[Wolfmancatsup]

You could try Home Server SMART which will look at the SMART readings of your drives and let you know if there are any issues:-

Home Server SMART

Mick

EDIT: Sorry, it looks as if it's WHS only...

[m0t0k0]

Originally Posted by bomb_dog

Some interesting stuff here, thanks.

Been running mine on an old XP license I have, and it's being doing a good job of serving files.

One thing I can't fathom though, is the ... click-ping..... click ping.... that one of my 2tb hard discs does sometimes. If I shut it down, take the drive out and put it back in, reboot... all seems well.

If I leave it for a few days then turn it on again, I get the clicking again. Very strange. I've scandisked it, checked it, no errors. I've tried all the things you'd do if you were testing a hard drive for it being 'about to fail' - no problems.

It's a new drive, but it doesn't click under every situation. I wondered if anyone else had something similar with their Microserver...?

That is the sound of you HDD dying, it may take a couple days it may take a year but it should not make that sound. I would ensure everything on that drive is properly backed up and prepare for the worst.
Also contact the OEM they may consider replacing it but then again if it has not shown as faulty on the HDD health programs they may not.

Its not a Hitachi Death star is it?

[bomb_dog]

Yep, it's a Hitachi. Bought it about 8 months ago (manu Mar-2011), and 80-90% of the time there's no noise whatsoever, so I thought it may be loose connections or something as re-seating fixed it.

I've never sent a drive back for replacement due to failure before - do shops actually come through for you with this? Think it was a scan.co.uk special. Given it only clicks sometime I wonder if I sent it back i'd only end up with them testing it and finding no problems, then getting charged 2x for postage and just to try to prove it i'll end up running it til it dies.

Must have the paperwork around here somewhere...

EDIT: Yep, its a DStar. Are you psychic? Are they particulary bad? Hate to think they only cost me £82 for two in August 2011. Now you can't buy one for that.

[antonyscott]

Nice thread. I've just got an email from HP saying they're approved my £100 rebate .

I'm in the process of setting up MediaPortal. I ran the channel test and got mostly successes. I think all the tune failures were for channels I don't care about or channels that weren't currently on air.

I've been trying out some more extensive tests and have found that SetupTv.exe freezes when I'm doing a manual timeshift test. (I'm testing it by connecting VLC to the network stream). It seems that something is just locking up. I've noticed the signal strength is anywhere between 0 and 5. But on my Hauppauge and Pinnacle tuners (in my "LIVE" TvServer, in another PC) are fine and don't have any problems using the same aerial feed. The Hauppauge says signal strength 60, quality 100. So, I don't think it's that.

Have you had any issues with the BGT3650 locking up? I've also noticed that it will occasionally lose it's lock on to the signal.

I'd be interested to know what version of the TV card drivers you're running.

Thanks.

PS - Great post on running SAB/CouchPotato/Sickbead. I was already running them on my old server by leaving it logged in, but now have them running on the new HP microserver in proper headless mode, ie - not logged in all the time.

[antonyscott]

I seem to have fixed it. After having read a few forum posts (can't remember where) mentioning a number of possible causes. One of which, was the hard drive either being a "green" one or on it's way out.

Based on that, I've switched my timeshift folders to another hard drive and am currently looking at over 35 million TS packets processed with only 4 Discontinuities. Previously I was looking at 50+ Discontinuities for only ½ a million TS packet processed. Plus, my VLC client is still going after about 30 minutes.

[m0t0k0]

Nice I'm glad you got it sorted. If you can just pump your server with RAM and have the timeshift folder on a RAM drive I will be using 4GB drive for mine. Saves disk thrashing and should be faster/quieter

[antonyscott]

Good point about the RAM drive. I would have to throw out my existing RAM (2x2GB) and buy 8GB of new RAM. Something to consider, but I'd only have 4GB of live view buffer for however many clients are watching Live TV at the time.

I'll see how I go using the same drive for recordings and timeshift then look at it if it's a problem.

On a positive note I did a test recording of 7 simultaneous recordings the other evening, 4 of which were HD, and didn't really suffer any problems that I don't normally get from reception glitches. The next test on my list of lots of recordings and lots of timeshifts at the same time. If that goes okay, I'll be migrating my existing recordings and schedules over from my current "live" TV server and retiring it (think ebay!)

Thanks again.

[antonyscott]

I decided to just get the RAM and have done with it. I'm currently testing it out by watching BBC One HD. I've got a 4GB ram disk using the Dataram software.

[antonyscott]

So, I've just been thinking about using my RAM drive in an interesting way. I'm wondering whether I could just permanently set up time-shifting for 4 muxes and then I could just flick to any channel on any of those 4 muxes almost instantly.

It might be worth a go to see how that works. If it does what I think (and hope) it might then I could buy another dual/quad tuner and tune in to the other 2 muxes and have all freeview channels being time-shifted all the time!

[m0t0k0]

Not sure if this would work to speed up channel switching.

You would also need a lot of RAM to get decent sized timeshift files for all those feeds.

Does it timeshift the mux or the actual channel? This you need expert help for the MePo forum members.

Let me know what you find!

[Badabing]

Excellent thread here, well done on the great work.

I've been considering getting myself the N40L, but have been a little unsure as it seemed it may be more effort than it's worth, but after reading this thread I'm very tempted to go for it.

Initially i'd just be after something to store all my media files on for streaming to various devices, and to have sabnzbd running to save me from having to leave my htpc running 24/7. I did consider getting a synology nas for it's plug and play type setup, but i like the aspect with the proliant that if I wanted to do more with it in the future I could.

Thanks again for this great write up

[johnrevill]

Intersting read - thanks.

antonyscott - which RAM sticks did you buy?

Cheers

[antonyscott]

Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz i5 Memory Kit.. | Ebuyer.com

[yazooo]

After spending a week reading about FreeNAS, unraid, and WHS this is the exact same router I have decided to follow, WHS + FlexRAID. Excellent thread, will no doubt help. Might try mine with a sat tuner card and see how the microserver's cpu holds up.

Out of interest, what speed internet connection do you have and manage download speed wise through sab? My current NAS bottles out around 50mbit due to cpu restrictions.

[skylost1984]

I use FlexRAID on Windows 2008 which is just amazing. I download with SAB and it maxes out my 80Mb connection no problem, ie on a good download (Which is most of them), i get around 8.9 - 9.0MB/s

[m0t0k0]

Sorry for the slow reply. My connection is pretty slow at 2MB/s but I don't think you will be CPU limited my box is quite happy downloading from Usenet, recording HD TV and streaming HD files all at the same time.

The only time you may hit a wall is if your unpacking you downloads and trying to do other stuff at the same time. Saying that I have never encountered it as a problem and there is lots you can do like limit CPU usage for unpacks and such

[yazooo]

Thanks for the response. Have got the storage and SSD O/S drive on route so hopefully try it out this weekend. If I can get 80% of my full speed I'll be happy.

The box shouldn't have too much going on in the background for starters, just SFTP server, VPN server, squeezebox and sickbeard.

[m0t0k0]

I'm sure your going to be more than happy. This thing eats NAS boxes for breakfast

[yazooo]

Hey, just a quick note that I've reached 10.7 MB/s download which I've very happy about. Only a quick test but double what I was getting on my NAS box.

Have flexraid running, just to finish off the installation of all my other bits of software.

Do you use any add ins by the way?

Thanks for your guide again, referenced a lot during the build.

[m0t0k0]

No never used any addins tried a couple but I'm sure it made the dashboard very slow. I do all my admin via RDP anyway

10MB/s! I need a new ISP

[Badabing]

I've had no problems with download speed on this either, got up to 12.1MB/s the other day! Usually get a stable speed of around 8-10MB/s.

On another note I'm so glad I went for the server over the other routes I was looking at like the Synology boxes. Have had a few friends ask about the setup since and they are looking at getting them for themselves.

[caisley]

Sorry NOOb needing help, I have just got my first micro sever and I am wanting to use it as a HTPC or use it for all media storage to stream to a (jb)apple tv 2 using xbmc. Could someone give me some information as in what I need.
Could I just use windows 7 to install and run programs? Wanting to use

3x 3TB HDD 1 movie, 1tv show,1 music
Wirless access for other pc/ atv2 ect
8g ram
graphic card
and I am not sure what I need

[Bantocks]

Originally Posted by caisley

Sorry NOOb needing help, I have just got my first micro sever and I am wanting to use it as a HTPC or use it for all media storage to stream to a (jb)apple tv 2 using xbmc. Could someone give me some information as in what I need.
Could I just use windows 7 to install and run programs? Wanting to use

3x 3TB HDD 1 movie, 1tv show,1 music
Wirless access for other pc/ atv2 ect
8g ram
graphic card
and I am not sure what I need

If streaming to apple tv 2 for xbmc is the main thing your after I'd recommend unraid v5 for software. The 3 drive version is free. Also runs on less than 1gb so no memory upgrade required.

No graphics card required either. Just a wireless card and 3 hard drives and a USB stick.

Works brilliantly.

[caisley]

i don't have fiberoptic internet so trying to play hd movies all i get is buffering from my pc to atv2 so would you recommend using hdmi from the N40L to my tv?

[Bantocks]

Originally Posted by caisley

i don't have fiberoptic internet so trying to play hd movies all i get is buffering from my pc to atv2 so would you recommend using hdmi from the N40L to my tv?

I use home plugs. Work a treat.

[caisley]

Originally Posted by Bantocks

I use home plugs. Work a treat.

i have some of those will give it a try. whats your setup?

[Bantocks]

Originally Posted by caisley

i have some of those will give it a try. whats your setup?

I have a microserver running unraid v5. This has samba shares for music, photos, home videos, movies.

All my kit is connected by home plugs. The server feeds 3 apple tvs running xbmc around the house.

The server also acts as a print sever so I can print wirelessly to my USB printer.

Once you've got unraid working its fairly stand alone. You can configure it to send you emails if there are any problems (e.g. Disk temperature too high).

[caisley]

Originally Posted by Bantocks

I have a microserver running unraid v5. This has samba shares for music, photos, home videos, movies.

All my kit is connected by home plugs. The server feeds 3 apple tvs running xbmc around the house.

The server also acts as a print sever so I can print wirelessly to my USB printer.

Once you've got unraid working its fairly stand alone. You can configure it to send you emails if there are any problems (e.g. Disk temperature too high).

do you have a bog when I can get setup info what skin do u use with atv? and do u use Sab & sickbeard along side xbmc that's for the info

[m0t0k0]

If your not playing the content on the Microserver then you don't need a GFX card. Your just streaming it to your ATV client.

If you already have a copy of any OS like W7 or XP then there is no need to buy unRAID you can already setup shares and stream your content. But your data will not be protected. You could alway run flexRAID on top of your OS to protect and pool your data.

If you don't already own an OS you could consider a Linux distribution which is free and then add a flexRAID licence.

Either way personally I prefer the access to a full underlying OS. This way you have loads of opportunity to run extra stuff in the background.
I have on my server: Rembo Headphones, Couch potato, SABnzbd, Sickbeard and a Mumble server.

Lastly with flexRAID you can add disks already containing data and it works above the native file system so for example I could pull any one of my disks now, bring it to your house plug it in and play the movies on it.
This also means if you lose more disks from your protected array then you can recover from you still get to keep all the data on the surviving disks you cant do that with unRAID and the like.

[caisley]

Originally Posted by m0t0k0

If your not playing the content on the Microserver then you don't need a GFX card. Your just streaming it to your ATV client.

If you already have a copy of any OS like W7 or XP then there is no need to buy unRAID you can already setup shares and stream your content. But your data will not be protected. You could alway run flexRAID on top of your OS to protect and pool your data.

If you don't already own an OS you could consider a Linux distribution which is free and then add a flexRAID licence.

Either way personally I prefer the access to a full underlying OS. This way you have loads of opportunity to run extra stuff in the background.
I have on my server: Rembo Headphones, Couch potato, SABnzbd, Sickbeard and a Mumble server.

Lastly with flexRAID you can add disks already containing data and it works above the native file system so for example I could pull any one of my disks now, bring it to your house plug it in and play the movies on it.
This also means if you lose more disks from your protected array then you can recover from you still get to keep all the data on the surviving disks you cant do that with unRAID and the like.

This a lot to get my head around but will be fun thanks for the info