Home server

Tue Jan 15 10:18:35 UTC 2013

Hey Jared,

Just so you've got some context, I've got the N40L model, running with 8GB
RAM and 4x 2TB drives. 2 of the drives are running btrfs as root (/), and
the other two are /backup. Everything else is stock, no custom RAID cards,
etc.

* how loud are they in real world applications?
>

It's got a massive fan at the back, but it's at the ambient fan noise level
you easily ignore. The drives are louder when they are doing lots of
writes. In fact, my laptop when it's running super hot is louder than it.
So I personally don't notice the noise coming from it.

> * what sort of network throughput do you see?
>

I can't really comment on this one. I've never noticed it to be an issue
for anything I've used it for, and I did have it as a VPN end point for my
work at one point so it saw a lot of data throughput without any issues.
Also, I usually have 2 VMs running in Virtual Box on it and all three
machines (host + 2x VMs) seem to be quite responsive for my needs
network-wise.

> * any surprises in the hardware running Ubuntu?

I've only tried 12.04 LTS, but it runs flawlessly. Everything I've tried
works without any problems.

If anyone has any insight I'd be interested, I'm looking for a good balance
> between power consumption and enough power to run a couple of other things
> that a basic NAS can't do.

Mine is typically running 12.04 with a minimal LAMP server, backup server,
general purpose SSH box, and VirtualBox. There are usually two VMs running:
my work application dev server, which is heavily resource intensive (HDD,
CPU, and RAM), and a build server running Jenkins and GitLab. I've had as
many as 10 VMs running at once on it, but it gets slow under a lot of load
- which is to be expected from only a 1.5 ghz dual core. I think it's a
fantastic little server, and worth it, especially for the price if you're
after a good little all-rounder. It's even got an internal USB stick if you
want to boot from a minimal USB (i.e. ESXi).

If you need more RAM, you can put some 8GB sticks in to get it up to 16,
but I haven't experimented as some chips don't work. If you need more CPU,
get the N54L which is more expensive but has a 2.2ghz dual core. But if you
need something for really CPU-heavy work, you might want something else.

Hope that helps, and isn't too much information.

Thanks,
~Stephen

On 15 January 2013 20:11, Jared Norris <jrnorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 14 January 2013 18:34, Paul Gear <paul at libertysys.com.au> wrote:
>
>> On 01/13/2013 01:42 PM, Tom Sparks wrote:
>>
>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> based on an old thread I asked, Paul replied with:
>>>>
>>>> "i can vouch for the QNAP TS-219P and the HP
>>>> ProLiant Microserver as good options.  The former is a very small, quiet
>>>> 2-bay NAS - on mine i wiped the factory firmware on and installed Debian
>>>> squeeze.  It's ARM-based, so its CPU power is not great, but it does the
>>>> job.  The latter is an x86-64-compatible server with 4 SATA bays and 1
>>>> DVD-ROM bay.  It has a dual-core AMD CPU and so packs a pretty good
>>>> punch.  It's slightly larger and slightly louder than the QNAP, but is
>>>> much cheaper, more powerful, and more expandable." -
>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/**archives/ubuntu-au/2012-**
>>>> January/007675.html<https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/2012-January/007675.html>
>>>>
>>>
>> It's nice to be quoted a year after the fact and find the advice still
>> relevant. :-D
>>
>> I would still say the same, although given what i'm doing with my systems
>> nowadays, the 512 MB RAM limitation on the QNAP and the price advantage of
>> the HP mean that i'm using the HPs more.  I just deployed one as a backup
>> server at a client site last week, with 4 x 3 TB drives in RAID 5.  It's
>> still building the RAID set and copying files in from an old system, so
>> it's not a speed demon, but it does the job nicely.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-au mailing list
>> ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
>>
>>
> They look like an intriguing piece of hardware. The prices have dropped a
> lot since I last looked at them and are making me wonder. I do have three
> questions for those who own them though,
> * how loud are they in real world applications?
> * what sort of network throughput do you see?
> * any surprises in the hardware running Ubuntu?
>
> If anyone has any insight I'd be interested, I'm looking for a good
> balance between power consumption and enough power to run a couple of other
> things that a basic NAS can't do.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Jared Norris
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JaredNorris
>
> --
> ubuntu-au mailing list
> ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
>
>

-- 
Stephen Rees-Carter ~ Valorin
http://stephen.rees-carter.net/
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