New to servers what OS would be best for my situation?

[N3XI5]

Hello, I have a Dell R710 with dual 6-core Xeons and 96GB of RAM.

This is the first blade server I've ever worked with, and I'm not sure where to start as far as OSes are considered.

I would like to use the server for Minecraft (just for my friends and I) and also if possible as a server to export my Adobe Premiere videos with as my PC only has 16GB of RAM and I hit that ceiling pretty often with any AfterFX intensive work.

 

Is Windows server my best bet or Linux? Is it even possible to do both of these things?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Windows7ge]

You could install a hypervisor, something like Proxmox. Why be forced to have one or the other when you can have both?

[N3XI5]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

You could install a hypervisor, something like Proxmox. Why be forced to have one or the other when you can have both?

 

That sounds pretty good to me. Is there a terminal where I could control the server from a separate laptop and decide what it boots into and such?

 

[TrigrH]

windows server

[Windows7ge]

26 minutes ago, N3XI5 said:

That sounds pretty good to me. Is there a terminal where I could control the server from a separate laptop and decide what it boots into and such?

 

Are you asking at the hardware level or the hypervisor level? Or both?

[N3XI5]

39 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Are you asking at the hardware level or the hypervisor level? Or both?

Both would be great!

 

Sorry man I'm a veteran PC builder, but server hardware and software is new territory for me.

[Windows7ge]

6 minutes ago, N3XI5 said:

Both would be great!

 

Sorry man I'm a veteran PC builder, but server hardware and software is new territory for me.

From my understanding of the DEll server hardware it comes with a feature known as DRAC or iDRAC. This is a remote management interface which enables you to access the system BIOS, remote start/stop the server and even issue firmware updates without being infront of the machine. Most open platforms call it IPMI. HPE calls it iLO.

 

At the hypervisor level (you're not limited to Proxmox it's just what I'm suggesting) it comes with a WebUI interface. You can access it from any device on your local network. Just open a web browser and point to it's IP address.

 

I wrote a guide on getting started with Proxmox:

Based on your list of requirements you can accomplish everything with this. Do be fair-warned the guide is currently in need of some revision but most of it is still accurate for getting you up & running.

 

What CPUs does the server have?

[N3XI5]

13 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

From my understanding of the DEll server hardware it comes with a feature known as DRAC or iDRAC. This is a remote management interface which enables you to access the system BIOS, remote start/stop the server and even issue firmware updates without being infront of the machine. Most open platforms call it IPMI. HPE calls it iLO.

 

At the hypervisor level (you're not limited to Proxmox it's just what I'm suggesting) it comes with a WebUI interface. You can access it from any device on your local network. Just open a web browser and point to it's IP address.

 

I wrote a guide on getting started with Proxmox:

Based on your list of requirements you can accomplish everything with this. Do be fair-warned the guide is currently in need of some revision but most of it is still accurate for getting you up & running.

 

What CPUs does the server have?

Thank you I'll definitely look into this! It has dual Xeon X5680s.

Also whats the benefit of Proxmox vs Microsofts Hyper-V?

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, N3XI5 said:

Thank you I'll definitely look into this! It has dual Xeon X5680s.

Also whats the benefit of Proxmox vs Microsofts Hyper-V?

The X5680 supports both VT-x & VT-d. You'll need VT-d for passing hardware through to virtual machines.

 

I can't say there's significant benefits going in either direction. Off the top of my head would be that Proxmox is free and just in general being based on Linux the individual VMs have lower overhead. I've played with both hypervisors and the performance of each VM was better with Linux as the hypervisor. Windows just carries this additional weight that shows as lower performance in the VMs. This will only really be apparent if you have need to peg the CPU's though. During light tasks it shouldn't make a real difference.

[AbsoluteFool]

6 hours ago, N3XI5 said:

Hello, I have a Dell R710 with dual 6-core Xeons and 96GB of RAM.

This is the first blade server I've ever worked with, and I'm not sure where to start as far as OSes are considered.

I would like to use the server for Minecraft (just for my friends and I) and also if possible as a server to export my Adobe Premiere videos with as my PC only has 16GB of RAM and I hit that ceiling pretty often with any AfterFX intensive work.

 

Is Windows server my best bet or Linux? Is it even possible to do both of these things?

 

Thank you in advance.

I don't wanna be "that guy".. but R710 is a rack server, not a blade server.

 

Anyways, it doesent matter if you use Windows or Linux OS. The choise you make depends on how much knowledge you have in the systems. So pick the one you know best.

[N3XI5]

3 minutes ago, AbsoluteFool said:

I don't wanna be "that guy".. but R710 is a rack server, not a blade server.

 

Anyways, it doesent matter if you use Windows or Linux OS. The choise you make depends on how much knowledge you have in the systems. So pick the one you know best.

Thanks for the heads up lol.

 

Well, my current knowledge of both is... 0. I'm currently in uni for IT, but don't have a server class til next semester which I believe will be on windows server. I'm more just looking at how to get the ball rolling early.

[AbsoluteFool]

1 hour ago, N3XI5 said:

Thanks for the heads up lol.

 

Well, my current knowledge of both is... 0. I'm currently in uni for IT, but don't have a server class til next semester which I believe will be on windows server. I'm more just looking at how to get the ball rolling early.

I see. In that case i would really just try out which you are most comfortable with. A good pointer can be to figure out if any of the things you wanna run on the server requires a specific OS then go from there.

[N3XI5]

6 hours ago, AbsoluteFool said:

I see. In that case i would really just try out which you are most comfortable with. A good pointer can be to figure out if any of the things you wanna run on the server requires a specific OS then go from there.

Thank you, i guess I'd be most comfortable with Windows, but the price is off putting for a student just trying to have fun and play minecraft :((((((

 

So, I installed Ubuntu server, but with no GUI... I'm kind of lost tbh. Tutorial time.

[AbsoluteFool]

16 minutes ago, N3XI5 said:

Thank you, i guess I'd be most comfortable with Windows, but the price is off putting for a student just trying to have fun and play minecraft :((((((

 

So, I installed Ubuntu server, but with no GUI... I'm kind of lost tbh. Tutorial time.

That's the spirit! 

Best of luck.

[Windows7ge]

44 minutes ago, N3XI5 said:

Thank you, i guess I'd be most comfortable with Windows, but the price is off putting for a student just trying to have fun and play minecraft :((((((

 

So, I installed Ubuntu server, but with no GUI... I'm kind of lost tbh. Tutorial time.

Yeah Ubuntu server is CLI only. You can install your choice of GUI with one of the following commands:

sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop

If you want a barebones install without all the misc programs:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends xubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends kubuntu-desktop

Google around for which desktop you prefer. There are others like cinnamon (usually seen on Linux Mint) and Mint MATE. Just Google Image the names and pick the one that tickles your fancy the most.

 

If you'd like some opinions on GNU/Linux desktops available on Debian just ask our resident desktop aficionado @MEC-777. I'd say he has a new desktop about every other week.

[Salacious B Crum]

Proxmox has a shorter learning curve than most hypervisors and is pretty sweet to work with

[Jarsky]

23 hours ago, N3XI5 said:

This is the first blade server I've ever worked with, and I'm not sure where to start as far as OSes are considered.

The R710 isn't a blade server, it's a 2U Rackmount. 

23 hours ago, N3XI5 said:

I would like to use the server for Minecraft (just for my friends and I) and also if possible as a server to export my Adobe Premiere videos with as my PC only has 16GB of RAM and I hit that ceiling pretty often with any AfterFX intensive work.

 

Is Windows server my best bet or Linux?

Probably Windows might be the most suitable overall. Minecraft has some excellent tools under Linux, but Adobe is probably more better suited under Windows I would assume. 

 

23 hours ago, N3XI5 said:

Is it even possible to do both of these things?

Yes! As mentioned above you can use a hypervisor like VMWare ESXi or Proxmox, and install both a Linux & Windows server as VM guests. 

As Dell own VMware, youre very well supported for ESXi on the server. It's also the most simple and robust, and a single machine license is free.