Home Server Questions

[ElectronicTechnology]

Hello all, please bear with me with this long post.

 

I would like to create a home server for my family and I, but I do have a few questions that I have came across during some research. Starting with my planing thus far, it involves FreeNAS as my OS, using FreeNAS as the NAS to read and write from/to the server from other devices (i.e. MacBooks & PCs), and then using Plex in FreeNAS. My family has about 150GB worth of photos and music, possibly movies as well, that we would like to like to be able to stream to about 3 or 4 devices max simultaneously without streaming issues. Regarding the NAS portion, 3 to 5 computers max would need access to the files simultaneously.

 

Another plan I have for the server is to use unRAID to put FreeNAS on one VM (still using FreeNAS to use Plex and NAS), and then use another VM to run Windows 10 to run some game server hosting. Would running FreeNAS as a VM have any drawbacks to it rather than running it as a straight OS?

 

The area where I am having a little bit of trouble is in picking the appropriate hardware. I feel like the hardware the I picked out is excessive for what I would want to do with the server, but here is what I have so far.

Spoiler

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1275 V5 3.6GHz

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X11SSA-F-O ATX
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 ECC
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 ECC
Storage: Kingston V300 120GB SSD
Storage: WD Red 3TB
Storage: WD Red 3TB
Case: Corsair 100R Silent Edition

Regarding my thoughts on the parts I picked out, I find the motherboard supported RAM seems to be an oddball because on PCPartPicker I couldn't find a 16GB set that was compatible with the motherboard. I put a cheap SSD in the list because I am assuming you don't want to run the OS off of the HDD if it can be avoided, just like a regular PC would want. I didn't add a GPU because the CPU supports integrated graphics, and in a server a GPU wouldn't help.

 

Currently the CPU is a LGA1151 socket, however, I have heard that the LGA2011 would also be a good socket to pick as it has the ability to use 2 CPUs if the motherboard supported it. The only reason why I am considering this is because it gives me the option to add another CPU down the road when the server begins to lag behind in performance, therefore making it an easy upgrade. Would a 2011 socket be worth it based on this reasoning, and if so what 2011 socket CPU would you consider?

 

In summary, my questions are as follows,

1. Is it possible to use unRAID to VM FreeNAS and to have another VM of Windows 10 to run game hosting? Would there be any drawbacks to running FreeNAS as a VM?
2. What are your thoughts on the hardware I picked out for my purposes? Would you make any changes? What are your thoughts on going with a dual-CPU LGA2011 motherboard instead of a single-CPU LGA1151 motherboard for upgradability later on?

Any help or advice is appreciated, thank you!

[Samfisher]

Why Unraid?  VMWare EXSI is free.

[paddy-stone]

Following, I am interested more and more in NAS and server stuff lately.

 

I don't know if this is any help to you at all, but lately I have been putting together ideas for a NAS/server build, so far I have

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZbCd4D

 

The e5 2670v3 can be had for around £190 on ebay... it is a quite expensive build kind of, but has a LOT of headroom and I know it is overkill, but why not buy something that'll exceed your needs for years to come as the motherboards aren't cheap anyway.. only thing is you would need a GPU to add to it also, which in theory could also then use more wattage, so no low power option for this one. I haven't figured out how I would use a GPU to install/configure and then take out for headless use, everything I've read so far seems to say that trying to run consumer grade headless won't work... I would love to be corrected and thus save money and watts

[beavo451]

1. If you buy Unraid, then just use Unraid for NAS stuff. It baffles me as to why you would want to virtualize a NAS OS inside another NAS OS.

 

2. What game servers do you want to run?

[tt2468]

Why not just install ubuntu and samba. Any game servers will run just fine on ubuntu server.

[alex75871]

Please don't virtualise FreeNAS, it is not recommended or officially supported. FreeNAS is designed to run on bare metal with direct access to all the hardware with no virtual abstractions.

 

Read more here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/please-do-not-run-freenas-in-production-as-a-virtual-machine.12484/

 

If you want a VM for game server hosting then install the VirtualBox plugin on your FreeNAS server.

[ElectronicTechnology]

3 hours ago, Samfisher said:

Why Unraid?  VMWare EXSI is free.

unRAID is more or less an 'idea' for now. I saw it, and I thought I might be able to use it to my advantage.

[ElectronicTechnology]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Following, I am interested more and more in NAS and server stuff lately.

 

I don't know if this is any help to you at all, but lately I have been putting together ideas for a NAS/server build, so far I have

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZbCd4D

 

The e5 2670v3 can be had for around £190 on ebay... it is a quite expensive build kind of, but has a LOT of headroom and I know it is overkill, but why not buy something that'll exceed your needs for years to come as the motherboards aren't cheap anyway.. only thing is you would need a GPU to add to it also, which in theory could also then use more wattage, so no low power option for this one. I haven't figured out how I would use a GPU to install/configure and then take out for headless use, everything I've read so far seems to say that trying to run consumer grade headless won't work... I would love to be corrected and thus save money and watts

It is a very similar build when I looked at it. One thing that stood out to me is that the RAM isn't ECC, and that is definitely something you'd want to take advantage if you plan on running this system 24/7.

[ElectronicTechnology]

1 hour ago, beavo451 said:

1. If you buy Unraid, then just use Unraid for NAS stuff. It baffles me as to why you would want to virtualize a NAS OS inside another NAS OS.

 

2. What game servers do you want to run?

Good point... I guess the way I was looking at unRAID was to only use it as a VM tool. Would the VirtualBox plugin, as alex75871 mentioned, be a good alternative to run other VMs?

 

I would like to run minecraft, CS GO, and possibily Gmod servers. All of which would only be for private use between a couple friends. I haven't done as much research into this area as it is not my main priority, so please forgive me if there is an easier way, but I definitely would like the capability on the server to do so once the rest is functioning.

[ElectronicTechnology]

55 minutes ago, Kyle Manning said:

Why not just install ubuntu and samba. Any game servers will run just fine on ubuntu server.

I've never looked into a Linux based OS before, as well as Samba, to be honest.

[twisties]

I've never used FreeNAS or any of it's plugins but if there's a virtualbox plugin then small, simple VM's to host Minecraft, CS Go or GMod would run with very little trouble.

I have run an Insurgency server before, which is the same 'Source Dedicated Server' that CS GO uses, and it's very lightweight. I'm going to assume Minecraft is equally tiny, if not even tinier, and GMod I just checked is also on the Source Dedicated Server, so it's going to be just as easy.

[ElectronicTechnology]

12 hours ago, twisties said:

I've never used FreeNAS or any of it's plugins but if there's a virtualbox plugin then small, simple VM's to host Minecraft, CS Go or GMod would run with very little trouble.

I have run an Insurgency server before, which is the same 'Source Dedicated Server' that CS GO uses, and it's very lightweight. I'm going to assume Minecraft is equally tiny, if not even tinier, and GMod I just checked is also on the Source Dedicated Server, so it's going to be just as easy.

After doing some research, I can't seem to find a decent way to make a VM in FreeNAS. Maybe I am missing something? There doesn't seem to be a simple plugin as I thought, so some people are trying to jail VMs, however, the stories I am seeing are either working with limited functionality or they didn't work at all.

 

Good to know. I was assuming all the servers were going to be pretty lightweight, so I'm glad someone else agreed with that. Now I just have to figure out how to be able to make the VM on FreeNAS.

[bcp]

I'm curious as to why you're set on using freeNAS. If you get unRAID for the virtualization component, you can just run Plex off unRAID without the need for any other software. 

[ElectronicTechnology]

4 hours ago, bcp said:

I'm curious as to why you're set on using freeNAS. If you get unRAID for the virtualization component, you can just run Plex off unRAID without the need for any other software. 

I honestly didn't look into using unRAID to do all the services I want. Looking more into it though, I think it might be the better option to go with.

[Scheer]

Test out FreeNAS on an old computer if you have one laying around. I think you'll find its not all that it is hyped up to be, I was super excited about it for around a week until I just didn't want to mess with it anymore.

 

Really you could do all of this with Windows 10, just do shared folders for the "NAS" part of it, a shared folder is all you would end up doing with FreeNAS anyways. Simply mirror some drives with Storage Spaces and you are all set.

 

Note that I haven't touched a Mac computer since high school... so I have no idea if it plays nicely with Windows shared folders.