HP Proliant ML310 Server as NAS?

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wpirugger

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My work is getting rid of the their (very) old server and offered it to me if I wanted it. It is an HP Proliant ML310T04 3050 HP-SAS RPS with the following specs:

Processor(s): Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® 3050 (2.13 GHz, 65 Watts, 1066 FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
Cache Memory: 1 x 2MB L2
Memory: 1 GB (1 x 1GB)
Network Controller: Embedded NC320i PCIe Gigabit Server Adapter
Storage Controller: HP 8 Internal Port SAS HBA with RAID 0, 1 in a PCI-X slot
Hard Drives: 4 x 80 GB hot swap drives
Internal Storage: SAS: 584GB maximum; SATA: 3TB maximum
Optical Drive: 48x IDE (ATAPI) CD-ROM Drive
Diskette Drive: None ship standard (Optional 1.44 MB Diskette Drive available)
Power Supply: 430W hot plug redundant power supplies
Form Factor: Tower (5U) (Tower to Rack Enabling Kit available)

I have a few concerns. First, I know this is an old machine and I am working on building a large library of blu-ray rips in MKV format. I generally use my PS3 for streaming, meaning wherever I stream from has to transcode. Can the old Xeon handle that? Second, I am worried about the storage maximum listed on the raid controller. I know next to nothing about this subject and don't know how easy it would be to swap raid controllers and compatibility. Which leads me to my last question, will I be able to put FreeNAS or something similiar on this machine? I'm honestly not sure what operating system it currently runs.

I appreciate any help, I'm new to this and doing my best to learn but its a lot to take in.
 
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FreeNAS should have no issue running on the machine, it's hardware compatibility is pretty extensive. As far as transcoding is concerned, it'll probably handle it hardware wise as FreeNAS has very little overhead. However, be aware that old servers like this are electricity hungry, likely drawing between 250-300W on a continual basis. If you plan on using it as an always on media server, you might want to consider a good NAS such as a Synology unit. You'll likely cover the cost just in the first year's electricity savings (unless you have free electricity there). Plus the extra features it offers as a media server will blow you away. I actually just replaced my 20Tb FreeNAS server with a new Synology.
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DataMedic

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FreeNAS should have no issue running on the machine, it's hardware compatibility is pretty extensive. As far as transcoding is concerned, it'll probably handle it hardware wise as FreeNAS has very little overhead. However, be aware that old servers like this are electricity hungry, likely drawing between 250-300W on a continual basis. If you plan on using it as an always on media server, you might want to consider a good NAS such as a Synology unit. You'll likely cover the cost just in the first year's electricity savings (unless you have free electricity there). Plus the extra features it offers as a media server will blow you away. I actually just replaced my 20Tb FreeNAS server with a new Synology.
 
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RealBeast

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^ +1

While that old rig will work, you won't have nearly enough storage space. A Synology would be a good pre-built choice. You will soon have many TB of data though, and you will want to run with at least one redundant drive to protect your array -- so either RAID 5 or raidz at a minimum depending on how many drives you use.
 
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wpirugger

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Thanks, I knew storage would an issue but I wasn't sure if I could swap the raid controller and use larger HDDs. I also didn't realize how much power it would be drawing. I'll look for another option.

Thanks for the help.
 
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Saberus

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It would be a good rig for a NAS, and the storage specs are based on what was available in it's time. Seeing as the array and server are out of warranty anyway, there's no reason you can't slot higher capacity drives into the thing beyond the price to get them. You can easily go to 8 1TB 2.5" SATA drives and get either 4TB usable on a RAID 1, or 6TB on a RAID 5 with a hot spare. Note that the P600 controller needs a BBWC (battery-backed write cache) module to do RAID 5, and since it is a true hardware RAID, there's minimal performance hit after the array is fully established in RAID 5.
 
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wpirugger

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Thanks, and I have two quick follow-up questions. 1. Can I go higher than 1 TB per drive if I wanted? I've already got a little over a TB in movies now and might grow out of 4 or even 6 TB fairly soon. 2. Is the raid controller in the server now the P600 you referenced? If so, what does it needing a BBWC mean? And can it do Raid 5? They only listed 0 and 1.
 
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Saberus

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1) If you can find drives in the right form factor. From your description it sounded like you had the SFF (Small form factor, 2.5 inch or laptop size) drive cage. If you have the LFF (Large form factor, standard 3.5 inch drives) cage, I think you can have at most 2TB drives. The controller has a limitation that no logical drive can be bigger than 2TB, IIRC, so you have to make several logical drives across the entire array (You can have multiple logical disks on a physical one, but it can affect performance greatly.)

2) I thought it had the P600, but the standard specs for the ML 310 G4 is something more basic that has no cache module. It does only support RAID 0 or 1

More details:

ML310 G4 : http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04286546

HP 8 internal port SAS : http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04137036.pdf?ver=14 (the limits in drive size are based on official HP offerings when it was in service)

Smart Array P600 : http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04136933 (if you can find one cheap, or the PCI-e based P400, it will serve you well in this server.)

Edit: Found the P600 for 2-300 dollars (ow), or the P400 with cache and battery for 75.
 
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Saberus

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Right controller, wrong battery. what you need is this one: http://www.amazon.com/HP-CMOS-Battery-Proprietary-Hydride/dp/B0008ENC94/ref=pd_sim_e_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CYTJPGFXMKBRMESC3GG

If you can check with the seller, the one you have there may already have both batteries fully charged. There's one on the card itself, and one on the cache module. the card you have comes with the 256MB cache, which will do fine on a file server, plus the card can support more logical drives than the basic model you already have, which will let you use bigger drives to start with.
 
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wpirugger

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I was able to confirm with the seller that the batteries are charged. In my travels though I came across the HP P800 Smart Array Controller (which was cheaper oddly enough). Is there any reason I would go with the P600 over the P800? I couldn't find the P600 as being compatible with the 4th Gen ML310 but I did see the P800 listed. Link to the P800 below.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Smart-Array-Controller-398647-001/dp/B001U0E6AO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1419967478&sr=1-1&keywords=hp+p800+raid

Thanks.

EDIT: I don't think the one I linked to has the batteries included. However, there is a model with the batteries for $65, so is the P800 worth $15 more than the P600?
 
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Saberus

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The P800 is cheaper? Amazing. It's the Big Brother to the P600 and P400. also supports two external uplinks if you ever got some Modular Storage Arrays. It also has room for three batteries for the cache, and it takes the model you first posted (HP Spare part number 398648-001). It's a heck of a deal for the P800, they used to cost $1000 from HP.

$15 more for a P800 is worth it just for the extra cache memory, it is a beast and could likely outlive the ML310 itself.
 
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