Guidance for Home Office Server

[mrstochastic]

Looking for some guidance for a home office server with the following use 

• Network storage: Music, photos etc
• Automated backups (specific folders, manual images)
• Automated data scraping (simple python scripts)
• SQL Server
• Offloading data processing. Not working with "big data" per se, but I do regularly consolidate several data sets (measures 2-4 GB in memory) and perform simple calculations after consolidation (ratios, counts, event returns, etc). I have had a few R scripts take >6 hrs to process taking up all the cores on my desktop (yes, I know that R is not the most efficient language, and I am working on re-coding in python/sql).
• Offloading Bayesian/ML models.

I am thinking of implementing VM, so that if one thing crashes not everything will. I don’t need things to be done right away, just looking to offload so that I can keep working ahead or on something else on the main desktop. This will be a budget-ish build (all preliminary)

• Ryzen 5/7
• 16 to 32 GB memory
• SSD Boot in RAID ? (or no redundancy and have a backup image)
• 2x HD for Network Access Storage in RAID ?
• 2x HD for Backups in RAID ?
• Integrated graphics/low end GPU with option to upgrade once all the crypto in the world has been mined.

So what are my questions?

• OS Recommendation (Windows v. Linux)
• Virtualization software recommendations (VirtualBox, VMware etc)
• SQL Server recommendation (SQLite, MySQL etc)
• Remote software recommendation
• Backup software recommendations
• What HD controller options should I consider (RAID 1/5, SAS vs SATA etc)

Thanks in advance for your help, 

[AbsoluteFool]

I can't give all ansers here, but i will pass on a few.

 

For os I would suggest linux.

Virtualization, VirtualBox VMware or if you have to proxmox or Xen (I think VirtualBox and VMware is best, just my opinion  )

SQL, Depends. MySQL, postgreeSQL, take your pick.

Remote software? SSH? or VNC

For backing up you can try syncthing if you self want to own the backup server.

 

SAS/SATA depends on what you really want. SATA if you want capacity. RAID level depends on how many disks you want. However if you have big drives go with a RAID 1.

[krekas]

Maybe think about proxmox. Then you can make as many vm's as you want.

[Electronics Wizardy]

For os id go proxmox here. Good home hypervisor. ESXI is also fine if you want vmware.

 

Why ryzen? Id probalby go dual 2011 here. About the same price, much cheaper ram and lots more of it.

 

For drives, how much storage we thinking?

 

Id make a single storage pool, for both backups and storage.

 

For raid, proxmox has zfs, use that. Then no need for a raid card, and much better data protection.

 

For boot, just get a basic 120gb ssd or sata dom or simmilar. You don't need much(16gb is fine here with most hypervisors).

 

For backups, Id just have have a network share and have the systems backup to that.  There are centralized backup software like veeam, but its not free and with a few computers won't save much time in managing.

 

 

 

 

 

[mrstochastic]

Thanks for the advice! Helps to narrow the focus, and will look at the idea of using dual 2011 (I was shocked looking at DDR4 memory prices).

 

It's going to take me some time to put everything together, will post again if I have questions and will try to document the build/setup best I can.

[jde3]

On 7/2/2018 at 8:08 AM, ipseity said:

So what are my questions?

• OS Recommendation (Windows v. Linux)
• Virtualization software recommendations (VirtualBox, VMware etc)
• SQL Server recommendation (SQLite, MySQL etc)
• Remote software recommendation
• Backup software recommendations
• What HD controller options should I consider (RAID 1/5, SAS vs SATA etc)

Thanks in advance for your help, 

I don't know what your questions are. j/k

 

I've been a sysadmin since the 90's if your asking what *I* like to use that may be a little different than what others would like or what you feel comfortable using. I think there is a lot of value in learning this stuff because it can make your life really easy in the end. I like to keep everything open source, it's easier to validate, no contracts, no vendor buyouts, no end of life (well not really) .. with open source you rarely run into a problem others have never had before so you almost always can find help and documentation online.. even when your pretty far off the rails.

 

• OS - FreeBSD for general purpose servers (OpenBSD for VPN, firewall and possibly mail servers or small static web servers and Linux if I have to use it.)
• Virtualisation - I prefer containers over VM's (Jails) when possible. Bhyve and KVM when they aren't. I use VirtualBox sometimes for testing.
• SQL Server - Postgres for large servers as it can compare with Oracle. MariaDB (a fork of MySQL) for small servers.
• Remote software - SSH? Nextcloud? If you mean management then CFEngine but I've been looking at newer stuff recently, I'll get back to you.
• Backup Software - For servers ZFS snapshots is the best way to do this. For client systems I like duplicity or duplicati
• Disk Controller - Hardware raid is evil. I use ZFS for everything. (You should not use Raid 5 in enterprise)

[Razor Blade]

34 minutes ago, jde3 said:

*snip*

• Disk Controller - Hardware raid is evil. I use ZFS for everything. (You should not use Raid 5 in enterprise)

IMO hardware raid (array is built and maintained by a controller instead of the OS) isn't necessarily evil, it is just dated... there are better options out there. But if someone wants to use the controller to build their array a built in cache and a backup battery is pretty much a must IMO. There are still uses for "hardware" raid. 

 

Before you jump on me, I also use ZFS for my NAS (and that is what I would recommend to people) but I do have a hardware controlled RAID 5 on a workstation. I don't store critical data on the array or anything. Mostly just locally stored files while I am working. All data is backed up on the NAS immediately and the NAS is backed up every so often to offline storage then the offline storage is replicated every so often and taken off site. I've toyed with the idea of backing up unique critical data on an online account after encrypting it...but the only encryption I have messed with is something like 7zip (which I don't know if it is really any good). My policies and procedures aren't perfect and I could be backing this stuff up more often...but I'm not running a business here...

 

Personally I've only recently (I mean only a few days ago) switched over my home to ESXI and VMs. Before that I had 3 physical boxes sucking up power and blowing heat into the already warm house. Here is what I have

 

ESXI

• PFsense
• FreeNAS (using a PCI-Passthrough LSI controller flashed in IT mode)
• Windows install running blue iris

[jde3]

It's a lie.

 

It's just a SOC, software on a chip. The key part being software, with the source code probably being in someones home directory that no longer works for the company. You don't need software you have very little control over emulating a disk to your OS when your OS can do the job perfectly fine. The fewer lies the better.

 

7zip prob uses GPG.

[Razor Blade]

3 minutes ago, jde3 said:

It's a lie.

 

It's just a SOC, software on a chip. The key part being software, with the source code probably being in someones home directory that no longer works for the company.

What? Are you talking about raid cards? Yes they work by SOC that's why I put hardware in quotes because it isn't really correct to say its the hardware that is maintaining the array it is the controller's software. A lot of enterprise gear uses SOC with updatable firmware. Firmware updates are typically maintained by whatever company supports the hardware.

 

I believe a lot of people get a bad impression for "hardware" raid because they use the raid option that is on many consumer grade motherboards and think that is just as good...I've personally never had a good experience... But when I've been messing with retired server gear, these raid controllers are actually pretty good.

[jde3]

Humanity is in a war vs firmware and you need to pick a side @Razor Blade