Ideas for new server setup

TechMinerUK

TechMinerUK

TechMinerUK

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Hi, I'll start off by saying I'm not sure if this is more appropriate for the networking section so please move me if it is :)

So, I have a Lenovo TS140 server configured with CentOS for home media streaming and file storage but it seems a waste of it's processing power just to have it sitting there storing movies. I was wondering what software/hardware I would need to set up a system where the server could run game servers as well or to have a dabble in some of the home monitoring/IoT server as and when it is released whilst still keeping the server up and running with the media streaming/storage side of things (Would VMware Hypervisor be a candidate for this setup?). Another idea is the possibility of setting up RAID in the future but I've heard it's better to use RAID cards incase the motherboard of the server fails so I can transplant it into a new system.

Also as for keeping the server secure what setup would be best for that as I want a web interface to manage the server but it needs to stay secure. I know many reccomend a VPN but how would I implement this and do I need any other stuff such as a new router etc.

Also feel free to add any of your own ideas as to how I could make the current setup better :)
 
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ASE001 said:
Install VMworkstation (VMplayer) on your server, which is free for none commercial use.
Create a virtual machine in VMworksation to run ESX6, you then can create as many VMs as your system will allow running on the ESX server virtual machine. Also you don't have to rebuild your server. If you want fancy networking without upgrading VMworkstation to the full product, install openswitch on you server and bridge to one of your vmnet interfaces.
I know you have two virtualisation layers, but it doesn't add that much overhead. I use this config at home all the time. OpenSwitch allows me to pass multiple VLANS to my ESX virtual machine.
There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to, on all the above.
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Would I install VMWorkstation to the current CentOS install as it currently has no GUI interface installed (Just command line) :)
 
ASE001 said:
I think you need a GUI, but I'm not sure. You could use one of the opensource virtualisation environments, i.e. Xen. I know that is command line based
It may be easier to go for an Opensource virtualisation Stack that installs everything you need
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Do you have another link for the opensource virtualisation stack as that one is broken and I need to do research on it as I'm slightly confused :D
Edit: Nevermind, fixed the link as it was incorrect :)
 
El Pew said:
Dunno why he was suggesting VMWare Workstation because a) it isn't free - only Workstation Player is free and it can't create VMs, only run them and b) VMWare just fired most of the Workstation development team so it's pretty much a dead product. Also, c) VMWare are a pain for not supporting new OSs as they are released, so you have to wait for the next version to come along and pay for a new license.
If you want the same capability then get VirtualBox, it's free for both personal and commercial use and it can be installed on a headless Linux box.
If you want something better, install ESXi or Hyper-V Server as your host OS.
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In that case I'm probably better going with ESXi as it will reduce overheads from other operating systems and allow better control over each individual virtual machine. Is there anyway I could setup ESXi to work with Putty or another remote control method so I can turn it off without having direct access to it?
 
El Pew said:
I think ESXi is based on Linux, I seem to recall it has SSH capability so you can do maintenance actions on it. Otherwise you can download VMWare infrastructure client and manage it remotely using that.
Hyper-V Server is free and it's all Windows based if you're more comfortable with that.
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I've not used either of them so it will be a learning curve so I'm looking to start with the one seen as the "best" :D
 
El Pew said:
To be honest for home use there's not much between them. I find the Hyper-V client (installed with the RSAT tools) to be easier to use than the VMWare ones, and Powershell integration is much better in Hyper-V obviously, but other than that it's a coin flip.
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Excellent, I'll have a look this weekend and it will probably be decided by which downloads first :)
 
Another question, would I be best using the bare Hyper-V server package or the Windows Server 2012 R2 as a base for Hyper-V and if I were to use Windows Server 2012 would this increase the demand on hardware significantly or not much ? :)
 
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Caged said:
When you install the Hyper-V role, the installer virtualises the existing Windows server install back on top as a VM, if that makes sense. So in terms of performance it doesn't really matter much. In terms of not filling your Hyper-V host up with crap my preference would be to deploy Server Core and the Hyper-V role and manage it from a separate workstation.
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Yep that makes sense, it's all a new learning curve for me so sorry for all the questions :)
 
El Pew said:
The other concern should be licensing. Hyper-V 2012 R2 is free, but you have to pay for any Windows licenses you run on it. If you buy Server 2012 R2 and install the Hyper-V role you can install 2 more Server 2012 VMs within it on the same license.
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I have a Windows Server 2012 R2 license so there are no issues to get a license to use:)
nutcase_1uk said:
As long as the host has no other roles installed.
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What are the roles and how do they affect VMs?
 
lamboman said:
Very surprised that nobody has mentioned using KVM/QEMU instead of VMware/VirtualBox and the like. For Linux VMs it would be my choice bar none, for performance and the fact that it has such a reach (OpenStack etc). No idea what the VirtIO drivers are like for Windows though, if you require that.
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Buffalo2102 said:
Agree. I've used ESXI and VMware in the past but have settled on KVM (Proxmox). Simple to setup and manage and I haven't had any driver issues, like I did with the others. It's also completely open source and free.
That's my experience anyway, though it does depend on your use-case somewhat. I would definitely recommend giving it a try though.
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The issue is I'm trying to keep as much as the resources devoted to the VMs as possible so I don't want an operating system installed with a virtualisation tool when I could just have a barebones O/S that deals with the VMs with no need for other software.
 
lamboman said:
Even if you run a "full" Linux distribution as opposed to a specialised virtualisation/containerisation distribution like Proxmox, host resource usage will be small.
As far as I'm aware (i.e. not very aware at all), Proxmox doesn't have a plugin architecture. So it boils down to flexibility against ease of use.
Another option would be containerisation on your current CentOS install which would result in even lower "guest" resource usage, but that of course depends on using containerised applications.
Depends on whether you want to learn about Linux and the open source world, or just use it.
Not sure what the release cycle is like for Proxmox, but the RHEL kernel/Debian OS combination just doesn't sit right with me, but not for any particular reason (I'm just like things to be simple). CentOS is a good base IMO. That said, I live in the command line and don't like these complete packages.
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To be honest I'm looking to have a bit of a play with the server with the result being fit for purpose (Not just messing for the sake of it) so I don't mind learning a new interface/operating system on the way as long as the result is reasonably usefull :)
 
ASE001 said:
Just been playing with a recent release of NAS4FREE and only realized that it also includes a headless VirtualBox option under the Advances menu.
I haven't had much time to play with it, but access is by a Web page where you can create virtual machines etc. That's as far as I got, but its an interesting option.
You could build a NAS4FREE directly on the hardware, then run some VM's in VirtualBox, i.e. VPN Server, DNS server, OwnCloud. Which seems ideal for most home users? Especially since I know you can install Plex media server on NAS4FREE too.
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That sounds like a good idea, I'll need to do some research to se if the VM's have any limitations but it might be easier to manage than some of the "business" grade options although I do like the looks of Hyper-V and ESXi by VMWare :)
 
Okay so a little bit of an update to this :)

I had a go at installing Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 R2 (Together and seperately) last night and got slightly confused. I tried to install RSAT tools on my Laptop to get it to connect to the Hyper-V core server and it didn't work as I forgot I only have Windows 10 Home on my laptop. Also I realised that their is quite a large overhead for the GUI on Windows Server 2012 R2 which is unnecesary. Also I can't get Windows Server 2012 R2 configured to turn on/off via WOL for some reason which is a big must for this server.

So after this I'm slightly confused and wondering where to go from here, does Proxmox/ESXi support SSH and WOL turn off/on as this is my biggest issue with Server 2012 at the moment and how would I go about setting up a VPN on Server 2012 or on a Proxmox VM?
 
Buffalo2102 said:
I use Proxmox and manage it and all the VMs mostly via ssh. Occasionally I use the web gui but not out of necessity.
I don't use WOL but a quick Google search suggests that others do so successfully.
One of my VMs runs Debian with Openvpn server. I can connect to a VPN provider or setup my own vpn for remote connection. Plenty of guides out there if you look for them.
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I'll definitely have a look as the more research I do the more I find Proxmox is better suited. I was just wondering how it would interact with HDD's though as I like to install Proxmox/VMs on the SSD in the server for a fastboot but keep files on the HDDs and in the future possible RAID setup. Is there anyway I could do this in Proxmox? :)
 
Buffalo2102 said:
That's exactly what I do. I have Proxmox and VM images all on the SSD and a bunch of HDD pooled together using btrfs. The pooled storage is mounted on the Proxmox host and shared using Samba. I backup all the VMs to the storage (and elsewhere) and I can share the storage with all of the VMs and other devices on the network.
If you check it out and get stuck on anything, let me know and I will try to help.
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Thanks, I'll have a go at this next week when I have some free time as I never thought of using Samba to share the storage between the VMs :)
 
Illusion said:
Use Centos and KVM for virtualisation. It's predominantly command line based but you could use libvirtd and virt-manager (a GUI) which makes managing VMs/storage and networking easier to pick up.
Never used VMWare products but they look almost as complicated as Linux with a big cost on top so not sure I ever will
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To be honest I was straying away from VMWare as soon as I found that I had a Server 2012 license. I'm going to install Proxmox next week as it seems to be a well built O/S for virtualisation. :)
 
Okay so I'm a bit stuck on the setup at the moment.
Last night I installed Proxmox but I'm confused on how to setup the storage for the VMs as I don't know how to get Proxmox to mount the HDD and despite searching on Google topics related only seem to cover on how to get the VMs to recognise the storage and not Proxmox. Also I'm not sure if the install formatted the SSD as creating storge IDs (If that's what they are called) uses up the full capacity of the SSD.
 
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