NAS & Gaming Server on same server

[marco-polo63]

So i recently got my hands on a dual xeon server with 24gb of ram and wanted to be able to run both a NAS and a minecraft server off it.

I'm basically wondering what the best option would be for doing this, I thought running a VM on Windows 7 or 10 for Freenas would be the best option but no idea if that's the easiest option (or even capable of being done).

 

Any insight into this topic would be helpful as I've never really toyed with windows VMs, servers or a NAS before.

 

Additional info:

Hoping to be able to run the Minecraft server off a 120GB ssd and backup nightly to a 1TB hard drive in the same system, is this feasible too?

[FloRolf]

If it's just Minecraft then you should use freenas as your main OS (no VM bullshittery) and use the Plugin "MineOS" that is available. Ez pz. 

 

Other games are complicated but for Minecraft freenas has you covered. 

 

 

To the backup thing: yes, it's possible. Not sure if running a Minecraft server on ssd gains any benefit tho compared to an hdd. 

[marco-polo63]

20 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

If it's just Minecraft then you should use freenas as your main OS (no VM bullshittery) and use the Plugin "MineOS" that is available. Ez pz. 

 

Other games are complicated but for Minecraft freenas has you covered. 

 

 

To the backup thing: yes, it's possible. Not sure if running a Minecraft server on ssd gains any benefit tho compared to an hdd. 

The SSD was just what I had lying around so not really a massive factor tbf.

 

What will become an issue when I need to run other games?

[FloRolf]

18 minutes ago, marco-polo63 said:

The SSD was just what I had lying around so not really a massive factor tbf.

 

What will become an issue when I need to run other games?

Well freenas offers the Minecraft plugin out of the box. If you want to setup a different game server later, it might now work as easily if at all. 

If  you are 100% focused on Minecraft I'd go freenas. If you aren't and are likely to change in the next year, I'd look into UnRaid

[marco-polo63]

31 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

Well freenas offers the Minecraft plugin out of the box. If you want to setup a different game server later, it might now work as easily if at all. 

If  you are 100% focused on Minecraft I'd go freenas. If you aren't and are likely to change in the next year, I'd look into UnRaid

Ahh that's great, thanks for the info

Is unRAID easy to setup plugins for game servers etc?

[Salv8 (sam)]

12 hours ago, marco-polo63 said:

Is unRAID easy to setup plugins for game servers etc?

unRAID is based in slackware, it's not really meant for people new to NAS's and servers.

your best bet is FreeNAS with that MineOS plugin

[AbsoluteFool]

23 hours ago, marco-polo63 said:

So i recently got my hands on a dual xeon server with 24gb of ram and wanted to be able to run both a NAS and a minecraft server off it.

I'm basically wondering what the best option would be for doing this, I thought running a VM on Windows 7 or 10 for Freenas would be the best option but no idea if that's the easiest option (or even capable of being done).

 

Any insight into this topic would be helpful as I've never really toyed with windows VMs, servers or a NAS before.

 

Additional info:

Hoping to be able to run the Minecraft server off a 120GB ssd and backup nightly to a 1TB hard drive in the same system, is this feasible too?

You kinda answered your own question here. "I thought running a VM on Windows 7 or windows 10 for freenas" FreeNAS is its own OS you don't need Windows to be under it.

Also as you said "FreeNAS would be the best option but no idea if it's the easiest" FreeNAS will give you the NAS you want. But can also be used as the game server with MineOS plugin as people have mentioned above. I don't know the full features of the MineOS plugin, but if you want other game servers than minecraft. You could simply just run a VM in FreeNAS. Instead of using Virtualbox (or similar) on Windows 7/10 and create a new VM for each thing you make.