Whiplash_TM

A couple reasons. First, my network here sucks. It's like $18k to run coax or fiber down my driveway so I'm stuck with either copper dsl or LTE wifi. I've switched to Tmobile's home internet pod. I'd been asking them for this a couple years ago. I now get between 40Mbps and 300Mbps DL and 20-60Mbps upload. Att Uverse was at 40mbps DL and 5 UL. It's significantly better but not wonderful, and I can't really count on uptime from Tmobile at this time. They've been servicing the tower around the corner for the last 6 weeks and I get drops multiple times a day. Second is I'm dealing with kids and a wife. Shared albums and phone backups. I'd like them to have a simple solution (google & icloud with backups to my local servers when they are on the local wifi). I'm probably moving soon so the equation will change, but right now I'm looking for a way to just keep the files I want on the services I want them to be on. Simplest solution would be something that just let me mount everything as if they were network drives and I could drag and drop organize. Figure out rules on individual devices... Thanks for the suggestion! -M

I'd appreciate recommendations. I just attempted to find a solution and came across a dozen subscription services topping all the search results. Not a huge fan of renting software so I'd prefer something with a normal license (or free is even better). I'm using windows 10, iOS, Linux (Mint) and OS X (mostly in that order). One cross platform solution would be great, but if I need to use something different on each, I can work with that. I'm using google, onedrive, icloud, asus and my home servers. I'm also attempting to sync certain things between my wife's icloud photos and mine so managing multiple accounts from a single service would be helpful. Thanks! -M

Thanks! Werecatf & kompetenzbolzen I'm not really sure where I want to go with virtualization. Not games, definitely not games. I like the idea of having multiple VMs over multiple systems for regression or compatibility reasons. I was doing some network troubleshooting yesterday and I have some awesome tools that only work in earlier versions of OS X, for instance. It would have been nice to just have a VM I could run of an older OS to use them. Mostly tinkering until I think of something I specifically want to do. I do like having clean systems and systems in particular known states, which is probably more what I'd use it for. Like a sandbox environment to isolate an application install, or software effects on performance, tuning... I've worked at a couple places that used VMs for desktops, and it was kind of handy to be able to log into your desktop on whatever machine was in front of you. Apple used to have netboot too, haven't looked into it in a while so not sure if that's still a thing. I could see things like performance testing, network monitoring type stuff having a vm run headless. If I really got back into video a render farm on the server might be snazzy.

I'm finally putting together a central server for all of my data hoarding, media and backups, but I am just overwhelmed with options and need some help picking where to start from. I'm following Linus' idea of buying an older server, but I don't actually know enough about the legacy hardware to know if I'm looking at a good deal or not. I keep getting buried googling things like old processor performance benchmarks and trying to figure out if that HD controller even supports 8TB drives. The video was Reliable Data Storage on the Cheap (2017). I'd like to do something similar. If anyone has a minute to point me in the direction of some good deals that have enough horsepower, I'd really appreciate it! I'm intending to use DrivePool & SnapRAID with Backblaze for cloud backup. The server will be used for: - backup server for OS X, Windows and iOS devices - Photos - Videos (I'd like to be able to leave the files on the server and edit projects directly. Been watching Linus talk about that setup for the media group and I really like the idea. I've always had to migrate files and juggle drives when I've done editing in the past. I really like the idea of all the video just going to one place and then editing your project in place.) - Drive images (disk images of various operating systems in known good states) - VM images (might look into virtualization server at some point) - possible backup of security DVR footage - path to cloud backup - Archive of projects and assets (Photoshop, Video editing, 3D projects) - Plex Server - Music Server - Installer Server Here's a list of hardware that could go in this machine. I bought the 8TB drives specifically for this build. - 5x Barracuda 8TB drives - 2x 3TB SAS drives (accidental purchase. If there's a machine that fits the bill that has a card that can use them, great, if not, they were cheap. I'll find a use for them someday) - 2x 5TB usb 3.0 - 1x 2TB SSD usb 3.0 - 2x 2TB usb 2.0/Firewire/eSata - 1x 3TB SATA III - 2x 1TB SATA II - 1x 1TB SSD usb 3.0 - 4x 500 GB usb 3.0 - 2x (one usb 3.0 and one 3.1) drive toaster enclosures https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B019DNBU7G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - I do have a rack so if a rack mount is better value for money, I have a home for it That's the long and the short of it. I'd really appreciate any suggestions you have because I have just been spinning my wheels. Thanks!