Home server question, PFA

"rockingthe2" (unpredictable-swerve) 07/30/2017 at 19:48 • Filed to: None

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Picture is an old parts truck I had circa 2009

So, my roommates just moved out, and I now have 2 extra rooms in my house. I’m going to be using one as an office and I’d like to get a server setup. I did have my old desktop shoved behind my media center in the living room but I literally haven’t touched it in... hrmm 2 years? Whenever it got packed up from my last move was the last time I really messed with that desktop, either way, it’s been sitting around for a while. As it stands right now I’ve got that desktop, an older i3 with 4GB RAM and 1TB HDD, nothing fancy, literally a $400 best buy special. My 2 laptops, one just got Ubuntu 16.04, and my one I use for work I need to keep win10 on. I can use the Ubuntu one for literally anything as it’s sat for close to a year now not being used until today. My network will have 2 more laptops, another desktop, 2 phones, a tablet, another tablet as a smart mirror, smart TV, chromecast, and probably a few more things I can’t remember right now.

What I want to do is set the i3 desktop up as a server, streaming media to the TV, backup storage, firewall service, IP masked torrent box, whatever. I’m curious as to what my options even are as I’ve never had a server before. I was thinking of running ubuntu or ubuntu server, as I’m more familiar with it than windows, and it should play nice with Mac and Windows being on the same network.

So, Oppo, any ideas? Comments? Suggestions?

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > rockingthe2 07/30/2017 at 19:51

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That picture hurts me.

jminer > rockingthe2 07/30/2017 at 20:06

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Sysadmin here. For the firewall you’re better off running an appliance, even something like a router with DD-WRT loaded on it. Everything else a server should do fine.

I’m mostly a Windows guy so I would tell you to put Windows on there. I run a 2012 R2 cluster at home, that does my backup aggregation, media streaming (plex), AD, DNS, DHCP, Media Storage, Hypervisor and a few other services.

Also Ubuntu server is basically Ubuntu Desktop minus the user interface, so without resources being a large problem just put the desktop version (LTS branch) and call it good. I’ve always been a RPM distro guy so I can’t speak to the specifics of ubuntu.

For media streaming the question would be what app do you want to use? I love Plex, you can get a plex server up and running in a couple minutes on Windows, it has a decent user interface and is low maintenance.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > rockingthe2 07/30/2017 at 20:11

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Former server guy here, run whatever OS you like on server just keep it bare when it comes to other software and you will be good to go

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > rockingthe2 07/30/2017 at 20:14

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As much as you tried, it will never be a 1st gen.

Orange Exige > rockingthe2 07/30/2017 at 21:10

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I was about to mention the same thing about Ubuntu server - being mainly the same just without the UI. For your sake and use cases, I think you could just use regular Ubuntu/whatever. It’ll be for personal use, not high demand production. You should even be able to get stock Windows to work out for you if that’s already what’s on it.

I don’t actually have much advice otherwise to give you. I’m a nerd myself and even work in IT but I have a wholly unimpressive setup at home. Your past may just be the motivation I need to set something small up myself - I like your thoughts about having a file server for automated backups. I haven’t even done my external hard drive backup in a while that reminds me - I should get on that o_O

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > jminer 07/30/2017 at 21:21

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Not to mention if you shape your QoS rules on the network appliance side you can get pretty decent streaming connection while away from home.

AndyG_UK > jminer 07/31/2017 at 04:10

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I thought we were bad with our setup, 1 box (last gen i5, 32gb of memory, mirrored 240gb SSD’s for the base OS (2012), Rocket raid card with 4, 4TB drives, 4 tuner sat card (tuner driver framework installed) and DVBlink. Then it has a VM (2012 again) which is our domain controller, file server, plex server, DHCP, DNS etc. There is also a Win 10 VM on it which connects the interwibbles only via BT Guard VPN for “things”.

Then there is another,small mini ITX (fanless PC case, used to be our media centre) with an old i3, 8gb of memory, couple of SSD’s, that again runs 2012, has Homeseer home automation SW running on it (mostly for our heating system at the moment), also has a 2012 VM on it that is a backup DC for DNS etc.

They are on a UPS, if the power goes out the small box tells the big one to shut down after 2 mins, it won’t shut down until the UPS is down to 10%.

My partner is moving his office in to our house soon (building they are currently in is being knocked down and his one employee is leaving), so we will soon have an acoustic server cabinet going in to the cellar (is about hip height) with 3 Dell rack mount servers in it, a rack mount UPS and NAS (onsite backup device, also backs itself up to the Azure cloud), that also comes with another switch (we already have one in a comms cabinet under the cellar stairs with a patch panel), a Watchguard Firebox and a portable AC unit. I’ve told him he needs to speak to his accountant about getting his business to pay for a chunk of the utility bills! 

rockingthe2 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 07/31/2017 at 13:53

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Trust me, that truck lives on in..... 5 different 4Runners? Hell, I sold the body to a guy who swapped in a SBC and uses it as a mud truck. It had been rolled twice, had the top cut off, blown the headgaskets , and still the guy drove it for I think a month before I got it. It went to the junkyard in the sky for a good cause.

rockingthe2 > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 07/31/2017 at 13:54

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I didn’t try, but that’s why I got it for $200 with a lift kit, 5 good tires, a cat back, and a (mostly) full interior

rockingthe2 > jminer 07/31/2017 at 13:59

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Noted on the firewall. For streaming either Plex or Kodi, whichever my TV can use (Sony Bravia smart TV). I’m way more comfortable with Ubuntu, and it’s really easy on the power from what I understand. I’m not trying to subscribe to any services, just because I’m trying to work down some debt, so subscription fees are a no go for anything. I have some tabs open and doing some research, but what exactly do you mean by “AD, DNS, DHCP, and Hypervisor”? Never run a server, and pretty much just going to use this one to learn and do backups like I should be.

rockingthe2 > Orange Exige 07/31/2017 at 14:02

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Well considering I’m using older PC’s I can’t update to 10, or are buggy on 10, Linux is my way to go. I have my laptop on 16.04 to get used to it and build a live usb for the desktop that won’t even boot anymore. I’m pretty sure you may have something lying around to cobble together for it over a free weekend. I just need to scrounge a monitor, I oddly don’t have a single one.

jminer > rockingthe2 07/31/2017 at 14:18

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I run my home network like a corporate infrastructure. So I have an active directory domain, dns (domain name service), dhcp (IP address assignment) and a hypervisor is basically a host to run and manage multiple virtual machines. All of those except the last you wouldn’t have any use for, a router does ip and name resolution just fine.

I use mine as a test lab for new technologies and tinkering around. So I wouldn’t expect most people to have anything the size or scope of mine.

rockingthe2 > jminer 07/31/2017 at 14:25

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I figured, my setup will be just dicking around, media storage (I had a bitchin XBMC setup), streaming (Plex appears to work with my TV), and I’m looking at Sickbeard, Sickrage, Couchpotato, and possibly a jailbroken FireTV all tied together. Fuckin Reddit is probably making this way more complicated than it has to be.

Orange Exige > rockingthe2 07/31/2017 at 18:59

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Wanna know how ironically unnerdy I am with my monitor? I use my living room 4k tv as my desktop monitor XD

(I pretty much only use it for casual gaming, that’s why ;)

Good point about performance - always a factor with running Windows vs a light Linux distro.

I actually do run DD-WRT on my home router so maybe I’ll play around a bit more with that. At the very least I can setup a solid VPN with it...