Rethinking my server hardware... help?

[MeSue]

Hi gang... haven't been visiting much lately. For the past 4 years I have been running LMS under Windows Home Server 2011 on HP Proliant N54G hardware. Which I LOVE for the "set it and forget it" client computer backups and other features. However I have been having hard drive problems left and right, and now I am starting to suspect the cause is with the server hardware. Power supply or motherboard... I don't know. I don't have the patience for figuring out tech stuff as much as I used to.

I can't seem to find these machines for sale or parts for them, so I am trying to figure out what to do for an LMS and home server. Besides running LMS, this is what I use the server for:

Automated backups of all other computers in the house (4)
Running Calibre server (including remote access)
Redundant shared files storage for the household with remote access.
Currently have 5 hard drives including the system drive. Could whittle it down to 3 if I had to.

Ideally, I'd like to keep going with the WHS, but I don't know what small footprint microserver systems are available. Don't want to spend a ton either.

Will entertain other options if they sound simple and easy to maintain.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[SuperQ]

You said 5 drives, but didn't mention what size they are.

I recently swapped out 6x 2T for 3x 8T. I'm very happy with them. I ended up researching the WD Red 8T, which is a low-power version of the HGST enterprise helium drives.

Anyway, back to your question. You may want to consider a NAS server, like https://www.qnap.com/en/product/model.php?II=196

In addition to running many of the apps you wan to use natively to the NAS, it has the option to run Windows in a VM on the NAS.

[MeSue]

The drives are
2 x 4TB (WD Red)
1.8 TB
1.5 TB
250 GB system drive.

It's using Stablebit Drivepool for pooling and duplication.

Thanks for the lead on the NAS. Will investigate.

[iPhone]

The drives are
2 x 4TB (WD Red)
1.8 TB
1.5 TB
250 GB system drive.

It's using Stablebit Drivepool for pooling and duplication.

Thanks for the lead on the NAS. Will investigate.

.
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Hi Sue, My son is using the HP MicroServer at home and at work. We bought two from this guy on Ebay. They are refurbished and have been working flawlessly:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLiant-Ultra-Micro-Tower-Server-System-AMD-Turion-II-Neo-N40L/263004055214?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3D8d54a58d81fb43f49687411378556025%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D182590234764

Also not having seen your symptoms first hand, it does sound like a drive issue as MOBO and CPU issues tend to come and stay, where as drive issues tend to show up intermittently then keep getting worse until they finally fail. So an upgrade/update route looking at saving some money might be better to back everything up, buy a new SSD System drive and three 6TB or 8TB hard drives (this will also increase your available storage space) and try that in the server you have now since you like the setup/OS. If the issues all go away, it was the drives. If the issues don't go away, add the HP-ProLiant Ultra Server and you will have all new drives in an all new server. Your current OS drive would go right into the HP-ProLiant again keeping the programs you currently like. Just some quick thoughts.

[MeSue]

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Hi Sue, My son is using the HP MicroServer at home and at work. We bought two from this guy on Ebay. They are refurbished and have been working flawlessly:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLiant-Ultra-Micro-Tower-Server-System-AMD-Turion-II-Neo-N40L/263004055214?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3D8d54a58d81fb43f49687411378556025%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D182590234764

Also not having seen your symptoms first hand, it does sound like a drive issue as MOBO and CPU issues tend to come and stay, where as drive issues tend to show up intermittently then keep getting worse until they finally fail. So an upgrade/update route looking at saving some money might be better to back everything up, buy a new SSD System drive and three 6TB or 8TB hard drives (this will also increase your available storage space) and try that in the server you have now since you like the setup/OS. If the issues all go away, it was the drives. If the issues don't go away, add the HP-ProLiant Ultra Server and you will have all new drives in an all new server. Your current OS drive would go right into the HP-ProLiant again keeping the programs you currently like. Just some quick thoughts.

I've replaced about 4 hard drives in as many years, since I've had this server machine. Exactly one year ago, I bought the 2 4TB WD Red drives to replace a 3TB that went bad out of warranty. Now one of those is totally dead (won't spin up anymore - I was getting a warning when I was going through a bad time and I didn't address it right away), and two days after arranging the RMA for it, the other one I bought at the same time is reporting bad sectors by Stablebit Scanner. So that's the history on why I suspect something wrong with the machine itself.

THANKS for the eBay link. I might have to nab one of those, although it is less powerful hardware and I'm not sure a simple HD swap would work without reinstall. I did find an N54L on eBay [strike](mine is a N54G--not sure of the difference)[/strike]. Hmmm. EDIT: Derp! Mine is an N54L according to my order history. I don't know where I got G from.

[JJZolx]

It's an awful big can of worms. I suppose it depends on (a) how much you want to spend, and (b) how much you want to roll up your sleeves and build yourself. Less (a), then more (b), and vice versa. Seems to me that if you can buy or reinstall WHS 2011 on the new server, that's going to be your biggest headache saver. Otherwise, you may have to start over again from scratch for a backup solution for your computers.

You might give some thought to energy consumption, but for your needs I wouldn't give too big a priority to box size. You want something that can house those and possibly additional hard drives, as needed. No sense in painting yourself into a corner.

BTW, consider using a small SSD for your system disk. Makes a big difference in system boot times, LMS scan times, and any other server app using a database.

[MeSue]

So my husband just tested the power supply and it is putting out what it should be. I think for now we are going to wing it and see what happens with the replacement hard drives without changing anything. They still have 2 years warranty. Meanwhile, I'll keep investigating and researching for the next step because sooner or later I will want to do something different. If I do end up having to start over from scratch I will definitely do SSD for the system disk.

In a couple of years we will be out of this house with all its weird power issues. Can't wait!

[JJZolx]

Do you have the server on a good UPS? If there are power issues in the house, that would be my first upgrade. Having lost two hard drives in a short period of time, it might also be a good idea to buy a spare and keep it handy. I think the 4TB Reds are under $140 now. If things seem to stabilize after a while, you might then add the drive to your storage pool instead.

[iPhone]

In a couple of years we will be out of this house with all its weird power issues. Can't wait!

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Speaking of power, are you running your server off a good sized UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)? A UPS can solve many power issues plus add protection to the equipment plugged into it and the top brands offer equipment insurance if a surge or lightning strike take out your connected equipment. That doesn't save the data (we all need true backup for that), but it does at least replace the damaged equipment. Also, one doesn't have to buy a fancy expensive true sine wave UPS because PCs/Servers are ALL run off DC because a computers power supply takes residential AC and output multiple specific DC voltages for fans, drives, MOBO, etc . . . . Buy the largest UPS you can afford with the most insurance coverage and least amount of exceptions.

[meep]

More on the software / OS side but I'd always recommend unRAID if you don't mind ditching Windows and moving to a Linux NAS with a bit more flexibility (not as frightening as it sounds!)

I've used it for years and it gets better and better every version. I run my LMS in a Docker container which works really well. It's also a great NAS with parity protection across drives of different sizes plus can run full VMs with hardware passthrough (if your systems meets certain specs).

There's a great community around it as well. Certainly worth looking into if you're considering a change, though if you have hardware faults, theywill follow you regardless of the OS.

[MeSue]

Oh yes... multiple UPS battery backups are a must in this house! We have so many it is a squeal-fest in here when the power goes out. The server is on a good one.

unRAID looks interesting. Keep the ideas coming. I'm sure there is a lot out there that I don't know about that fills the gaps of what WHS did. I know it's only a matter of time until some WHS features stop working with Windows updates.

[iPhone]

Oh yes... multiple UPS battery backups are a must in this house! We have so many it is a squeal-fest in here when the power goes out. The server is on a good one.

unRAID looks interesting. Keep the ideas coming. I'm sure there is a lot out there that I don't know about that fills the gaps of what WHS did. I know it's only a matter of time until some WHS features stop working with Windows updates.

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Glad to hear about the UPS, as power issues cause so many problems people don't thing about. I run our Home Automation on a dinosaur DX4-120 486 from the 90's, it's always been plugged into a UPS and hasn't been shutdown since 2001 (maybe that is why it's still running).

One thing of note, RAID is not true backup no matter what RAID Level/Format is picked as it offers not protection from network corruption, viruses, theft, fire, multiple drive failures, or accidents. Also in my option, RAID is only necessary for large Corporations that lose large sums of money if data is offline or unavailable IE it has no practical purpose for the home users meaning nobody has anything so important that they can't get it off a USB Backup Drive or secondary server a couple hours later. Plus having true backup is only as expensive as having the second NAS/Server as one is doubling up on drives with RAID might as well have them in a second separate box that is not susceptible to the same environment as the main server. My son needs complete true backup so the solution is running a Syncovery Server that auto-backups his Work Server and two laptops plus once a week he does a Syncovery backup to USB Drives. Work Server is in his office, laptops are always with him, and Syncovery Server is at home with the USB Backup Drives stored in a security/fire safe. This is REAL Backup. RAID is not backup, but it can give users the false sense that all is well and that they are backed up. I learned my RAID lesson twice (silly me, once wasn't enough), once by an office fire and second by a direct lightning strike that fried 3 out of 4 drives.

[JJZolx]

One thing of note, RAID is not true backup no matter what RAID Level/Format is picked as it offers not protection from network corruption, viruses, theft, fire, multiple drive failures, or accidents. Also in my option, RAID is only necessary for large Corporations that lose large sums of money if data is offline or unavailable IE it has no practical purpose for the home users meaning nobody has anything so important that they can't get it off a USB Backup Drive or secondary server a couple hours later.

You're missing at least one common home storage scenario where RAID is invaluable. On my file server I now have close to 40TB of media, mostly video. No way in hell am I backing all of that up. I have my music library (less that 2TB) backed up in two different places, and I backup all of my important files, like work projects, photos, etc. And I use that 40TB server for backups of PCs around the house. But to protect the files on that system to some degree from just going *poof* when a hard drive is lost, I use reduntant hard disk storage. Basically non-realtime RAID 6.

Plus having true backup is only as expensive as having the second NAS/Server as one is doubling up on drives with RAID might as well have them in a second separate box that is not susceptible to the same environment as the main server.

See the above. "Only" as expensive? It would be very expensive for me. I'm not spending that kind of money to backup files that aren't critical.

[MeSue]

The second WD-Red HD I bought at the same time as the one I just replaced has increased from 1 to 91 bad sectors in a week's time. I am replacing it under warranty also.

[JJZolx]

Damn. I haven't had so much as a single bad sector on any of the three WD 4TB Reds or one 4TB Green in my file server.

Hopefully you also have backups of your music library and other critical files. Like I said, it may be wise to buy a cold spare for your mirror set. It's vulnerable while you wait around for a warranty replacement. PLEASE make sure you have backups. $137:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EHBERSE