Topic: HP Microserver N40LE for SME7.x and SME8.x (compatibility and resourses)

[idp_qbn]

HP Microserver N40L works well.

I have had one running as my home-based file/mail server for 2 months without a hitch of any sort.
SME8.0B7 laded faultlessly, everything worked first time.
4Gb Ram, 4 x 1Tb SATA HD, File server only. 4 Users.

They are cheap as chips here in Australia - - less than AUD$300 delivered. Brilliant!

I recommend them strongly, so much so that I have ordered another to use as a VM server for testing.

Cheers
Ian

[Smitro]

Hey, I'm in Australia (QLD). But I can't find a price online for these. Can you give me an approx?

The HP website is coming up with Page not found for these products.

[idp_qbn]

I got mine through Ebay - here is one: http://preview.tinyurl.com/6vd7r2x

This one is just 2Gb RAM but I found one with 4Gb for $290 a couple of months ago.
Anyway, RAM for these is relatively cheap if you have to get your own.

Cheers
Ian

[chris burnat]

HP Microserver N40L works well.

I have had one running as my home-based file/mail server for 2 months without a hitch of any sort.
SME8.0B7 laded faultlessly, everything worked first time.
4Gb Ram, 4 x 1Tb SATA HD, File server only. 4 Users.

They are cheap as chips here in Australia - - less than AUD$300 delivered. Brilliant!

I recommend them strongly, so much so that I have ordered another to use as a VM server for testing.

Cheers
Ian

Ian, cannot find it, where do you get them?  Need some for a community based organisation. 
Thanks.

[Smitro]

The link works. That one had a buy it now price of $269. I just did a search for "N40L" and got a number of them.

Thanks Ian. I have a supplier that I normally use, so I'll probably go through them. Sounds like the perfect Product.

[TerryF]

HP N40L Microserver, Try here Chris, its where I gort mine from..Scorptec and have had no issues with 8B7 on it with a number of contribs added.

I also upped the RAM to 8 using non ecc, still works fine and a lot cheaper, even tho the specs say 8 ppl are puting in 16 and finding it also works fine..see these posts HERE

[chris burnat]

Perfect Trex, thanks also for the tips about memory.
Cheers

[TerryF]

There is a very active Microservers owners forum at the Oz overclockers forums HERE..Enjoy 

[chris burnat]

Just got a Skymaster NIC suitable for this server (low profile etc...) Its a Realtek RTL8111 chipset, fits like a glove.
Note: prices in Oz  appear to have suddenly gone up over past day or two, got one on Monday from Melbourne for $249, now $399 same supplier...  A search has yielded another supplier for $280 in Sydney inc Tax, so shop around.

[TerryF]

HP Proliant N40L Microserver running fine, initially used a ScanDisk 120gb Extreme SATA 3 SSD off the spare SATA connector, installed off a USB CD, also tried a USB stick, both OK.

A pair of 500gb disks in a Raid 1 mounted under /home/e-smith/files. Had some fun and learnt some new info..all good, thanks to the Wkiki how tos

Have now removed the SSD, reinstalled to HDs in Raid 1. Have added one 500gb to one of the spare bays as extra HD, will wait and see if HD prices continue coming down and will then add a couple of 2tb drives as iBay storage..a small UPS is also now been added.

This is all with the latest 8.0 iso.

So hardware wise all good on the N40L, using USB sticks and USB CD for installing..you have to love these little servers...its purring...

[chris burnat]

So hardware wise all good on the N40L, using USB sticks and USB CD for installing..you have to love these little servers...its purring...

Same here. A picture of loveliness!  Just ditch my prod server - moved drives into new N40L, bingo, its been on air for past 3 days, not a hitch, no noise, and low power consumption.  Build another one last night for a community radio station in Tonga using sme8 latest release from USB CD, tested overnight and looking fine.  I also moved my test 500GB Ubuntu 12.4 test drive into another N40 fitted with 4GB memory and used a Behringer UCA200 USB audio interface for sound.  No hitch, great little workstation, does everything.  Thanks for the tip mate!

[TerryF]

Have now put two of these into community houses here in Melb, the whole setup including drives etc under $500, they had quotes of up to $7,000..

Over last two weeks I tried the latest ClearOS (bugs, bugs and more bugs), Zentyal (has promise but seems to be heading more as a commercial product), Ubuntu (took forever to install and i just couldn't get enthused)..

Just couldn't go past good old SME.. ..just about danced around the house when I saw what now looks to be the 8 release on the mirrors.. thank you to those smarter than I who devote time and effort ..

[chris burnat]

Dancing here in Sydney also...We all can do our bit and help, check Devinfo, there is a call for a big push with documentation:

SME Server 8.0 was finally released today, alongside the final SME 7 release.
The change from SME 7 to SME 8 will need many updates in the wiki and a lot of help in the forums.
I hope that the community rises to the challenge.

[Smitro]

A heads up, I went to purchase an HP N40L, only to be told that they were discontinued 5 months ago. I'll have to jump on ebay to see what I can get.

[Stefano]

according to this page it's still available

[TerryF]

A heads up, I went to purchase an HP N40L, only to be told that they were discontinued 5 months ago. I'll have to jump on ebay to see what I can get.

Still available HERE although the discounting has ended.

[chris burnat]

Still available HERE at around $250 + GST

[Smitro]

Thanks all, I ordered one from Mega Buy in Brisbane. I've never used them before, so hopefully they're good.

[Smitro]

Hey, while on the N40L. Has anyone else had trouble with the speed of the drives?

I've put 2 Seagate 2TB SATA3 (ST2000DM001) drives and the formatting is taking hours. I've looked at other posts, and have not been any help. Will there be a speed problem after the format or should I just sit through it? Is there settings in the BIOS I should change? (followed others instructions but didn't help)

[Jáder]

Did you turned off the hardware  RAID in BIOS ?
OR did you turned off the SOFTWARE RAID on boot screen ?

If you do not turned off ONE of those... you're trying to do wrong thing: TWO RAID (one by SW on SME, other by HW on N40L)

Please verify and return here with status.

[Smitro]

Ok, so maybe I'm half there.

In Bios the AHCI option is selected (not IDE or RAID). Sorry can't remember the exact name of the option and the box is finally up to 70% so not sure if I should restart it.

Software RAID? I presume this is on. I didn't see an option for it, but from what I read it's on by default. How do I disable this?

Documentation on this site says I should use Software Raid, But I'm happy to use the one that works. Let me know the correct settings and I'll set them. (after wasting most of the day I'll try anything).

[cactus]

Software RAID? I presume this is on. I didn't see an option for it, but from what I read it's on by default. How do I disable this?

Only at install time by using the boot parameter noraid IIRC.

[Jáder]

Software RAID is default install for SME.
If you do not choose nothing else, you have a RAID install.

About your BIOS, I'm not sure, but if it's nor IDE neither is RAID, SHOULD be the correct option.
But I think even 1 hour to format a 2TB HDD is too much!

Something is not right, please do not put this server on production till you find out what is causing this slowing down of HDD.
If you have finished formating and installing SME, you can test HDD speed using hdparm:

Code: [Select]

hdparm -tT /dev/sdaSee my numbers below as reference, this is a 1TB HDD running on Dell GX280 (old P4 CPU):

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[root@guepardo ~]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2912 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1455.74 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  242 MB in  3.01 seconds =  80.53 MB/sec
[root@guepardo ~]#


[Smitro]

Finally the install finished this morning. I tried the hdparm and there doesn't seem to be any problems there.

Code: [Select]

[root@box2]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   4272 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2135.69 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  388 MB in  3.01 seconds =  128.74 MB/sec
[root@box2]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   4136 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2067.96 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  388 MB in  3.01 seconds =  128.72 MB/sec

Both are identical drives.

[chris burnat]

Same here, taken an inordinate amount of time to format 1Tb drive. 3-4 hours, cannot remember.  Formatting 250GB was fast.
Setup in Bios left as default, I thin it was AHCI , cannot check, box in up and running...

HDD test OK:
[root@gateway0 ~]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   4852 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2426.04 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  344 MB in  3.01 seconds = 114.24 MB/sec


[root@gateway0 ~]# hdparm -tT /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb:
 Timing cached reads:   4616 MB in  2.00 seconds = 2308.60 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  308 MB in  3.02 seconds = 102.08 MB/sec

Three boxes in production now, no drama so far.

[Smitro]

I tired a number of things.
Tried the IDE setting - No difference.
Onboard "fakeraid" - Formatted fast, but on first reboot ended with a kernal panic.
Single Drive AHCI - Formatted within an hour and booted fine. I then added the second drive. It took 10 hours (+/-1 hour) to rebuild the raid. Now the system has been sitting idle for a day and I notice that the Hard Drive light is still flickering every 2 seconds, and you can hear activity. I have not configured anything other than the questions durring the install. Is this normal for a Raid? Are my drives going to wear out a lot faster if they never get a chance to stop and smell the roses?

I ran 'top' and I can't see anything out of the ordinary using resources. It looks pretty idle. Maybe the occasional dnscache process. The machine has 6GB of ram, you would think that would be enough to leave the hard drive alone.

I'm about to bring data across to this server and go live, but want to hold off till it's right. Opinions? Do you think it's good to go? Is this normal?
(sorry for getting the original post off topic)

[Smitro]

I could see I was getting off topic, so I've started another post regarding constant hard drive usage.
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,48728.0.html

[chris burnat]

Just found this:
http://homeservershow.com/hp-microserver-n40l-build-and-bios-modification.html
A lot of information!