<p><imgtitle="HP EX470 logo"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="196"alt="HP EX470 logo"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/logo-3.png"width="185"align="right"border="0"/> Here is the way to upgrade your server; what you can do without any modification is RAM and CPU. However, it’s a bit picky since you don’t have any console to make sure whether BIOS knows the CPU model or not. Unsurprisingly, this board bundled with AMD Sempron 3400+ single core CPU. It’s just not supported dual-core by default.  Thus only possibility is AMD Athlon 64 which is single core as well. It’s practically the same architecture, but larger cache, faster speed, and more features. Additionally supported RAM is DDR2-800 or PC2-6400. That’s the best you can get for this system—because of on-chip memory controller specification.</p>
<p>In order to do upgrading, you have to take apart EX470. It’s just a tiny bit harder than regular white box computer.</p>
<ol>
<li>take all HDD bays of the rack. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/1.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/1t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<li>Unplug the connector and twist two of SATA print circuit board locks. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/3.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/3t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<divclass="highslide-caption">
---
layout: post
title: HP EX470 – upgrade!
created: 1233362299
categories:
- storage
- whs
- nas
- disassembly
---
<imgtitle="HP EX470 logo"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="196"alt="HP EX470 logo"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/logo-3.png"width="185"align="right"border="0"/> Here is the way to upgrade your server; what you can do without any modification is RAM and CPU. However, it’s a bit picky since you don’t have any console to make sure whether BIOS knows the CPU model or not. Unsurprisingly, this board bundled with AMD Sempron 3400+ single core CPU. It’s just not supported dual-core by default.  Thus only possibility is AMD Athlon 64 which is single core as well. It’s practically the same architecture, but larger cache, faster speed, and more features. Additionally supported RAM is DDR2-800 or PC2-6400. That’s the best you can get for this system—because of on-chip memory controller specification.
<!--more-->
In order to do upgrading, you have to take apart EX470. It’s just a tiny bit harder than regular white box computer.
<ol>
<li>take all HDD bays of the rack. <div><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/1.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/1t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a></div>
</li>
<li>take top-cover off; just hold the box firmly and slide top cover to the front. You will get it. <divstyle="float:left;"><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/21.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/21t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a></div><div><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/22.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/22t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a></div></li>
<li>Unplug the connector and twist two of SATA print circuit board locks. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/3.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/3t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a></div>
</li>
<li>Take SATA circuit board out by putting your finger in the hole and pulling it out carefully. It’s a bit tight, but there are a lot of holes for you to hold it firmly.
<div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/4.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/4t.jpg"border="0"height="240"width="180"></a>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/4.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/4t.jpg"border="0"height="240"width="180"></a>
</div>
</li>
<li>Then we have to work on bottom side—power supply + mainboard—by taking front cover off. Only 2 screws are in your way. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/5.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/5t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/5.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/5t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
</div>
</li>
<li>Be careful when taking it out since there is a connector for USB and LEDs attached too. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/6.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/6t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/6.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/6t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
</div>
</li>
<li>Once the cover is out, you can see PSU fan and mainboard which you have to unscrew 2 screws to free it. Then you have to slowly slide all PSU + mainboard out. <div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/7.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/7t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/7.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/7t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
</div>
</li>
<li>Here you go, the mainboard. Swaping new RAM and/or CPU you want; then put them back to their places! <divstyle="float:left;">
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/81.jpg"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/81t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
<li>Here you go, the mainboard. Swaping new RAM and/or CPU you want; then put them back to their places!<br/>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/81.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/81t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/82.jpg"><imgalt="HP EX470 - take apart"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/3/82t.jpg"border="0"height="180"width="240"></a>
</li>
<li>Your EX470 is back with more power. Congratulation! </li>
</ol>
<p>Overall, this is pretty well design machine. Although it’s a bit less power, I really like its form factor, small yet plenty of room especially for HDD.</p>
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Overall, this is pretty well design machine. Although it’s a bit less power, I really like its form factor, small yet plenty of room especially for HDD.
<p><ahref="http://forum.mycapsules.com/discussion/9/hp-mediasmart-server-ex470/"target="HP_EX470"> >> Discuss about HP EX470 (<?php print $row->CountComments-1; ?> comments) here <<</a></p>
<p><imgtitle="HP EX470 review"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="196"alt="HP EX470 review"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/logo1.png"width="185"align="right"border="0"/>Windows Home Server might not be well known for regular folks; but for whom they have been looking for NAS or storage server, it’s quite popular. However, If my memory is still good, HP is only one which is interesting and investing in this OS and releasing the final product. (or in everything and make them all real?) However, WHS comes in OEM package up for sale about $99 or so. This review will focus on both hardware and how WHS performs. You will see whether this little server is worth buying or not.</p>
<br/><br/><br/>
@ -159,24 +159,9 @@ categories:
<p>Besides 1 USB port at fron panel, 3*USB, 1*eSATA, 1*Ethernet and 1*power port are plenty. Thinking of connecting eSATA 4 drive array is such a ideal to expand at least 4 terabytes in a flash. That's enough for future proof already.</p>
<p>When booting up this little server, it spikes up quite a bit--up to 100W or so. It, however, goes down to around 58-60W with 2 hard disks at idle state and upto 70W depending on load. I would expect to see around 75-80W with full 4 hard disk drives at idle state. It's not that green apparently since Intel Atom/VIA C7/AMD Geode could do better than this for sure. In addition, Shuttle K45 with Celeron E1200 dual-core sucks juice at least 10W less than this on average. I guess it would be better on newer version (w/ Intel system -- Intel Celeron 440) eg. EX485 & EX487. I guess AMD would never utilize power consumption to the same level as Intel platform, esp. their chipset, and in this case SiS could be the one to blame too :'(</p>
<p><em>Reference</em>: <ahref="http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01276565.pdf">HP MediaSmart Server Manual</a> If you don’t know something, this is what you need. </p>
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<p><ahref="http://forum.mycapsules.com/discussion/9/hp-mediasmart-server-ex470/"target="HP_EX470"> >> Discuss about HP EX470 (<?php print $row->CountComments-1; ?> comments) here <<</a></p>
<p><imgtitle="HP EX470 review"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="196"alt="HP EX470 review"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/logo1.png"width="185"align="right"border="0"/>Besides hardware which really suits to use as NAS, does Windows Home Server do the job? Windows Home Server (WHS) is based on Windows Server 2003 and added some features like Windows Home Server console, WHS add-on features, remote desktop for client, automatically client backup (up to 10 clients) and storage pool management. It might sound like you might consider using Windows Server 2003/2008 or even any Linux distro instead, but if you think WHS is just Windows Server with some GUI console and backup utility, you’d better read this to the end and reconsider again. Well, I was using Linux as my NAS before, I know that is great; WHS just offers a bit more comfortable in the right area for job like NAS in home.</p><p>Purchasing HP EX470, WHS is pre-installed; you don’t have to do anything yourself as expected and by the fact that it has no built-in CD, it’s almost impossible that HP would let you do that—too many hassles for them to take care all support side. As a result, it’s like you purchase NAS box with a bit more advanced feature, but basically all you need to do is turning on and off (if you ever want to do so) For the first time and first time only, you are required to install WHS connector to set some information on your server such as name, domain, username, password, bla bla bla. Once it’s all set; you can choose whether to use WHS connector. Moreover, WHS has a nice portal for easily downloading this too, what you have to know is server's IP or name which you can look up in your router pretty easy. Then <fontcolor="#008040"><i>http://{server-name-or-IP}:55000</i></font>, indicating port 55000, is the way to go =) Windows Home Server Connector Setup page will give a file/info you need to setup.</p>
<p><fontcolor="#0071e1">WHS server and client </font></p>
<p><imgtitle="whs-icon"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="180"alt="whs-icon"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-icon.png"width="265"align="right"border="0"/>By the fact that WHS just shares folder via SMB protocol which is the standard file sharing protocol for Windows. You don’t need to do anything special in order to use it. If you ever want to configure in the server, remote connection is the way to do so. However, there is a client named WHS connector which lets you have extra more features than just being a NAS—that’s why it’s called Windows Home Server. What you get is the following:-</p>
<ul><li>Remote WHS console – only WHS console access<div><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console1.png"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgtitle="HP EX470 -- port on the back"alt="HP EX470 -- WHS console"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console1t.png"border="0"height="210"width="300"></a><divclass="highslide-caption">HP EX470 -- WHS console</div><divid="closebutton"class="highslide-overlay closebutton"onclick="return hs.close(this)"title="Close"></div></div></li>
<li>Automatically backup via network – this is quite a unique feature I like very much back to WHS in beta stage; it also finally implements wake clients on LAN feature—one of the most requested feature back then. </li>
<li><imgtitle="WHS icon"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="22"alt="WHS icon"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-icon-status.png"width="38"border="0"/> Network Health notification – I find this rather annoying than being useful since I don’t have any anti-virus on any system and always turn Windows Defender off.<div>
<imgtitle="HP EX470 review"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="196"alt="HP EX470 review"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/logo1.png"width="185"align="right"border="0"/>Besides hardware which really suits to use as NAS, does Windows Home Server do the job? Windows Home Server (WHS) is based on Windows Server 2003 and added some features like Windows Home Server console, WHS add-on features, remote desktop for client, automatically client backup (up to 10 clients) and storage pool management. It might sound like you might consider using Windows Server 2003/2008 or even any Linux distro instead, but if you think WHS is just Windows Server with some GUI console and backup utility, you’d better read this to the end and reconsider again. Well, I was using Linux as my NAS before, I know that is great; WHS just offers a bit more comfortable in the right area for job like NAS in home.
Purchasing HP EX470, WHS is pre-installed; you don’t have to do anything yourself as expected and by the fact that it has no built-in CD, it’s almost impossible that HP would let you do that—too many hassles for them to take care all support side. As a result, it’s like you purchase NAS box with a bit more advanced feature, but basically all you need to do is turning on and off (if you ever want to do so) For the first time and first time only, you are required to install WHS connector to set some information on your server such as name, domain, username, password, bla bla bla. Once it’s all set; you can choose whether to use WHS connector. Moreover, WHS has a nice portal for easily downloading this too, what you have to know is server's IP or name which you can look up in your router pretty easy. Then <fontcolor="#008040"><i>http://{server-name-or-IP}:55000</i></font>, indicating port 55000, is the way to go =) Windows Home Server Connector Setup page will give a file/info you need to setup.
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#### <fontcolor="#0071e1">WHS server and client </font>
<imgtitle="whs-icon"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="180"alt="whs-icon"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-icon.png"width="265"align="right"border="0"/>By the fact that WHS just shares folder via SMB protocol which is the standard file sharing protocol for Windows. You don’t need to do anything special in order to use it. If you ever want to configure in the server, remote connection is the way to do so. However, there is a client named WHS connector which lets you have extra more features than just being a NAS—that’s why it’s called Windows Home Server. What you get is the following:-
* Remote WHS console – only WHS console access<div><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console1.png"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgtitle="HP EX470 -- port on the back"alt="HP EX470 -- WHS console"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console1t.png"border="0"height="210"width="300"></a><divclass="highslide-caption">HP EX470 -- WHS console</div><divid="closebutton"class="highslide-overlay closebutton"onclick="return hs.close(this)"title="Close"></div></div>
* Automatically backup via network – this is quite a unique feature I like very much back to WHS in beta stage; it also finally implements wake clients on LAN feature—one of the most requested feature back then.
* <imgtitle="WHS icon"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="22"alt="WHS icon"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-icon-status.png"width="38"border="0"/> Network Health notification – I find this rather annoying than being useful since I don’t have any anti-virus on any system and always turn Windows Defender off.<div>
<ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console2.png"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgtitle="HP EX470 -- port on the back"alt="HP EX470 -- WHS critical notification"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/whs-console2t.png"border="0"height="210"width="178"></a><divclass="highslide-caption">HP EX470 -- WHS critical notification</div>
<li>Direct link to shared folder – yeah it might be good for someone, just not me. </li>
<li>Restoring backup – you will see how good it is momentarily. </li></ul>
</div>
* Direct link to shared folder – yeah it might be good for someone, just not me.
* Restoring backup – you will see how good it is momentarily.
<p>This is basically what you get from it; let’s say this way, automatically backup alone is worth already. If you care about more running processes, WHSConnector.exe wastes only a fraction of CPU usage and around 3MB of memory, so you won’t notice anything even when your system is backing up.</p>
This is basically what you get from it; let’s say this way, automatically backup alone is worth already. If you care about more running processes, WHSConnector.exe wastes only a fraction of CPU usage and around 3MB of memory, so you won’t notice anything even when your system is backing up.
<p><fontcolor="#0071e1">Backup & Restoring</font></p>
<p>This could be one of the best features WHS gives you. It’s truly automatic; I mean once you install WHS connector, it will wake your computer from sleep/hibernation, do the backup, and client will go back to sleep again. How cool is that? I might sound little fiction, but it can really do that. In case the client is still opening, it will show pop-up if you want to postpone or let it do the job as usual. This happens by your configuration [backup time interval; numbers of backup set] in WHS console or manually to do full backup set. Nothing to say much here. You’ve got to see in person, you will know how flawless whole process is. That reminds me of one of my friends when talking about how hard to set Windows Server & other OS; he asked, “It’s Windows. How hard could that be?” Although he didn’t mean to praise Microsoft by any mean [his computer has no Microsoft’s product], it showed that Windows might not have such a hype like Mac, but it does the job quite well. ha ha</p><p>Backup part is easy; you can expect to have the same experience with restoring part. There are 2 options to restore your file: like regular backup software, full restore & partial restore. In order to do full restore, you will have to burn ISO image inside ‘Software\Home PC Restore CD’ shared folder to make WHS bootable CD like you can expected from Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image or Vista backup & restore. Partial restore, however, is such a nice touch from Microsoft. You will have to get into WHS console, choose backup set and click ‘open.’ Around couple minutes waiting, you will see Z: drive (or the last letter available) containing all file like C: at the backup time. Drag-and-drop or copy & paste what you want. That would be all set. I really like how they implemented this.</p>
#### <fontcolor="#0071e1">Backup & Restoring</font>
<p>As far as I know, WHS will not allow any client in different subnet which is not likely to be a problem with home network + regular people much. Remember folk, home server for home network :-P It should be pretty basic network.</p>
This could be one of the best features WHS gives you. It’s truly automatic; I mean once you install WHS connector, it will wake your computer from sleep/hibernation, do the backup, and client will go back to sleep again. How cool is that? I might sound little fiction, but it can really do that. In case the client is still opening, it will show pop-up if you want to postpone or let it do the job as usual. This happens by your configuration [backup time interval; numbers of backup set] in WHS console or manually to do full backup set. Nothing to say much here. You’ve got to see in person, you will know how flawless whole process is. That reminds me of one of my friends when talking about how hard to set Windows Server & other OS; he asked, “It’s Windows. How hard could that be?” Although he didn’t mean to praise Microsoft by any mean [his computer has no Microsoft’s product], it showed that Windows might not have such a hype like Mac, but it does the job quite well. ha ha</p> Backup part is easy; you can expect to have the same experience with restoring part. There are 2 options to restore your file: like regular backup software, full restore & partial restore. In order to do full restore, you will have to burn ISO image inside ‘Software\Home PC Restore CD’ shared folder to make WHS bootable CD like you can expected from Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image or Vista backup & restore. Partial restore, however, is such a nice touch from Microsoft. You will have to get into WHS console, choose backup set and click ‘open.’ Around couple minutes waiting, you will see Z: drive (or the last letter available) containing all file like C: at the backup time. Drag-and-drop or copy & paste what you want. That would be all set. I really like how they implemented this.
<p><fontcolor="#0071e1">Add-on features</font></p><p>This is the most wanted feature of many people since Microsoft never bundles anything in one package or wants to do on their own, so they let developers do. I used to be the ones who want to have only 1 24/7 computer doing all purposes such as NAS, Media Center, and Web server. I, however, found that this idea would never work properly. YMMV—choice is yours though. By the way, I highly recommend some add-on programs for WHS.</p>
<li>PVConnect – I found it performs better than stock’s one. This add-on including in EX470 though. </li></ul>
As far as I know, WHS will not allow any client in different subnet which is not likely to be a problem with home network + regular people much. Remember folk, home server for home network :-P It should be pretty basic network.
#### <fontcolor="#0071e1">Add-on features</font>
This is the most wanted feature of many people since Microsoft never bundles anything in one package or wants to do on their own, so they let developers do. I used to be the ones who want to have only 1 24/7 computer doing all purposes such as NAS, Media Center, and Web server. I, however, found that this idea would never work properly. YMMV—choice is yours though. By the way, I highly recommend some add-on programs for WHS.
* <ahref="http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/whsdiskmanagement/">Disk Management</a><ahref="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/disk-mgmt.png"class="highslide"onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><imgtitle="HP EX470 -- port on the back"alt="HP EX470 -- virtual backup drive"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/disk-mgmtt.png"border="0"height="162"width="240"></a>
* PVConnect – I found it performs better than stock’s one. This add-on including in EX470 though.
<p>For you information, add-on program is like regular program, but it will have an interface in WHS console instead of its own, so you can access from everywhere.</p>
For you information, add-on program is like regular program, but it will have an interface in WHS console instead of its own, so you can access from everywhere.
<p>This is where all magic occurs in WHS in my opinion. You might not know it is existed since it works only in background. It works like XRAID from Netgear—that’s the only one comparable feature so far. If you know more, please let me know I would love to know if there is anything similar available on Linux. Basically, demigrator.exe is a process which takes care of load balancing between all drives in storage pool. demigrator is running all the time, trying to transfer data back and forth between drives. Practically it wants to have equal used space on each, not including system drive which is supposed to be free of data. </p>
This is where all magic occurs in WHS in my opinion. You might not know it is existed since it works only in background. It works like XRAID from Netgear—that’s the only one comparable feature so far. If you know more, please let me know I would love to know if there is anything similar available on Linux. Basically, demigrator.exe is a process which takes care of load balancing between all drives in storage pool. demigrator is running all the time, trying to transfer data back and forth between drives. Practically it wants to have equal used space on each, not including system drive which is supposed to be free of data.
<p>This is the consequence (or the reason) of demigrator.exe; WHS will not allow to have any RAID in the system—actually you could do that in hardware RAID, but it’s not going to help anything and also get worse in term of performance due to redundancy process with demigrator. I don’t know if RAID could add/remove drive easily or not, but as far as I know, it’s damned hard to do so, unlike WHS. I would love to try out XRAID in Netgrear product too if it’s better or not. I think it’s quite similar to what WHS is for. Although it’s not the same thing, the outcome is the same.</p>
This is the consequence (or the reason) of demigrator.exe; WHS will not allow to have any RAID in the system—actually you could do that in hardware RAID, but it’s not going to help anything and also get worse in term of performance due to redundancy process with demigrator. I don’t know if RAID could add/remove drive easily or not, but as far as I know, it’s damned hard to do so, unlike WHS. I would love to try out XRAID in Netgrear product too if it’s better or not. I think it’s quite similar to what WHS is for. Although it’s not the same thing, the outcome is the same.
<p>What not the same is throughput; duplication like this doesn’t give any advantage over performance at all while RAID 5 could have had a better performance. Duplication here is more like RAID 1 although the system has 3+ drives.</p>
What not the same is throughput; duplication like this doesn’t give any advantage over performance at all while RAID 5 could have had a better performance. Duplication here is more like RAID 1 although the system has 3+ drives.
<p>demigrator will keep duplication in another disk. Thus in case you lose 1 drive. Data will be able to recover immediately. However, if the system drive, which contains all information about where files & duplication are, crashes, that’s going to be pretty severe problem because after finish recovering WHS, it needs to scan all block in the storage pool thoroughly and create file structure again. In my opinion, its protection is good enough here.</p>
demigrator will keep duplication in another disk. Thus in case you lose 1 drive. Data will be able to recover immediately. However, if the system drive, which contains all information about where files & duplication are, crashes, that’s going to be pretty severe problem because after finish recovering WHS, it needs to scan all block in the storage pool thoroughly and create file structure again. In my opinion, its protection is good enough here.
<p>The problem and what we should concern, according to demigrator's job, are a fragment of file. Things, like torrent or recording TV show, happens to confuse demigrator a lot. It will not break anything, but conversely demigrator will work continuously heavily. Therefore, the performance will decrease a lot. The way to work around this issue is leaving one drive out of the pool, so demigrator will not bother with all those little uncompleted files.</p>
The problem and what we should concern, according to demigrator's job, are a fragment of file. Things, like torrent or recording TV show, happens to confuse demigrator a lot. It will not break anything, but conversely demigrator will work continuously heavily. Therefore, the performance will decrease a lot. The way to work around this issue is leaving one drive out of the pool, so demigrator will not bother with all those little uncompleted files.
<p>One thing WHS has been criticized a lot is <fontcolor="#ff3333">security</font>. Even though data reliability is up to par, there is no option to encrypt all data and stuffs at all. I guess Microsoft has defined the word ‘home’ as non-security & no real privacy at all as you can see from all products which contain ‘home’ word, there will be no ‘encryption’ feature seriously. I, nevertheless, am not kind of security thingy. Thus, I feel nothing missing this feature.</p>
One thing WHS has been criticized a lot is <fontcolor="#ff3333">security</font>. Even though data reliability is up to par, there is no option to encrypt all data and stuffs at all. I guess Microsoft has defined the word ‘home’ as non-security & no real privacy at all as you can see from all products which contain ‘home’ word, there will be no ‘encryption’ feature seriously. I, nevertheless, am not kind of security thingy. Thus, I feel nothing missing this feature.
<p>The throughputs which are over the theoretical limit are due to memory cache. I’m note quite sure why read performance over 2GB file size was dropped like that and the result with larger file, i.e. 4GB file size were similar. I suspected that Windows usually use larger record size when transferring much larger file like 2GB or more; that’s probably inappropriate record size for the job.</p>
note: 64k record size is the typical record size that Windows use when transferring the file larger than 64kB
<p>Then robust copy (built-in utility in Vista) came to play the role; we have tested 2 file size; 350M and 4.3GB; this was tested on system 1.</p>
<p>The result from robocopy could answer the drop performance in previous test quite good; Windows must use different record size block to transfer very large file to get this result. Additionally, I include a test with ATTO disk benchmark too to see how it performs on smaller file size.</p>
The throughputs which are over the theoretical limit are due to memory cache. I’m note quite sure why read performance over 2GB file size was dropped like that and the result with larger file, i.e. 4GB file size were similar. I suspected that Windows usually use larger record size when transferring much larger file like 2GB or more; that’s probably inappropriate record size for the job.
<p><imgtitle="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network with ATTO disk benchmark"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="450"alt="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network with ATTO disk benchmark"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/atto-disk.png"width="353"border="0"/></p>
Then robust copy (built-in utility in Vista) came to play the role; we have tested 2 file size; 350M and 4.3GB; this was tested on system 1.
<p>As you see, the performance we got from HP EX470 is quite good as you can expect from this specification. However, it could achieve a bit better over very large file by upgrading processor; at this point 2GB RAM have showed to be pretty worth upgrade. Stay tuned for Shuttle K45 test if Celeron dual core could eliminate the wall on very large file or not.</p>
<imgtitle="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="279"alt="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/ex470-robocopy.png"width="387"border="0"/>
The result from robocopy could answer the drop performance in previous test quite good; Windows must use different record size block to transfer very large file to get this result. Additionally, I include a test with ATTO disk benchmark too to see how it performs on smaller file size.
<p>Although some might not like this MediaSmart server, I think it’s really worth buying considering the price I got—only about $260. It may be overprice if you talk about street price, but for your information, HP always gives such a nice coupon and promotion. Price, however, you can grab regularly is about $399 which is going to tough decision between homegrown NAS. This form factor, this beautiful one, is such a worth. In addition, by the fact that HP does offer plenty of expandable storage choice like eSATA and many USB ports on MediaSmart series, it could guarantee that this would be able to handle short-storage problem without a big investment in near future.</p>
<imgtitle="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network with ATTO disk benchmark"style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px"height="450"alt="HP EX470 Performance over Gigabit network with ATTO disk benchmark"src="http://mycapsules.com/sites/default/files/2009/01/ex470/2/atto-disk.png"width="353"border="0"/>
As you see, the performance we got from HP EX470 is quite good as you can expect from this specification. However, it could achieve a bit better over very large file by upgrading processor; at this point 2GB RAM have showed to be pretty worth upgrade. Stay tuned for Shuttle K45 test if Celeron dual core could eliminate the wall on very large file or not.
Although some might not like this MediaSmart server, I think it’s really worth buying considering the price I got—only about $260. It may be overprice if you talk about street price, but for your information, HP always gives such a nice coupon and promotion. Price, however, you can grab regularly is about $399 which is going to tough decision between homegrown NAS. This form factor, this beautiful one, is such a worth. In addition, by the fact that HP does offer plenty of expandable storage choice like eSATA and many USB ports on MediaSmart series, it could guarantee that this would be able to handle short-storage problem without a big investment in near future.
<ul>
<li>noisy due to grilled perforated design </li>
<li>not very green </li>
<li>required complex password for remote access [I know it’s not very safe to use easy password, but I just hate typing long one] </li>
<p><ahref="http://forum.mycapsules.com/discussion/9/hp-mediasmart-server-ex470/"target="HP_EX470"> >> Discuss about HP EX470 (<?php print $row->CountComments-1; ?> comments) here <<</a></p>
* noisy due to grilled perforated design
* not very green
* required complex password for remote access [I know it’s not very safe to use easy password, but I just hate typing long one]
<pstyle="font-size: 0.8em">** This is the best possible CPU for replacement w/o any modification. 1MB L2-cache, faster processor frequency, and a bit greener & cooler. I just don’t know if it’s worth spending $30 for extra 2-3MB/s throughput.
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<p><ahref="http://forum.mycapsules.com/discussion/9/hp-mediasmart-server-ex470/"target="HP_EX470"> >> Discuss about HP EX470 (<?php print $row->CountComments-1; ?> comments) here <<</a></p>
