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Technical Details
- Processor: Turion II Neo X2 Dual Core L625
- Number of Processors: 2
- RAM: 2 GB
- Hard Drive: 250 GB
Product Details
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Product Description
HP ISS HP Micro G7 N40L NHP US SvrHP Micro G7 N40L NHPUS Svr
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 69 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this to use as a NAS / VMWare server
Also got 8GB ECC memory which is the max this server supports, booting VMWare ESXi off a USB, then running OpenIndiana + Napp-It off of a SSD and then running ZFS on in RAID-Z1 (equivalent to RAID-5, I use RAID-Z instead of hardware RAID so I'm protected from the RAID-5 write hole and silent data corruption) across 3x2TB 7200RPM Seagate drives (also use part of the SSD is an L2ARC - a cache that keeps the most frequently accessed data on the SSD) which is shared back to VMWare as an NFS share so any other VM's installed on the box can be backed by ZFS redundancy. I did raw device mapping for the three drives so that OpenIndiana has direct access to them. This means I could easily export and import the pool into another system.
The Solaris version of Crashplan works very well on OI, to backup the entire zpool to a remote offsite location. It was a little tricky, Crashplan didn't see my zpool folder at first but I was able to manually add it to the config file and then it showed up in the gui.
The hardware is good for the price, there's a network, hdd, and power led lights on the front. A very large fan on the back means it runs very quiet. One gigabit network, a VGA port, and lots of USB ports are available if you ever need them.
Tips:
- Download VMWare ESXi off of HP's site which includes better HP specific hardware.
- I also tested Oracle Solaris 11 and Nexenta. Solaris 11 was the fastest, but requires a $1000/year support contract for non-personal/development use. OpenIndiana was the second fastest but hasn't officially released a stable version (however I found it more stable than NexentaStor). NexentaStor (free up to 18TB) is used in production by many enterprises so I tried using it first, but it became sluggish after I had a few thousand snapshots (the ZFS layer was fine, it was Nexenta's gui interface that couldn't handle it, probably would have been fine with a faster CPU). So for me OI + Napp-It works best, but if I weren't running a business I'd do Solaris 11 + Napp-it since it had the best performance on this machine.
- The ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S-2B will adapt an SSD drive to fit into the drive caddie trays perfectly.
- the CPU is adequate for a NAS, but it's not that fast, so for Crashplan I set data deduplication to minimal and compression to automatic. I found uploads went much faster this way. ZFS didn't have much of a slowdown using the default ZFS compression (and in some tests was faster with compression enabled) so I left it on. ZFS Deduplication slowed it down considerably even with 8GB memory.
- Use the VMXNET3 network driver instead of the E1000 for better performance. I could'n't get the guest tools to install automatically but you can ssh into the ESXi server and grab the solaris.iso off of it.
Things I've run in VMWare on top of ZFS storage on this box using Ubuntu and FreeBSD VMs without problems:
- Openswan IPSec server (for Android / iOS devices)
- Media Server for streaming videos and music (MiniDLNAa and Subsonic)
- Mail server - POP/IMAP/SMTP
- Web Server - Apache / Wordpress
- Nagios
- Mumble Server
- Minecraft Server
Things I really like:
- Supports ECC Memory (hard to find on a box this cheap) which is essential for data integrity.
- Small form factor
- Big fan, near silent operation
Wishlist for things I'd like to see in future editions of this model (although I'm sure not all of them could be done at this price-point).
- Faster CPU
- Support for more drives, get rid of drive bay, make it a little taller and this thing could hold 8" 3.5 drives or 18 2.5" drives.
- A special mounting area for an SSD.
- LED indicators for each drive.
- Remove RAID controller and only support JBOD and have more than 5 SATA ports.
- Built in KVM controller (currently you can buy one).
- 10Gigabit ethernet
- HDMI video (for people that want to use it as a home media server)
- Audio out (for subsonic media server, this could drive household speakers)
- Hot Swap Drive Bays
Also got 8GB ECC memory which is the max this server supports, booting VMWare ESXi off a USB, then running OpenIndiana + Napp-It off of a SSD and then running ZFS on in RAID-Z1 (equivalent to RAID-5, I use RAID-Z instead of hardware RAID so I'm protected from the RAID-5 write hole and silent data corruption) across 3x2TB 7200RPM Seagate drives (also use part of the SSD is an L2ARC - a cache that keeps the most frequently accessed data on the SSD) which is shared back to VMWare as an NFS share so any other VM's installed on the box can be backed by ZFS redundancy. I did raw device mapping for the three drives so that OpenIndiana has direct access to them. This means I could easily export and import the pool into another system.
The Solaris version of Crashplan works very well on OI, to backup the entire zpool to a remote offsite location. It was a little tricky, Crashplan didn't see my zpool folder at first but I was able to manually add it to the config file and then it showed up in the gui.
The hardware is good for the price, there's a network, hdd, and power led lights on the front. A very large fan on the back means it runs very quiet. One gigabit network, a VGA port, and lots of USB ports are available if you ever need them.
Tips:
- Download VMWare ESXi off of HP's site which includes better HP specific hardware.
- I also tested Oracle Solaris 11 and Nexenta. Solaris 11 was the fastest, but requires a $1000/year support contract for non-personal/development use. OpenIndiana was the second fastest but hasn't officially released a stable version (however I found it more stable than NexentaStor). NexentaStor (free up to 18TB) is used in production by many enterprises so I tried using it first, but it became sluggish after I had a few thousand snapshots (the ZFS layer was fine, it was Nexenta's gui interface that couldn't handle it, probably would have been fine with a faster CPU). So for me OI + Napp-It works best, but if I weren't running a business I'd do Solaris 11 + Napp-it since it had the best performance on this machine.
- The ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S-2B will adapt an SSD drive to fit into the drive caddie trays perfectly.
- the CPU is adequate for a NAS, but it's not that fast, so for Crashplan I set data deduplication to minimal and compression to automatic. I found uploads went much faster this way. ZFS didn't have much of a slowdown using the default ZFS compression (and in some tests was faster with compression enabled) so I left it on. ZFS Deduplication slowed it down considerably even with 8GB memory.
- Use the VMXNET3 network driver instead of the E1000 for better performance. I could'n't get the guest tools to install automatically but you can ssh into the ESXi server and grab the solaris.iso off of it.
Things I've run in VMWare on top of ZFS storage on this box using Ubuntu and FreeBSD VMs without problems:
- Openswan IPSec server (for Android / iOS devices)
- Media Server for streaming videos and music (MiniDLNAa and Subsonic)
- Mail server - POP/IMAP/SMTP
- Web Server - Apache / Wordpress
- Nagios
- Mumble Server
- Minecraft Server
Things I really like:
- Supports ECC Memory (hard to find on a box this cheap) which is essential for data integrity.
- Small form factor
- Big fan, near silent operation
Wishlist for things I'd like to see in future editions of this model (although I'm sure not all of them could be done at this price-point).
- Faster CPU
- Support for more drives, get rid of drive bay, make it a little taller and this thing could hold 8" 3.5 drives or 18 2.5" drives.
- A special mounting area for an SSD.
- LED indicators for each drive.
- Remove RAID controller and only support JBOD and have more than 5 SATA ports.
- Built in KVM controller (currently you can buy one).
- 10Gigabit ethernet
- HDMI video (for people that want to use it as a home media server)
- Audio out (for subsonic media server, this could drive household speakers)
- Hot Swap Drive Bays
67 of 73 people found the following review helpful
By Marc Johnson
This is truly a great little server.
I had far too many problems with my previous Windows Home Server (dedicated WHS Acer box with an Atom CPU): skipping videos, remote access issues, and other troubles like no direct VGA port to view what's going on.
The set-up was easy, adding RAM and a DVD drive were a total breeze. The new HP box booted up, I installed WHS, and haven't had to think much about it since.
I'm currently running with 14Tb (a PCI-E card + (2) 4-bay Sans Digital JBODs) and this box is quiet and runs cooler than the external drive boxes. I've experienced no problems with skipping, and that's with the server also running other processes, like podcatching, u-torrent client, and TiVo trasnfer/recoding.
Full disclosure - I work for HP, but in the printer division, so I bought this as a consumer. In all honesty, this server makes me proud to be an HP'er... it's a well-designed, well-made, solid performer.
I had far too many problems with my previous Windows Home Server (dedicated WHS Acer box with an Atom CPU): skipping videos, remote access issues, and other troubles like no direct VGA port to view what's going on.
The set-up was easy, adding RAM and a DVD drive were a total breeze. The new HP box booted up, I installed WHS, and haven't had to think much about it since.
I'm currently running with 14Tb (a PCI-E card + (2) 4-bay Sans Digital JBODs) and this box is quiet and runs cooler than the external drive boxes. I've experienced no problems with skipping, and that's with the server also running other processes, like podcatching, u-torrent client, and TiVo trasnfer/recoding.
Full disclosure - I work for HP, but in the printer division, so I bought this as a consumer. In all honesty, this server makes me proud to be an HP'er... it's a well-designed, well-made, solid performer.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By vlim
Amazon Verified Purchase
Bought a previous generation one last year to run as a NAS for work, and I hadn't had to even reboot it in months. So when it came time to buy one for home office, this was a logical choice.
The dual-core processor won't win any speed contests, but is more than adequate to run VMware ESXI 5.0. I have it running a real-time firewall/malware gateway software (eSoft's virtual Instagate), and it still has plenty of power left over. Windows Home Server will be going on this thing next!
Pros:
Built-in RAID 0,1 support
Extra screws and allen wrench included in door
Easy hard drive installation and removal
Compact, half-height mini tower
Super quiet. Put in some green hard drives and you won't even know the machine is there.
Runs VMware ESXi like a champ. No issues with installation.
Cons:
Wish it had RAID 5
Compactness made it a little difficult to add extra Gigabit Ethernet card. The process requires unfastening multiple connectors and thumb screws to be able to slide out the motherboard.
The dual-core processor won't win any speed contests, but is more than adequate to run VMware ESXI 5.0. I have it running a real-time firewall/malware gateway software (eSoft's virtual Instagate), and it still has plenty of power left over. Windows Home Server will be going on this thing next!
Pros:
Built-in RAID 0,1 support
Extra screws and allen wrench included in door
Easy hard drive installation and removal
Compact, half-height mini tower
Super quiet. Put in some green hard drives and you won't even know the machine is there.
Runs VMware ESXi like a champ. No issues with installation.
Cons:
Wish it had RAID 5
Compactness made it a little difficult to add extra Gigabit Ethernet card. The process requires unfastening multiple connectors and thumb screws to be able to slide out the motherboard.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best lil' server ever!
I was looking to build a mini PC to run as a home server. After buying parts separately, and having some serious issues getting everything to agree with each other, I remembered I... Read more
Published 12 hours ago by Maya
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Product is very nice and quiet, it looks brand new and not used, only thing no power cable came with its.
Published 1 month ago by Latoya
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Microserver, HP Design Shows
This is up to HP standards in design, although I have another brand 4 disk server that is just over half this size. Read more
Published 1 month ago by wgkoch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Microserver
Delivered quickly.
Price was right.
VERY quiet!
I would buy suggested RAM upgrade up front. 2gb ain't what it used to be. Read more
Price was right.
VERY quiet!
I would buy suggested RAM upgrade up front. 2gb ain't what it used to be. Read more
Published 2 months ago by jaffreytech
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect little NAS
There still isn't anything better than this for a home NAS setup. I run FreeNAS on it with 8GB RAM, and have two drives mirrored using ZFS. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Karl Stenerud
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Choice for a Home File Server
Used this to build a FreeNAS server for home use. This unit is quiet, compact and really well built. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Philip M Walston
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great little toy
For detailed capabilities of it (and what others have done), I'd highly recommend n40l.wikia.com
My experience:
Got mine on another site back on 3/31/2012. Read more
My experience:
Got mine on another site back on 3/31/2012. Read more
Published 4 months ago by David J Glad
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost perfect
I started by setting it up as a VMware 5.1 server. Seemed to work well with no modifications needed. Clients ran well. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Richard B. Odom
2.0 out of 5 stars
Power supply issues
I'm having issues with this server since it arrived at my door. The light behind the HP emblem stays red and often will not power on. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JBCincy
4.0 out of 5 stars
A+ for form factor, B for features
I love the size and overall package.
Cool things:
- super solid construction (with the exception of the HD brackets, those seem flimsy)
- internal USB port:... Read more
Cool things:
- super solid construction (with the exception of the HD brackets, those seem flimsy)
- internal USB port:... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dre
