Input wanted on VM PC, file server

[MrBubblez98]

So I've wanted to set up my own file server, as well as a better machine to run VMs, for a while now as a personal project. I could run both on one machine, but I pretty much have an entire spare PC from upgrading my current rig. As well I have an old desktop from ~2011 from work that we have no use for (i3 2120, 8GB), which I'm currently using to run VMs, altho it's not getting much use right now. As well,  I can probably get around 5 1TB drives from work (pulled from new PCs, replaced with SSDs), which I intended to use in RAID 5 for the FS.

 

I just ordered a 6600k, so I can use the FX8350 currently in my system, which will give me an entire extra PC in parts. Here's what I have to work with:

 

Full system, in parts (including case), extra AM3+ mobo (ASUS M5A97 R2.0)
Dell Precision T1600 (running ProxMox for VMs right now)
5x 1TB drives (new)

 

Regardless, I'd have to buy hardware to make it work. I'm thinking I should buy an AM3 CPU from ebay and a $50 case (extra board is ATX, T1600 is mATX) and use the rest of the hardware from the T1600. My other option would be to buy a RAID card, but I don't know much about them and what's good / reliable (would I need a 6 port card, or could I use onboard ports alongside the RAID card?). Plus, I believe an average one would cost a fair bit (or am I wrong?).

Now for the software side of things... I'm thinking FreeNAS with ZFS (I'd have enough RAM). As for the VMs, I'm thinking ProxMox again. I also wanted to run a Plex server on the VM PC, could I use the file server as the storage for it? Or does it have to be local to the Plex app? Also, what would be the recommended OS to run Plex on? I'd assume Linux, but I don't know very much about the different distributions, as well I have very little experience with it in general. I would use Windows, but that uses a lot more resources, and I don't want any issues when watching something.

 

I'm a noob when it comes to things like these, so sorry for the stupid questions. Any and all help on this is greatly appreciated! If you want any more information, just let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

Edited October 30, 2016 by MrBubblez98
Asking about OS to run Plex on

[gtx1060=value]

why would you use promox for vms??? If you are using vms for any type of programming, generally you use vmware and vmware workstation

[SCHISCHKA]

You won't need hardware raid for ZFS and you can use a budget PCI card with SATA alongside the onboard SATA.

freeNAS should have a Plex app available

 

[MrBubblez98]

Thanks for the input. I actually didn't think about if I could fit all the drives in the T1600, which I can't, so I'd have to buy a new case regardless. As well it only has 4 SATA ports, so I think I'll just buy a 2-4 core CPU and use that with the extra motherboard I have which I already know has 6 SATA ports, so I don't need to buy a controller.

 

Also, regarding Plex, I was told by a buddy that it requires a fair bit of power to transcode the media, so I planned on using 2-3 cores on the VM PC for this.

[MrBubblez98]

45 minutes ago, gtx1060=value said:

why would you use promox for vms??? If you are using vms for any type of programming, generally you use vmware and vmware workstation

I'm not really familiar with anything besides ProxMox. I use VMWare Workstation in college, but that's running on an OS. I want the VM to be the OS, as ProxMox offers.

[gtx1060=value]

Just now, MrBubblez98 said:

I'm not really familiar with anything besides ProxMox. I use VMWare Workstation in college, but that's running on an OS. I want the VM to be the OS, as ProxMox offers.

are you a computer science major? Going to conestoga or u of waterloo / toronto? 

[MrBubblez98]

1 minute ago, gtx1060=value said:

are you a computer science major? Going to conestoga or u of waterloo / toronto? 

I'm just going for general computing (Networking, Databases, Windows Client, Programming)

[Electronics Wizardy]

13 hours ago, MrBubblez98 said:

I'm not really familiar with anything besides ProxMox. I use VMWare Workstation in college, but that's running on an OS. I want the VM to be the OS, as ProxMox offers.

 

14 hours ago, gtx1060=value said:

why would you use promox for vms??? If you are using vms for any type of programming, generally you use vmware and vmware workstation

Proxmox is fine, there is no reason to use VMware esxi, and it won't make programming any better.

[TapfererToaster]

If you want to run FreeNas in a virtual instance, you need to make sure the VM has direct access to the HDDs.

 

So you would need to pass the Sata-controller on your motherboard through to the VM running FreeNas. Since most non-server motherboards only got one controller, that would mean you would not be able to use any drives connected to the controller outside of freenas.

 

Since most people generally don't want that, they add a HBA or raidcard in IT mode to the system and pass it through to the VM. That leaves the drives connected to the motherboard for the Hypervisor and the ones connected to HBA for freenas.

 

I don't use ProxMox, so i am not sure how passthrough works there, but i would guess it's similar.

 

What i would do, is get a IBM 1015 or Dell Perc H200 Raidcard of ebay (<~50$) and flash it into IT mode. Both cards are basicly the same - got the same chip, just different OEM.

IT mode means, drives connected to the controller are treated as if they were connected to your Mainboard - no raid etc. happens.

Then slap VMware ESXi on the PC, create a FreeNas VM and pass the Raidcard through to it. I personally already had a Ubuntu VM on the same Host, so i installed plex on that and mounted shares from my FreeNas VM to my ubuntu VM internally instead of installing plex directly onto the FreeNas VM.

What is missing tho, is a drive connected to your mainboard onto which you can store your VMs. I would suggest a SSD, size depending on how many VMs you want to run - FreeNas only needs ~8 GB.

 

For this solution to work tho, your CPU and Mainboard need to support passthrough - i think that was VT-D on Intel CPUs.