HP N54L as Media Server, Backup Server, and... Virtual Machines lab.

  • Hi all,
    I'm new to OMV and also in the forums, first of all thank you, I've found lots of inspiration here and many many helpful advice.
    Now that my build is (almost) done, I would like to share with you.


    I've a HP Microserver N54L and have added 16GB RAM, a HP P410 raid controller, and 3 x 3TB disks (in Raid5).
    At the moment I'm using the 250GB disk that came with the server for the OS (OMV of course) but I'm thinking on improving this by adding a new disk and doing Raid 1 mirror.
    Probably will also add a PCIe USB3.0 controller to improve the USB transfers (once you're used to USB3.0 speeds it's a pain to roll back to USB2.0).


    The main purposes of the server are:

    • Home Media Server - With PlexMediaServer daily serving content to a Samsung Smart TV (plex client), and other devices sporadically.
    • Backup server - Backing up the 2 laptops on my home.
    • Virtual Machine Lab - Because of my work I need to do software installations on different platforms (Windows and Linux) and I've found VirtualBox to be the most effective in terms of performance and functionality, currently using Vagrant to manage my VM (templates, provision, etc) and that have added lots of productivity to my days. I've tried ESXi and Proxmox, both provide have good performance and functionally but once I've learnt Vagrant I couldn't live without it, and the vagrant plugins for those providers don't provide all the features that the virtualbox do.
    • In the near future I've plans to setup an ownCloud to serve as repository/backup for contacts, calendar and documents in my phone.


    So that's it for now, no wait, I'm heading to the donate page now to show a little appreciation to this amazing project.


    Have a great day you all!

    ---

    omv 6.3 | 6.2-pve kernel | Ryzen 5700G | 64GB RAM | 2 x 2TB NVME | 2 x 4GB HDD

    plugins: omvextrasorg | kvm | cputemp | diskstats | filebrowser | sharerootfs | wetty

  • Welcome jvanoli,
    other more experienced members can comment better, but I think it is a powerful configuration to start, mine is on the same server, but more "domestic".
    The raid controller is hardware? I read reviews that suggest that it's better software raid.


    Currently I use it as a file repository (CIFS/SMB), media server (PLEX), download manager, several virtual machines Win/Linux with VBox and I'm happy with it.

    5.6.5-1 (Usul)
    HP ProLiant G7 MicroServer N54L AMD Turion II / 4GB
    Kingston SSDNow 200 30GB (OS), 4 x WD red 2TB SATA3 (Data)



  • hi ebomber, thanks for the warm welcome 'neighbor' ;)
    Yes the raid controller is hardware, it goes in the PCIe slot. I must say it was a tough decision (€220 on eBay from a German seller) but it brings 512MB memory cache, it has a battery backup to avoid disk corruptions on power loss, and has 2 mini-Sas ports to connect 4 drives on each (that i won't use right away but i like to have the option to grow).
    So that for me are nice set of features, but the main reason i got it was to off-load the work from the cpu and memory. I mean, it's my understading that with software raids the OS makes the work of writing the parity bits in the disks, so i wanted to take all the posible load off the CPU so it's more available to the tasks i'm interested in (virtualization, etc). I also looked at the option of ZFS filesystem, but again, it uses lots of RAM, which i better use in my virtual machines.

    ---

    omv 6.3 | 6.2-pve kernel | Ryzen 5700G | 64GB RAM | 2 x 2TB NVME | 2 x 4GB HDD

    plugins: omvextrasorg | kvm | cputemp | diskstats | filebrowser | sharerootfs | wetty

    2 Mal editiert, zuletzt von jvanoli ()

  • You're welcome jvanloi,


    As I said I am quite newbie, I only explained a bit what I had read here and other sites about it, but I think you've seen the pros and cons for your needs.
    At first I also thought about using ZFS but, as you indicate, its needs of RAM (preferably ECC) and more complex scalability, made me give up.
    For virtulización is certainly better to let CPU and RAM resources. In my case I think I'm short on memory and I only use it to virtualize some Win and Linux (my computers are Macs).

    5.6.5-1 (Usul)
    HP ProLiant G7 MicroServer N54L AMD Turion II / 4GB
    Kingston SSDNow 200 30GB (OS), 4 x WD red 2TB SATA3 (Data)



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