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Any one have any experience with this server. Was thinking about picking one up to setup Home Server. Will come with 2 x 3ghz xeons/3 gb ram/2 x 36gb scsi drives.

Here's a link to some info:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quic ... 4_div.HTML

What would be the goal or main usage for the server?

hopefully setup a server for files in the house as well as running something like Endian using VMware...I know its overkill for that but I can it at a very good price $150 or so.

My biggest concern is that I'm missing something in terms of features that's not obvious to be yet. It does only have 2 PCI-X slots for expansion, no ide or sata either, so I would be stuck with scsi unless I added a card. Is PCI-X backwards compatible with regular PCI and/or 64 bit pci ??

Yeah a few dozen of 'em over the years.

What do you plan on running on it? You may have a hard time finding drivers for it for a home desktop OS.
Depending on what generation model you get, you may find the noise a bit much for home.

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Yeah a few dozen of 'em over the years.

What do you plan on running on it? You may have a hard time finding drivers for it for a home desktop OS.
Depending on what generation model you get, you may find the noise a bit much for home.

Will more than likely be running MS Home Server, I think I've got a copy of 2k3 server also. It is by specs gen 3

Ahh VMWare, I started posting then went downstairs, so didn't see your VMWare post. ESXi would provide the hardware interface for Windows, do scratch the drivers thing.

The newer 64 bit version ESXi 4 has much better motherboard 'n hardware support for onboard devices, fans, etc....gotta see if the one you're looking at (gen 3) is 64 bit or not cuz earlier version won't do squat to hush those onboard fans.

However the system enhancement drivers 'n stuff for Windows Server will usually quiet them down during bootup.

are we talking the old 60mm Delta screamer loud from the early Athlon days? or not quite that bad?

loop2kil wrote:are we talking the old 60mm Delta screamer loud from the early Athlon days? or not quite that bad?

During POST and early startup, yeah about 13x times as loud. Most of the earlier generation models would have a row of fans in the chassis that would shred at full blast during POST and as the OS loads up, "blow out the cobwebs" I guess. And then system drivers would take over as the OS boots up, and throttle the fans down as long as the temps are fine.

DL380G3's and some older DL140's I like proliant servers, pretty versatile.

iLO board (Integrated Lights-Out remote management) is nice to have also.

well, I bit...its on the way.

loop2kil wrote:well, I bit...its on the way.

Did You get it yet?

Shinobi wrote:Did You get it yet?

nope...cheapest shipping option, scheduled delivery of 10/30

Good grief this sucker is huge and heavy, but no time to play now, too many PC's to fix at the moment.

loop2kil wrote:Good grief this sucker is huge and heavy, but no time to play now, too many PC's to fix at the moment.

Yep they are.. be careful man.. don't drop your "o" ring or anything..
Let us know when you have that puppy fired up.

I've got a farm of DL360 G5's and 6's. Rock solid servers, ILO is a dream. Not so great if you want to maximize disk capacity, as they have a 6 drive capacity. If you want more DAS capacity you might want to look at the DL380.

Might be a bit loud for a home server tho.

:edit: jsut saw the you got a G3, so only 2xHDD bays on-board, and the U320 SCSI drives can be pricey.

Blisster wrote:I've got a farm of DL360 G5's and 6's. Rock solid servers, ILO is a dream. Not so great if you want to maximize disk capacity, as they have a 6 drive capacity. If you want more DAS capacity you might want to look at the DL380.

Might be a bit loud for a home server tho.

:edit: jsut saw the you got a G3, so only 2xHDD bays on-board, and the U320 SCSI drives can be pricey.

I finally got around to setting this sucker up. Luckily I have a closet with an air return and more importantly a DOOR so I can dampen the noise
I have loaded Windows Home Server and I gotta say, other than the lack of x64 bit support, this is a great little OS for running a home server. The Drive spanning feature is freaking cool as crap. Although I am limited by the 2 drives internally, I plan on using USB drives to expand the server as needed.

Still need to learn about ESXi and iLO though....because WHS doens't like 64-bit anything I'm having to login to it from my x64 win7 machine via remote desktop, which seems to work just fine....other than the annoying certificate thingy each time.

Dunno if any of the HP agents can be installed on WHS which will quiet the fans down. Straight up installs of the OS, fans scream. Once you install some of the drivers and agents for the server, they settle right down.

There is an HP specific version of ESXi you can download (as well as special versions for IBM and Dell)

actually I think the fans are not at full scream...I have heard them at full speed and if it stayed there I most definitely would not be using it. Once I put the cover back on I think it helped force the air where it needed to be and the temps were able to settle down so it's at normal speed(which without the closet would not be usable still).

It seems anything from the HP site that was specifically for Win2k3 server works fine for WHS so far. I downloaded the newest PSP and updated everything it advised me to.

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Dunno if any of the HP agents can be installed on WHS which will quiet the fans down. Straight up installs of the OS, fans scream. Once you install some of the drivers and agents for the server, they settle right down.

There is an HP specific version of ESXi you can download (as well as special versions for IBM and Dell)

WHS is basically a customized version of Server2k3 so anything designed for that should work with WHS.

loop2kil wrote:actually I think the fans are not at full scream...I have heard them at full speed and if it stayed there I most definitely would not be using it. Once I put the cover back on I think it helped force the air where it needed to be and the temps were able to settle down so it's at normal speed(which without the closet would not be usable still).

It seems anything from the HP site that was specifically for Win2k3 server works fine for WHS so far. I downloaded the newest PSP and updated everything it advised me to.

Yeah they go through a few stages of speeds. Initially at power up, full bore, then settle down a hair, the HP agents should settle them down quite a bit more....substantially even.

I just used one of our DL360's for our new server cabinets firewall, using Untangle. Default Untangle install (based on Debian Lenny)..the fans screamed. As soon as I installed HPs Lenny Deliverables (basically HPs Proliant agents for linux)....fans settled riiiiight to almost as quiet as my workstation.

YeOldeStonecat wrote:..... As soon as I installed HPs Lenny Deliverables (basically HPs Proliant agents for linux)....fans settled riiiiight to almost as quiet as my workstation.

I absolutely must have this...looked through the downloads available and could only find this with Agent in the name.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... 85cd9a7e02

loop2kil wrote:I absolutely must have this...looked through the downloads available and could only find this with Agent in the name.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... 85cd9a7e02

This is the one I used...copy 'n paste the full path.
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1 ... 081028.iso
Oh..wait...you talking about for Windows? THe above was the Lenny one.

Windows 2K3 stuffors for it
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... nvOID=1005

Select a few down this list,

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Windows 2K3 stuffors for it
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... nvOID=1005

Select a few down this list,

I've been combing through the list but have not found anything called 'deliverables' for windows. The only thing I've really downloaded and used so far was the newest Proliant Support Pack...I'm still looking through it though.

Deliverables was the name for the Debian Lenny product...for linux. Not for Windows. You'll find what you need in the HP link above, either separate downloads, or just get the whole CD download for all.