Server A to Z

[TheMIneGeek]

Hi,

 

I'm actually planning to buy a server for home but before, I have a lot of questions.

Here are the applications I want to run on my server :

• VPN
• Minecraft server (3/4 players max)
• SSH
• File Storage (ZFS ?) with samba and TimeMachine compatibility
• OwnCloud
• Plex
• Mail server (Something is better than others ?)
• Docker
• FTP server
• TeamSpeak

 

And now the questions :

 

1. Is it a good idea to put everything on the same server ?
2. What OS would subsist to the needs ?
3. Should I run each applications in a different environment ? (VMs)
4. Could pfSense be useful ?
5. What hardware for that use ?

 

Hope my english isn't too bad and I've been clear enough

TheMineGeek

[manikyath]

1: it is a choice, as long as the machine can handle it it's certainly not an inherently bad idea.

2: since i dont think you'll be buying a windows server key, linux is probably the way to go.

3: once again your choice, it helps keeping things seperate (a software issue in plex could for example never interfere with the correct operation of your minecraft server) but it also has some downsides, specificly complexity of the setup being one of them.

4: pfsense is basicly a ballin' high end firewall, its fairly useless here

5: whatever hardware floats the boat, and fits in the budget.

[Atmos]

Your server would more than likely act simply as another firewall between your computer and the web. Using it as a vpn is rather... Useless, since it would still be connected up to your network, reliant on it for internet connection. If you need a vpn, use a service like tunnel bear or one of their competitors.

 

A minecraft server depending on mods can either run on almost anything, or actually need some performance so it varies pretty heavily. But normally, yes it can run on a server with other programs pretty easily.

Teamspeak servers can be run on a toaster, so long as they have decent upload/download connections, so it can run on a multitasking server easily.

FTP servers once again mainly only take up disk space and bandwidth, connect up well and have some fast storage and it can run just fine with other programs.

 

Most of what you want to run, can be run easily on a beefy little server pretty easily at the same time. Some services though, like a vpn, and mail server, are probably wiser to go with a third party. There's no real advantage, or no good way to implement them from home.

 

I'd personally run a linux environment, and for the programs that require windows, if any, you can simply have them running on a vm. You shouldn't need to run each program in its own instance, though that could make it easier to distribute and manage resources. 

 

It all comes down to the kind of server you're building, or buying. If its powerful enough, sure it can run pretty much all of that without much hassle, but if its a refurb or cheap server box, then you get what you pay for; and it probably won't be able to run everything at top notch performance.

[TheMIneGeek]

 

Thanks for both answer

20 minutes ago, Atmos said:

Your server would more than likely act simply as another firewall between your computer and the web. Using it as a vpn is rather... Useless, since it would still be connected up to your network, reliant on it for internet connection. If you need a vpn, use a service like tunnel bear or one of their competitors.

The VPN is to access my local network from everywhere. Isn't it possible ?

 

20 minutes ago, Atmos said:

Most of what you want to run, can be run easily on a beefy little server pretty easily at the same time. Some services though, like a vpn, and mail server, are probably wiser to go with a third party. There's no real advantage, or no good way to implement them from home.

I plan to run a mail server mostly to be able to send notifications mail from home and I like to try to do things by myself

 

23 minutes ago, manikyath said:

since i dont think you'll be buying a windows server key, linux is probably the way to go.

 

21 minutes ago, Atmos said:

I'd personally run a linux environment, and for the programs that require windows, if any, you can simply have them running on a vm. You shouldn't need to run each program in its own instance, though that could make it easier to distribute and manage resources. 

What would be the best distrib for that ? There is too much choice. Would Ubuntu server be great ?

23 minutes ago, Atmos said:

It all comes down to the kind of server you're building, or buying. If its powerful enough, sure it can run pretty much all of that without much hassle, but if its a refurb or cheap server box, then you get what you pay for; and it probably won't be able to run everything at top notch performance.

 

26 minutes ago, manikyath said:

whatever hardware floats the boat, and fits in the budget.

My budget is something like 600/700€ (without disks). Like for linux, there is too much choice. What would be great for the use I want ? (I prefer build it by myself)

[Atmos]

1 minute ago, TheMIneGeek said:

 

 

The VPN is to access my local network from everywhere. Isn't it possible ?

I plan to run a mail server mostly to be able to send notifications mail from home and I like to try to do things by myself

What would be the best distrib for that ? There is too much choice. Would Ubuntu server be great ?

 

My budget is something like 600/700€ (without disks). Like for linux, there is too much choice. What would be great for the use I want ? (I prefer build it by myself)

That could work, I mistook the kind of network you were thinking of setting up.

That's perfectly fine, was just saying that most third party resources at this point offer more features for a lot less effort, but if you like the process of setting this kind of stuff up, then its not a bad thing really at all. Just a bit more of a hassle.

 

As far as a distro goes, I'm not too well versed on specifics for linux servers atm. I work on a windows server, and havnt been on a linux environment in some time now. 

[manikyath]

Just now, TheMIneGeek said:

What would be the best distrib for that ? There is too much choice. Would Ubuntu server be great ?

 

My budget is something like 600/700€ (without disks). Like for linux, there is too much choice. What would be great for the use I want ? (I prefer build it by myself)

the deal with linux distro choice is that its kind of a "personal preference"

some people swear loyal to the debian tree, some do the fedora/red hat thing, etc.

 

i always end up having terrible luck with the debian tree, but for most it works out really well. if you're a bit new to things, ubuntu server is one to consider, or just regular old debian.

 

as for hardware.. it kinda depends on the "intensity" of what you'll be doing.

- vpn

- ssh

- file storage

- mail server

- ftp server

- teamspeak server

are basicly all "background programs" that wont really impact hardware choice too much.

 

- owncloud

- plex

both like some cpu horses, but dont necessarily mind what form that cpu horsepower comes in. (strong single thread or many weak threads)

 

- minecraft server

is stll 95% single threaded, but exactly how much performance you need depends on what exactly you'll be doing on this.

 

as for ram requirements... there's a few "standards" to take into account:

- minecraft server likes its ram, but under no normal conditions will you need more than 4GB ram.

- your OS of choice lists ram requirements, double that for that first block of "background programs" to fit in comfortably.

- owncloud runs off of a web server, from my messing around with it it's pretty scalable

- plex.. is honestly one of those background tasks, it does kinda depends on what you use it for.

- some specific means of file storage (like what freenas uses) prefer large amounts of ram as well, pick accordingly

 

for the rest:

- pick reliable components, watercooling is not for servers.

- a high efficiency power supply may actually end up saving you some bucks in the end.

- depending on where in the house it'll live, quietness may be preferred.

- consider a UPS, accidents happen.

[TheMIneGeek]

So. Do you think a couple of E5620 with Intel Server Board S5520UR and 32Gb of ECC memory would be great ? Would it be worth to buy a SSD for the OS ?

[tt2468]

5 hours ago, TheMIneGeek said:

 

Thanks for both answer

The VPN is to access my local network from everywhere. Isn't it possible ?

 

I plan to run a mail server mostly to be able to send notifications mail from home and I like to try to do things by myself

 

 

What would be the best distrib for that ? There is too much choice. Would Ubuntu server be great ?

 

My budget is something like 600/700€ (without disks). Like for linux, there is too much choice. What would be great for the use I want ? (I prefer build it by myself)

You should run Proxmox VE, which is a great Virtual host manager based off of debian. It has a super useful WebUI. Get a used r610 off of ebay, which has a lot of cores for only a few hundred bucks.

For example, here is an r610 with 2x 6 core Xeons in it and 96GB ram: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Enterprise-Dell-Server-PowerEdge-R610-H700-2x-2-66GHz-6-Core-96GB-RAM-2x-300GB-/222063768144?hash=item33b4083250:g:WYoAAOSwcwhVL-aT

[TheMIneGeek]

Is it really useful on my case to run everything on a different VM ?

[NinjaJc01]

2 hours ago, TheMIneGeek said:

Is it really useful on my case to run everything on a different VM ?

VMs can be a little challenging to sort the networking for, past 2 VMs. You tend to need a separate network interface for each.

[TheMIneGeek]

[DELETED]

[samiscool51]

dude, that will cause loads of slow down,

say someone is using plex to watch something, the players will experience lag on the minecraft server

it's better if you get the more demanding programs, plex and minecraft, to run on a separate computer

also maybe stick with windows, minecraft servers on linux is not fast and is known to cause problems with other software that needs java, so keep that in mind,

but if relay want to have this in one computer then two things are required to ad least run at all

1. high core count CPU, xeon is best and probely the only one that can handle the workload

2. network card with loads of bandwidth and a router/modem that is compatible with the speed

[TheMIneGeek]

@samiscool51 If I run Plex and Minecraft server under differents VMs which are running on different cores, it should be okay no ?

[samiscool51]

@TheMIneGeek dude the programs need many cores, especially plex because it's processing video

it's better to have multiple computers do what you need to do

this is a config i would go for if i where you

server 1. hosts minecraft server (low storage would be best 250GB max)

server 2. hosts plex, OwnCloud, FTP etc.... (have mass storage in one place) (RAID would be a good idea)

server 3. hosts everything else (VPN, SSH, Mail server, Docker, TeamSpeak, and other programs that don't need many resources but need fast network access) (a 1TB hard drive for the server will do the job)

[TheMIneGeek]

@samiscool51When i said i wanted to host minecraft server. It was very little one. I don't plan to run it 24/7 and it wont be a lot of players. More over, I don't understand why I should physically separate the server 2 & server 3. If server 3 requires a very little of resources, VM will be enough. For example 1 VM with 90% of resources for server 2 & a VM with 10% of resources for server 3.

Am I thinking wrong or is it possible ?

[Smite]

Here is a simple run down,

On 8/21/2016 at 6:54 AM, TheMIneGeek said:

• VPN
• Minecraft server (3/4 players max)
• SSH
• File Storage (ZFS ?) with samba and TimeMachine compatibility
• OwnCloud
• Plex
• Mail server (Something is better than others ?)
• Docker
• FTP server
• TeamSpeak

 

VPN - this is network stuff not really server stuff

ssh - not 100% why you need secure shell when you can securely vpn to everything, so no idea on this

 

VM1- Minecraft Server\Teamspeak

VM2- Best practices is to always have mail server separated

VM3- File storage\Owncloud\FTP server

VM4- Plex\Docker

 

Personally I would do 2 boxes with second having 2VM

1 for FreeNas-Filestorage\plex\OwnCloud

2 for a. Mailserver

        b. Minecraft\Teamspeak\docker\ftp

[TheMIneGeek]

@SmiteCould you give me a config which would be great for both servers ? Lets say my budget is 1k/1.5k$ (no drives needed)

[twisties]

 - VPN
Leave this up to your home router. Many home routers have at least some form of VPN server on them.

- Minecraft server

No experience with it but a small server not running 24/7 shouldn't be an issue

- SSH

You go with Linux, it's a given and it's not going make any difference to performance.

- File storage

It really depends how you're going to handle it. If you buy a used server with a RAID card, you're golden, you can just create your favourite flavour of network shares on top of it.

- Owncloud

This is the biggest beast, speaking from experience. While it's sitting idle it doesn't do anything, but start to upload / download lots of files and watch the CPU usage start spiking.

- Plex

Similar story to Owncloud although I haven't done much performance monitoring of my plex server to see what it uses.

- Mail

Kinda depends what solution you end up going with but I don't see your use case being very power hungry

- Docker

This one depends on what you want to DO with docker. Each container you run in docker should be considered a separate item on this list.

- FTP

This isn't going to impact performance

- Teamspeak

Doesn't use much horsepower, just need to ensure you have the bandwidth for it, which isn't much

 

I would probably say two VM's on a used server with two 4 - 6 core cpu's and 32gb of ram will do you well enough.

Someone mentioned Proxmox, and that's a good place to start, or VMWare ESXi which is also free. I'd probably run the filestorage, owncloud and plex on one VM, with half of your core count. And a second vm to run your minecraft, teamspeak, mail etc. You can then move some things to their own extra VM's if you end up with more powerful hardware.

 

That all being said, you don't NEED server grade hardware. I've got a mix of devices at home.

1x Dell T410 server with 32gb ram and 2x 6core xeons but honestly, it uses too much power and is currently collecting dust.
I run my Plex server on an old HP ultra small form factor desktop who's media library is on an NFS share hosted on my NAS.

 

 

[TheMIneGeek]

So, I've finally found something which looks great. Could you say me what do you think about it ?

CPU : 2 * Intel Xeon E5-2670

MB : Asrock Rack EP2C602-4L/D16

RAM : 4 * 8Gb

PSU : Enermax Platimax EPM750AWT 80PLUS PLATINIUM

[bobhays]

On 8/21/2016 at 7:36 AM, TheMIneGeek said:

So. Do you think a couple of E5620 with Intel Server Board S5520UR and 32Gb of ECC memory would be great ? Would it be worth to buy a SSD for the OS ?

Honestly I suggest the 2 machine set up like you mentioned at the start. One can handle the whole file server duty, (FTP, ZFS, Owncloud, Plex) and the other can handle the Minecraft, Teamspeak aspect. I only say this because freeNAS/OMV/Rockstor do exactly what you need for a file server. The Minecraft and Teamspeak aspects can probably just be ran off of whatever computer you have.