server New Network and Server Stack?

[GateToTheFuture]

Hey folks,

 

I’ve been noticing that my UnRaid server is getting a tad long in the tooth in terms of speed of docker containers running and the VMs. Granted the server is running on an old FX-8320 and 16GB of DDR3 ram. 
 

So I think it’s time to upgrade but I don’t know which path to take. Currently I’ve got an order to Amazon for the following parts list...https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xcnPVc

(Note that all Purchased Items will be put into the new server from the old one.)

 

On the other hand however, I also thought that maybe a used Dell R710 like this one...Click Here, would also be a viable option.  It would be specced with 64 GB of Ram and the 6 drive caddies as blanks.

 

The UnRaid Server runs the following:

 

2x Ubuntu 18.04 + Bind 9 DNS Server

2x Ubuntu 18.04 + PiHole

1x Ubuntu 18.04 + Poste.io Mail Server

1x Ubuntu 16.04 + UniFi Controller + Lets Encrypt

Docker containers:

• Crashplan Backup Pro
• Plex Media Server
• NGinx Proxy Manager
• Syncthing
• Bitwarden
• MariaDB
• WordPress Website
• Nextcloud
• DuckDNS

One more note, I've been wanting to tinker with PfSense and HAProxy.  I currenly have a full UniFi network setup USG 3P->USW-16-POE->AP-AC-Lite, AP-AC-Pro, US-8-60W and a couple of cameras and a cloud key gen 2+.  I was looking at this Dell R210 ii to run PfSense as I believe the chip supports AES-Ni and also I can add that NIc from the Unraid build to the Dell R210ii for more physical ports.

 

Let me know your opinions and if I am over building these servers.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If your goin with used server, id go r720 or newer, a good amount faster, lower power and better support.

 

If you just wanna play with pfsense, you can do it in a vm if you want, but that 210 ii will work fine and is pretty lower power.

 

For that build, Id go stock cooler, Id probably go 64gb ddr4, and probably just use the onboard sata, as you don't have many drives.

[GateToTheFuture]

6 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If your goin with used server, id go r720 or newer, a good amount faster, lower power and better support.

 

If you just wanna play with pfsense, you can do it in a vm if you want, but that 210 ii will work fine and is pretty lower power.

 

For that build, Id go stock cooler, Id probably go 64gb ddr4, and probably just use the onboard sata, as you don't have many drives.

Thanks!

 

[LtStaffel]

Seems like you generally know what you're doing. As far as hardware is concerned, consumer grade CPUs and RAM will always be hugely faster for anything that isn't extremely parallel or virtualized (or containerized). An R720 would be nice and they are plentiful but the main consideration with them is noise and power. They will be much louder (60-70 dB) than any consumer grade hardware, which is why I ended up going with a whitebox similar to what you specced out on PCPP. However, DDR4 RAM is still really expensive. Pick your poison: loud and power hungry with cheap ram, or quiet and efficient with $$$ upgrades.

For a firewall, it depends how much network security know-how you have and want, but starting in a VM with a couple passthrough ethernet ports is a good idea. From there you can see exactly how much hardware you need in order to run the stuff you want, and you may find you don't do enough on it to justify having a separate box (besides single-point-of-failure reasons). Also, use OPNsense instead of pfSense. It's largely the same thing (it forked pfSense) but without being largely owned by Netgate and without the less-desirable licensing of pfSense.

Haproxy is probably not worth learning compared to the other, newer things you could be looking at instead. Nginx is huge in the industry and overall a good performer (and linuxserver.io's "swag" container has Nginx with Lets Encrypt builtin!!) that you seem to already be using. You could also look at Envoy, if you want to get really distributed.

[GateToTheFuture]

15 hours ago, LtStaffel said:

Seems like you generally know what you're doing. As far as hardware is concerned, consumer grade CPUs and RAM will always be hugely faster for anything that isn't extremely parallel or virtualized (or containerized). An R720 would be nice and they are plentiful but the main consideration with them is noise and power. They will be much louder (60-70 dB) than any consumer grade hardware, which is why I ended up going with a whitebox similar to what you specced out on PCPP. However, DDR4 RAM is still really expensive. Pick your poison: loud and power hungry with cheap ram, or quiet and efficient with $$$ upgrades.

For a firewall, it depends how much network security know-how you have and want, but starting in a VM with a couple passthrough ethernet ports is a good idea. From there you can see exactly how much hardware you need in order to run the stuff you want, and you may find you don't do enough on it to justify having a separate box (besides single-point-of-failure reasons). Also, use OPNsense instead of pfSense. It's largely the same thing (it forked pfSense) but without being largely owned by Netgate and without the less-desirable licensing of pfSense.

Haproxy is probably not worth learning compared to the other, newer things you could be looking at instead. Nginx is huge in the industry and overall a good performer (and linuxserver.io's "swag" container has Nginx with Lets Encrypt builtin!!) that you seem to already be using. You could also look at Envoy, if you want to get really distributed.

Thank you for the suggestions!  I will take those into consideration.  I've been trying to expand my knowledge a little only because I am interested in pursuing a career track in IT.  I enjoy the infrastructure design, setup, maintain and upgrade.  Thanks!