HP Microserver at home

    In a previous post about how the HP Microserver feels in the office, I promised to write a short continuation about how he will behave at home. Actually, here it is.

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    The first thought that arises when looking at Microserver, at least for me, is the desire to fill it with disks and organize a capacious storage for video, having received a server in addition. For the first time this idea was voiced in a previous post, and some skeptical commentators pointed out that for about the same money that costs an “empty” Microserver, you can purchase a 4 TB NAS Western Digital. Assuming that this is so, I can’t help but recall that you can also get a spare home computer in the Microserver, for that matter. At least for mail, typing, and simple browsing, it works no worse than a decent nettop. And from NAS such abilities cannot be expected by definition. So Microserver is quite capable of acting as a fallback in case of failure of your main home "horse". And over the years, the accumulated files,

    In my ideal configuration (which has yet to be implemented), the Microserver is equipped with four 2 TB WD 20EARS drives. In total, this gives 8 TB of space, except for the reserved for the operating system. With a strong desire, it can be installed on a fast flash drive, and the flash drive itself can be plugged into the internal USB connector, moreover, it will be rare to load an OS, but it is still a small server. I don’t even need any dances with a tambourine, as I understand it - many Linux distributions are already tuned to run directly from a flash drive. Some maniacs can blame me for the fact that I do not use RAID, to which I will answer that you can try and raise RAID 5. Then there will be 6 TB of space (when installing four 2-terabyte drives). And the most chic will be the installation of a separate RAID-controller on four, or even more SATA-connectors, in this case, the field for experiments will become simply vast. If you want - insert the fifth disk in a 5-inch box, if you want - lift the unbelievable RAID configurations, if you want - bring the cables out and expand the capacity as your heart desires. Especially if you go broke just 3 terabytes who have arrived in Moscow.

    In the meantime, to organize the data transfer, I connected an external Wi-Fi dongle Belkin FSD8053 to the server, which at one time was very successfully purchased at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. In Russia, in my opinion, such adapters are not massively sold until now. The smart “whistle” works via the 802.11n protocol (and to all the younger ones), and has shown itself to be sensitive and reliable - it receives a signal from two of the most advanced D-Link DIR-615 routers through two walls. Even amazing.

    For the test, the Microserver installed a WD 10EADS drive, usually connected via the Vantec NexStar dock to the WD TV Live video player and used to watch video on a TV. This is an intermediate guest option, as the main viewer uses a powerful HP 8730W laptop with a 24-inch Dell 2408 WFP display connected to it. With its help, it is planned to view the video stored on Microserver, and even over the air, without wires. Here is such a strange scheme. In particular, we will not go into displaying high-quality video on a good LED TV and a computer display, this is a topic for a separate large publication, we simply take the existing scheme as a given.

    Most likely, you should not paint the dances with a tambourine around the router and move the mouse in Windows Server - any user who is more or less familiar with the case will probably write down the MAC address and configure the sharing of folders faster than me. As a result, I achieved the desired effect - the contents of the disk installed in Microserver became visible from the laptop, and is available for viewing. The easiest way to watch videos in MKV format, the same Media Player Classic quietly opens them over the network. The speed for a bitrate in the region of 20 Mbps (which is pretty good) is generally enough, but sometimes there are irregular slowdowns. In general, I was ready for the fact that watching videos wirelessly is a dreary business and requires fine tuning. Perhaps after the holidays, when there is time for optimization and it will be possible to pick up the nimble Linksys WRT610N from the office, I will write a separate post about this epic, I will not promise. In the meantime, in general, you can watch the video, if you don’t particularly find fault. The only thing - to view images of Blu-ray discs, a good ArcSoft Media Theater program will need to take care of setting up uPnP. And, of course, buy the program itself, it’s now being sold at a reduced price on the manufacturer’s website. The post may have turned out somewhat messy, please do not judge strictly, holidays are on the nose. I wish good luck to everyone who buys a Microserver as a gift - on the weekend you can have fun with it if you know what I mean 8)). buy the program itself, it’s now being sold at a reduced price on the manufacturer’s website. The post may have turned out somewhat messy, please do not judge strictly, holidays are on the nose. I wish good luck to everyone who buys a Microserver as a gift - on the weekend you can have fun with it if you know what I mean 8)). buy the program itself, it’s now being sold at a reduced price on the manufacturer’s website. The post may have turned out somewhat messy, please do not judge strictly, holidays are on the nose. I wish good luck to everyone who buys a Microserver as a gift - on the weekend you can have fun with it if you know what I mean 8)).

    For dessert - a few photos of the HP Microserver in the interior. Photos were not processed in any way, except for cropping.

    For accommodation, I chose a metal bedside table, bought on occasion from the Swedes.

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    “Green” Winchester - green bedside table!

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    All together:

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    Battle tandem.

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    The same Belkin.

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    A couple of glances at the screen.

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    Have a good experiment!

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