Best config for a home NAS/PLEX/Server

[Arrexis]

Mentlegen,

 

After some consideration I would like to upgrade my current Linux server to serve a couple additional purposes.
Currently it's running modded MC servers but I would like for it to have NAS functionality as well as Plex, mostly plain file storage and acting as a media server.

So, my plan is to purchase a backplane and shove it full of ironwolf HDDs, and preferably have the drive array in RAID10.

The questions I have are as follows;

1. Would using a Hypervisor benefit me in this use case? I would like to learn to configure Hypervisors as career advancements might make it useful.
2. I would like to do hardware RAID, but I'm unsure about the benefits and downsides to doing so, from what I remember, hardware RAID does not play well with hypervisors and software raid is preferable in this use case. As stated, I'm planning on using raid10 to alleviate single drive failures, but if the raid controller dies, can software rebuild/compile/understand the drives without the controller? or do I need to purchase an identical raid controller?
3. So, what NAS software / OS do you recommend? Can a single Linux OS do both NAS and Plex handling? or should I go for something like FreeNAS and Bundle the MC and Plex servers in a virtualized OS?
4. Can I segregate Plex folders? So one Plex library is available to anyone on my network, and another is only accessible to me?
5. Any benefit to buying Ironwolf HDDs over something more standard in this use case?

Current server specs are as follows;
Hodgepodge of SSDs and 1 1tb HDD.
I5 3470, 16GB DDR3 non-ECC memory.

Any help and tips would be greatly appreciated, I've done a fair bit of googling but having some feedback before I spend 500 dollars on drives and controllers would be fantastic. 

[Velcade]

You could run FreeNAS.  It checks your boxes.  Older Xeon E5 chips are relatively cheap now-a-days and run great for this type of application.

 

Plex plus allows you to restrict access to certain folders.

 

For NAS drives I'd stick with WD red drives, but it's all personal preference.  Regardless you'll want to do some burn-in testing to make sure your drives are sound.

 

Some boards come with a SAS controller built in for your RAID storage.  You can always get an HBA to controller your RAID.  RAID 6 should be minimum if the data is truly important.

[Arrexis]

Just as an update, I managed to get Samba working on my Ubuntu machine! After bashing my skull against it for 5 hours!
The solution was stupid, literally just: sudo ufw allow Samba

So, now I'm just waiting for my Ironwolf HDDS and backplane to come in, then I get to experience the joy that is figuring out how to do software raid in Ubuntu and install PLEX.

On 4/12/2019 at 5:41 PM, Velcade said:

Regardless you'll want to do some burn-in testing to make sure your drives are sound.

Could you please expand on this?

 

If this doesn't end up working out in the longer run, chances are I'l try freenas. My only dissapointment is that segregating Plex access requires a subscription.

[Velcade]

Hard drives if they fail will fail more often early in life.  By stress testing your machine you can 'weed' out bad drives and return them while they are still covered under warranty.  You don't want these pups failing while they are full of your data.

[Arrexis]

Fair point! is there a nice tool to stress test the drives? My plan was to run crystal disk info to see if there was anything immediately concering, since Amazon doesnt really have the best shipping packaging for HDDs.