FTP Storage server using a Dell PowerEdge T320

[Tyfferegle]

Good evening.

 

I have been wanting to build myself a storage server for quite some time now.

The main functions of the server will be;

- Mass storage of my girlfriends videos/photos (she is a photographer/video creator)

- Storage for her to work from on her laptop / desktop

- Internet-attached storage (I want access to the servers files over the internet from anywhere, from any device (HFS?))

- A Plex server for in-house streaming of music and movies

- The option to host the occasional game server (Currently playing ECO)

- Redundancy ( will also be running an off-site backup like backblaze monthly)

- In the neighborhood of 20 TB of storage

 

Fortunately I just got an older Dell T320 from work (I work in the dental industry).

It's harddrives have failed, and even though DELL sent us two 1tb SAS drives, we couldn't rebuild the OS.

The customer ended up buying himself a new server, seeing as this one is from late 2014.

 

Short story. the server contains:

32 gigs of ECC RAM

A Xeon E5-24xx V2 (not quite sure)

An 8 port SAS controller (compatible with SATA).

I'll include the service tag, if any of you fancy checking out the specs: http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1/product-support/servicetag/b29ld22/research?lwp=r

 

What I'm wondering is:

- What OS should I go with? (I am quite comfortable with Linux, and I work with Windows sever on a daily basis)

- What kind of RAID setup should I run?  (currently have got 2 x 4tb WD red NAS drives, and I can buy as many more as is required)

- What kind of backup schedule would be sufficient?
- What software/solution would I use for accessing the files online ( I did try HFS on an old PC i set up as a server, and that seemed OK)

- Partitioning (How would I go about doing this efficiently?)

- Upgradeability ( In case I need to expand the storage down the line)

 

Any feedback is appreciated, and I am open to any suggestions!

 

Thanks a bunch in advance

 

//Even

 

 

 

 

[Tyfferegle]

This is the CPU in my T320

 

https://eu.mouser.com/new/Intel/intel-e5-2400-v2-processor/