My Potiental! Suggestions on what I could do?

[Alternative 311]

Hi Everyone!

 

I have dilemma, and open for suggestions. I am looking to upgrade my server, with that means new OS. Here is what I have tried so far.

Things I am looking to do are 5+ VM's, Household Backup server, Media Server Software transcodes on the fly, lots of other Data.

 

FreeNAS - Like the implementation but not a Linux fan

UnRaid - I am not sure of the Nightly Cache move process. Plugins were weird to configure for what I wanted.

Windows 10 - Considering 512 GB Memory limit Which is great. Some light Games, VM's. If Commended may use as main desktop with Backup server VM in background running 24x7

Server 2012 Essentials - Centrally Manage Backups has a 64 GB Memory Limitation Cannot use Hyper-V. That can be fixed with other VM software.

 

Below is my current config. Please any Suggestions will be considered

 

Please keep in mind, of cost. I use, used items as they are more affordable? Not looking to go with off the wall idea's. Server 2012, I have from TechNet before the subscriptions based programs stopped. Windows 10 I can purchase.

I would love to purchase new Server Grade equipment, but....

 

Thank YOU!

 

Potential Desktop, Server, or both? Ebay Purchase with added parts

HP z820 Workstation

2 X Intel Xeon E5-2640 2.5GHz Hex Core

32 GB ECC DDR3 1333 MHz  (Currently) (512GB Max)

Nvidia K4000

850 Samsung Evo 250 Boot – (OS?)

4 X 4 TB WD Gold Enterprise (Raid 5) – Data

(Adding 3 X 4 TB WD Red) - Movie, Music Database.

 

Desktop (Currently)

Dell Precision T3500 Workstation

Intel Xeon W3520 2.67GHz BloomField LGA1366 Quad Core (Could upgrade… But why?)

32 GB ECC DDR3  667mhz (Maxed)

Quadro FX 580 – Does what I want it to do. Not a PC gamer.

120 GB SDD Boot - Windows 10

500 GB WD Black - For Misc

1 TB WD Black - VM’s

5 TB WD Black - backup of server.

 

Server (Current) Running for 7 years.

HP xw4400 Workstation

Intel Core2Duo 6700 2.67GHz Dual Core (Maxed)

8 GB DDR2 800 (Maxed)

VGA Display Card (Off Brand)

2 X 500 GB WD Black (Raid 1) - Boot  WHS 2011

2 X 2 TB WD Red (Raid 1) - Important Data

1.5 TB WD Green - Backups

3 TB Seagate - Data

Running EMBY Server as Media Server doubles as Backup Server.

Runs at 100% for 45 min when transcoding movies outside the house @ Less than 100 FPS.

 

[Mdgtman91]

Citrix ZenServer is what I have running in my home lab. All it does is run virtual machines. You can the VM your backup server, media server, storage server all on that same hardware. What ever you need just VM it. Mine is currently running 2 Domain controllers, a dhcp server, 5 workstations, and a NAS. 

[Alternative 311]

On 7/4/2017 at 3:10 PM, Mdgtman91 said:

Citrix ZenServer is what I have running in my home lab. All it does is run virtual machines. You can the VM your backup server, media server, storage server all on that same hardware. What ever you need just VM it. Mine is currently running 2 Domain controllers, a dhcp server, 5 workstations, and a NAS. 

Thanks Mdgtman

 

I am going to give that a try before I put into production. Although, the install does not see the source disk that I boot from (USB). So I will need to look more into that as well. Thanks for the suggestion!

[leadeater]

Windows 10 would actually do a decent job combined with Storage Spaces, Windows 10 does have a maximum remote connection count of 10 but for home use that shouldn't be an issue.

 

I use VMware ESXi for my servers and you can run that off a USB drive and use the SSD to host the VMs and use the larger RAID 5 of storing extra virtual disks for those VMs for bulk data etc. You'll need to get an actually good RAID card though if using ESXi.

[newgeneral10]

On 7/2/2017 at 10:22 PM, Alternative 311 said:

FreeNAS - Like the implementation but not a Linux fan

*cough* FreeNas isn't Linux *cough*