HP Microserver - Get 'em while they're still cheap

[ThomserveBAS]

If anybody is buying an N54L as purely a storage device (rather than a test rig/toy) then you can now install Synology's excellent DiskStation Manager on it thanks to some clever jiggery pokery that the folks over at the XPenology Forums have been working on.

Here's the thread to the HP MicroServer instructions: XPEnology NAS • View topic - HP Proliant N40L MicroServer native support

Given an N54L can be had for around £80 notes after cashback, this is a superb alternative to Synology's excellent (but expensive) hardware.

EDIT: ...and if you have no idea what DSM is, head over to Synology.com and check out the online demo - it's superb at what it does.

[vetran]

whs 2011 + sharepoint 2010 change out of £130 thanks guys

[stek]

I just bought an IBM Bladecenter off Ebay with 11 Blades in it - £200....

Most of the Blades are Intel Xeon's, some AMD's and a couple of POWER ones!

Yes I know how much power they use.....

[quackhandle]

Has anyone got this running with 16GB RAM? I know HP state max is 8GB but wondering if anyone has the N54L model with 16GB RAM running.

If so, what make is it and where you bought it from?

TIA

qh

[vetran]

Has anyone got this running with 16GB RAM? I know HP state max is 8GB but wondering if anyone has the N54L model with 16GB RAM running.

If so, what make is it and where you bought it from?

TIA

qh

I have 8GB - 2*4GB £15 each from PCworld of all places. runs a dream. WHS tops out at 8GB.

plenty of suggestions on the wiki & forums suggesting 16GB is doable.

[Durbs]

Cashback offer on the N54L is back on and someone has managed to get stock....HP 704941-421 ProLiant MicroServer N54L | ServersPlus

[BigRed]

I can see their use as a storage device but for everything else I think I would rather spin up VMs and test things on my laptop, which has a better spec than these, or am I missing something?

[yasockie]

I can see their use as a storage device but for everything else I think I would rather spin up VMs and test things on my laptop, which has a better spec than these, or am I missing something?

It used to be a great deal, but the HW is getting a bit old now.
Still you can't get anywhere close to the price if you have a use case for a whole physical server - case, PSU, HDD, RAM, CPU, MB, Fans.
Also since it's popular now it will save a lot of time as there's pre-configured software for it, be it custom builds of WHS, linux distros, ZFS builds, Synology firmware etc etc.
Because of the relatively low-power CPU it is mostly good as a starting point for home storage server - it works out cheaper that an equivalent single purpose appliance like Synology or Time Capsule

[ThomserveBAS]

I can see their use as a storage device but for everything else I think I would rather spin up VMs and test things on my laptop, which has a better spec than these, or am I missing something?

I think you are missing something - the cost. They are £100 after the cashback - I'd challenge anybody to get that much hardware for £100 notes.

With VMWare ESXi on a USB stick on the internal port, these make great virtual machine hosts. I've comfortably run 4-5 VM's on one of these (the latest gen is much better than the first gen which is the one I started with and could still cope with 3-4 VM's on).

The only things I think it is missing (but that would add to the cost) would be a secondary ethernet port (allowing it to be used as a cheap firewall device) and an ILO card for remote access.

[Boo]

Cashback offer on the N54L is back on and someone has managed to get stock....HP 704941-421 ProLiant MicroServer N54L | ServersPlus

Thanks for that heads up, I ordered mine and and received it a day later from ServersPlus, excellent service and a steal at the cashback price.

Boo