HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 (Celeron Dual Core)

[TehJonny]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to the whole NAS area I have been looking at a NAS for a few weeks now but they are quite expensive I then saw this https://www.serversplus.com/servers/tower_servers/hp_tower_servers/712317-421 and thought it would make a decent NAS?

Am I right?

Currently I am just using my normal computer with a 2TB green drive which is filled with films and tv shows. which is then streamed over the network around my house to 1-3 devices depending on if people are watching.

I am wondering if this HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 (Celeron Dual Core) can run FreeNAS and if it can handle video streaming some 720p content some 1080p. over the network.

I am considering getting 16TB 4x4TB WD red drives but I herd this Server thing only supports up to 12TB so might have to be 3x3TB WD reds. I could be wrong though?

I am also wondering if anyone can tell me what types of read and write speeds I can expect from this in a say RAID0 configuration? or if there is a better type of RAID I should use?

I was also going to get a 60GB SSD to use as the FREENAS OS if thats possible?

Really hope some of you guys could help me out

Kind Regards
-Jonathan

 

[marbus90]

This server supports any SATA drives, you can slap in 4x8TB if you want. It works. Transcoding for non-computers as playback devices would only work well with 1 stream, but if you just open the file in VLC or something, that works. Depending on how important the data is, you ought to configure a raidz2 = only 50% usable. raidz1 might work out for redownloadable media files, ZFS would tell you which files have been corrupted during a rebuild (z1 only has 1 parity disk, which is not available during a rebuild - a read error on the existing disks will lead to data loss).

You wouldn't need an SSD to boot FreeNAS, altough if there's a spare SATA port and you can get a cheap SSD or have an old one lying around, use it. Note that you should upgrade the RAM to 8-16GB, for example with the Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B 2x8GB ECC DIMM kit.

 

[survive]

Hi TehJonny,

The Mircoservers are nice little boxes if you can deal with the 4 drive limit. Get yourself a couple of SanDisk Cruzer Fit keys for the OS if you order.

I took a look at the deal you linked to & found this:

https://www.serversplus.com/servers/server_bundles/712317421-esxi6

Same box with 16GB...might be a deal depending on what a pair of 8GB DIIM costs.

I'm not sure if those prices are including the 80 bucks\pounds back deal. If they aren't then I think it's a freaking steal.

-Will

 

[TehJonny]

Any idea what type of read and write speeds I can expect? also would I need the RAM upgrade if I was to use a RAID0 config?

 

[TehJonny]

Also I was thinking about buying the 2GB model on its own and getting it for £99 after cash-back then buying this later on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Te...1433119762&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=EEC+RAM+16GB ? works out slightly cheaper then the bundle they offer? unless there is something wrong with this memory?

 

[survive]

Hi TehJonny,

I can't really tell you anything about RAID0....it's just to contrary to everything else I want to do with storage! That said, if you need the RAID0 speed why not just get an SSD & install it local? Remember no matter what you can get out of the disks in the NAS the network is going to limit your speed.

Here's what I can tell you. If I had access to the deal you get on that Mircoserver & wanted to set up a server for the home using a Mircoserver I would get one with 16GB (package deal or best deal, no matter...just check the compatibility list at HP for completeness) pop in my 4 drives & make a raidz2 volume.

Remember for media there's "playing from a share" & transcoding. If your device can play your content natively then you can feed content to many devices. Transcoding through Plex is going to require some processing power so confirm what your devices will need.

-Will

 

[marbus90]

The times where we had to raid0 HDDs for speed are over. Latency is the biggest killer, hence nothing but a SSD is going to help.

The Crucial 16GB Kit costs the same and is not from the frowned upon manufacturer Kingston. Buying the RAM extra is common practice.

 

[wmn79]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to the whole NAS area I have been looking at a NAS for a few weeks now but they are quite expensive I then saw this https://www.serversplus.com/servers/tower_servers/hp_tower_servers/712317-421 and thought it would make a decent NAS?

Am I right?

Currently I am just using my normal computer with a 2TB green drive which is filled with films and tv shows. which is then streamed over the network around my house to 1-3 devices depending on if people are watching.

I am wondering if this HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 (Celeron Dual Core) can run FreeNAS and if it can handle video streaming some 720p content some 1080p. over the network.

I am considering getting 16TB 4x4TB WD red drives but I herd this Server thing only supports up to 12TB so might have to be 3x3TB WD reds. I could be wrong though?

I am also wondering if anyone can tell me what types of read and write speeds I can expect from this in a say RAID0 configuration? or if there is a better type of RAID I should use?

I was also going to get a 60GB SSD to use as the FREENAS OS if thats possible?

Really hope some of you guys could help me out

Kind Regards
-Jonathan

I am using this machine with 4x 2TB disks in RAIDZ2 and 10GB total of ram. I bought the normal 2GB model and plugged in an extra 8GB module from Kingston. I am running the FreeNAS os from a Sandisk Extreme 16 GB USB 3.0 stick. Read and write speads I have not checked yet and I am not using RAID0 or RAID1 from the internal RAID hardware so can't help you with that. I am using the AHCI mode instead and have FreeNAS created the RAIDZ2. The system is running smoothly. On this forum you can find a lot of information on this system. Good luck!

 

[Bradley Mitchell]

I've just started using FreeNAS and purchased the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 (8Gb DDR and 3 x 2TB WD Red). It's awesome :) no issues with performance. I'm actually running it as a guest in eSXI which allows me to run Ubuntu Server at the same time.

 

[Bradley Mitchell]

Running in a RAIDZ1 btw

 

[gpsguy]

Ensure that you have good backups.

My guess, is that you haven't read the stickies on virtualizing FreeNAS. If you only have 8GB RAM in your Microserver, you obviously don't have enough RAM to run ZFS on FreeNAS. 8GB is the minimum requirement, no matter how much storage you have.

I'm actually running it as a guest in eSXI ...

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'm actually running it as a guest in eSXI which allows me to run Ubuntu Server at the same time.

You'd be much better off running Ubuntu Server under VirtualBox from within FreeNAS (after doubling your RAM).

 

[Bradley Mitchell]

Thanks for the info. I'll look into doubling the RAM.

Robert, why do you suggest running under Virtual Box within FreeNAS?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Robert, why do you suggest running under Virtual Box within FreeNAS?

To put it in simple terms, because virtualizing FreeNAS is for experts, and virtualizing other OSes using VirtualBox is for the rest of us. Of course, if you're an expert, you can ignore this suggestion.

If you search these forums for topics related to virtualization, you'll get the idea. The key concept is that FreeNAS is very fussy, and you could lose all your data if you don't get it exactly right, whereas Ubuntu is not as fussy, and if you mess that up, all you lose is what you have on your Ubuntu VM.

As an extension of this, if you do get into trouble with virtualizing FreeNAS, some of the most experienced forum members will be extremely unsympathetic, which will make recovering even more difficult.

 

[jgreco]

The key concept is that FreeNAS is very fussy

Robert, your heart is in the right place here, but I'm going to take exception to that because it presents this the wrong way. It isn't FreeNAS that's fussy. It is that the thing you're trying to do is very much more complicated than a typical VM, because it involves large amounts of storage on a number of hardware devices.

You can absolutely run FreeNAS in a VM and I've even provided a recipe for doing so "safely". The thing is, that design is approximately the complexity of your typical VM, plus a few concessions to ZFS design.

However, the problem is usually that people looking to virtualize want to hook up a bunch of disks and then feed that through ESXi to a FreeNAS VM. That CAN be done, sometimes, carefully, but it is a lot more fragile and requires more UNIX and virtualization wizard experience points.

And I want to emphasize that I am NOT picking on the OP in this thread, but I'm going to use his setup of what we tend to see:

The ProLiant uServer Gen8 has four bays and really not much other meaningful internal storage. You can install ESXi on its internal flash slot but not datastores. So you need a place to store your VM's. So a datastore must be present on the disks in the bays, which means that you cannot do PCI-passthru on the disk controller, which leads to nerd rage, which then leads to "well jgreco is full of **it, I'll do it with RDM anyways."

And now you're suddenly veering off a relatively safe path that many people have followed to virtualize, and you're off in the weeds doing your own thing. Right up 'til something bad happens, and you're hosed because you cannot figure out how to recover from a failed disk or something like that.

As an extension of this, if you do get into trouble with virtualizing FreeNAS, some of the most experienced forum members will be extremely unsympathetic, which will make recovering even more difficult.

Well, @cyberjock is often extremely unsympathetic "period" (grin!!), but while I might be sympathetic, that probably only extends to buying you a beer and holding a little memorial service for your data.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...nas-in-production-as-a-virtual-machine.12484/

Most of the mistakes that people are hell bent on making ... usually a result of "making what I have work" which is almost always a very poor idea.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

It isn't FreeNAS that's fussy.

Yes, well, I was simplifying, but OK.

 

[jgreco]

Yes, well, I was simplifying, but OK.

I know. And I know your heart's in the right place. However, I initially wrote the "Please Don't Virtualize" sticky because we were seeing so many people doing it wrong. But that isn't going to actually stop them, so that's accompanied by the other sticky. Unfortunately lots of people still show up with what I'd call "hopeless hardware" and want to virtualize. I find that giving them a more detailed explanation usually deters them better.

 

[Bradley Mitchell]

@jgreco thanks for the link