Reply to: How to set up central shared server at home?

[Sysman]

I might repurpose my old desktop when i get a new machine and stick WHS or a flavour of linux on it.

Minimum requirements for WHS2011:

X64 processor, 64 bit
2048 MB RAM
160GB hard drive

And yes, the installation does check these. I have managed to drop the RAM in a VM once installation is done (really just to stop VirtualBox nagging that I've allocated more than half the physical RAM of a 4GB system which has a shared memory graphics chip).

[craig1]

Static addresses where I am seem to be reserved for business lines, which don't come cheap. However my IP address only changes maybe once or twice a year. The dynamic DNS function on my old router never worked, so I got used to changing the DNS entries manually. The most recent change was when I replaced the router - a new MAC address triggers a fresh IP address.

I have a launchd job on my Mac which checks the IP address at regular intervals and writes it to a file on Dropbox, so I can get at it from anywhere I have that installed. When I get around to it I'll enhance that to send me an email when the address changes.

I use Zen for my internet. They give either 1 or 8 static IP addresses as part of the standard contract. I'd thoroughly recommend them as an ISP.

[Sysman]

VPN is turned on and my ISP gives static IP addresses so I can get to it from anywhere if I really need to.

Static addresses where I am seem to be reserved for business lines, which don't come cheap. However my IP address only changes maybe once or twice a year. The dynamic DNS function on my old router never worked, so I got used to changing the DNS entries manually. The most recent change was when I replaced the router - a new router MAC address triggers a fresh IP address for dynamic address users.

I have a launchd job on my Mac which checks the IP address at regular intervals and writes it to a file on Dropbox, so I can get at it from anywhere I have that installed. When I get around to it I'll enhance that to send me an email when the address changes.

[doodab]

I might repurpose my old desktop when i get a new machine and stick WHS or a flavour of linux on it.

[craig1]

I use an old laptop stuck on a docking station as my home server. 2002 Compaq laptop that's useless for anything else these days but is still good enough to be a basic file and iTunes server. I treat it as a server with built-in UPS! I have an external USB drive with mirrored drives to provide some hardware tolerance.

I use Windows Live Mesh as my syncing tool for documents, works very nicely on my Mac and means I have multiple copies of my most important stuff. Updating on the fly from anywhere with an internet connection is key for me,

I back up the USB drive to a second USB box (single drive) once a month to make sure I don't lose all my media files. I keep this hidden away in my garage, detached, to give a bit of DR capacity in case of fire or theft.

VPN is turned on and my ISP gives static IP addresses so I can get to it from anywhere if I really need to.

[v8gaz]

I'll second the Synology offerings - got a 411+ii, with 12Tb of disk in it. The management console is brilliant, it acts as a shared drive for all my machines, and iTunes server, streams all the movies you can handle to my SmartTV and also manages some video cameras around the house. Great bit of kit.

[Graham]

£249. That's roughly what I paid for one with 4GB RAM but no disk at Christmas. WHS2011 cost about 40 quid but I already had it.

It's a nice piece of kit. Jury still out on the WHS2011 side, but it's certainly doing the streaming and backups (off to external USB disks) nicely. There is the catch that there's a 2TB limit on the size of backups. Thus far it does a nice job of backing up Windows clients too, and you can create a USB boot stick to restore those clients (tested - it's a doddle). Despite the product description you only have limited functionality with Mac clients though.

2GB is the minimum RAM for WHS2011, 4GB is fine, but I'm going to max mine out to 8GB.

Oh, one tip. Unlike Windows Server 2008, when you install WHS2011 it overwrites Disk 0; it creates a 60GB partition for C: and the rest of that disk for D:. You don't get the choice of aiming it at another disk.

According to the license, you aren't supposed to promote it to a domain controller (it won't let you - I tried ), enable any roles that the initial installation doesn't enable, and you shouldn't make it a member of a domain either. However a bit of searching soon shows you that folks are doing that sort of thing

Well, £149 once you've received the cashback
Think when I got two of them before xmas they were £240 each.

I have 8gb in each of mine Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit CL9 1.5V | Ebuyer.com (was £25+vat when I got it, is non-ECC but still works fine as far as I can tell)
One is running WHS 2011 and the other ESXI for playing with VMs.

[stek]

If it's just a case of needing to restart the NAS, then the 410 allows you to schedule a restart, shutdown or startup. I would expect the 412 to do the same.

Checked, it does, but over night is when it rsyncs to Crashplan, and its got 2.5TB to do - I'm doing my entire collection of stuff - gonna take a while!

[TheFaQQer]

Get one of those plugs with a built in timer to reset the power every night at 3am.. Thats what i do with my dodgy old router that seems to hang occasionally, it turns off a 3am, and back on at 3:02.

If it's just a case of needing to restart the NAS, then the 410 allows you to schedule a restart, shutdown or startup. I would expect the 412 to do the same.

[stek]

Get one of those plugs with a built in timer to reset the power every night at 3am.. Thats what i do with my dodgy old router that seems to hang occasionally, it turns off a 3am, and back on at 3:02.

it's raided though - not sure an immediate power off is a good idea! Gives me an idea though - cron!!

Having said that as another poster said - since I've got things connecting to it it seems not have to totally gone to sleep...

[Sysman]

What sort of power consumption are they using?? given that in a home server environment, they are likely to lay unused whilst we're all at work, are these boxes draining the power grid for no reason??
With typical home pc's and their 300watt+ PSU's, im reluctant to leave one on 24/7 as a home server.

From HP QuickSpecs

Power Supply:

150 Watts Non-Hot Plug, Non Redundant Power Supply

I only have one 2 TB disk in mine so far, but that 150 Watts will do 4 disks. As for leaving it on for 24 hours a day, I recently found out that the old servers I have here consumed rather a lot even when switched off, so have put them on power strips with a master switch, so essentially I am ahead of the game at the moment.

[Harmonic]

I've got a mini-ITX server that I built myself. It's got a Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, 750GB 7.2K boot disk and 2x 2TB data disks and Windows Home Server 2011. The whole thing runs off a 120W external PSU as the case is a 10"x10"x10" cube. There's an add-in for WHS that will shut down and restart according to either time or activity so it's pretty frugal when it comes to power.

[Sysman]

I got a couple of these little HP boxes before Xmas. You just send off proof of postage, the serial number and a copy of the invoice and they send you a cheque. They are really well made little boxes, only faff I had was I was too tight to buy DVD drives for them solely to put the OS on so hacked them with a couple of USB keys and these posts:
Booting from USB on HP ProLiant Microserver « Biker Patch
Installing Ubuntu 10.10 Server on the HP ProLiant Microserver using bootable USB « Biker Patch

Had not seen UNetbootin before so was a fun evening

Yes I noticed from the destructions that the 4 screws designated for the DVD drive which are in the front door had been used. If I had been given the option I might have gone through the same fun that you did.

P.S. I've just looked up the exchange rate and realise I paid about 208 quid.

[Joeman]

I got a couple of these little HP boxes before Xmas.

What sort of power consumption are they using?? given that in a home server environment, they are likely to lay unused whilst we're all at work, are these boxes draining the power grid for no reason??
With typical home pc's and their 300watt+ PSU's, im reluctant to leave one on 24/7 as a home server.

[administrator]

How does this cashback thing work? Do you pay the full amount then get cash back or what?

I've only just seen the cashback idea appear in my country, and yes it was for some HP kit, but not something I have a need for at the moment.

I got a couple of these little HP boxes before Xmas. You just send off proof of postage, the serial number and a copy of the invoice and they send you a cheque. They are really well made little boxes, only faff I had was I was too tight to buy DVD drives for them solely to put the OS on so hacked them with a couple of USB keys and these posts:
Booting from USB on HP ProLiant Microserver « Biker Patch
Installing Ubuntu 10.10 Server on the HP ProLiant Microserver using bootable USB « Biker Patch

Had not seen UNetbootin before so was a fun evening