Help me choose the storage server!

[VoidWalker]

Dear fellow Linustechtips users,

 

A newbie here! The company I am working for is gradually moving towards storing the data on the server. We currently want a setup where we could use a storage server to store virtual hard drives of our VMs. We want Linux servers to be able to access the storage (all drives should be pooled together). I am tasked with finding out the best possible solution for the task price/value wise. How do I choose the server? How strong should the metal be so that the VMs (~100 of them) would be usable at the same time (read and write speed wise)? Do I need to go with something as expensive as this NVMe server, or can it be some simple storage server where we could just plug like 10 2.5 SATA SSD drives?

 

Thank you for the answers!

[nobiggieBIG]

9 minutes ago, VoidWalker said:

Dear fellow Linustechtips users,

 

A newbie here! The company I am working for is gradually moving towards storing the data on the server. We currently want a setup where we could use a storage server to store virtual hard drives of our VMs. We want Linux servers to be able to access the storage (all drives should be pooled together). I am tasked with finding out the best possible solution for the task price/value wise. How do I choose the server? How strong should the metal be so that the VMs (~100 of them) would be usable at the same time (read and write speed wise)? Do I need to go with something as expensive as this NVMe server, or can it be some simple storage server where we could just plug like 10 2.5 SATA SSD drives?

 

Thank you for the answers!

Ive said this before

 

Old core i7

Old 2012 mobo

Shit loads of storage space + WD Red

10gb network card

PC Case with places for loads of drives

Raid card + 2ssd

FreeNAS
CAT6 Ethernet

------

Cheap and powerful

[VoidWalker]

@nobiggieBIG

Thanks for the suggestion,

Yet there are few things I want to ask:

1) What if we want a current gen CPU - what is a good "server level" motherboard?

2) How do I choose a Raid card?

3) How to go about the case if we want to put it all into the rack?

 

[nobiggieBIG]

Just now, VoidWalker said:

@nobiggieBIG

Thanks for the suggestion,

Yet there are few things I want to ask:

1) What if we want a current gen CPU - what is a good "server level" motherboard?

2) How do I choose a Raid card?

3) How to go about the case if we want to put it all into the rack?

 

1) no point, its just for transfering files between the server and the pc.

2) https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8-port-highpoint-rocketraid-2720sgl(rr2720)-internal-pci-e-20-x8-to-sas-sata-iii-raid-controller-oem

3) https://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/server-cases/rackmount/jbod/3u-12g-jbod-16-x-35-hot-swap-tool-less-drive-trays-with-a-single-hot-swap-expander-and-a-549w-redundant-psu-ipc-s3et-r549-1e-hs-12g/ Something like this buy used.