Server OS? Windows? FreeNAS? Linux?

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

Hey all,

 

I'm starting to plan out a new server project and I'm stuck on picking an os for it.

My needs are mostly just file storage (including remote access), but I want to do computer backups throughout my house and host plex server on it.

What is a good os to use for this? I've been thinking about using freeNAS but what are your thoughts on using Windows Server 2012 Essentials/Windows Home Server, Windows 8, or a Linux server like Ubuntu?

 

Thoughts?

 

W0rm

[GoldTurtle51]

Freenas,Debian or arch

[legopc]

i like windows server becaus its realy easy to set up and manage but for simple file storage i would say linux stuff  

[LIGISTX]

Check out open media vault, freenas is really for actual servers to be honest. Freenas assumes you are using ECC RAM and a battery backup strategy because it stores data in RAM which means RAM glitch or power failure and you are looking at data loss. Also, freenas will want 1 gig of RAM per TB of storage. And that is a hard recommendation, any less and you WILL have very slow performance. If you can get a Xeon CPU with some ECC RAM, get freenas, its pretty sick. If not, I don't recommend it as it uses ZFS for its file system which creates the issues explained. I use open media vault because it doesn't have these issues, runs great on a low power i3 with 8 gigs of ram (I should have got 4 gigs for it, 8 was WAY overkill), and I have 8x3TB drives running software RAID 6 (RAID Z2) for a year now and it hasn't had an issue at all doing exactly your use case seems to be.

 

Just my two cents on freenas versus other options. Freenas has a lot of supporters, but I feel like a lot of people don't really know why they want to use it, and by that I mean its not for everyone. Windows server isn't a bad idea either, although I have never used it so I can't say anything from personal experience. 

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

Check out open media vault, freenas is really for actual servers to be honest. Freenas assumes you are using ECC RAM and a battery backup strategy because it stores data in RAM which means RAM glitch or power failure and you are looking at data loss. Also, freenas will want 1 gig of RAM per TB of storage. And that is a hard recommendation, any less and you WILL have very slow performance. If you can get a Xeon CPU with some ECC RAM, get freenas, its pretty sick. If not, I don't recommend it as it uses ZFS for its file system which creates the issues explained. I use open media vault because it doesn't have these issues, runs great on a low power i3 with 8 gigs of ram (I should have got 4 gigs for it, 8 was WAY overkill), and I have 8x3TB drives running software RAID 6 (RAID Z2) for a year now and it hasn't had an issue at all doing exactly your use case seems to be.

 

Just my two cents on freenas versus other options. Freenas has a lot of supporters, but I feel like a lot of people don't really know why they want to use it, and by that I mean its not for everyone. Windows server isn't a bad idea either, although I have never used it so I can't say anything from personal experience. 

 

Just to clarify, I do plan on using ECC RAM and buying server grade hardware. This is something I want to last and not have any data loss. So I do plan on building an actual server.

[LIGISTX]

Just to clarify, I do plan on using ECC RAM and buying server grade hardware. This is something I want to last and not have any data loss. So I do plan on building an actual server.

Gotcha. In this case, I think freenas is a good option. Just remember 1 GB of RAM per TB of storage space. Freenas has some pretty sweet options, including on the fly encryption/decryption and with a decent xeon this will be done without a noticeable performance hit

[madcow]

1GB of RAM per 1TB of storage is a guideline but is in no way a requriement especially for just a home media server. I would not go with any less than 4GB for a ZFS setup but would consider 8GB plenty for most configurations. This is assuming you don't enable options like dedupe. You really should not need it for this kind of application.

[LIGISTX]

1GB of RAM per 1TB of storage is a guideline but is in no way a requriement especially for just a home media server. I would not go with any less than 4GB for a ZFS setup but would consider 8GB plenty for most configurations. This is assuming you don't enable options like dedupe. You really should not need it for this kind of application.

I have heard of people with 12 gigs of RAM with a 16TB array getting sub 30 mb/s speeds, upped RAM to ~20 and back to maxing out their gigabit network. I can't comment personally as I don't have a ZFS system, but just saying what I have heard.

[Geldar]

Ubuntu/Fedora is always good, personally i use fedora

[rockking1379]

Linux, no damn GUI. Useless on server just wasting resources

[hoyda]

Always try to go with either Linux or BSD based OSs for any kind of server. You'll enjoy better performance and stability, and you also will be able to forget virus issues for quite a while until the whole world adopts Linux or BSD.

[Ginz]

Linux, no damn GUI. Useless on server just wasting resources

 

You can create multiple desktop envrionments (GUIs) and connect to them with VNC.

 

I personally use Ubuntu 12.04 on my server and am loving the experience (was my first time that I used any Linux variant for a long period of time).

[rockking1379]

You can create multiple desktop envrionments (GUIs) and connect to them with VNC.

 

I personally use Ubuntu 12.04 on my server and am loving the experience (was my first time that I used any Linux variant for a long period of time).

my server runs ubuntu 12.04 as well. first linux server i've ever had. definately won't be the last either

[joshuamurphy]

debian or ubuntu

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

How well does plex work on ubuntu or other linux servers?

[rockking1379]

How well does plex work on ubuntu or other linux servers?

It's a daemon service. Runs just fine. Only bitch is getting it configured, if this is a home server it shouldn't be that bad for you.