Hi, I am after some help concerning the HP MicroServer that I know a few on here have mentioned on some of the recent NAS threads.
My existing Buffalo Linkstation Live has suffered what sounds like a hard disk failure (the click of death) and instead of a straight replacement I am considering going down the home server route as I hoping it will do some other things.
So would something like Ubuntu Server allow me do the following;
- Stream photos and movies to my WDTV Live?
- Stream music (flac?) to a Sono's Connect or Denon DNP?
- Provide a web filtering proxy to restrict access based on content/user/time?
- File, Print/Scan server (HP C4780) for connected laptops?
- Processing of video files for editing?
- Allow me to retire my desktop PC that is doing the above badly and slowly and making my dining room look a mess.
I'm assuming it will do all of the above with ease but would be interested in other peoples experiences...would I be better using virtual machines etc?
Plan to initially just run a pair of drives and manually backup from one to the other, or possibly daily incremental backups. Or, would I be better running mirrored drives and a third for backups.
Trying to keep costs as close to £200-250 as possible.
Finally what are they like noise wise? The Buffalo had a WoL function that meant it spent a lot of time not doing anything, I assume the server will be running 24x7 or can it be made to turn on/off intelligently?
What do people think?
Thanks.
I have mine in my room, probably the same noise level as one of those generic business form factor desktops. Stick in in your loft and just remote to it if your fussed about the noise.
You could easily script it to shutdown at a certain time. Not played with WoL but I would imagine its supported.
I use mine as an SMB/Plex server. Got it back when you got the £100 rebate so I'd have a look as to whether thats going on anywhere, the disk isnt great, you only get a 250gb with it so I'd factor that in in your decision.
RAID is not backup. If you need backups, take backups.
backup to your RAID
The servers are fairly noisy imo, mines just in the spare room so not an issue, i wouldnt want it in the front room. Get a media player like your WDTV for that.
Get it wired to cat5 or 6 and forget wireless.
Install ubuntu 12.04 LTS or whatever, it should do ll you want with some tinkering
Install putty on your desktop to control the server on command line
install server with samba, NFS, SSH and what ever other services you want.
Install webmin so you can control your server over the web.
Install serviio as your media server, flac, mp3, jpg etc Your Denon will play flacs from this fine, mine does.
install madsonic or subsonic if you want to play music to your android phone over a nice interface. (bubbleupnp can do this too with serviio server)
WOL works from my server, from laptop and mobile phone
Rsync will do incremental backups or something based on it
oh dont forget dropbox and other storage methods, FTP maybe.
good luck
Thanks for the replies.
I've bitten the bullet and got a n54l ordered and a 3TB drive so will have a play later in the week when everything arrives.
I think the plan is;
Install Ubuntu on the supplied 250GB drive.
And, then I'm not sure what next.
Is it worth partitioning the 3TB drive or just using as one big drive?
Additionally, I have two existing 500GB drives (NTFS) and am wondering whether I could mount these, copy the contents across to the new drive and then use those as well as the new drive. Not entirely sure whether this possible or practical given they aren't server/NAS drives.
I'll have a think about it before doing anything, but any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
yes install ubuntu on the 250gb.
data all on the 3gb, up to you if you partition it but id probably leave it as one big drive then use folders for music, photos, movies etc.
the 500gb drives can be mounted and work just fine alongside the 3gb or copy the data over but to be honest id be inclined to maybe use them as a plugin usb backup drive for critical backups.
you will need to install the ntfs driver if it isnt allready, it will be on apt-get
Dobo, thanks for the help, much appreciated.
Wondered about just using them as backup USB drives, might just do that as it will be plenty for critical stuff.
Cheers