Server Idea

[ccigas]

Hi everyone, new here to the forum, just wanted to see what possible ideas I could do with a server I was able to take home from work. Currently I have it set up with Ubuntu with a GUI because I wanted to use android studio on it with a friend. I don't know anything about software, just a hardware guy at my company for the data center. 

 

Currently I have a Synology NAS handling my plex and personal files but with the power I have on my PowerEdge R610, 2x 6 core processors and 64gb of memory I was hoping to do something with this server. 

 

Could anyone suggest any ideas that I could easily learn for and accomplish? 

 

I would like to use it as another NAS but I don't have big enough hard drives for it right now, only 4 146GB drives, for plex and files, but besides that, like I said above I have it set up for Ubuntu and Android Studio to learn some coding but my issue with that is when using RealVNC the resolution is stuck and 640x480.

 

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated, I am up for learning whatever I need to in order to get it up and running as well.

 

Thank you! 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id put linux with kvm or esxi on it and then do everything in a vm. Do't do anything on the bare metal os.

 

Then setup all the basics like AD, DHCP, pxe boot, in there own vms

[Raen]

Install ESXi or Hyper V Server -> Run Many VM's to suit different needs.

 

[tt2468]

5 hours ago, Raen said:

Install ESXi or Hyper V Server -> Run Many VM's to suit different needs.

 

Or use proxmox which is free, more optimized than hyperv, and is very much comparable. 

[Raen]

ESXi and Hyper V Server are free.

[Jarsky]

I have a similar spec'd R610. I have ESXi 6.5 installed on mine. (Mines 2 x X5650 Xeons, 64GB Ram, 4 x 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD's for the VM Datastores).

 

As guests on the ESXi host im running:

 

2 Domain Controllers in a forest, with DNS & DHCP services.

1 SCCM Server

1 WSUS Server

2 VDI's for general use

2 Ubuntu development desktops

1 Ubuntu Seedbox

1 CentOS Development webserver

1 Plex server

My testing install of FreeNAS 10

 

Then on my router i've pointed the DNS servers to my Primary/Secondary DC's which allows me to do internal DNS for everything - regardless if its domain joined.

 

My Seedbox and Plex Server are both talking to my storage NAS. I think its a good way to have it, so that your services are completely seperate from your raw storage.

 

BTW: There is free licensing for both a basic 2 CPU host for ESXi, and HyperV.