hp microserver + linux as repository

[frankive]

We have some really great deals on HP Microserver with 2 GB RAM.
I was wondeirng instead of buying small nas-boxes to our smallest customer with veeam (the customer usually have 1-3 vms on the hyper-v host) that an HP Microserver with ILO4 and a linuxdistro with 2x3TB in Raid1 would be a great benefit here.

Anyone have any experience with hp microserver or which distro in best for this box as a good and stable linux repository?

[frankive]

Perhaps can free Hyper-V 2012 R2 be a good alternative OS? if it support to share local attached storage over smb?

[Gostev]

From a technical perspective, you can just use free Hyper-V 2012 R2 as a regular Windows-based repository (there is no need to share locally attached storage over SMB). But I am not sure about Microsoft licensing perspective on doing that.

[haslund]

Hmm... Interesting idea Gostev!
I will have to try that out

[frankive]

Gostev, that is actually a very good idea! You have good contacts in Microsoft to ask about the licensing?

[frankive]

And that would also allow us to run vPower with SureBackup directly on this box AND also use it as a host for the surebackup..? (with some more RAM though...)

[Gostev]

Yes, all functionality works fine on such backup repositories. We specifically test our product against on Windows Server Core installs. All of our engine components are written in C++ and run as native code, so they do not require any dependencies and will run on "naked" Windows just fine.

[frankive]

Very nice. Will test this in my lab.
Any possibility that Veeam could contact Microsoft to hear if there is any licensing issue from Microsoft with this use?

[Gostev]

No, we cannot do that on your behalf (or post any statements regarding another company's licensing for that matter).
Additionally, Microsoft has many licensing options, so every licensee should consult directly to their Microsoft sales rep.

[frankive]

I totally understand.
I will contact Microsoft Norway to hear what they say about this and will post their answer here if that is ok?

[Gostev]

Sure!

[frankive]

A very interesting case I must say..

[haslund]

I totally understand.
I will contact Microsoft Norway to hear what they say about this and will post their answer here if that is ok?

Just wondering what they said?

[d.lansinklesscher]

I also asked one of our license experts to contact Microsoft Netherlands about this issue. As soon as we have a response I will post it here.

[frankive]

Microsoft Norway has escalted the answer to the Europe divison they said.
One of MVPs I have talked to says that this probally should work just fine from a license persepctive since what microsoft really cares about is what you CAN do with this OS, not what it CANNOT do. It is a free utility as long as the VM on it is licensed.
But no officiall response yet.

But it is an extreme good solution in our labs for very fast, cheap and stable "NAS"

[frankive]

With a 8 GB Ram it and cheacp SATA storage it also can act like an OK wan-accelerator

[d.lansinklesscher]

I just called Microsoft licensing and they told me you’re not allowed to run any third-party software on the free hyper-v server. But that would mean you can't even run the veeamproxy to back-up VM's. I don't this answer is correct so I'm hoping Frank gets a better official answer. It would be nice if they had that documented somewhere.

[frankive]

That sounds too weird I think.
That would mean it would be illegal to use a GUI for managing the virtual machines you are running on a free hyper-v like f.ex: http://www.5nine.com/5nine-manager-for- ... -free.aspx ?
We use this utiliy on very small customers with just a few vms running on the free hypervisor.
We also have larger customers running running hyper-v clusters on the free hyper-v (licensed VMs of course).
Would that mean it would be illegal to install f.ex. Veeam proxy component on-host on thiese servers?

edit: just reread your post with your same thoughts about the proxyrole.. So what do you say about that, Veeam?

[Gostev]

As I've already noted earlier, we cannot be providing guidance around Microsoft licensing.