What options can I get for the HP MicroServer and what would I recommend?

martin237 | January 22, 2012 | 0 Comments

The standard MicroServer comes with a hard drive, memory, network port and USB so that you can connect your USB DVD drive to load the operating system or run FreeNAS or ESXi, none of the options I have listed below are necessary to get started, though I did find having the DVD drive that bit easier to load Windows 2008.

The options I would look at:

Internal DVD Writer (624192-B21) – this is to allow you to install software as normal (for example Windows/Linux or to install any applications that you might have rather than use the network connection) – if you’re deploying remotely you might not want the DVD Writer for security – http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06c/A1-329290-329233-72841-72841-3626683-4275665.html

HP External backup device (AJ766A) – this is to allow you to backup your server, you might choose an online back up tool, or already have a backup solution in place (even using Windows Backup to disk/DVD might do initially) – http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/disk-backup/product-detail.html?oid=3741010

HP MicroServer Remote Access Card (615095-B21) – this allows you to manage the MicroServer remotely, this could be ideal if you’re planning to use them in remote sites or have them stored under the desk rather than in an easy to access location – http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06c/A1-329290-439740-241590-241590-4275610-4275612.html

There are of course extra disks dependent on your storage requirements and thoughts for future growth going forward, you might for example choose to have one disk for Windows and another for your network shares, so that someone copying all their files to the ‘share drive’ need not affect the stability of the server.