I would stick with the 4GB to start, unless you have more than 4-5 simultaneous streams most of the time, in which case I would add a single 8GB stick, giving you 12GB total. 16GB is a pointless config for a dedicated Plex server in my opinion. It’s too much for what Plex needs for normal use, even with 20 simultaneous streams, and too little to use as a RAM transcode cache unless you only have 2-5 simultaneous transcodes max.
I’ll only have 2-3 max transcoding going at one time so you have saved me some $$$…Huge thanks!!!
since the hp 290 will only be used for PMS, running Ubuntu and all media is on a NAS…is there any reason for a 256 SSD? seems kinda overkill for the OS, PMS(metadata, cover art). Again TIA!
256 is overkill unless you plan on enabling Plex features like Video Preview Thumbnails (roughly 30MB per hour of video), or if you will have a lot of users syncing media for offline consumption (items to be synced are transcoded in advance and stored in the cache folder until they are downloaded), or if you have an excessively large library (250-300TB+).
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This is going to be my main server for my apartment. I only need it to run pfsense and Cisco vWLC for now. Do you guys think this machine can handle those 2 VMs in Proxmox?
I don’t think many people here will recommend running pfSense in a VM.
However, many people do it with success. Anyway, can it handle it?
It can, keep in mind you’ll lose internet every time you restart the host.
I replaced the memory with 2x8GB modules and added a NVME 256GB drive. I installed Proxmox 6.2 and the system is running an Ubuntu LXC and one VM running OPNsense. The system also has an Intel 350 4 port gigabit NIC and PCI passthrough is working well. Including SR-IOV (I tested up to 4VFs for the NIC).
Even if it’s not the best setup it seems to work well so far…
I’m running my server virtualized on this box, including pfSense on ESXi. Works really well.
People warn you about losing internet connection when you reboot your host but the only time you’ll need to reboot your host is when you’re patching updates or toggling passthrough. In fact, ESXi 7 doesn’t need a reboot for toggling passthrough either. So as long as you have your pfSense VM auto restart on host boot, you’ll be fine. With an SSD and enough RAM, my pfSense host is back up in < 2 mins anyways.
What’s your idle power consumption on Proxmox?
Looks like the company that was selling them has returned their prices back up to $259
So I removed the HDD, WiFi M2 module and disconnected the CD drive. Disabled in the BIOS serial/SATA/onboard NIC. With the i350 4 port NIC, M2 NVME SSD and and no USB peripherals/display I get numbers ranging from 8-11W using a standard Kill-A-Watt meter.
I was quite surprised because on regular loads it’s actually very similar to my old consumer router but with much more resources if needed.
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That’s very low. Is that on Proxmox? How many VMs running in idle state? I’ve actually never gone that low with 2-3 ESXi VMs running on idle. The lowest was 20W I believe.
Where’s everybody getting their Nic Card for the HP-290? I am not finding anything for $25 or less…
Some shenanigans going on with the VIPOutlet seller. He has a few in stock, but price has increased to $259. 20% still applies though. Not sure what’s up with that.
He’s raised his price more than 10% which is illegal in Arkansas right now due to price locks #community:covid-19-general
But good luck with that…
Do you configure VPN in pfsense or is the VPN standalone? Just getting started and trying to make sense of it all. I have been doing a lot of reading on this site but sometimes it is not as clear for newbies…
I am getting my HP290’s deliver sometime this week…
Would you mind explaining this part “failover copy running on a VM, synchronized with CARP”? I am a newbie and don’t understand how to do that. Thanks
If you’re a newbie, just stick to a single instance of PFSense, on dedicated hardware like the HP290, with a NIC with at least two ports, one for WAN and one for LAN.
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Thank you