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Linux(es) on homeserver with hypervisor

666sniperererer
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Hi guys,

 

at first please excuse if there are any flaws in my english, I am not a native english speaker (I am from Czech Republic)... And thank You Linus, Luke, Taran, and whole team from Linus Tech Tips for GREAT youtube videos, because these brought me here ;-)

 

Now about my topic:

 

I assembled something like a homeserver, it is kind of basic hardware I managed to get together from my tight budget, here are specs (it was originally bought as HP ML10 v2, but i changed few parts):

 

CPU: Intel Core i3 4170 - 3,7GHz 2c/4t

MB: original server HP with Intel C222 chipset

RAM: 16GB ECC DDR3 1600MHz

SSD: 120GB Kingston

HDD: 3TB WD RED

I plan adding second of each drive for RAID 1 redundancy, but right now... budget :-)

Server is connected via 100/100Mbps link, public IP adress and it has no data limit.

 

My plan is to run:

- Plex server (mostly for 1 connected user at a time) 

- basic webserver - just DJ promo for my flatmate - estimated few visitors a day (he is not a celebrity yet, ehem :-D )

- basic ftp server mostly used for fastdownload of additional files for our upcoming CS:GO dedicated server(s)

- 2 dedicated CS:GO servers

- any dedicated gameservers that might run on remaining resources (Terraria, etc.)

 

Now I will by really glad and thankful, if you would give me some feedback about my future plans, because even if I think of myself as kind of advanced PC user, I am Linux newbie (or better said - pre-newbie), so any advices and guides will be just great...

 

I plan running two virtual machines, one with less resources for ftp/web/plex and second just for gameservers, so they won't ever be affected by expected CPU usage spikes, which WILL come frome Plex, or by ftp/web usage. Right now I am not sure how I will split server's resources between those two, but I think best option will be to give both a less than I predict they would need and then give it some testing time and add resources as needed and observed.

 

Right now the system has VMware ESXI 6.0 installed, 2 VM's with fresh Lubuntu installed on both. Lets hope that mr. Google will help me enough with software installing in Linux... :-D

 

As I said, any feedback, advices or warnings would be very appreciated... thx in advance for any replies :-) 

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zMeul - I really cannot afford Xeon - this HW is as much as I could afford right now... If HW wont handle it, I will shut down webserver and ftp and move both to some cheap hosting service. And reduce CS:GO from two servers to one, and reduce max players for any other server that might be running...

 

mluton - yes, I will try to give it RAID 1 as soon as possible. And yes, it will be running 24/7... Good point, I didnt think this through - Originally I planned to use SSD just for Winserver install and use HDDs for everything else, but now there is no point in using it (i found out what Winserver would cost and how much resources it would take). I will use it in my personal rig... 

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I have a Xeon e3 (i3 equivalent) in my home server which runs no more tan 40% CPU with 3 devices connected to plex and 8GB of RAM which never exceeds 5GGB.

 

Server 2016 / Server 2016 essentials is available for 180 days which might be of help during the setup.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/

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7 minutes ago, mluton said:

I have a Xeon e3 (i3 equivalent) in my home server which runs no more tan 40% CPU with 3 devices connected to plex and 8GB of RAM which never exceeds 5GGB.

 

Server 2016 / Server 2016 essentials is available for 180 days which might be of help during the setup.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/

Good info about the CPU :-) 

 

And I will use Linux for sure, I dont want to buy/reinstall os after 180 days and because of very low Lubuntu HW requirements, it will let me to have more resources free for gameservers, ets... That is why i started this thread right here ;-) 

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UPDATE:

 

Yesterday I managed to get Plex and ftp running on one machine vith just one virtual core and 2GB RAM and so far it handles it - tried to stream FHD high bitrate/quality video via Plex to my TV and no problem at all, the one dedicated vCPU barely seemed to work (though it didnt transcode, just direct play - transcode WILL make difference, question is how big difference). I will give it some more testing this weekend - I will focus on worst case scenarios and we will see how the slower VM handles it. If it will be ok, I will have 3 vCPUs (and about 13GB RAM) free for the gameserver VM, and it would be great!

 

And about the gameserver - right now I am struggling with getting dedicated CS:GO servers running - 99% needs to be done via terminal and because I am linux newbie, it takes me looooong time... Will keep you informed about progress.

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19 hours ago, mluton said:

Why not just shared the CPUs with all the VMs and let the server manage the CPU resources ?

Is there a way to somehow tell vSphere to prioritize one VM over other(s)?

 

To make sure that Gameserver VM wil ALWAYS have all resources it needs, so it never lags or anything, even if there is high CPU usage spike at the Homeserver VM (Plex) side. So when Gameserver doesnt need resources, Homeserver may use them but just in moment when Gameserver needs them, it draws resources back from Homeserver - i wont mind experiencing some buffering from time to time while watching movie via Plex, but people connected to dedicated servers would be annoyed if server lags because I was in mood to watch Avatar in Blu-ray quality :-D

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