I'm a beginner and need Help !

[le_fourniquet]

So, Got this older server from my boss for really cheap.

 

What I want to do is for it to run my Plex library and be a be my main backup

 

It Has 2 8 core xeons, 4gb of ECC FB dimm ddr2 Ram, a raid Card and a network Card. currently have 4 terabytes of storage ( 1tb+3tb)

 

So, My main question is What do I use?

Also I don't really care for redundancy, this will be mostly media and mildly important stuff, the really important stuff is elsewhere.

 

Like I said, i'm a beginner at server stuff. I know my way around a computer and hae heard about Freenas, just want you guys' input. 

 

Thanks In advance guys

[WindirBear]

Haha, I was just about to post a thread asking the same thing. I just installed Ubuntu server and I'd rather something with an interface. Any OS recommendations?

[Electronics Wizardy]

First thing is power, this will cost about 50 a month to run. It would be cheaper to buy a newer server that would also be faster. Look at a r710 or newer single socker lga 115x system

 

For os what do you want to do?

 

Freenas isn't great for this hardware due to how zfs works, but it will work fine. Id personally run something like centos and configure it how you want, but that can take some linux knolege. If you want a web gui, look at open media vault.

 

11 minutes ago, WindirBear said:

Haha, I was just about to post a thread asking the same thing. I just installed Ubuntu server and I'd rather something with an interface. Any OS recommendations?

Well for linux, the terminal is the best way to confiugure it, you can install a gui, but it can't do as much and just adds security holes and uses rescources.

 

Windows server will work, but starts at 500 bucks.

 

Most other server oriented os's are designed for the terminal as its much easier to use and script and uses much less resources.

[WindirBear]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well for linux, the terminal is the best way to confiugure it, you can install a gui, but it can't do as much and just adds security holes and uses rescources.

 

Windows server will work, but starts at 500 bucks.

 

Most other server oriented os's are designed for the terminal as its much easier to use and script and uses much less resources.

I understand it uses less resources, but for something like Plex, its definitely not as easy. 

With a UI there's no need to type in a direct path for everything.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, WindirBear said:

I understand it uses less resources, but for something like Plex, its definitely not as easy. 

With a UI there's no need to type in a direct path for everything.

 

 

but a gui won't help with the install at all. There is no way to do that with a gui. And really its darn easy and quick. And you don't have to type it all out, you have tab autocomplete.

[le_fourniquet]

On 3/25/2017 at 2:03 AM, Electronics Wizardy said:

First thing is power, this will cost about 50 a month to run. It would be cheaper to buy a newer server that would also be faster. Look at a r710 or newer single socker lga 115x system

 

For os what do you want to do?

 

Freenas isn't great for this hardware due to how zfs works, but it will work fine. Id personally run something like centos and configure it how you want, but that can take some linux knolege. If you want a web gui, look at open media vault.

 

Well for linux, the terminal is the best way to confiugure it, you can install a gui, but it can't do as much and just adds security holes and uses rescources.

 

Windows server will work, but starts at 500 bucks.

 

Most other server oriented os's are designed for the terminal as its much easier to use and script and uses much less resources.

 

Hey sorry for the slow reply, been away from my PC for 2 days.

 

for power, I live in Québec, electricity is really cheap, doubt it'll be 50$ a month, for my appartment with 3 gaming pcs running every evening, we pay 40$ a month, so yeah.

 

it came with a windows 2008 server and thinking about it, i'm pretty much gonna do everything with PLex, so i'm gonna use windows server. did a bit of research on ZFS, it'S amazing, but kinda heavy. I will be upgrading to a 115x system someday, especially if the power consumption is expensive. if you have any other tips, PLEASE BE MY GUEST !

[domandric034]

On 25. 03. 2017. at 6:30 AM, le_fourniquet said:

So, Got this older server from my boss for really cheap.

 

What I want to do is for it to run my Plex library and be a be my main backup

 

It Has 2 8 core xeons, 4gb of ECC FB dimm ddr2 Ram, a raid Card and a network Card. currently have 4 terabytes of storage ( 1tb+3tb)

 

So, My main question is What do I use?

Also I don't really care for redundancy, this will be mostly media and mildly important stuff, the really important stuff is elsewhere.

 

Like I said, i'm a beginner at server stuff. I know my way around a computer and hae heard about Freenas, just want you guys' input. 

 

Thanks In advance guys

This server needs 4 or 6 more gigs of ram, a ssd and you can play around virtual machines (You can use unRAID or Hyper -v on Win Server)

If you dont want upgrade it is very good for domains, Microsoft Exchange, ftp server, dns or dhcp server and all kinds of stuff. I had a customer that need configuration of 2 Xeon E5s (I cannot remember model) (22 cores), 32 GB RAM, 4 RAID CARDS (40 TB = 4 RAID 10s) and GTX 780 Ti. It was not that easy to make him work on Win Server 2016