Booting Nas4free from USB on HP Proliant N40L

[Bigmac]

Hello everyone, Hoping someone can help?

I have Nas4free set up on a HP Proliant N40L booting from the supplied 250GB HDD.
The other 3 HDDs are formatted as individual HDDs NO raid, they have shares set-up.

Now what I want to know is it possible to boot from the internal USB slot so as to free up the 250GB HDD. And replacing this HDD with a bigger HDD, enabling it to be used for file storage. Doing this without losing the files on the other 3 HDDs.

[kernow]

I have the exact setup, I run the embedded version from the internal USB port. You should be able to import your disk configuration with no problems at all.

[Bigmac]

Many thanks

Can I ask what size USB stick you are using please?

[aardel]

I also have the same server using the build in usb port, and currently using a 4gb pen-drive , since day 1 without any problems

[shakky4711]

Hello,

I generally use Transcend Jetflash600 pendrives, never ever had a failed stick, they are running at all usb ports I have plugged them in, furthermore 30 years warranty for the first owner after registraton.

Shakky

[Bigmac]

I also have the same server using the build in usb port, and currently using a 4gb pen-drive , since day 1 without any problems

Hello,

I generally use Transcend Jetflash600 pendrives, never ever had a failed stick, they are running at all usb ports I have plugged them in, furthermore 30 years warranty for the first owner after registraton.

Shakky

Many thanks, will give it a go

[kernow]

It doesn't matter what pendrive it is as long as you back up your config, because all the pendrive has on it is the freely available embedded image you can just redownload and put on another pendrive

[shakky4711]

Hi Kernow,

Your are generally right, but have had in the past some problems with cheap crappy sticks. Boot failures, damaged data on it, etc, so why not use better quality hardware for one Euro/$ more when it can help to preserve these kind of unnecessary problems

Shakky

[kernow]

Yeah, quality ones are so cheap nowadays. I picked up an HP (pny) 4GB for £4.99 delivered. I thought it'd match the HP server

[Bigmac]

Thanks for the help. Now up and running with 4 HHDs Now to update the BIOS and stick in another HHD.

[svily0]

Sorry to revive this old thread!
Everything works fine with my system, except it takes "ages" to boot on my HP N40L micro server (~4 min.). Using an embedded install ( NAS4Free 9.1.0.1.636 ) on a usb flash, which seems to be read in low speed mode. Load time doesn't depend on the flash stick used. The actual boot process is fast, once everything is loaded in memory. I've tested on 3 different computers (Intel and an old Athlon with NForce3 chipset) and they all boot in less than a minute. On the other hand, booting Slax on the N40L is really fast, so hardware shouldn't be to blame - looks like loader doesn't like the USB controller in the AMD chipset.

What is your experience, guys?
Any suggestions are appreciated.

[ku-gew]

It may also depend on the USB stick used.

[armandh]

It may also depend on the USB stick used.

some USB sticks come with hidden "helpful" software such as drivers etc.
be sure the USB stick is freshly formatted fat and nothing else
then load it

I have run into trouble with with larger sticks and older hardware
I use USB sticks for tests or demo
all 3 of my active NAS use IDE flash

they are fast booting, but it hardly matters as they run from ram 24/7

[schleppy]

I am also running nearly the same setup, booting off a SanDisk Flash Drive. So far it's working really well.

[svily0]

It may also depend on the USB stick used.

some USB sticks come with hidden "helpful" software such as drivers etc.
be sure the USB stick is freshly formatted fat and nothing else
then load it

I have run into trouble with with larger sticks and older hardware
I use USB sticks for tests or demo
all 3 of my active NAS use IDE flash

they are fast booting, but it hardly matters as they run from ram 24/7

My original idea was to use "wake on lan" when I need access to the storage and shut down the server after
some time of inactivity, mostly because of my usage pattern - I don't need it available all the time.
Gave up on this already, but there is something strange with the USB support...
After timing five different computers (using the same flash stick) it turned out both AMD NEO machines
boot slower than the Intel and old Athlon with NForce3 chipset.

Timing results:
machine - load time, total time

microSD USB reader (x64_636):
N40L - 2:54, 3:27
AMD K325 - 2:10, 2:43
K8N mb - 0:29, 1:01
Core2Duo - 0:37, 1:06
SandyBridge - 0:46, 1:26

Flash stick (x64_636):
N40L - 1:43, 2:11
AMD K325 - missing
K8N mb - 0:20, 0:48
Core2Duo - 0:24, 0:49
SandyBridge - 0:32, 0:57

Flash stick (slax -toram):
N40L - 0:21, 0:29
AMD K325 - missing
K8N mb - 0:18, 0:27
Core2Duo - 0:18, 0:27
SandyBridge - 0:24, 0:30

"Flash stick" is the same device. Turned out the microSD card was especially slow, using the "Flash stick" now,
it's faster, but hardly stellar...
Notice that slax-7.0.8 is about 208 MB which are loaded in memory, while NAS4Free is 110 MB read and loaded in memory
before booting the kernel.

[RudeViper]

Here's an interesting twist. I have an HP Pavillion p6203w dual core pc - but it can't boot from usb. No option in the bios....Does anyone know how I can set it up to boot from a cd and get the configuration files from a usb stick??? That is about the only way I can think of that I can use either this or even the other one (won't speak it's name just to be safe- lol)....The motherboard has a broken sata port (physically broken) so I am down to 3 - and only have two hd's anyway - a 500gb and a 1tb - don't want to waste a 500gb just for the boot drive - (no ide slots at all on this machine.)

ANY help at all would be GREATLY appreciated.... have been messing with trying to set up this NAS using ubuntu server for the last 3 days and I'm ready to just give up. I'm adding my IM contacts to profile so if anyone can help feel free to im me on any one of them.

Thanks in advance.

[Lee Sharp]

You could use on of these on the spare SATA port. http://www.logicsupply.com/products/d1vhsd001g0

[kkd]

Here's an interesting twist. I have an HP Pavillion p6203w dual core pc - but it can't boot from usb. No option in the bios....Does anyone know how I can set it up to boot from a cd and get the configuration files from a usb stick??? That is about the only way I can think of that I can use either this or even the other one (won't speak it's name just to be safe- lol)....The motherboard has a broken sata port (physically broken) so I am down to 3 - and only have two hd's anyway - a 500gb and a 1tb - don't want to waste a 500gb just for the boot drive - (no ide slots at all on this machine.)

ANY help at all would be GREATLY appreciated.... have been messing with trying to set up this NAS using ubuntu server for the last 3 days and I'm ready to just give up. I'm adding my IM contacts to profile so if anyone can help feel free to im me on any one of them.

Thanks in advance.

r u sure u got the latest bios?

[RudeViper]

yes - in fact they never released a bios update for that unit - unfortunately

[armandh]

if you can use a CD for the live [embedded] OS you can also use a small Hdd instead [PATA??]
my old dell [cold stand by] boots from a 2.1 Gb lap top size drive on the primary IDE
it was salvaged from a xerographic printer, but any small Hdd will do.
then install the drive holding the embedded OS, and set it to spin down in 5 minutes.
do not mount or otherwise use the drive.
it will spin up for config changes and down 5 minutes later.
a great solution for an old box that only boots from the primary IDE [also floppy or lan ROM]

to get the OS on to the small Hdd I put the optical drive on the primary and the small Hdd on the secondary IDE
after installing the OS I removed the optical drive and moved the small Hdd to the primary
and installing the mirror drives [to be] on the secondary IDE

with mirrored SATA drives and only one spare SATA connection on my 2 thread [see below]
I use one of these at 1 Gb http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/f ... sh_modules
you can see how fast it boots on this 1600 MHZ 1 thread celleron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcfeRPWCBWM

All 3 of my active NAS4Free will boot from USB but I do not have them set up that way.
2 use SATA flash and 1 a PATA flash.

[RudeViper]

I found it - I guess with the new machines there is no longer a boot with usb option - instead they hide it under the hdd section - I was finally able to get it booted from an old 2gb stick I had laying around...In the process of adding the hard drives now - it really doesn't like old hard drives on usb - lol - but oh well

now once I get it set up for nas I'll start looking into getting pyload working on here.

Thanks for the help....