files that would overly complex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M1ckyB Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Should try here for info about the Gen8 microservers.. http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/forum/88-gen-8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
]SK[ Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 The only reason Microservers were popular is they are amazing devices at a very cheap price. The Gen8 versions added new stuff and increased the price way above what people were hoping to pay. I hope they reduce them again as they really are great little boxes. The double up as heaters in my new office ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lingwo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Cool thank you Would any of you have recommendations for OS? I thought about Ubuntu Server just for easiness All i want to use it for is storing Photos, movies that i have of the kids (my kids before we get any smart ass answers) I want is accessible from any device and hopefully once i get all my hardware up to 1gig network i can then stream from it too I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04 on mine. Works a treat. I'd look into what you're going to use it for first. For streaming. So long as you're not wireless or 10Mb LAN. You'll be able to stream fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philcruicks Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I've got the N40L (just a slightly slower CPU in it) and it'll be perfect for your use. I have it running a teamspeak and Minecraft server for me and my friends aswell as Plex to stream media. Yes i believe you can do 2x RAID1 on it, but you could look at software solutions to do RAID 5 as you have 4 drives (give you more capacity). I'd also highly recomend getting a 5.25" caddy, there is a Optical drive bay in the top but no drive, use USB to load your OS and use the spare bay for an extra drive, I;ve got a 250GB drive for my OS in there, gives me all 4 bays for a storage array. Yes you can plug USB drives in, also has e-SATA on that back which should be your 1st port of call for external drives. Do not get the gen 8 for your needs, its a full blown server with HP ILO and dual NIC's, for home use the Gen 7's are more than enough. I'm running Windows Server 2012 (because i get a free key from work for Home Lab setup) for you I'd go with a Linux distro you're happy with. Also for remoting unless you're often going to be doing it from outside your network, just use RDP save installing extra software like teamviewer. my god why did they not just say 4 * 3.5" drives lol Because its a server not a desktop/laptop Server speak is SFF and LFF. Accessing from an iPad maybe a small challenge, it would have straight network access like Windows/linux does using for eg windows explorer. You'd need some application on the server than can give it access, like Plex then you can get teh Plex app for iOS or use the web interface to access the media. 100Mb network will be fine for streaming, I'd get it all up to 1Gb if you can (makes copying files and everything easier, but it'll stream fine on 100Mb). ...I think thats every question answered :) Haggis 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian M. Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 Another N40 here. I think I paid about ?90 for it. Mine's running Debian headless and handles pretty much everything on my network other than actual routing. There's 4 drive bays, but you can put a 5th in the 5.25" bay with a couple of cables. I flashed mine with the modified bios which is floating around, and it's been rock solid. For the price of them, you can't go wrong. Heck, you'd probably pay something similar for a barebones NAS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 Thanks guys for all your help Now onto the hardest part of my plan persuading the wife i need one :p also i assume i dont have to use raid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Veteran Posted January 22, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2014 Looking at this will order when i get paid :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lingwo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Thanks guys for all your help Now onto the hardest part of my plan persuading the wife i need one :p also i assume i dont have to use raid? Nope i don't use raid on my setup. I don't think it is needed for what you're going to use it for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Fahim S. MVC Posted January 22, 2014 MVC Share Posted January 22, 2014 also i assume i dont have to use raid? Correct - you don't have to use RAID. I don't (anymore). You can actually fit 12 disks into this box with a bit of creativity - 4x3.5" and 8x2.5". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watkinsx2 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 You can put 16Gb in these things :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
]SK[ Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Do they still do cashback on these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulphy Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Was about to recommend upgrading to 8GB... makes a difference.. I am running WHS2011 on my box, and it does run pretty sweet! Was looking at running AMAHI ... looks rather interesting! - link :http://www.amahi.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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