Help! New to the Server World

[Misinthe]

Hi everyone, I've been wanting to get a server for my family's storage with the ability to stream with Plex. I don't know if I should build from start, get an old server out of ebay or something, or go for something like Synology. What I want it to do is:

• Back up computers weekly.
• Assign users with restrictions to which files they can access from the backup
• Stream Movies and such with Plex.
• Create users with restrictions to Plex, like kids can only access kids movies and such.

I don't know if all this can be possible but this is something like what I want. Is it even something I can do? Thank you all for your comments! 

[NTDaws]

Windows Home Server 2011 is a good option for you. Yes mainstream support is gone but its great for what your doing.

[NTDaws]

 

[Ashleyyyy]

1 minute ago, Being Delirious said:

Windows Home Server 2011 is a good option for you. Yes mainstream support is gone but its great for what your doing.

no. out of support operating systems are not a good idea. virusses and all that. 

 

OP, getting servers off of ebay is a bad idea, those machines were never really designed for home use and most models of datacenter server are really loud and consume quite a bit of power. 

[NTDaws]

3 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

no. out of support operating systems are not a good idea. virusses and all that. 

 

OP, getting servers off of ebay is a bad idea, those machines were never really designed for home use and most models of datacenter server are really loud and consume quite a bit of power. 

Its still receiving security updates.

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, Being Delirious said:

Its still receiving security updates.

okay, but i doubt plex will run on it.. 

[NTDaws]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

okay, but i doubt plex will run on it.. 

Plex runs on it.

[Misinthe]

5 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

OP, getting servers off of ebay is a bad idea, those machines were never really designed for home use and most models of datacenter server are really loud and consume quite a bit of power. 

So it would be better to just build a new computer with something like a Ryzen 3?

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, Being Delirious said:

Plex runs on it.

What about a newer Windows Server?

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, Miguel552 said:

So it would be better to just build a new computer with something like a Ryzen 3?

correct. unless you need specific things like hardware RAID etc.. 

 

i own an old datacenter server, but i've had to replace the whole cooling system because it was so loud you had to scream over the noise when talking to someone.. 

 

the main advantage of those things is cost. my server (specs see signature) cost me about €130, which for an 8 core 16 thread machine is very cheap. but it took me a week to get it quiet enough for daily use. i had to solder fans onto proprietary connectors and everything.. 

so unless you find enjoyment in building up one of those (like i do) it's not worth it. and i use it for virtualization, which is why i need all those cores. but for your use you don't.. 

 

also, datacenter servers consume a few hundred watts of power, which is a lot in comparison to a ryzen 3. 

 

i would do some research into the plex performance of a ryzen 3, and the intel equivelant, and see if it works for you. 

[Ashleyyyy]

8 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

What about a newer Windows Server?

do you need that? plex runs on normal Windows as well i assume? 

 

EDIT: maybe for those advanced file sharing things, but i'd research first. i think normal Windows can do that too, but i'm not sure, look it up. 

[Misinthe]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

do you need that? plex runs on normal Windows as well i assume? 

Yeah, it also runs on FreeNAS which is what I was thinking on using because of the whole "free" thing.

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, Miguel552 said:

Yeah, it also runs on FreeNAS which is what I was thinking on using because of the whole "free" thing.

that's a good choice as well! i forgot about it.. 

[Misinthe]

2 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

that's a good choice as well! i forgot about it.. 

Yeah, I know it does the Plex server, but I don't know how well it does backups and if it has the restrictions I need.

[Ashleyyyy]

1 minute ago, Miguel552 said:

Yeah, I know it does the Plex server, but I don't know how well it does backups and if it has the restrictions I need.

i don't have much experience with it, so you'll have to look that up

[Misinthe]

2 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i don't have much experience with it, so you'll have to look that up

Yeah, so I guess I'll start working on buying parts and getting some info on FreeNas, I wonder why Linus hasn't made a video on that yet.

[paddy-stone]

Yes freenas is a VERY good choice for your needs, you could even run it as a VM form your computer. For general serving duties and plex a VERY basic CPU like the G4560 or similar is still a good choice, everything else for the build can be cheap-ish too if you like. IF you don't use your/or someone else's PC much it COULD be used from there, especially plex that will run off almost anything.

[Misinthe]

5 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Yes freenas is a VERY good choice for your needs, you could even run it as a VM form your computer. For general serving duties and plex a VERY basic CPU like the G4560 or similar is still a good choice, everything else for the build can be cheap-ish too if you like. IF you don't use your/or someone else's PC much it COULD be used from there, especially plex that will run off almost anything.

Well, I want it on a separate room than my office because it will run 100% of the time and produce some heat. Also, I am doing water cooling on my PC so I don't have much space for the Hard Drives. And about the G4560, I was reading that depending on how much you're going to transcode, you might need better CPU. I want to plan at least for 3 or 4 people watching BluRay at the same time, rather be prepared than short out and have to replace it afterwards.

 

Edit: although for that price it is very appealing...

[NTDaws]

49 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

What about a newer Windows Server?

Have fun buying that. There good but way to much money.

[paddy-stone]

17 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

Well, I want it on a separate room than my office because it will run 100% of the time and produce some heat. Also, I am doing water cooling on my PC so I don't have much space for the Hard Drives. And about the G4560, I was reading that depending on how much you're going to transcode, you might need better CPU. I want to plan at least for 3 or 4 people watching BluRay at the same time, rather be prepared than short out and have to replace it afterwards.

 

Edit: although for that price it is very appealing...

Well for transcoding, it can be very hard to tell, for instance I have an i7 6700K in my main server, if I transcode say 4k to 4k, because of a limitation with plex(i suspect)... it has happened a few times, the i7 barely scrapes by and that's on ONE transcode stream. I have also had it happen that it won't even play a 4K file at all... in this instance it is MUCH better to use KODI instead, the files play flawlessly using the same device for playback, which can handle 4K no problems.. and also when I check my server the load is like barely registering, no transcoding needed at all, which leads me to it being a PLEX limitation. I have tested and retested these scenarios, and it drove me half mad with the nonsensical nature of the "problem". So, now if there are any files that COULD cause me transcoding problems with plex I just use KODI for playback instead. I suspect it has to do with the fact that plex still transcodes everything in x264, but not knowing more about this subject I can't say for sure.

The only reasons I stick with plex instead of going back to KODI for good really, are that plex can bookmark your progress with very little effort, so that you can continue playback on another device very easily... this is handy for me as I get too exhausted to stay sitting up for long periods, and have to retire to bed often, when using kodi this is highly frustrating to have to try and find/seek for the place you finished watching for instance. The thing is plex REALLY needs an update to enable h.265/x265 decoding/encoding, this I think would help greatly with the transcoding for one thing... I know I could drop my settings, but the fact is if I have gone to the trouble of purchasing 4K content and have a 4K capable device, then I would prefer to watch it that way.

To be clear it is still only 1 movie that will not play no matter what I try in the plex settings, john wick 2, it glitches like crazy right from the get go, and is completely unwatchable... I check the status and it's very high up there in terms of CPU usage. Yet watching it on kodi there are no problems at all and sits at like 1%-ish cpu usage. I tried it on another 4k box I have too, and the same result... anyway what I'm saying is just bear that in mind that because plex loves to transcode stuff even if it shouldn't need transcoding it seems.. then try a different player and just add the server address.

I would try plex from your main pc to get an idea of what you're looking at in terms of trancoding power, and this can vary a lot depending on codec.

 

[Misinthe]

12 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

-Snip-

So you think the G4560 would work fine with regular BR? I don't even own 4k ones that I would need. I just want to play regular ones on multiples devices. I see your server has an i7 6700k.

[Blebekblebek]

Try nas4free instead of freenas

the differences?

1. Community

2. Basic hardware requirement.

3. Focus of each OS, Freenas is leaning towards Enterprise, while nas4free is still targeting home user.

With freenas if you don't have basic requirement which is using 8GB ECC RAM + motherboard that supports it, at best you'll get sarcastic respond, or ignored.

 

Both are very ZFS focused, the disadvantages with these are you must planned your machine, as upgrading is sometimes quite challenging specially if you are using multiple drive into 1 pool (doesn't matter what mode).

 

As for WHS, I don't understand why even it's got mentioned it's dead 8 years ago, it's not even being sold anymore, if you want to use windows, you can use windows 10 if your connecting 10 devices or less.

 

As data grows, I used to think that synology/qnap and any other NAS solution are just money grab, but now I think differently, the performance is on point and it's rock solid almost built to dummy.

if you can afford it (synology/qnap) go for it, in long run these server grade machine (or powerful machine in general) to run nas is just getting ridiculous IMO.

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

-Snip-

Thank you for this info, I'm going to check into nas4free. Also, I'm planning on starting with like 1 or 2 4TB (2 for redundancy) drives and expand as needed, would that be something that's hard to do? I was looking into Synology/Qnap, but gotta front out around $500 just for the unit and then add up the Drives, so it can become quite expensive for something with limited storage space. That's why I'm looking into building my own, so I can modify as needed.

[Blebekblebek]

Get the less expensive model, believe me, the money you'll going to spend for 8GB ECC RAM, Supermicro board, a case that fit few HDD in it and good power supply for it almost equal to number you are going to spend for 1 stop NAS product.

 

Unless you building it with used stuff, my point is, if you are bulding this machine with used hardware and not spending anything for it other than storage it self I really encourage it, but if you are going to spend money to buy hardware to build it, you better off with nas product.

 

Good luck

[Misinthe]

2 minutes ago, Blebekblebek said:

-snip-

But if I get the cheapest unites are usually 2-bay and around $250, so I can't go beyond 2 drives. I was thinking on getting consumer parts, not ECC.