HP Micro G7 N54L

  • There is a nice cheap 5.25 -> 1x3.5/4x2.5 adapter from sharkoon. Originally for 1x3.5 + 2x2.5 drives or 4x2.5 drives. You have to clip off a little bit of the lower 2.5" tabs so it fits into the hp case. It will be a 1x3.5 + 1x2.5 adapter then


    You need extra:
    1x L shaped to straight 50cm sata cable
    1x E-sata to sata cable, 50cm
    1x 5.25" molex power to dual sata power cable (5-10cm is enough)


    With modded HP bios you get 2.5" ssd for system + 5x3.5" drives for raid


    Can provide pics if needed.


    P.S. you can use 1033 mhz drams on this system ... it works with 800mhz only. Had troubles finding 8gb modules which work, used some of a mac pro 4.1 (1033), these work perfect. Have 2x8GB running in one of my boxes.

    Tom


    ----


    HP N54L, 6GB, 5disc Raid5, SSD Boot with OMV 5
    HP N54L, 16GB, 4disc ZFS pool, SSD Boot with other NAS system

    3 Mal editiert, zuletzt von tom_tav ()

  • Hi!
    I've ordered my HP N54L microserver some days ago, but I have to wait about a week before the server is delivered.
    Along with the server I ordered a 40gb SSD drive for OMV and a WD Red 4TB for storage.
    In the meantime I'm documenting on how to proceed with the installation of OMV and I have several questions that I would like to share with you.


    Starting from the bios mod, since I'm going to install the SSD in the ODD bay, I have read the excellent guide posted by WastlJ in the previous page.
    I have understood that the latest version of the bios mod for the N54L is the O41100113.rom (to flash with the help of the app SP64420.exe).
    Can you confirm that this is right?


    The second doubt (this is banal, I know, but be patient!).
    I do not know if the AMD Turion II works in 64-bit or not! Which version of OMV should I use?


    As for the installation, I should not have problems: I write the OMV iso on a usb stick and then install the system on the SSD.
    But I have some doubt about system configuration.
    Initially I will install a single 4tb HDD for storage, but being this my first NAS, I do not know how to configure it.
    There are guides for beginners with tips for the right configuration of the storage disk?
    I'd also like to have some indication of the essential plug-in to be installed.


    I conclude with some request about our microserver.
    My model is sold with 4GB of RAM and no hard disk.
    About RAM: 4GB is enough, or for OMV would be better to increase it?


    I will use the HP as a media server.
    I know the processor of the N54L is not particularly powerful, and would not be able to transcoding high resolution video (1080p).
    It's possible to remedy this with an additional graphic card? OMV would be able to take advantage of this for transcoding?


    Thanks so much!

  • 4gb is enough as long as you dont use zfs (which is no option at the moment). you install amd 64. A friend with similar config says it can transcode 2 streams to ipads at the same time. On my config i use 1:1 streaming to my clients in the local network (1080p).
    Configure the hdd with volume groups, so its easier to expand it later.
    bios and tobi mod versions are ok.

    Tom


    ----


    HP N54L, 6GB, 5disc Raid5, SSD Boot with OMV 5
    HP N54L, 16GB, 4disc ZFS pool, SSD Boot with other NAS system

  • I will use the HP as a media server.
    I know the processor of the N54L is not particularly powerful, and would not be able to transcoding high resolution video (1080p).
    It's possible to remedy this with an additional graphic card? OMV would be able to take advantage of this for transcoding?


    you have PCI slots and radeon 4200 chip (though with a VGA output).

  • Graphic cards are supported up to 25W power usage. These ones definitely work with it:

    • Sapphire Radeon HD 6450, 1GB DDR3 (11190-02-20G)
    • MSI R6450-MD1GD3/LP, 1GB DDR3 (V212-046R)
    • XFX Radeon HD 6450 passiv, 1GB DDR3 (HD-645X-ZNH2)
    • PowerColor Radeon HD 5450 Go! Green PCIe x1, 512MB (AE5450 512MD2-SH/R81BLB-PE3)
  • Here I am again!
    My HP N54L is now at home.
    Installed last OMV 64 bit on a SSD drive and all seems ok.
    Now I got many doubts about setup my new NAS.
    As I said some post before, for now I got only one HDD for storage: is a WD Red 4tb that is installed in the microserver.
    But I don't know wich filesystem use with this: I can not find guides on this point.
    EXT4 or XFS?
    Yes, tom_tav gives me a suggestion, but I don't know when is preferred the first one and when the second.


    And going beyond the choice of the filesystem, I admit I did not understand the other's suggestion tom_tav:
    "Configure the hdd with volume groups, so its easier to expand it later."
    Can someone explain me step-by-step what I must do? Or link me a guide?


    Any other suggetsion about configuration for newbie is really appreciated!

  • Graphic cards are supported up to 25W power usage. These ones definitely work with it:

    • Sapphire Radeon HD 6450, 1GB DDR3 (11190-02-20G)
    • MSI R6450-MD1GD3/LP, 1GB DDR3 (V212-046R)
    • XFX Radeon HD 6450 passiv, 1GB DDR3 (HD-645X-ZNH2)
    • PowerColor Radeon HD 5450 Go! Green PCIe x1, 512MB (AE5450 512MD2-SH/R81BLB-PE3)


    Sorry, I don't understand.
    These cards can work with OMV and can help with transcoding?
    Thanks for your answer!

  • LVM aka Volume Group as subzero said. For filesystem i personally use xfs on big volumes, no 16tb limit if you go big. The other pro and cons are minor for most of the users - imho ;)


    ext4 is used by the majority of users, so maybe its more easy if you dont wanna dive into it too deep. But as said before, there is (was?) a 16tb limit on ext4 implementations.

    Tom


    ----


    HP N54L, 6GB, 5disc Raid5, SSD Boot with OMV 5
    HP N54L, 16GB, 4disc ZFS pool, SSD Boot with other NAS system

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    ext4 had the 16tb limit on Debian Squeeze (OMV 0.5). Debian Wheezy (OMV 1.0) does not have the limit.

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • Thanks a lot to all for answers!


    You can take a look here for LVM explained:


    http://www.routemybrain.com/un…me-manager-%E2%80%93-lvm/


    Also I'd recommend you to pick the OMV virtualbox appliance so you can play and destroy with the LVM. That can give you a better understanding of how LVM works. take a look here


    Thank you for the link: as soon as possible I will read about LVM.
    Thank you also for a virtualized OMV version: I think is the best way to learn how OMV works and make experiments without worries.
    But I think that the best way is to build from scratch a VM. I find here a very good guide for this.


    LVM aka Volume Group as subzero said. For filesystem i personally use xfs on big volumes, no 16tb limit if you go big. The other pro and cons are minor for most of the users - imho ;)


    ext4 is used by the majority of users, so maybe its more easy if you dont wanna dive into it too deep. But as said before, there is (was?) a 16tb limit on ext4 implementations.


    You say that xfs is better in big volumes, but if the 16tb is no more a limit for ext4, why xfs can be better than ext4?
    I hope to find an article which explains the pros and cons of various filesystem...



    Oh sorry. Of course not. CPU is required for transcoding. So the grapic cards do not help you here...


    So in OMV (and Debian) the GPU can not help the CPU in transcoding? I think that this is possible under Windows...
    Why this? Is a driver problem? Or a software problem?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    You can also just download a pre-made VM image here

    omv 7.0.4-2 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.10 | compose 7.1.2 | k8s 7.0-6 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

  • and touch all that you're going to do on the real machine.


    There is not much besides sticking your installation medium in and installing OpenMediaVault. ;)


    Greetings
    David

    "Well... lately this forum has become support for everything except omv" [...] "And is like someone is banning Google from their browsers"


    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

    Upload Logfile via WebGUI/CLI
    #openmediavault on freenode IRC | German & English | GMT+1
    Absolutely no Support via PM!


  • Above shows perfectly why I use XFS for my MediaServer instead of EXT4. :)


    Greetings
    David

    "Well... lately this forum has become support for everything except omv" [...] "And is like someone is banning Google from their browsers"


    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

    Upload Logfile via WebGUI/CLI
    #openmediavault on freenode IRC | German & English | GMT+1
    Absolutely no Support via PM!

  • yeah this very nice comparsion (interesting to read all the pages, not only the summary) made me try xfs again, till zfs arrives on omv ;)


    i use it on my backupserver, which means large and lot of small files. i will see

    Tom


    ----


    HP N54L, 6GB, 5disc Raid5, SSD Boot with OMV 5
    HP N54L, 16GB, 4disc ZFS pool, SSD Boot with other NAS system

  • Here I am again.
    First of all many thanks to subzero79 for the link to the LVM explained.
    I made many tests on a virtual machine and all seems to work well.
    I report here what I have learned from my trials...


    First of all, the lvm2 plugin must be installed.
    This plugin helps to set logical volumes via WebGui.


    First step is add an hard disk (or an array) to Physical volumes.
    Go to Storage->Logical Volume Management and on the first tab "Physical volumes" click to Add.
    In the window that will open, you can select a device that is installed in your system.
    Only wiped hard drive can be selected. (I had an empty hard drive already formatted and it was not possible to select it).


    Second step. Create a Volume group in the second tab.
    Clicking on the Add button it's possible to select an available physical volume.


    Third step. Create a logical volume in the third tab.
    Here we must set a name for the LV (for example "Video"), select the volume group within which create it, and set the size of this volume. The GUI proposes by default the maximum possible size.


    Fourth step. Now we must to add this new volume to our file system. So we go to Storage->File Systems->Create, Select the device, set the label and a file system. Finally we must mount it and add it to Shared Folders.


    You can extend the logical volume if you have free space in a volume group. This can be done in these steps:
    1) add a new hard drive (or raid) to Physical Volumes
    2) In Volume groups select the existing VG, click on Extend and select the available device
    3) In Logical Volumes select the logical volume that you want and click on Extend to set the new size
    4) In Storage->File Systems select the volume and click on Resize (in this moment the new partion on the new hard drive is formatted with the same File system)


    I do not really like having to immediately set the size of each logical volume and not being able to eventually reduce it later. So my question is: without free space on a volume group is not possible to resize a logical volume without loosing data? In the WebGui this is not...


    About File system.
    In these days I have read many articles on this subject, but no one has convinced me to one choice or another. Reducing the choice between EXT4 and XFS, in some areas it is preferable to the first, in others the second. Some benchmarks tests the file systems in areas that do not interest me (see the use of the database). Many say that XFS is more effective with large file (or volumes ???), but on my server there will be also many (relatively) small files (eg, a few thousand photos 2Mb each, several videos from 350M each, etc..).
    In "mixed" cases like this XFS is still preferable, or you might as well stay on EXT4?


    I think I will go with EXT4.
    Thank a lot for reading!

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