Homelab 2 Server Setup Help Needed

[Cusmaan]

Greetings,

 

Currently I am running a consumer pc recently replaced in this (Inter-tech IPC 4U-4129-N) server case.

It has 1x 8tb hdd, 1x 1tb hdd. 1x 248gb boot ssd, 8gb ram and an FX6350. It is as of now baremetal running Windows Server 2019 and it is mostly used for a Minecraft Server and 24/7 Plex.

 

Now I have gotten an old DL380 G5 from school with one 74gb 10k hdd with probably more of those to come. If not, I'm going to replace it with one 248gb kingston ssd. It has 32gb ram and two Xeon 5160's.

My plan is to use the HP server to run the services like the Minecraft server and Plex. The FXServer is then only going to be used for network storage as the case makes for easy expansion.

 

Now I need some opinions and help, is this a good setup? If not, should I ditch the HP server or keep both? Something else?

If I'm going to use the HP server, it does not need RAID, I do not find it critical enough for that. I have been installing PROXMOX 4.4 and ESXI 5.5 on it, but I'm currently not satisfied. ESXI only works on 5.5, management/documentation is lackluster and confusing. As far as I know without a working web interface. PROXMOX is working better, but even though I've installed the VIRTIO drivers for everything and configured everything according to best practices. The network is slow with a max of 40 mb/s when I do a speedtest while the baremetal FXServer is getting 500 mb/s, the full speed. So if I can't fix this, PROXMOX is out of the picture. If I am going to use this server, any tips? Just do it baremetal?

 

Disregarding how I'm going to use the FXServer, I would like to make a raid array with future expansion opportunities and maybe some redundancy. I would want this for the possible speed increase and so I have one volume for all my movies,backups,series etc. So when I have filled up my 8tb drive, I would like to have the possibility of easy expansion. I have an extra 1tb hdd and 2tb hdd, and if I could, I would like to use these as well. But I am under the impression you need hdd's with similar sizes, so most likely more 8tb hdd's, these are shucked from easystores. Can someone elaborate on this? Should I do software raid? Hardware raid?

 

For possible buy advice, I live in the Netherlands.

 

Need more information? Please ask. Any help is most appreciated.

 

[Windows7ge]

I see the server is quite old but why are you on PROXMOX 4.4? Current version is 6.0-1. I can vouch and say 5.3-8 works quite good. I've seen near full-line speed on a Windows 10 VM with a bridged 10Gig NIC so your networking issue could be a number of things.

 

If you use PROXMOX it supports a few Software File Systems the most popular being ZFS. If you use ZFS don't use a hardware RAID controller. Also you'll want to configure the array in a RAID10 for the best performance of your VMs.

 

Expanding a ZFS pool is currently done by adding datasets. These are basically appending pools onto an existing pool. This would enable you to mix drives but for each dataset it'd be ideal for them to be of the same size/RPM. At this time ZFS does not support single disk addition. If that's a necessity then you'll have to explore something different.

[Electronics Wizardy]

19 minutes ago, Hebbocake said:

he network is slow with a max of 40 mb/s when I do a speedtest while the baremetal FXServer is getting 500 mb/s, the full speed. So if I can't fix this, PROXMOX is out of the picture. If I am going to use this server, any tips? Just do it baremet

how are you testing speeds? Are you using iperf?

 

Do you carea about power usage, both of these systems are power hungry, the hp more so.

 

 

Id be tempted here to run server 2019 on both, put them in a cluster with hyper-v on botha nd use storage spaces for storage. But I think those old xeons are too old for hyper-v on 2019, so you might not be able to. Proxmox or ovirt are probably your best bet on that old hardware?

 

Can you possible buy any newer hardware? It will pay for its self in the power savings and allow much more software selection.

[Cusmaan]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

I see the server is quite old but why are you on PROXMOX 4.4? Current version is 6.0-1. I can vouch and say 5.3-8 works quite good. I've seen near full-line speed on a Windows 10 VM with a bridged 10Gig NIC so your networking issue could be a number of things.

 

If you use PROXMOX it supports a few Software File Systems the most popular being ZFS. If you use ZFS don't use a hardware RAID controller. Also you'll want to configure the array in a RAID10 for the best performance of your VMs.

 

Expanding a ZFS pool is currently done by adding datasets. These are basically appending pools onto an existing pool. This would enable you to mix drives but for each dataset it'd be ideal for them to be of the same size/RPM. At this time ZFS does not support single disk addition. If that's a necessity then you'll have to explore something different.

PROXMOX 4.4 is the newest version that I got working on the HP server. I have tried nothing of the sort on the FXserver as of yet. I've also tried IPERF and it's the same speeds as the online speedtest. I've no idea what it could be aside from the proxmox version. All the VIRTIO drivers are installed and set correctly in PROXMOX.

 

As with the RAID. Would it be possible to make a dataset with the one 1tb hdd. And make another dataset with two/three 1tb disks? Could this all be pulled together in one windows volume with a seperate ssd for the OS?

 

Say, if I want single disk addition, what can is explore then?

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

how are you testing speeds? Are you using iperf?

 

Do you carea about power usage, both of these systems are power hungry, the hp more so.

 

 

Id be tempted here to run server 2019 on both, put them in a cluster with hyper-v on botha nd use storage spaces for storage. But I think those old xeons are too old for hyper-v on 2019, so you might not be able to. Proxmox or ovirt are probably your best bet on that old hardware?

 

Can you possible buy any newer hardware? It will pay for its self in the power savings and allow much more software selection.

Power usage is not a problem, lower is always nicer, but not needed. I tested with Ookla and Iperf, the same network speeds of around 40 mbits. I've no idea how Hyper-v works.

What would you suggest if I would buy new hardware? Something different for the current working fxserver? Or something entirely different?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Hebbocake said:

What would you suggest if I would buy new hardware? Something different for the current working fxserver? Or something entirely different?

Id probably try to go with a single dual 2011 or dual 1366 system. They have gotten pretty now and still have good software support.

Just now, Hebbocake said:

PROXMOX 4.4 is the newest version that I got working on the HP server. I have tried nothing of the sort on the FXserver as of yet. I've also tried IPERF and it's the same speeds as the online speedtest. I've no idea what it could be aside from the proxmox version. All the VIRTIO drivers are installed and set correctly in PROXMOX.

 

Don't use a version that old. what error do you get with a new version? Does centos install?

 

Just now, Hebbocake said:

As with the RAID. Would it be possible to make a dataset with the one 1tb hdd. And make another dataset with two/three 1tb disks? Could this all be pulled together in one windows volume with a seperate ssd for the OS?

 

You can make a big zfs pool for the drives, id read up about zfs

 

Just now, Hebbocake said:

Say, if I want single disk addition, what can is explore then?

btrfs can do this.

 

 

[Windows7ge]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

btrfs can do this.

Is there any finicky performance penalty or catch to this? Like how you'd have to use a column size of 1 in Storage Pools to do single disk addition but that a column size of 1 only gives you 1 disk work of read/write performance?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

Is there any finicky performance penalty or catch to this? Like how you'd have to use a column size of 1 in Storage Pools to do single disk addition but that a column size of 1 only gives you 1 disk work of read/write performance?

btrfs makes the wides stripes it can, so it should be near max bandwidth by default.

 

But as you fill the array up, less drive have space left for a stripe, so performance will go down.

[Windows7ge]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

btrfs makes the wides stripes it can, so it should be near max bandwidth by default.

 

But as you fill the array up, less drive have space left for a stripe, so performance will go down.

I may have to revisit BTRFS for my own projects then. It can be installed on Debian like ZFS can, correct?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

I may have to revisit BTRFS for my own projects then. It can be installed on Debian like ZFS can, correct?

I think btrfs comes on most linux distros, its included in most kernel builds. Still has some weird bugs and issues.

[Cusmaan]

17 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Don't use a version that old. what error do you get with a new version? Does centos install?

 

You can make a big zfs pool for the drives, id read up about zfs

 

 

 

 

I am currently waiting for an upgrade to version 5.0 for starters, see if that keep working and / or makes a difference. I've tried reading up on ZFS and it's mostly recommended. Still I am confused. Could you tell me if what I said is possible?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Hebbocake said:

I am currently waiting for an upgrade to version 5.0 for starters, see if that keep working and / or makes a difference. I've tried reading up on ZFS and it's mostly recommended. Still I am confused. Could you tell me if what I said is possible?

What raid level do you want?

What size of drives do you have?

 

 

Can you run proxmox 6, why install5?

 

 

[Cusmaan]

45 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What raid level do you want?

What size of drives do you have?

 

 

Can you run proxmox 6, why install5?

 

 

Probably Raid 5 if I'm not mistaken. I want for it to be okay if 1 drive dies.

 

If I look at my total number of drives, i have 1x 8tb 2x 1tb 1x 2tb 2x 248ssd 1x 1tb sshd. One ssd, the 8tb drive and one 1tb drive are already in use with the FXserver. HP one does not have anything important as of now.

 

I have tried installing 6.0, doesn't work. Multiple errors. I have included a screenshot.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 hours ago, Hebbocake said:

Probably Raid 5 if I'm not mistaken. I want for it to be okay if 1 drive dies.

 

If I look at my total number of drives, i have 1x 8tb 2x 1tb 1x 2tb 2x 248ssd 1x 1tb sshd. One ssd, the 8tb drive and one 1tb drive are already in use with the FXserver. HP one does not have anything important as of now.

 

I have tried installing 6.0, doesn't work. Multiple errors. I have included a screenshot.

Thats an annoying drive setup.

 

Can you install debian 10/centos 7?

[Cusmaan]

6 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Thats an annoying drive setup.

 

Can you install debian 10/centos 7?

Those are all the drives I can use, don't have to. The only ones in use are one ssd, 1 8tb and 1 tb. Only the 8tb is with data i want to keep.

 

I am unable to install any linux distro with a recent kernel. I don't have the full information, but it seems newer kernels are not supporting the G5 drivers anymore.