server/nas build

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Gilco2

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#220275 3-Aug-2017 09:35

my faithful whs2011 computer died. I use it for home records and plex server. Wondering if worth it still to use whs2011 as it was perfect for my use or just use Windows 10 or openmediavault. Windows 10 seems promising just the forced updates may be a problem.

Edit to say use Stablebits Drivepool and scanner for pooling drives and monitoring the drives

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

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Vocus

#1836321 3-Aug-2017 10:21

This may be out of left field, but you could checkout freenas, I'm running it as a general storage and plex server and found it really good.

Gilco2

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#1836337 3-Aug-2017 10:24

ubergeeknz:

This may be out of left field, but you could checkout freenas, I'm running it as a general storage and plex server and found it really good.

Have looked at it but none of my motherboards (mini-itx) support ECC ram. Virtually all reviews and forums say it is a must with ZFS file system. So I ruled that out

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

chevrolux

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#1836362 3-Aug-2017 10:55

I run FreeNAS virtualised on Proxmox at home. All it has on it is media and really didn't need any ultra quick performance. Everything you read says you shouldn't use ZFS virtualised, or without ECC ram but I run it all on just cheap consumer hardware and in a KVM environment has been working sweet for years (coming up about 8 years now). Server used to be VMware but got a rebuild when we moved house and that's when I went to Proxmox.

Then use Proxmox to run a couple other VMs for "web apps" like SickRage, CouchPotato, Deluge and a MySQL server for storing the Kodi DB.

Otherwise, OpenMediaVault is a really nice little platform too - takes all the uneeded complexity that FreeNAS (for home situations anyway - obviously it is built for scale too) has and just makes everything nice and easy. Although, FreeNAS is probably no harder to use when I think about it.

davidcole

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#1836366 3-Aug-2017 11:04

I replaced WHS2011 with Windows Server 2012 (but had Windows 7 for a while) and DriveBender for drive pooling.

I Still run it, it hosts my plex server, centralised backups (crashplan) and hyper-v for running other machines (mix of windows and linux). It's still entirely possible. The main advantage of Server 2012 and Windows 7 IIRC, is allowing more that 3gb ram - wasn't there a limit in WHS2011?

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Gilco2

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#1836372 3-Aug-2017 11:10

davidcole:

I replaced WHS2011 with Windows Server 2012 (but had Windows 7 for a while) and DriveBender for drive pooling.

I Still run it, it hosts my plex server, centralised backups (crashplan) and hyper-v for running other machines (mix of windows and linux). It's still entirely possible. The main advantage of Server 2012 and Windows 7 IIRC, is allowing more that 3gb ram - wasn't there a limit in WHS2011?

Had a look a while back at 2012 but more than what I need. WHS2011 has ram limit of 8gb

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

davidcole

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#1836375 3-Aug-2017 11:11

Gilco2:

davidcole:

I replaced WHS2011 with Windows Server 2012 (but had Windows 7 for a while) and DriveBender for drive pooling.

I Still run it, it hosts my plex server, centralised backups (crashplan) and hyper-v for running other machines (mix of windows and linux). It's still entirely possible. The main advantage of Server 2012 and Windows 7 IIRC, is allowing more that 3gb ram - wasn't there a limit in WHS2011?

Had a look a while back at 2012 but more than what I need. WHS2011 has ram limit of 8gb

Yeah and for virtualisation I run 32. So it's entirely possible you just rebuild on new hardware. I dont think there's anything wrong with what you've got.

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ratsun81

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#1836591 3-Aug-2017 14:24

Gilco2:

my faithful whs2011 computer died. I use it for home records and plex server. Wondering if worth it still to use whs2011 as it was perfect for my use or just use Windows 10 or openmediavault. Windows 10 seems promising just the forced updates may be a problem.

Edit to say use Stablebits Drivepool and scanner for pooling drives and monitoring the drives

I have not used windows products for home NAS, I have used openmediavauit and found it quite good.

It really depends on how comfortable with linux as there are times where having some bash cli skills will come in handy.

I used it from version 1.x to 3.x. It has improved greatly since its early days.

allan

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#1836608 3-Aug-2017 14:57

If you want to look at using Windows 10 as a server, there is a fairly comprehensive e-book available at https://store.wegotserved.com/products/building-a-windows-10-home-server-anniversary-update-edition We Got Served was one of the original WHS support sites that sprung up from the WHS community, but they have morphed a bit these days.

Gilco2

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#1836624 3-Aug-2017 15:11

well getting nowhere fast. Pulled motherboard from a htpc an Intel H170 chipset a bit overkill. Anyway WHS2011 wont install due to 100 series chipset. Tried making new iso using windows 7 tool from Asrock and made one with the USB 3 drivers and had the mod for using 120GB ssd. Doesn't work on this. Thought go for Windows 10. Reinstall Windows 10 it had been running all same ssd, motherboard and ram and windows wont activate says not valid license. Same account everything. Left it for now and will play around later

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

jpoc

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#1836674 3-Aug-2017 15:49

Gilco2:

ubergeeknz:

This may be out of left field, but you could checkout freenas, I'm running it as a general storage and plex server and found it really good.

Have looked at it but none of my motherboards (mini-itx) support ECC ram. Virtually all reviews and forums say it is a must with ZFS file system. So I ruled that out

Read this:

http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-your-data/

Gilco2

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#1836679 3-Aug-2017 15:57

jpoc:

Gilco2:

ubergeeknz:

This may be out of left field, but you could checkout freenas, I'm running it as a general storage and plex server and found it really good.

Have looked at it but none of my motherboards (mini-itx) support ECC ram. Virtually all reviews and forums say it is a must with ZFS file system. So I ruled that out

Read this:

http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-your-data/

Thanks for that one. Hadnt seen that one before.

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1836690 3-Aug-2017 16:14

jpoc:

Gilco2:

ubergeeknz:

This may be out of left field, but you could checkout freenas, I'm running it as a general storage and plex server and found it really good.

Have looked at it but none of my motherboards (mini-itx) support ECC ram. Virtually all reviews and forums say it is a must with ZFS file system. So I ruled that out

Read this:

http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-your-data

I always thought the ECC/ZFS thing was overblown. I would say the above very much debunks the myth. That and I guarantee most FreeNAS users aren't using ECC RAM and don't have any issue (since bugger all kit supports ECC RAM). Certainly I am not and never seen any problems. If your RAM is bad you are going to have bigger problems than data corruption, in my experience.

Also are you using RAID? Because disk failure, or corruption, is almost a certainty if you're managing any significant amount of data. Definitely much more likely than a RAM error stomping all over your data.

Whatever contingencies are in place however, there's no replacement for a good, recent backup.

billgates

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#1836737 3-Aug-2017 17:11

Build a machine running Windows 10 with minimum 3 drives or more and setup Storage Spaces? Easy to setup and works great.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Gilco2

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#1836764 3-Aug-2017 18:22

billgates:

Build a machine running Windows 10 with minimum 3 drives or more and setup Storage Spaces? Easy to setup and works great.

yeah that was also another thought. Just ordered 2 new drives and power supply. Another dead motherboard and 2 hdd today and only thing still original apart from drives was power supply. Don't have a tester but assuming power supply faulty causing it. Triple checked and nothing else could short out anything. So will read up more on storage spaces to how to add extra drives to a pool

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

macuser

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#1836774 3-Aug-2017 18:52

Here's my build which is a NAS/Server/Gaming VM/Router VM for home

Chassis:

Fractal Design Node 804

Core Hardware

Asrock Z270m Pro

16GB DDR4 2400

Intel G4560 CPU

500W Power supply

1x 120GB SATA

Peripheral Cards

Intel Raid 2 port mini SAS Card (PCIE)

NVIDIA M2000 GPU

Melanox Connect-x2 10Gbit card

Intel 4 Port Gigabit nic

NAS Storage

4x 2TB Seagate barracuda

Setup

Server 2016 DC as host OS (running the storage sharing and active directory)

Sophos UTM x86 VM running my Firewall/Router

Server 2016 DC as gaming VM with GPU Pass through (this isn't actually my gaming rig, more for testing)

10Gbit Direct attached copper used for connecting this server's nas storage and my workstation rig.

Ideas for future

Get a UPS

Look at a CPU upgrade

Buy another 4 drives as I have a spare mini sas connector

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