Hi guys I am looking into buying/building a File server. I want to have a Lowpower 24/7 operation with print server, Windows media server (to stream to my PS3), and high level of fail-safe (raid5). So video up to 1200p over gigabyte LAN is a must. Now I have been hearing a lot of good things about the: HP Proliant Microserver and really like this: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2800291&postcount=89 But is it up to what I need? The price is great and so is the power usage but can it handle the load? Can I do all this under Ubuntu Server?
In a word, yes, but with one caveat. If you want RAID 5 you will need to either buy a separate RAID 5 card or use software RAID.
HP spec this is business class hardware, it is designed to run 24 hour, I use an app called Light-Out on WHS 2011 to hibernate mine during week nights, but it is otherwise constantly on and has been since May 2011, no issues. It comes with a 200W power supply which under the circumstances is ample, I think peak, chipset may be 25 -30W plus 10W -15W for each hard drive. With my RocketRaid 2680 add in card maybe 120 - 130W peak, hopefully around half that idle. I do not know about Ubuntu, but the Microserver has gigabit ethernet and in WHS it has streamed to my XBox 360 no issues (over wi-fi too). I have not tried media transcoding, particular concerning hi-def transcoding seek advice on that as the processor is fairly week. My server is not stock either so be prepared to budget extra. If you want hardware RAID 5, the chipset only supports RAID 0 or RAID 1 natively, again I do not know about ubuntu but WHS 2011 allows you to configure a software RAID 5 implementation as an alternative. Finally I spent about £50 on a 4gb RAM upgrade (from Crucial), again server style I stuck with ECC RAM that matched the 1gb you get stock, I have heard it may work with normal cheaper non-ECC ram but I have not tested it myself. I was told a RAM upgrade significantly increases performance under WHS or another Windows implementation but may be less necessary with Linux or FreeNAS.
Thanks can u add some links to these bits and pieces please Also I was ogling your build but the raid card only has 2 connectors. I know im server noob how does is support so many raid connections?
NP: These bits are for hardware RAID 5 and the optical drive to hard drive bay upgrade, all from Scan: http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/219fc5ec252746149fa928030aa1b1b8 The Highpoint RocketRAID 2680 allows you to use the backplane for hot swap RAID 5, it uses SAS connectors, each SAS connection can fan out to 4 SATA connections with the correct cable. The extra cable allows you to use the mainboard's SAS header for the other 2 drives in the ICyBOx 1x 5.25 to 1x 3.5 and 1x 2.5 caddy ( I run my OS disk off the mainboard, less margin for error that way). I used Crucial's memory locator search and bought 1 4gb stick: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Proliant%20MicroServer&pl=HP%20-%20Compaq&cat= There are 2 slots, one is populated with 1gb in stock, the advice was dual channel mattered less than amount in a server so I just got a single stick for 5gb total, looks like the price has come down, still a premium compared to non-ECC tho. Finally, just add OS and disks *edit* also best to check driver comparability on the Highpoint website for the RAID card with other OS's if you are not going down windows route
