help Home server setup

[Tingler]

So I'm looking to move everything from OVH to an at home server, currently I run my website (avg 100 people a day) 3 Garry's mod servers, 5minecraft servers that are linked together and my teamspeak. Ive been looking for a server machine that could handle all of this and much more. But I have no clue where to buy or even find one for a good price. My price range is whatever and I plan to use the server for a future business, so I would like it to last. My current server specs are 

Processor: Intel 2x Xeon Silver 4214 - 24 c / 48 t - 2.2 GHz / 3.2 GHz
Memory:  96GB DDR4-3200
Disk: 2x960GB SSD NVMe Soft RAID + 2x6TB HDD SATA Soft RAID

Public network: 1 Gbps
Private network: 2 Gbps

 

Again I would like something that can handle my load and more. Thanks for the help!

Also don't worry about my at home internet, as I have fiber optics with unlim bandwidth so it should handle it fine.

[Electronics Wizardy]

what load were you seeing on that server?

 

Do you have a budget?

 

If you have a good amount to spend, Id probably so with a single epyc 16 or 24 core, with something like 128gb of ram, and a simmilar drive config. Then run a hypervisor on it.

[Bryan12]

8 hours ago, Tingler said:

So I'm looking to move everything from OVH to an at home server, currently I run my website (avg 100 people a day) 3 Garry's mod servers, 5minecraft servers that are linked together and my teamspeak. Ive been looking for a server machine that could handle all of this and much more. But I have no clue where to buy or even find one for a good price. My price range is whatever and I plan to use the server for a future business, so I would like it to last. My current server specs are 

Processor: Intel 2x Xeon Silver 4214 - 24 c / 48 t - 2.2 GHz / 3.2 GHz
Memory:  96GB DDR4-3200
Disk: 2x960GB SSD NVMe Soft RAID + 2x6TB HDD SATA Soft RAID

Public network: 1 Gbps
Private network: 2 Gbps

 

Again I would like something that can handle my load and more. Thanks for the help!

Also don't worry about my at home internet, as I have fiber optics with unlim bandwidth so it should handle it fine.

You can build multiple desktop for this,so u dont have to spend too much on strong cpu and its better for maintainance you wont shut all the servers down.And make sure your network speed can handle that amount of players and UPS to concern too.

 

 

[Tingler]

3 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what load were you seeing on that server?

 

Do you have a budget?

 

If you have a good amount to spend, Id probably so with a single epyc 16 or 24 core, with something like 128gb of ram, and a simmilar drive config. Then run a hypervisor on it.

Would it be better to buy a pre made/used one or build it myself? Cost wise. Also where do you buy servers? Ive been looking around and it usually brings up eBay or Amazon but the way they word the descriptions make it sound like I'm just buying a machine with nothing in it for 2grand. 

 

My budget is like $5,600 max but obviously lower is better as long as it can perform great.

 

Also would Intel or amd be better for the CPU?

[Tingler]

2 hours ago, Bryan12 said:

You can build multiple desktop for this,so u dont have to spend too much on strong cpu and its better for maintainance you wont shut all the servers down.And make sure your network speed can handle that amount of players and UPS to concern too.

 

 

I've looked into multi desktop servers, the only reason I don't wanna do it because in the future I wish for my "server room" to look more professional kinda like Linus server room or even the hacksmiths. Just a big tower with a couple servers in on it. 

My internet can handle it and if for some reason it can't I would buy a separate fiber optics plan specifically for the server.

[Electronics Wizardy]

47 minutes ago, Tingler said:

Would it be better to buy a pre made/used one or build it myself? Cost wise. Also where do you buy servers? Ive been looking around and it usually brings up eBay or Amazon but the way they word the descriptions make it sound like I'm just buying a machine with nothing in it for 2grand. 

 

My budget is like $5,600 max but obviously lower is better as long as it can perform great.

 

Also would Intel or amd be better for the CPU?

With that budget Id probably just get a new epyc server. You can build it your self, but the premade systems from dell and others are built better normally with more features than you can get on standard parts.

 

You can get something like a dell r720 or r730, but it depends on how much cpu power you need, so what is the load like on the current system.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

46 minutes ago, Tingler said:

I've looked into multi desktop servers, the only reason I don't wanna do it because in the future I wish for my "server room" to look more professional kinda like Linus server room or even the hacksmiths. Just a big tower with a couple servers in on it. 

My internet can handle it and if for some reason it can't I would buy a separate fiber optics plan specifically for the server.

also home isps often don't like you hosting, so they may come a knocking if you start using too much.

 

Also buiness grade fiber lines aren't cheap, we have one at workk for about 600 a month for 20meg, the gig plan is about 3k a month.

[Tingler]

8 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

With that budget Id probably just get a new epyc server. You can build it your self, but the premade systems from dell and others are built better normally with more features than you can get on standard parts.

 

You can get something like a dell r720 or r730, but it depends on how much cpu power you need, so what is the load like on the current system.

 

 

Well Garry's mod is a single core single it won't let you multi core so it needs decent power behind it. And currently I can't see the usuage from OVH but I do know it's only in peak hours when the servers are maxed out I get an email from OVH saying my CPU reached 100% would the r730 meet/are better then specs I posted originally and peak hours I may have like roughly 1,000 people concurrently connecting to the server machine from all the servers, teamspeak and webserver.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Tingler said:

Well Garry's mod is a single core single it won't let you multi core so it needs decent power behind it. And currently I can't see the usuage from OVH but I do know it's only in peak hours when the servers are maxed out I get an email from OVH saying my CPU reached 100% would the r730 meet/are better then specs I posted originally and peak hours I may have like roughly 1,000 people concurrently connecting to the server machine from all the servers, teamspeak and webserver.

the 730 would be a upgrade, depending on spec, but id probably try to go single epyc here if you can. THe epyc would be a good amount faster, with more upgrade room for not much more.

 

What io do you see, probably continue with the idea of a few nvme drives for hot data

 

 

[Tingler]

11 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

the 730 would be a upgrade, depending on spec, but id probably try to go single epyc here if you can. THe epyc would be a good amount faster, with more upgrade room for not much more.

 

What io do you see, probably continue with the idea of a few nvme drives for hot data

 

 

What's a single epyc? And what do you mean by io?

Also I was configuring a r740 off of dells website and I hope this sends right https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/pdr/poweredge-r740/pe_r740_12248b_vi_vp?selectionState=eyJPQyI6InBlX3I3NDBfMTIyNDhiX3ZpX3ZwIiwiTW9kcyI6W3siSWQiOjE1NTAsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiRzZHNFZOMyJ9XX0seyJJZCI6MTU2MCwiT3B0cyI6W3siSWQiOiJHRlUyMzFIIn1dfV0sIlRpIjoiIiwiRGkiOiIifQ%3D%3D&cartItemId=

 

Would this be good? Is it missing anything?

[Electronics Wizardy]

9 minutes ago, Tingler said:

What's a single epyc? And what do you mean by io?

Also I was configuring a r740 off of dells website and I hope this sends right https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/pdr/poweredge-r740/pe_r740_12248b_vi_vp?selectionState=eyJPQyI6InBlX3I3NDBfMTIyNDhiX3ZpX3ZwIiwiTW9kcyI6W3siSWQiOjE1NTAsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiRzZHNFZOMyJ9XX0seyJJZCI6MTU2MCwiT3B0cyI6W3siSWQiOiJHRlUyMzFIIn1dfV0sIlRpIjoiIiwiRGkiOiIifQ%3D%3D&cartItemId=

 

Would this be good? Is it missing anything?

Amd epyc, its amds server cpus, and better than the r740 is basically every way. Id get something like a dell r7515 here.

 

Thats a odd config with a U series chip, Id get 2 cheaper cpus here.

 

Id get this server here https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/servers-storage-and-networking/poweredge-r7515/spd/poweredge-r7515/pe_r7515_13734_vi_vp?configurationid=f46a2afe-6aac-4464-adf8-7e892272eb62

 

Then id add the ram and drives your self. There much cheaper than getting them from dell. 

[Bryan12]

On 4/21/2020 at 2:22 AM, Tingler said:

I've looked into multi desktop servers, the only reason I don't wanna do it because in the future I wish for my "server room" to look more professional kinda like Linus server room or even the hacksmiths. Just a big tower with a couple servers in on it. 

My internet can handle it and if for some reason it can't I would buy a separate fiber optics plan specifically for the server.

Rack servers are noisy, prefer to check your wall's noise isolation b4 u get them.

And also think about your UPS system.

[Tingler]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Amd epyc, its amds server cpus, and better than the r740 is basically every way. Id get something like a dell r7515 here.

 

Thats a odd config with a U series chip, Id get 2 cheaper cpus here.

 

Id get this server here https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/servers-storage-and-networking/poweredge-r7515/spd/poweredge-r7515/pe_r7515_13734_vi_vp?configurationid=f46a2afe-6aac-4464-adf8-7e892272eb62

 

Then id add the ram and drives your self. There much cheaper than getting them from dell. 

Oh alright.

In the link you sent did you configure it? Or is that the stock version they have on their website? 

 

Also What's the best place to buy ram and drives? Do servers use different kinds of ram then regular desktops? If not I have 4x8gb of ddr4 3200 in one of my old desktops. And just to be on the same page when you say drives do you mean like ssd? 

 

And lastly should I get an OS installed from dell. If I should which one should I get. My current server runs off of windows r2 2016 or 2012 I can't remember exactly. Would switching to a different is be better?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Tingler said:

Oh alright.

In the link you sent did you configure it? Or is that the stock version they have on their website? 

 

Also What's the best place to buy ram and drives? Do servers use different kinds of ram then regular desktops? If not I have 4x8gb of ddr4 3200 in one of my old desktops. And just to be on the same page when you say drives do you mean like ssd? 

 

And lastly should I get an OS installed from dell. If I should which one should I get. My current server runs off of windows r2 2016 or 2012 I can't remember exactly. Would switching to a different is be better?

It uses different ram than a desktop, you want rdimm ddr4 ecc for it. You also want 4 dimms atleast, but probably 8, so something like 8x32gb dimms would be a good option.

 

Id run a hypervisor on the host, so proxmox, esxi, hyper-v or others. Then run what ever os you want ontop of that. Id get something like the boss card to run the os on, then use the others drives for storage. Just install your own os on it.

 

Then Id run a vm for every differnt server and use, makes it more secure and easier to manage and update.

 

What storage do you need? Your current system has some ssds and some hdds, so Id get a few ssds for the vms to run off of, then a few hdds for cheap slow storage.

[Tingler]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

It uses different ram than a desktop, you want rdimm ddr4 ecc for it. You also want 4 dimms atleast, but probably 8, so something like 8x32gb dimms would be a good option.

 

Id run a hypervisor on the host, so proxmox, esxi, hyper-v or others. Then run what ever os you want ontop of that. Id get something like the boss card to run the os on, then use the others drives for storage. Just install your own os on it.

 

Then Id run a vm for every differnt server and use, makes it more secure and easier to manage and update.

 

What storage do you need? Your current system has some ssds and some hdds, so Id get a few ssds for the vms to run off of, then a few hdds for cheap slow storage.

So starting out I would just use the one server but then upgrade later on. Is hypervisor like a sub os? Or what exactly does that do. And what is do you recommend ontop of that? I was thinking Linux but I have no clue. 

 

For storage we don't really actually store things on the machine we just need something fast for when users are connecting to the game servers on the server. So like a 1tb ssd probably. And if we ever do start storing projects on it I would like to be able to easily upgrade the storage. 

 

So just to recap 

 

I buy the server, I buy ram atleast 4x32 but lean towards 8x32, buy an SSD. Do I need a special SSD for servers?

Then I need hypervisor? Then I buy a license for Linux or windows to run on the server for ease of access. 

 

Then it should be all setup and ready to go?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Tingler said:

So starting out I would just use the one server but then upgrade later on. Is hypervisor like a sub os? Or what exactly does that do. And what is do you recommend ontop of that? I was thinking Linux but I have no clue. 

hypervisor is a os that runs only vms. Vms make everything easier to manage and work on, makes upgrade to a cluster much easier, makes system upgrades much easier, and backups are easier too.

 

3 minutes ago, Tingler said:

For storage we don't really actually store things on the machine we just need something fast for when users are connecting to the game servers on the server. So like a 1tb ssd probably. And if we ever do start storing projects on it I would like to be able to easily upgrade the storage. 

How much io are you using on he current system? If your not using much, Probably 2x 1tb ssds would be fine. Those servers all have hotswap bays so its super easy to add storage.

 

4 minutes ago, Tingler said:

I buy the server, I buy ram atleast 4x32 but lean towards 8x32, buy an SSD. Do I need a special SSD for servers?

Then I need hypervisor? Then I buy a license for Linux or windows to run on the server for ease of access. 

 

Yea, Just add the ram you want, then install the hypervisor on the host, and start configuring it.

 

 

[Tingler]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

hypervisor is a os that runs only vms. Vms make everything easier to manage and work on, makes upgrade to a cluster much easier, makes system upgrades much easier, and backups are easier too.

 

How much io are you using on he current system? If your not using much, Probably 2x 1tb ssds would be fine. Those servers all have hotswap bays so its super easy to add storage.

 

Yea, Just add the ram you want, then install the hypervisor on the host, and start configuring it.

 

 

So I don't gotta worry about hypervisor if I only have one server? Or do I install hypervisor on the main server? (In this case the one server I'll own) and install Linux on the rest in the future. I believe 2x1tb SSD should do fine as im not nearly using even 1tb on my current, only like 300gb. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

9 minutes ago, Tingler said:

So I don't gotta worry about hypervisor if I only have one server? Or do I install hypervisor on the main server? (In this case the one server I'll own) and install Linux on the rest in the future. I believe 2x1tb SSD should do fine as im not nearly using even 1tb on my current, only like 300gb. 

Id still install a hypervisor on it if you only have one server.

 

How much disk performance do you need? If you need a lot probably get some nvme drives, there much faster than the sata ones.

 

You know how the cloud providers have systems where you can rent a vm on a bigger node, those are all run on hypervisors.

[Tingler]

4 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id still install a hypervisor on it if you only have one server.

 

How much disk performance do you need? If you need a lot probably get some nvme drives, there much faster than the sata ones.

 

You know how the cloud providers have systems where you can rent a vm on a bigger node, those are all run on hypervisors.

Ahh alright where do I pick up a license for hypervisor? And what nvme drives do you recommend? Should I get the 2x1tb SSD and nvme or just nvme?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Tingler said:

Ahh alright where do I pick up a license for hypervisor? And what nvme drives do you recommend? Should I get the 2x1tb SSD and nvme or just nvme?

what hypervisor are you using, it depends on the hypervisor where you buyt it. Many have a free option.

 

Do you plan to use raid, nor ally you should run the same speed of drives in raid.

[Tingler]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what hypervisor are you using, it depends on the hypervisor where you buyt it. Many have a free option.

 

Do you plan to use raid, nor ally you should run the same speed of drives in raid.

I have no idea what hypervisor I'm using ovh only tells me I'm using windows 2012 r2 and I didn't really understand that second part sorry 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Tingler said:

I have no idea what hypervisor I'm using ovh only tells me I'm using windows 2012 r2 and I didn't really understand that second part sorry 

Are you running everything on one server 2012r2 instance?

 

You will need to pick a hypervisor? Do you want to run everything on windows, Id go hyper-v. Otherwise, try out proxmox.

 

Are you going to run the drives in raid? If you do, you want the same models normally.

[gramzon]

You seem like you are not too sure about setting up this server, once you buy it are you going to be able to configure this yourself (install hypervisor, install OS, install and run the game servers etc)? are you getting help from someone? Have you considered the fact that once it's set up and in your home network that your entire network is vulnerable to attacks from the internet? do you have a plan to secure your home network(Firewalls, VLANS etc)?

[Escapenz]

 

On 4/21/2020 at 3:17 PM, Tingler said:

Well Garry's mod is a single core single it won't let you multi core so it needs decent power behind it. And currently I can't see the usuage from OVH but I do know it's only in peak hours when the servers are maxed out I get an email from OVH saying my CPU reached 100% would the r730 meet/are better then specs I posted originally and peak hours I may have like roughly 1,000 people concurrently connecting to the server machine from all the servers, teamspeak and webserver.

all ready renting a dedicated server ?

[Tingler]

13 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Are you running everything on one server 2012r2 instance?

 

You will need to pick a hypervisor? Do you want to run everything on windows, Id go hyper-v. Otherwise, try out proxmox.

 

Are you going to run the drives in raid? If you do, you want the same models normally.

Yeah everything is on one server with 2012r2

 

As long as hyper-v is compatible with everything I wouldn't mind using it. I'll do some research on it and proxmox

 

I think I should run raid because that just "tricks" the system in thinking they're one drive right?