Slightly Overkill Home Server Setup/Build

[god_bmxes]

Alright guys and gals, I am ready to take the home server plunge! I am just about to order my server and start the process. SO here is a quick breakdown of the build plans

 

1. Get server

2. Move networking gear into same room as server

3. Setup server with battery backup, etc.

4. Install OS, and programs

5. Setup my raid

 

To start I am going to base the server off of this one on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/132880014310?ul_noapp=true

They have an option to configure the listing below so I am gonna call tomorrow morning and change a few things

 

After the server is ordered I need to get a third WD Red to make my Raid array for the server (This is to start, will most likely go bigger in the future)

 

Will make a new post tomorrow after I have a server ordered

[NelizMastr]

Those DL380 servers are quite nice. The one you linked doesn't have a RAID card, though, just the basic onboard SATA fake RAID, which should be fine for 4 drives, but afaik it can't handle the full backplane of 12 drives. Cards are cheap enough though

 

Which OS are you going to run? Will everything be virtualized or are you going for bare metal like FreeNAS or Windows Server?

[god_bmxes]

I haven't decided yet, I am open to both but I figure at least I'll throw Windows server on it while I decide/learn how to do something cooler/better lol

[Radium_Angel]

54 minutes ago, god_bmxes said:

I haven't decided yet, I am open to both but I figure at least I'll throw Windows server on it while I decide/learn how to do something cooler/better lol

Don't worry about it, I just bought it out from under you.

 

Kidding, I'm a fan of the Dell PowerEdge line, though I have had some Proliant gear in the past. Bear in mind the "pizza" box servers (such as that one you listed) can get pretty loud, so plan for that.

As an aside, you might want to consider what you plan on using the server for, before you buy one. If it's just for serving up audio/video, then there are better options out there...

[god_bmxes]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

Don't worry about it, I just bought it out from under you.

 

Kidding, I'm a fan of the Dell PowerEdge line, though I have had some Proliant gear in the past. Bear in mind the "pizza" box servers (such as that one you listed) can get pretty loud, so plan for that.

As an aside, you might want to consider what you plan on using the server for, before you buy one. If it's just for serving up audio/video, then there are better options out there...

It will end up doing more in the future but for now it will start doing that, one of the more intensive things I want to do on it is to offload my video rendering for example that way I am not taking up my gaming rig with renderiung videos

[god_bmxes]

Alright guys, just got off the phone with the seller. Got a server ordered up now (link: Server)

 

Specs are

Base: HP DL380e G8 12x3.5" LFF drive model

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5 - 2450L 8 cores each @1.8Ghz

Ram: 48Gb DDR3 (upgraded from the 32Gb on the base)

PSU: 2x 750w

Those are the basic specs, also had them throw in a set of rails aswell

[Electronics Wizardy]

14 hours ago, god_bmxes said:

It will end up doing more in the future but for now it will start doing that, one of the more intensive things I want to do on it is to offload my video rendering for example that way I am not taking up my gaming rig with renderiung videos

What do you use for video editing? This is gonna be pretty slow for video encoding due to the low clock speed. If thats your goal, id look elsewhere.

[god_bmxes]

13 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What do you use for video editing? This is gonna be pretty slow for video encoding due to the low clock speed. If thats your goal, id look elsewhere.

Currently I use Magix software but I am thinking of moving to adobe or somthing else, I hav ordered it now so there is not much going back lol. if it turns out to be too slow though I can always swap out the chips to something with less cores and more clock speed on them

[god_bmxes]

Also just ordered an extra HDD, a battery backup, and some HDD trays for the G8

[god_bmxes]

Got the notification from Ebat, the server will be here on Wednesday via UPS. Trying to find a rack at a decent price but it is not looking good atm

[god_bmxes]

Server just came in today, I will open it and take a look tomorrow. I will try to get some photos of it on here aswell

[god_bmxes]

Alright so I got everything opened up and tested now

 

Here is the box on our dinning room table

 

 

This is what was in the box

1. Server

2. Rails

3. 2x 750w PSUs

4. 2x Power Supply cables

 

 

These are the 2 PSUs, they were packaged in the red and brown UPS envelopes

 

 

This is some sort of operations test that they performed I am assuming, either that or they use the same one on all of the servers lol. No real identifiers from what I was seeing

 

 

This is the glorious inside

 

[god_bmxes]

Can't add anymore pictures lol, I took the ram out and it looks like most of the sticks are 4GB 10600 sticks, not sure on the brand but they have an IBM sticker on one side of them

The other 2 are 4GB Samsung 10600, both are registered dimms so I think they should be fine, also if I can find a way to upload (maybe a quick youtube video) I have video of the first startup.

 

All in all the server looks pretty nice, the only issues I am finding is that the right side where the PSU button is, the panel is a bit too wobbly for me, and of course the mis matched ram lol.

 

Only thing I think I wanna get now are some sort of drive blanks so that is not just wide open up there as I am only gonna have 3 or 4 drives in there for awhile

 

Let me know what you guys think

[god_bmxes]

Okay now modst of my HDD's are backed up

 

Now I need to get the OS installed and running aswell as setting up the raid. My issue I am coming too now is what OS top run. I am not gonna be doing anything crazy just running VMs and using it for medai server/video rendering so nothing Windows 10 Pro could not do but I feel like I should be putting server 2016 on it, what do you gius think?

[god_bmxes]

From what I am seeing online I cannot find anyone except one person that is running Win 10 Pro on a server like mine. I am gonna try it out though and if it has too many issues I will try Server 2016

[god_bmxes]

Okay so the first issue I am having is now it is not detecting my drives on POST, gonna see what I can find and go from there

[god_bmxes]

Alright, so here is where I am at. The server has a B120i controller. I have 4 drives in it right now and none are being detected at the moment. The B120i is getting power as the drives are lighting up on the tray when connecting them into the server. Now the cables that seem to be that data ones are running along the side and connect to one port on ther server however there are 2 cables that can be connected up. I have tried swapping them out and nothing changes, I have tried reseating and nothing changes aswell. So now I am kinda stuck for the moment, I am gonna try to get windows installed by connecting the SSD to the onboard sata connectors and then I will go from there, I am curious what I need however to get both connectors up and running on the server later, I am assuming it is some sort of expansion card but I am not sure, I am sure that only 6 drives can be detected at any moment though with one connector as it is only showing 6 available in HP's "Smart Storage Configurator. 

[god_bmxes]

So update on the server

 

I attempted everything to get the WD Reds to work in the server but from what I am gathering the third part drive caddys (which are the only ones you can get without buying HP drives that already have caddys on them) have issues with some drives. Also I see that someone is selling third party drive caddys with seagate drives online and that is making me think that it is either a server to server thing or it might work with seagate drives but I have yet to test with a spare seagate HDD.Not sure on how the official HP drive caddys take non HP drives either

 

What I ended up having to do to get HDDs for the server is to bite the bullet and order some HP drives, I ordered 3 4TB 7200rpm 3.5" HP drives and will be doing the same as I was going to with the 3 WD Reds. I ended up getting them for $50 a drive used from ebay with the original HP caddys on them (they were listed for $58 but made an offer and got 3 for $150 with free shipping). It really sucks that HP got so proprietary with this generation and up, but the worst part is that the only mass storage drives that you can get for them are 4TB ones and they only have a 1 year warranty from new where WD for instance has a 5 year warranty from new. 

 

I also ordered an HP 450GB 15k rpm 3.5" SAS driveoff ebay aswell, it was a little over 30 but did not have the original caddy with it. I ordered this since I didn't think the 120GB kingston drive would work for OS with all the incompatibi;ity issues I have been having. Also this will allow me to test an HP drive with the 3rd part drive caddys to see if they are working properly aswell

 

So as it stands now I am just waiting on the new drives to come in, when they get in I will see where things go and post again, also on a side not if anyone know a good busget 3 to 4 bay NAS, I could use one for the WD Reds I have lol

 

4TB Raid drives: Link

450GB drive for OS: Link