Dual Socket AMD server, what to do?

[Ryujin2003]

So, I don't know all of the details yet, but I just got a functioning dual socket AMD server from a friend. I've got a drive to put in it, and have an image of Windows Server to install onto it.

 

I've never built a server before, but was thinking about using it for media.

 

I didn't know if anyone had some guidance for n00b servers, ideas on what to do with it so I can learn how they function, and suggestions on stability. Like, should I use a different OS than Windows Server? I can got it free from that Microsoft Education thing. But if it would be better if with a flavor of Linux, let me know. I currently have a 1.5 TB drive that I was going to use for music and some movies and photos, and expand as I get more digital content. I would like to eventually get RAID, but don't want to go full out until I know what I'm doing. (I have setting things up to realize I found a better way of doing it, and restarting becomes a pain in the arse).

 

I can post a picture and specs later. Haven't had a chance to check that out fully yet.

[jQu]

Free server, awesome!

You should definitely visit r/homelab on reddit. There are many tips for what you want to achieve there. Second thing, if that server has enough RAM and CPU power then the best course is to virtualize everything. Keeping growing projects in one OS is just bad. You can do that in Windows but Hyper-V is not the best hypervisor. If you want some help you can always PM me

[itzzkolt]

I was in your place a couple months ago, got a good deal on a Dell PowerEdge R710.  I don't have much use for it but I wanted to learn virtualization which was fairly easy and now I have multiple projects hosted on it.  +1 to visiting r/homelab as there is a lot of information there, especially their wiki that can get you on the right direction.  I personally went with installing the free version of VMware's ESXi hypervisor and first time I logged in, I was amazed.  

 

Good luck!

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, itzzkolt said:

I was in your place a couple months ago, got a good deal on a Dell PowerEdge R710.  I don't have much use for it but I wanted to learn virtualization which was fairly easy and now I have multiple projects hosted on it.  +1 to visiting r/homelab as there is a lot of information there, especially their wiki that can get you on the right direction.  I personally went with installing the free version of VMware's ESXi hypervisor and first time I logged in, I was amazed.  

 

Good luck!

What did you use your server for? I was recommended making a Minecraft server for the sake of learning something. But I'm very good oriented. I need something to work towards and accomplish.

[itzzkolt]

15 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

What did you use your server for? I was recommended making a Minecraft server for the sake of learning something. But I'm very good oriented. I need something to work towards and accomplish.

Right now, it serves the purpose of rendering videos and a OpenVPN access server so I can VPN to my home network from anywhere.  I have Ubuntu server installed as a web server but I'm not working with it atm.  Starting a Minecraft isn't really something ideal to learn when you want to get into the scene of homelabbing, unless of course that is something you are genuinely interested in and that's an entire different world.  Virtualization is something you should at least read about, anyone would recommend you start with that.  You could install pfSense, an open source router OS and make it into a over-powered router.  You did mention storing files, so I would definitely consider something like FreeNAS, which is another operating system which allows for storing files over the network.  

[Ryujin2003]

3 hours ago, itzzkolt said:

Snip

 

8 hours ago, jQu said:

Snip

So, it looks a little old, and looks like to Dual core AMD Opteron 285. Would these be sufficient to run a media server, or should I do something different? I've been waiting for a Xeon machine, but no dice yet.

[jQu]

Hmm, that pretty weak but you will manage. Plex recommend around 2000 passmark points for encoding one HD stream. Opteron seems to have 1400 points, so if you have two it should be alright. Also, streams don't always have to be encoded. What can you do with this server depends only on how much you want to learn. I would say start with a hypervisor, set up media server and maybe file server in VMs, learn a little bit of linux in the process