I’m in the planning stages of my next build, but it’s been years since I’ve built my own server. Need some help. I’m currently running a UCS C220M4 that I got from work. It does a great job with ESXi installed, running several VM’s…but it’s LOUD. I’m looking to replace this with another rackmount, but with much less noise, and hopefully, power consumption. I also have a Synology NAS with about 10TB running all of my storage at the moment, but I’m wondering if a unified server/NAS might be a better way to go. My primary VM/Apps are:
Plex
-Sonarr/Radarr/SABNZBD
IP Cam recording (Blue Iris on a Windows VM)
AD/DNS on Windows
Veeam (VM backup)
My primary requirements would be:
Run VMs, with all of the above apps
Provide unified storage (separate pools for VM’s and Media/Files, etc)
Transcode for plex (or encode from hvec to mp4…so quicksync or separate graphics card)
Hot swappable drives with drive redundancy (so, RAID card, or RAIDz?)
under $700 (flexible…but would rather stay below this)
I currently have DDR3 and 4 memory from various other servers, as well as a slew of 300gb and 600gb 2.5" SAS drives. I thought maybe I could use those for my VM storage. I’ve read through the various builds on the serverbuild site, but I’m looking for guidance on how best to accomplish my requirements.
My input would be to get off blue iris for your cams. The windows VM is going to eat way more resources than you want and will likely be less stable int he long run. I moved from Blueiris on a standalone to blue iris in a VM to finally zoneminder in a linux vm and I have not had a single issue since. Much better resource usage and was able to host my storage on a network array as opposed to local. Tried that with the windows vm and blue iris but had issues.
Thanks for the input. I’m not too concerned about Blue Iris…I can certainly look into zoneminder as an alternative. I’d still need Windows to move my AD/DNS to.
I’m leaning towards unRaid. I can use containers for Plex and supporting download apps, and also use the built in hypervisor to run a couple of Windows VMs.
My primary question is around hardware. I got in on the 12TB Easystore deal, so I can use that for my primary storage. Also planning on using the L4500 for my case.
I won’t be doing a lot of transcoding on the fly with Plex, since I have a script that converts everything to MP4/aac. What I do need is a way to encode HVEC to MP4. This would be either Quicksync or a standalone GPU. So…having said all of this…what CPU/Mobo combo would be recommended?
I’m not too concerned about Blue Iris…I can certainly look into zoneminder as an alternative. I’d still need Windows to move my AD/DNS to.
Well how many cameras do you have? Because blue iris is really a resource hog. I run a windows VM, just not a blue iris one.
I’m leaning towards unRaid. I can use containers for Plex and supporting download apps, and also use the built in hypervisor to run a couple of Windows VMs.
Unraid is popular here, but given your existing experience with esxi you may find it lacking. I stuck with ESXI and freenas VM after briefly trying out unraid because it was much more familiar to me.
Also planning on using the L4500 for my case.
That’s not a hot swap case unless you spend more money on the hot swap adapters. I recommend the supermicro cases from the server store. Much better build quality.
I won’t be doing a lot of transcoding on the fly with Plex, since I have a script that converts everything to MP4/aac. What I do need is a way to encode HVEC to MP4. This would be either Quicksync or a standalone GPU. So…having said all of this…what CPU/Mobo combo would be recommended?
That’s a broad question. I run dual 2011 procs with a quadro card for the hardware transcoding. I have plenty of other stuff I do with the server so cant get buy with a low power processor with quicksync, or I would.