Gen8 HP MicroServers - Capabilities

[Dos_Box]

A quick question here for anyone who is running or has experience of the Gen8 HP MicroServers.

In particular thier use as:

 

 

• Domain controller
  
• Remote\local storage
  
• Virtualisation
  
• What hardware spec you run to achieve your tasks?
  

 

In particular what O\S are you running (I'd be plumping for a Windows Server varient)?

The reason I'm asking is that currently we are running ageing Thecus iSCSI NAS boxes which will need replacing this summer and we'd like to go with something that has a lot more flexability, so any copmments you may have on them would be well received.

[sted]

ive done all of them on a gen7 and while not fast its still usable hardware wise mine at home was at one point running 08r2 a pair of vms with 3gb ram 4*2tb drives as 2 mirrors and 1 300(i think) boot drive (did flash a firmware patch to make the odd bay odd work faster but other than that its standard) and it was usable

[edutech4schools]

I use a gen 7 to migrate primary schools while fixing the main server. I have run the lot from one. DC, DHCP, SQL, SIMS and hyper-v and nobody ever seems to notice or contact me to say xyz is running slow.

[Dos_Box]

ive done all of them on a gen7 and while not fast its still usable hardware wise mine at home was at one point running 08r2 a pair of vms with 3gb ram 4*2tb drives as 2 mirrors and 1 300(i think) boot drive (did flash a firmware patch to make the odd bay odd work faster but other than that its standard) and it was usable

 

Is that with Hyper-v?

[johnat1121]

I have a Gen 8 with 2 Intel 160GB SSDs RAID 1 (OS) + 2x2TB RAID 1 (Data) running server 2012r2 (essentials) for 18 users and it works great I did upgrade the RAM to 8gb and its very snappy even has remote web access enabled and ILO4 have saved my ass on a few occasions, lovely piece of kit and its no where near as loud as a normal server so great for the small office environment its in.

[PotNoodleTech]

Are you talking about for testing or for production?

 

They look great for testing. Not so great for production. Assuming you can cope with the slow CPU and limited RAM, the single PSU, single point of faliure and also the 4 x drive bays are not hot swap so you'd have to power off the server to do maintenance which is far from ideal.

 

Other than that - cool cheap little server. Great for home labs!

[Arthur]

@Dos_Box. Would building your own NAS be an option?

 

NAS Server Build – ASRock C2750D4I & Silverstone DS380 « b3n.org

 

 

The case pictured on the right is a Silverstone DS380 with eight hot-swap bays.

[powdarrmonkey]

the 4 x drive bays are not hot swap so you'd have to power off the server to do maintenance which is far from ideal.!

 

That's not quite true, at least on my G7. The carriers are marked 'Non-hot swap', but in practice I swap them hot without any problems (mdraid).

[powdarrmonkey]

A quick question here for anyone who is running or has experience of the Gen8 HP MicroServers.

 

Mine is a Gen7, but I gather they are broadly similar. It does for me at home:

 

• virtualisation
  
• mail (at one stage ~1000 a day)
  
• routing and firewalling, for six subnets
  
• ppp
  
• remote storage
  
• full local Debian replica mirror
  
• web services, including dlna and some hosted applications
  
• mysql
  
• a virtual WLAN controller
  

 

so not quite what you're considering, but a fair workload about which it doesn't complain at all. (I did beef it up with another NIC (for routing) and some RAM.)

 

In particular what O\S are you running (I'd be plumping for a Windows Server varient)?

 

Debian, naturally

[Soulfish]

I run FreeNAS on my Gen7. Works pretty well for me!

[Dos_Box]

Sorry, but the Silverstone has a single blue light. The HP has a blue STRIP!!

HP wins.

 

@Dos_Box. Would building your own NAS be an option?

 

NAS Server Build – ASRock C2750D4I & Silverstone DS380 « b3n.org

 

 

The case pictured on the right is a Silverstone DS380 with eight hot-swap bays.