Recently I picked up a 1U WD Sentinel RX4100 with 4x 4TB WD Se drives. The server itself seems to be based on an Intel Atom D525 with 4GB RAM and has a Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 sticker attached.
Despite the fact that the box is large, it only houses 4x 4TB drives and dual 1GbE ethernet. I had a look inside and there is a single 4GB SODIMM and no PCIe expansion slots. Lots of non-standard form factors involved.
Here is the question: what should I do with the box?
On Option 1 - I do have "enough" backup capacity but I am not sure I want to use Windows Storage Server versus something like FreeNAS. I also somewhat want to have 10Gb networking everywhere now.
Thoughts appreciated. If someone wants a look inside, happy to take and post pics.
Despite the fact that the box is large, it only houses 4x 4TB drives and dual 1GbE ethernet. I had a look inside and there is a single 4GB SODIMM and no PCIe expansion slots. Lots of non-standard form factors involved.
Here is the question: what should I do with the box?
- Option 1: Use it as a backup server in Fremont or Sunnyvale just to hold images for a PXE boot server.
- Option 2: Use the drives elsewhere. Sell the chassis.
- Option 3: Sell the whole thing.
On Option 1 - I do have "enough" backup capacity but I am not sure I want to use Windows Storage Server versus something like FreeNAS. I also somewhat want to have 10Gb networking everywhere now.
Thoughts appreciated. If someone wants a look inside, happy to take and post pics.