Multi purpose server

[jhkeiser]

So I want to set up a decent home server but I need it to do a variety of things. I want to run : 

 

-A teamspeak server

-Some type of media server (Plex, xmbc, etc)

-A decent sized nas for backups and storage and stuff

 

I work at a computer repair store and I'm very familiar with ubuntu and debian as well however I've never used FreeNas or Plex or anything like that. I also have TONS of hardware just laying around that I can use. Everything from rackmount chassis to hard drives, to raid cards you name it. I just don't know what I want to do and was looking for some recommendations. 

[RedWulf]

I want your job lol. but freenas isnt terribly confusing but its not debian based its freebsd based so many of the commands a different.

What is the media server for? just a htpc with streaming or internet streaming? Either way you should be able to run a NAS with plex or I think plex has a freebsd package. The difference is that the first would be able to run from xbmc with samba and file sharing where as internet streaming is much better off with plex. 

I would recommend a different rig for teamspeak, not only since high traffic can kill your bandwidth but also for management and security. You could just run a normal server like ubuntu for it. 

If its light traffic then you can use a higher end xeon of two mid grade xeons to run all 3, ubuntu server can be built to run as an NAS, I'm fairly sure plex has a package that suits ubuntu too. 

[jhkeiser]

At work we literally run Ubuntu desktop with a network share and it stores files fine...im just worried about data redundencey/smart checks and just the cool stuff freenas has built in such as a nifty ZFS file system...and the teamspeak server would literally just be me and a few friends and i have 100up/100down at home. And it would mostly be streaming high bitrate mp3's and video files to my tablet/laptop. I can totally snag a dual xeon board with decent specs and throw it into one of the 2U chassis i have with a backplane for some hard drives.

 

So basically what you're saying is i can just run all that stuff off ubuntu with a bit of work?

[RedWulf]

3 minutes ago, jhkeiser said:

At work we literally run Ubuntu desktop with a network share and it stores files fine...im just worried about data redundencey/smart checks and just the cool stuff freenas has built in such as a nifty ZFS file system...and the teamspeak server would literally just be me and a few friends and i have 100up/100down at home. And it would mostly be streaming high bitrate mp3's and video files to my tablet/laptop. I can totally snag a dual xeon board with decent specs and throw it into one of the 2U chassis i have with a backplane for some hard drives.

 

So basically what you're saying is i can just run all that stuff off ubuntu with a bit of work?

Yep pretty much, if you stream movies over the internet you may need plex or just get crafty with either a vpn or maybe a light website but that has security issues. 

You can use raid in ubuntu and most of the features of freenas, it might just take somework and you can try webadmin if you really need a web ui.

As for streaming music, I run daphile on a single core 1.2ghz craptop from 2004 that streams my music around my house, use web radio, and connects to my nas, so you may run that in a vm on ubuntu or just find some ubuntu program to stream it. 

That little traffic shouldn't be an issue then, so yeah I'm fairly confident you could make a good xeon rig host all of that with some work. 

I haven't tried running multiple services like those on a rig so you may wait on someone who has. I do know that you can run the file sharing with FTP or NFS and SAM along with your team speak server so I would think enough horsepower could add media streaming and some other nas features too, raid1 or 10 should be fine for redundancy. 

[jhkeiser]

Thanks for the advice! I might post back here with updates or if I run into issues lol