what os should I install on my server?

[Dom Reeve]

Hello, I brought a server off my friend who had no idea what it was as he got given it for free and it was apparently an “ex military” server, so I wiped it completely, and I don’t know which os to put on it as I’ve tried a few but always had errors whilst trying to set up, it’s a hp proliant dl380 g4, with 1.8tb storage and 12gb of ram, and two intel xeon processors, don’t know the processor name off the top of my head, but please help

[Smeltie]

if its gonna become a nas try freenas, or linux with samba installed (samba is a file sharing software)
you could always try windows server 2008 r2...

[BobBuilder]

@Martijin Klerks any specific reason for 2008 R2 instead of something newer like 2016 or 2019? Just curious

[jj9987]

What do you want to do with the server? What do you want to learn?

 

Most common server operating systems are Debian, CentOS and Ubuntu.

If you want to do virtualization, start out with ESXi or Proxmox or something similar.

If you like masochism, you can also try out Windows Server (tho this isn't free).

[Dom Reeve]

1 minute ago, jj9987 said:

What do you want to do with the server? What do you want to learn?

 

Most common server operating systems are Debian, CentOS and Ubuntu.

If you want to do virtualization, start out with ESXi or Proxmox or something similar.

If you like masochism, you can also try out Windows Server (tho this isn't free).

Well I’m a developer and I would be using it preferably for running scripts and maybe turn it into a cPanel server as I own a hosting company aswell

[jj9987]

1 minute ago, Dom Reeve said:

Well I’m a developer and I would be using it preferably for running scripts and maybe turn it into a cPanel server as I own a hosting company aswell

In that case, Debian 9 or Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS, both are good starting points. CentOS is slightly more enterprise-grade and has a little higher learning curve.

[Dom Reeve]

Just now, jj9987 said:

In that case, Debian 9 or Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS are good starting points. CentOS is slightly more enterprise-grade and has a little higher learning curve.

I will try them out, I already know how to use centos and Ubuntu, but haven’t tried the other one you recommend, thank you for the help though!

[jj9987]

Just now, Dom Reeve said:

I will try them out, I already know how to use centos and Ubuntu, but haven’t tried the other one you recommend, thank you for the help though!

No problem.

 

If you want to try out multiple at once and also get some knowledge on virtualization (running multiple virtual machines/OS-s on single piece of hardware), then install a hypervisor (ESXi or Proxmox) first. Much worse to be done at later stage.

[AbsoluteFool]

23 minutes ago, Dom Reeve said:

Well I’m a developer and I would be using it preferably for running scripts and maybe turn it into a cPanel server as I own a hosting company aswell

cpanel only support ContOS. Debian or ubuntu will not work with cpanel. So you would want to go with CentOS.

[AndrewMKlasen]

Use FreeNas or CentOS

[NelizMastr]

35 minutes ago, Aloau said:

@Martijin Klerks any specific reason for 2008 R2 instead of something newer like 2016 or 2019? Just curious

Too old. 2016 doesn't accept older drivers very well at all, and it might not even install. This is 2004 hardware.

 

35 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

Most common server operating systems are Debian, CentOS and Ubuntu.

If you want to do virtualization, start out with ESXi or Proxmox or something similar.

If you like masochism, you can also try out Windows Server (tho this isn't free).

This hardware won't run current versions of Proxmox or ESXi as there's no hardware virtualization support on these old 604 Xeons. You'll be stuck with

32-bit VMs, which is rather useless. And these are single core HT Xeons more than likely, with a healthy 103W TDP each.

 

 

[jj9987]

2 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

This hardware won't run current versions of Proxmox or ESXi as there's no hardware virtualization support on these old 604 Xeons. You'll be stuck with

32-bit VMs, which is rather useless. And these are single core HT Xeons more than likely, with a healthy 103W TDP each.

He didn't mention the Xeon models and I was too lazy to Google so yea. Thanks

[NelizMastr]

32 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

He didn't mention the Xeon models and I was too lazy to Google so yea. Thanks

I had a ML350 G4 so I kinda knew what was going on without looking up haha. If you enjoy paying for power, these are perfect!

[Rehmat]

TBH ive got Lubuntu [lightweight ubuntu] working perfectly on a pentium D 820 with 4gb of ram.

If i was you i would go down the Lubuntu route. on idle 0% cpu useage and 100Mb ram usage.

I used it for about a year as  a webserver and NAS and was able to fully saturate a 1gb ethernet link.

[PC Pig]

Red Hat Enterprise Linux