I purchased an EX470 on the recent newegg deal. I have been doing some reading and I thought I would write up my plan so that some of the experienced users here could give me some advice and maybe answer some of the questions that I have.

Right now I am intending to use this server to store my movie collection and stream them to my HTPC and extenders via MyMovies 3. I would also like to store all of my documents directly on the server so that they are readily accessible to all of the computers and are backed up. I will probably system backup feature for my PCs as well.

First and foremost I thought I would do a RAM upgrade. I was going to get the G.skill 2GB stick that seems to be the common EX470 upgrade recommendation. It was out of stock on monday so I decided to go with a stick of Corsair ValueSelect. It appears that the server and the ram should arrive today. I thought I would get the 470 up and running before I upgrade the ram just to make sire that there are no hardware issues before I open the ram. If I have to RMA this, it is out of stock on clearance so I doubt there will be any replacement.

I had considered a CPU replacement but from what I can tell the CPU in the 470 is more powerful that the one in the newer 490, according to the CPU benchmarks anyway. I'll wait and see if the load I end up placing on the CPU warrants an upgrade to the dual core option.

The next thing I think need to upgrade is the primary hard drive with the C: partition on it. If I fill this think up I want to have HDDs larger than the 500 that comes with it. I thought I read that if you do it before any drives are added to the pool, you can just clone the drive to a larger one without any issue, is this the case? Would it be easier to just upgrade this right off the bat? I was thinking that with this drive it would be advantageous to go with a more expensive drive (e.g. WD black or WD RE). Mainly increased build quality of the drive would provide increased longevity and this drive would be the biggest headache if it were to die. I also read in an article that you want the drive with the C: partition to be the largest one, what is the reasoning behind that?

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My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

In summary, here are the steps of my initial setup:
1)Get the Ex470 up and running for a few days.
2)Replace the RAM.
3)Uprgade (clone) the primary hard drive.
4)Add extra drives to the storage pool.
5)Setup software, transfer current collection.

Software (add-ins) to install right away:
1)Disk Management add-in
2)MyMovies 3

Any other suggestions would be great.....

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My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

In general, your plan sounds good. The only change I would suggest is not bothering with cloning the system drive. After you get the MSS up and running so that you feel the hardware is good but before you put any data on it, shut it down, take out the system drive, put in a new system drive, and use a 32 bit client PC to run the system recovery disk and do a factory restore. That will lay down the OS on the new drive and be just like you opened the box...except with a larger system drive. Much better than going through trying to clone the drive.

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HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

I agree with Texas-Hansen on a better way to accomplish step #3 -- but I would skip that step altogether. By the time you really need an upgrade for that drive you would likely be better off adding a 4-bay eSATA external drive bay instead. Personally I try to keep that drive empty of all but the system partition. It serves as an emergency expansion area if I need it (pending adding another drive). Keeping it empty otherwise makes replacement of it very simple should it fail.

(Much discussion of this in other threads.)

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

I guess I wasn't aware that you could control which drives data is stored once it is added to the pool. I was also thinking that if the system drive died that I would need to do a system recovery and reinstall everything back to the way I had it since you cannot actually back it up. If you have to perform a system recovery, will the new setup recognize the preexisting drive pool and keep the data intact?

On a side note, I got the server up and running last night. It made it throught the installation and upadtes just fine. One thing I noticed that I thought was strange was that both the bottom drive lights were on even though there is only a drive in #1. They were both purple to begin with but after installation #1 went blue and #2 stayed purple. Is it normal for both of them to be on?

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My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

Realistically you can't control that. And, frankly, you are best advised to let WHS (MSS) manage it for you.


First, a "Server Recovery" only restores the C-Drive partition. ALL data remains intact. You do need to re-appply all updates, configure users and permissions, etc., but you do NOT need to restore the data.

If one does a "Factory Reset" the situation is very different as the reset reformats ALL drives attached at the time of the reset and adds them to the storage pool.

And it IS possible to back up the MSS/WHS. The Shared Folders can be backed up by ading a drive as a backup drive and backing it up on the backup tab. The backup database can be backed up with the Backup Database Backup (BDBB) Add-In. Both of those are manual operations. Or you can automate backups as described in http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3261. This will give you a complete backup and can be tailored (script editing) to your particular needs.


Off-hand I would suspect that Drive #2 is either "Un-managed" or is installed as a backup drive and NOT as a part of the Storage pool. You should be able to tell by looking at the Server Storage tab in the console. If it is not in the pool you can add it to the pool from that tab. (You need to have 2+ drives in order to use duplication so it should probably be added to the pool.)

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

OK, now I am getting confused, maybe I am just overly tired today.



Then how do you manage to keep that drive free of data



There is no drive in #2 but the light is purple anyway.

Thanks for your help BTW.

_________________
My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

WHS will attempt to keep all non system data off of the O/S drive. This O/S drive will only be used if you run out of space on your pooled drives. So basically there is no need to worry about managing the data on your O/S drive, just make sure you have adequate space with your storage drives.

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Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Odd. Could be light bleeding over from the lower drive's light but I doubt that. I'd try to reboot the server to see if it resolves it.

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HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

Defenitely not bleeding as #1 turned blue after setup but #2 did not. Strange thing is that I noticed that some of the images of the server in the console (I think that is what you call it) show the same two lights (#1 blue, #2 purple). I don't know if these pics change with the status of the server or not. I did try shutting it down and rebooting and the same two lights are on. I wonder if that slot on the backplane is damaged or something.

_________________
My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

Do you have an external drive connected? And are you fully up to date on all the HP software updates? There's a Version article in the Wiki that shows the latest version for each generation of server. I believe in the earliest releases there could be issues with the enclosure management software turning on a drive LED for certain external drives.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Nothing else is connected. It is basically fresh out of the box, all I have done is hook it up and install the software and let it run through the updates. I also created a user acct that matched my computer because it was giving me a message about it. Not sure what the version is, I recall it pulling the HP updates after it was set up. I am guessing it has the current version as of last night.

I did pull out the drive tray as well to make sure that HP hadn't sent me a nice gift with my new server.

_________________
My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread

In an early post you mentioned one step was going to be to add drives to the pool. Did you do that and then remove it or was it never actually installed?

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Can you post the version of the HP software on your MSS? Go to Settings and then Hardware Status. At the top will be Software Version.

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HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

OK, I am home working on it now....

Looks like I am out of date (1.1.3.19049). I'll run the HP software update again and see what happens.



Today I ordered a 1TB WD HDD that I was planning on making my primary system drive. I have a 640 GB drive sitting in a external dock with my ripped movies on it. Once I get the new system drive set up I am planning on transferring the movies to the server and adding the 640 and 500 to the pool. I plan on eventually upgrading to 2TB WD Green drives to fill out the rest of the slots (2-4). If this update does not help, I'll try to transfer the movies off the 640 to my PC and add it to the current pool (with the original 500) on #2 to see if that space on the backplane is bad.

_________________
My HP Proliant ML110 G6 WHS2011 Server
My Clarkdale HTPC build thread