Content and Storage With The HP MV2120/5150

Thought I'd take a few minutes to write about the HP MV2120/HP5150.



HP MediaVault 2120

Note: The HP MV2120 and MV5150 are the same hardware. The difference is the MV5150 comes with two 750G drives and software to do hard drive backups.

The HP2120 is a very sexy piece of hardware. Dont get me wrong functionality is the most important, but sexy is nice.

So What Can You Say About The MediaVaul?

Well.... Its a cool little machine. It uses very little energy, solid, and serves my needs.

So Whats Under The Hood?

It is capable of holding up to 4 Terabyte of storage non RAID, uses a 500 MHz ARM9 processor (so that is where the energy savings come in.) It runs the 2.6 Linux kernel, with 128 MB of Internal Memory.

Currently I am running a 1 Tera byte RAID1 MV2.

So What Can It Do?

Other the hold lots of media...
The MV2 runs something called firefly that enables it to stream music to iTunes and other music players. (It will also stream Videos, and Pictures)

The MV straight out of the box doesn't do to much (from a geek point of view). You can however install IPKG to install additional packages that add functionality. Its fairly hackable.

What's The MediaValt capable of:

Cheap storage
Stable
remote access through web interface
remote access and configuration via SSH
Photo Share
Streaming Media
RAID 1

What it is not:

Fast
bug free (there are a few bugs that still need to be worked out.)
A full bowen OS.....well depends how daring you are!
Rumor has it the MV2 is now able of run a full Debian OS. Check it out here and here
Enterprise hardware

So Why Did You Buy One?

Before I bought the MV2 I had 2 Linux servers running 24 7. One for my home, and the other was a backup system for the main server.

With the MV2 in hand I retired the 2 Linux servers. This helped me save time (Less administration) and money (Less energy).

The MV2 is nowheres near as fast as the Linux server per upload/download, but it does the job all the same.

So Whats Next?

In the somewhat near future theres a few hack projects that I'd like to do. It will require additional hardware and involve the MV2. I dont want to let the cat out of the bag yet, so I'll write about those when the time comes..

Here is a nice little review of the MV5150 with some screen shots of the web interface.