Need help with a server rack, a nas and a router.

[meisterveda]

Hello everyone, hopefully you all can help me out with my issue, I'm helping a friend out with a new home installation, he has a ton of cat6 cables already in the walls, so im planning his new setup, mostly will be an unifi 24 or 48 switch with an unifi AP around his house, I also want to get him with it beside a patch pannel, a NAS and a Router.

 

For the Router:

Currently between a Unifi secure gateway to link everything together or a Custom server in the rack for PfSense or Untangle. in case of the later I was thinking of getting a cheap Dell R610 or R410 with dual X5650, some ram, a H200 or a SAS 6/ir and a simple hdd. Both are around 410 bucks.

 

For the NAS:

Also was looking at either synology or a FreeNAS solution. in case of the synology would be either a DS 918+ or a RS818+. for the FreeNas, probably a R710 with an H200 or a SAS 6/ir card, 16 or 32 gigs of ram and a 150 ssd for boot drive.

 

But beside that I needed the Server Rack, which is my biggest issue due to not knowing if the server would fit in them, given that im looking for one that closes. Current options I see are https://www.amazon.com/NavePoint-Enclosure-Cabinet-Perforated-Casters/dp/B07F43WBSR or the https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KW95QQ/ref=psdc_11042141_t1_B00CWUI19I

 

Was hoping someone with more experience and knowledge would give me a hand on what to do. My friend is not that IT savvy, but I can help him with most configuration and Walksthroughs.

[manikyath]

only one server? racks only really get worth it if you have 3-4 devices to put inside them.

[meisterveda]

Well the Nas would be running, plex, backups, and the unifi cloud key. The Router, mostly security stuff plus the vlans and similar, for the Server Rack I was looking at 15U or around that. Given that I'm telling him to get 1 or 2 psu

[SenKa]

Any rack mounted server would fit in a rack, its a standard. As for the NAS, I would go FreeNas over Synology.

 

And when you say router I think you mean network switch? I would again go custom with PFSense.

 

But that's just my personal inclination of make-your-own.

[meisterveda]

1 minute ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Any rack mounted server would fit in a rack, its a standard. As for the NAS, I would go FreeNas over Synology.

 

And when you say router I think you mean network switch? I would again go custom with PFSense.

 

But that's just my personal inclination of make-your-own.

I though not all racks have the same depth, given that I have seen of 19", 24" and 31", thats my worry.

 

Also router as pfsense, switch as just a regular switch not a custom router.

[leadeater]

25 minutes ago, meisterveda said:

For the Router:

Currently between a Unifi secure gateway to link everything together or a Custom server in the rack for PfSense or Untangle. in case of the later I was thinking of getting a cheap Dell R610 or R410 with dual X5650, some ram, a H200 or a SAS 6/ir and a simple hdd. Both are around 410 bucks.

USG is much quieter and uses less power as well as being easier to place within a house due to it's size.

 

25 minutes ago, meisterveda said:

For the NAS:

Also was looking at either synology or a FreeNAS solution. in case of the synology would be either a DS 918+ or a RS818+. for the FreeNas, probably a R710 with an H200 or a SAS 6/ir card, 16 or 32 gigs of ram and a 150 ssd for boot drive.

Similar to the above but a custom built NAS gives you far greater value and storage capacity than pre-built NAS solutions, enough so it decently counter acts the size/noise/power factors. Making a vendor server from the likes of Dell quiet can be rather difficult, you do have the option of buying a Rosewill rackmount case as they are extremely cheap then buying the motherboard/CPU/RAM etc used on ebay, plenty of good Supermicro server motherboard options on there.

 

12 minutes ago, meisterveda said:

I though not all racks have the same depth, given that I have seen of 19", 24" and 31", thats my worry.

Most Dell/HPE/Lenovo etc 1U and 2U servers want a 1m depth rack with the server being around the 700mm to 800mm depth itself. The Rosewill case I mentioned above is much shorter.

[meisterveda]

Thank you, For the noise, due to the server going to be in a basement, away from most stuff and at the most will be surrounded by walls. My biggest issue is that my friend would have problems building his own solution, thats why premade is the only way for me to go. and thus I think that a dell server can be a better thing. Mostly due to price for a prebuilt, that would fit in a rack, so to that everything is in one place with all the network wiring, around 20 from the house already in place, plus the systems.

[leadeater]

6 hours ago, meisterveda said:

thats why premade is the only way for me to go. and thus I think that a dell server can be a better thing.

For me FreeNAS and a used server still comes under the term build your own as opposed to a Synology or QNAP which are premade purpose built NAS products you can buy.

[Salacious B Crum]

If you go with an R710 you can wall mount it flat with a pair of L brackets and you good to go

[meisterveda]

Thanks guys, this is going to be phase 2, already have a 25 u server rack for most stuff including already added a network solution from ubiquiti.