HP Microserver G8 or build your own home server?

[cocksy_boy]

It should be the same for server server OS as desktop OS, 2012 should be Windows 8 drivers.

OK, that's good to know. They definitely have win 8 drivers.

[cocksy_boy]

I've just seen a second hand ml350 g5 with 2 quad core xeons and 16gb ram... is that going to be overkill and can I run win 10 natively as a base OS on it?

[b0redom]

Yes. For a home server that is probably overkill, and if it's got dual quad cores will probably sound like a hoover. For VMs RAM is way more likely to be the limiting factor than CPU anyway.

Looking at the native support on HP's website here:

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/...&lang=en&cc=us

and here:

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/ente...x/windows.aspx

I would say it's pretty doubtful that Win10 would work. It's certainly not supported. In fact it looks like the server went end of support last November.

Just go with a prebuilt server like the Lenovo I suggested or a Microserver if you don't need that much grunt. Honestly it'll save you headaches and incompatibility problems in the future. Server stuff is not the same as desktop stuff.

[cocksy_boy]

The Lenovo does look OK.

I don't suppose you are able to answer my questions about it? (What is the motherboard like in terms of SATA ports, does it support VT-d, and whats it like for 3.5" HDD space internally?)

My concern with the HP is the lean towards having to pay for support in terms of BIOS and drivers etc. I'm happy to build my own (and actually enjoy it a lot!) but I'm just not really up to speed with the server side of requirements! Thanks for helping me out so far!

[walibe]

Yes. For a home server that is probably overkill, and if it's got dual quad cores will probably sound like a hoover. For VMs RAM is way more likely to be the limiting factor than CPU anyway.

Looking at the native support on HP's website here:

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/...&lang=en&cc=us

and here:

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/ente...x/windows.aspx

I would say it's pretty doubtful that Win10 would work. It's certainly not supported. In fact it looks like the server went end of support last November.

Just go with a prebuilt server like the Lenovo I suggested or a Microserver if you don't need that much grunt. Honestly it'll save you headaches and incompatibility problems in the future. Server stuff is not the same as desktop stuff.

Windows 10 works pretty well on a number of severs I've used when I've been doing testing including HP and Dell. Don't forget that's the same NT derived kernel in there.

There's some excellent deals on used servers including the one in my signature block. The downsides are space and power consumption.

[cocksy_boy]

I'm fairly happy to buy used kit, as long as I'm going to be able to use the software I want on it!! I'm just a little worried that I go for something like the ML350 that it won't support windows 10 natively (in case I end up getting nowhere with the virtualisation plan), and I'd have to pay for HP support / not get drivers etc for it so I might end up fighting a losing battle getting it going how i'd like!
Reading some reviews from when it was initially released it was meant to be whisper quiet, so I'm not too worried on that front.
The DL160 in your sig appears to be a rack mounted sever (whereas I'm looking for a desktop / tower to use at home), but there certainly do appear to be lots of deals out there for it

[DanceswithUnix]

If Windows 10 won't run natively on it, I presume VMware ESX server or Centos 7 (with the KVM server farm support) would work. So unless you are desperately tied to Windows 10 you should be able to find a way to create virtual machines.

[cocksy_boy]

yeah, thats one way to look at it... my concern is that if I'm not able to work with VMs as I'm not clever enough, or if I can't get the VMs to do what I want, then I've wasted time and money...!

[walibe]

A lot of the workstations use similar motherboards to the servers so whatever you choose you should be fine. I'm confident Windows 10 will install on what you're looking at. I run esxi on mine with numerous virtual machines including Windows server, Windows 10, Windows 7, OS X, unbuntu and some specialist builds for penetration testing etc.

[walibe]

If Windows 10 won't run natively on it, I presume VMware ESX server or Centos 7 (with the KVM server farm support) would work. So unless you are desperately tied to Windows 10 you should be able to find a way to create virtual machines.

I've used the red hat virtualisation commercially and on courses, it's very easy to use - that's an excellent suggestion.

[cocksy_boy]

cool - thanks for the tips!